"I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break."-Cliff Bleszinski
For all that he has done for us, beloved gaming icon and celebrated game developer Cliff Bleszinski is finally taking a much deserved break. He started in the industry at the age of 17 and exploded right out of the gate with innovation after innovation. He is partially responsible for unreal engine 3 which powers a large percentage of games that are released today. Cliff will be sorely missed. His mark on gaming is something that can never be forgotten from the outstanding graphics brought forth from the unreal engine to the fast paced mayhem that was unreal tournament and of course no one can forget the phenomenon that is Gears of War. You would be hard pressed to find so much talent and such amazing presence anywhere else in the industry today. Not only did Cliff make great games, he was often the poster boy for them. When Gears of War 2 was announced at E3 Cliff walked out with a Lancer replica, revved the chainsaw, and screamed as though he were a cog taking down one of the vile locusts.
We can only hope that this time off allows Cliff to relax and gear himself back up so he can once again grace us this his incredible talent and enthralling ideas.
Monday, December 17, 2012
The fall of a titan: The Wii U has no place in this world.
The Wii U has absolutely no place in this world. It seems all Nintendo ever does these days is come up with ways to upset myself and its other hardcore fans and I swear to God I am filled with such an overwhelming rage every time someone conjectures that the Wii U is ushering in the next generation of gaming. Well if the Wii U is the next generation of gaming then I just do not want to live in this world any more because all hope for my favorite thing in this world is absolutely lost.
The Wii U is not an improvement on the current generation of gaming, in fact, when compared to the Xbox 360 its performance is not even on par. The only thing the Wii U improves on is Nintendo's last console. As far as I am concerned the Wii should never have existed, they should have gone straight to a system the likes of the Wii U. It is a true successor to the Gamecube capable of actually playing today's games instead of needing a special secondary version of a game to be made so that the system can handle it and then completely destroying the game's mechanics in favor of gimmicky motion controls.
I do have to agree that I find the game pad really cool and innovative but that pales in utter comparison to the fact that Nintendo has pushed itself back once again by releasing their latest console and setting it nearly on par with the current Microsoft and Sony consoles that are outdated at this point and a new, much more powerful version of both consoles will be released soon. I really must wonder why Nintendo makes these decisions. Not to mention that they have completely let down their old hard core fans, such as myself, by neglecting their core franchises in order to make hundreds of casual games that would never become full series and are just absolutely terrible games. It is truly sad to see the once great titan that is Nintendo fall so hard like this, they may be doing well financially but overall they are setting the gaming industry back by refusing to keep up with the technological curve. All in all, the technology that powers the Wii U is the same technology that was introduced seven years ago with the release of the Xbox 360 and what is sad is that this brand new console could not even figure out how to best the seven year old Xbox.
The Wii U is not an improvement on the current generation of gaming, in fact, when compared to the Xbox 360 its performance is not even on par. The only thing the Wii U improves on is Nintendo's last console. As far as I am concerned the Wii should never have existed, they should have gone straight to a system the likes of the Wii U. It is a true successor to the Gamecube capable of actually playing today's games instead of needing a special secondary version of a game to be made so that the system can handle it and then completely destroying the game's mechanics in favor of gimmicky motion controls.
I do have to agree that I find the game pad really cool and innovative but that pales in utter comparison to the fact that Nintendo has pushed itself back once again by releasing their latest console and setting it nearly on par with the current Microsoft and Sony consoles that are outdated at this point and a new, much more powerful version of both consoles will be released soon. I really must wonder why Nintendo makes these decisions. Not to mention that they have completely let down their old hard core fans, such as myself, by neglecting their core franchises in order to make hundreds of casual games that would never become full series and are just absolutely terrible games. It is truly sad to see the once great titan that is Nintendo fall so hard like this, they may be doing well financially but overall they are setting the gaming industry back by refusing to keep up with the technological curve. All in all, the technology that powers the Wii U is the same technology that was introduced seven years ago with the release of the Xbox 360 and what is sad is that this brand new console could not even figure out how to best the seven year old Xbox.
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Review
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King Why'd You Steal Our Garbage or Adventure Time: HIKWYSOG, is another one of those games that is meant only for the fans of the original source material. This being the case I may as well let you know I am a huge Adventure Time fan and I am a huge video game fan and that is why I bought the game. If you are not a fan of both of these things I highly suggest that you do not buy this game. I personally regret paying full price for this game. It is not as though it was bad, it is just that it was severely lacking.
All the charm, comedy, and fantasy of the show is very clearly represented in Hey Ice King. This would probably be present even more so if the game was fully voice acted which I only forgive because I have never seen game dialogue that was funnier than that in this game and I would expect no less from the writers of Adventure Time.
Hey Ice King is very much styled like Zelda 2 as the creator of Adventure Time is a big fan of Zelda just as every person on this planet should be. This being said, this game feels more like a very incomplete alpha version of a Zelda game rather than a finished video game. I could very easily see this game being an experiment before they release a true more dense Adventure Time video game.
The combat is solid but it is in no way varied. You have 3 or 4 different attacks that you can use but they all basically do the same thing so it doesn't really matter of you choose to swing Finn's sword or make Jake punch. The only real way that combat gets varied is through the item system. Finn and Jake pickup tons of different items throughout the game. They are mostly food items that are used for regaining health but some of them are different spells that they have used in the show that beef up speed or attack power. This is a very interesting and a sometimes fun take on combat and I do understand that being a game based on a children's show you cannot expect things to get too complicated but I really had much more faith that the combat would be better than this.
What upsets me most about this game is its length and overall lack of content. It felt as though the game was completely over almost before it started and while I really enjoyed the story and the simple fact that I was walking around OOO as Finn and Jake fighting off monsters, I kind of felt empty inside when I was done, it just was not enough. The question is, should you play Hey Ice King? I would have to say yes any fan of the show should definitely play this game however I do not believe that anyone should pay full price for it.
All the charm, comedy, and fantasy of the show is very clearly represented in Hey Ice King. This would probably be present even more so if the game was fully voice acted which I only forgive because I have never seen game dialogue that was funnier than that in this game and I would expect no less from the writers of Adventure Time.
Hey Ice King is very much styled like Zelda 2 as the creator of Adventure Time is a big fan of Zelda just as every person on this planet should be. This being said, this game feels more like a very incomplete alpha version of a Zelda game rather than a finished video game. I could very easily see this game being an experiment before they release a true more dense Adventure Time video game.
The combat is solid but it is in no way varied. You have 3 or 4 different attacks that you can use but they all basically do the same thing so it doesn't really matter of you choose to swing Finn's sword or make Jake punch. The only real way that combat gets varied is through the item system. Finn and Jake pickup tons of different items throughout the game. They are mostly food items that are used for regaining health but some of them are different spells that they have used in the show that beef up speed or attack power. This is a very interesting and a sometimes fun take on combat and I do understand that being a game based on a children's show you cannot expect things to get too complicated but I really had much more faith that the combat would be better than this.
What upsets me most about this game is its length and overall lack of content. It felt as though the game was completely over almost before it started and while I really enjoyed the story and the simple fact that I was walking around OOO as Finn and Jake fighting off monsters, I kind of felt empty inside when I was done, it just was not enough. The question is, should you play Hey Ice King? I would have to say yes any fan of the show should definitely play this game however I do not believe that anyone should pay full price for it.
Dust: An Elysian Tale Review
You really have to have a lot of respect for Dust. While it is only an arcade game, it is still rather large with many system interacting through out. There is an enthralling combat system, an interesting take on character progression, a fairly well written narrative, a captivating art style, and it was all done by essentially one man. Speaking from my personal experience, I have made video games before ones that are not even 25% as involved and dense as this game is and I know I could not have made those alone and so Dust is quite an accomplishment.
You play as an amnesiac rabbit-wolf named Dust. He wakes up with the sword of arah in his hand and nothing to go on but the fact that the sword has come to him because he has need of its power to fulfill his destiny. I know it sounds very cliched but if you play the game you will see that the story is actually fairly good for an arcade title.
As you move Dust forward you begin to learn about the game's combo based combat system. The game is a 2D side scroller and Dust can dance around the 2D environment with ease. You will find yourself spinning around and flying through the air fairly often. Dust has a few multiple hit combos with successive presses of the X button as well as a counter and a few magic attack from his partner that can be combined with your blade spinning dust storm to make a variety of interesting effects and build higher combos that do greater damage and grant more experience. Speaking of experience, you will level up when you gain enough allowing you to upgrade strength, speed, magic, Dust's partner, or defense. The catch is the lowest skill cannot be four points away from the highest skill which makes leveling up in Dust very interesting. In addition to the leveling system, there is also a crafting system that allows Dust to make various gear items that can raise his stats and provide different skills.
Dust is regrettably not a very challenging game but at the very least there is a lot to be discovered. The map is revealed through exploration and certain items can only be obtained and crafted by exploring the whole map, not to mention there are tons of side quests to take up and there are a number of caged friends to find throughout the game that once freed will grant Dust even more power.
If you are looking for a great arcade game this year, Dust: An Elysian Tale cannot be beat.
You play as an amnesiac rabbit-wolf named Dust. He wakes up with the sword of arah in his hand and nothing to go on but the fact that the sword has come to him because he has need of its power to fulfill his destiny. I know it sounds very cliched but if you play the game you will see that the story is actually fairly good for an arcade title.
As you move Dust forward you begin to learn about the game's combo based combat system. The game is a 2D side scroller and Dust can dance around the 2D environment with ease. You will find yourself spinning around and flying through the air fairly often. Dust has a few multiple hit combos with successive presses of the X button as well as a counter and a few magic attack from his partner that can be combined with your blade spinning dust storm to make a variety of interesting effects and build higher combos that do greater damage and grant more experience. Speaking of experience, you will level up when you gain enough allowing you to upgrade strength, speed, magic, Dust's partner, or defense. The catch is the lowest skill cannot be four points away from the highest skill which makes leveling up in Dust very interesting. In addition to the leveling system, there is also a crafting system that allows Dust to make various gear items that can raise his stats and provide different skills.
Dust is regrettably not a very challenging game but at the very least there is a lot to be discovered. The map is revealed through exploration and certain items can only be obtained and crafted by exploring the whole map, not to mention there are tons of side quests to take up and there are a number of caged friends to find throughout the game that once freed will grant Dust even more power.
If you are looking for a great arcade game this year, Dust: An Elysian Tale cannot be beat.
Dark souls impressions
I let this go for way too long. I admit, I was afraid to try this game, after all, I tore through Demon's Souls but I really did not want to go through the grief and rage all over again all gamers know how difficult that game was and a number of them know how good it was but I just did not know if I could handle the pain of going through a sequel. It was when I saw the trailer for Dark Souls 2 that I decided I was man enough to put the past behind me and give the sequel to the hardest game ever to exist a fair try.
My hands were almost trembling as I navigated the menu trying to pick the best class and gift to start the game with. I knew that my choice here would be absolutely pivotal and either make or break me as played through this game and I would be horribly punished for a bad choice. I choose the warrior class and ventured forth with the master key as my gift praying that I would not regret the choice I had made.
After a few hours with my warrior I began to see that I found Dark Souls more fun than difficult. Do not get me wrong, it is still a very hard game but I could never say the same thing about Demon's Souls. I was actually able to find ways to almost cheat the game by getting incredibly powerful weapons early at the cost of a few souls which would prove to be a pittance compared to what I could then accomplish with my new weapon. I came to the realization that Dark Souls was definitely somewhat easier than Demon's Souls something that I both treasure and abhor. On one hand, I can go more than five minutes of playing the game without punching a hole in my wall from anger. While on the other hand I do not want to see such a respectable series, a true staple of hard core gaming, beginning to pander its players and start to lower its game play standards just to reach out to a larger crowd of people who would not even think about that game two months later.
I have not gotten too far into Dark Souls yet but I cannot wait to see what challenges lie in wait for me. I can only hope that the game does not bend for casual gamers and continues to challenge my skill and make me think while actually being fun to play instead of a nightmare. That is a mark of true master game design and I feel as though Dark Souls can truly show me this.
My hands were almost trembling as I navigated the menu trying to pick the best class and gift to start the game with. I knew that my choice here would be absolutely pivotal and either make or break me as played through this game and I would be horribly punished for a bad choice. I choose the warrior class and ventured forth with the master key as my gift praying that I would not regret the choice I had made.
After a few hours with my warrior I began to see that I found Dark Souls more fun than difficult. Do not get me wrong, it is still a very hard game but I could never say the same thing about Demon's Souls. I was actually able to find ways to almost cheat the game by getting incredibly powerful weapons early at the cost of a few souls which would prove to be a pittance compared to what I could then accomplish with my new weapon. I came to the realization that Dark Souls was definitely somewhat easier than Demon's Souls something that I both treasure and abhor. On one hand, I can go more than five minutes of playing the game without punching a hole in my wall from anger. While on the other hand I do not want to see such a respectable series, a true staple of hard core gaming, beginning to pander its players and start to lower its game play standards just to reach out to a larger crowd of people who would not even think about that game two months later.
I have not gotten too far into Dark Souls yet but I cannot wait to see what challenges lie in wait for me. I can only hope that the game does not bend for casual gamers and continues to challenge my skill and make me think while actually being fun to play instead of a nightmare. That is a mark of true master game design and I feel as though Dark Souls can truly show me this.
Far cry 3 review
Yet another incredible first person game, yet another incredible open world game from Ubisoft, yet another amazing and satisfying sequel. Welcome to Far Cry 3. You are very far away from home, you and your friends were captured by human traffickers, you have no idea how to defend yourself because you have lived a sheltered life via your rich parents, you have no idea where any of your friends are, everyone on this island is some kind of insane and at least half of them are trying to kill you, and the only trust worthy person who could help you, your military trained older brother, has just been shot and killed before your eyes as the two of you escaped captivity. GOOD FUN, LETS GET STARTED.
Far Cry 3 is very much about survival. You hunt various animals, who will hunt you back, in order to upgrade your weapons and weapon carrying capacity. You must explore the island and take back encampments and radio towers in order to liberate the natives and receive help. You will even pick flowers to make syringes that can heal you and give you other physical and mental enhancements. All this combined with the rolling theme of insanity make a very interesting and fun experience.
Your character, Jason Brody, has never really felt right in any job that he has attempted but after the third or fourth time he kills a slave trading pirate he starts to feel right at home and he begins to question his lifestyle as his friends cower in fear of what he his becoming despite the fact that he risks his life to save them. Far Cry 3 tends to ask you what kind of person you are. Is it wrong to become a killer in order to save those dear to you? What must you sacrifice for your happiness? These questions tend to come up throughout the narrative making it incredibly enthralling. In addition to this, Far Cry 3 has some of the best written dialogue I have seen since Assassins Creed 2 which is just as well as the same studio made both games. Of course we all know that a good story does not make a very good video game without good game play well you can rest easy as Far Cry 3 is one of the most fun first person shooters I have ever played.
The shooting mechanics are solid and the dynamic between the different weapons and the way they handle are ever present and force you to use well thought out tactics on every approach. The game tends to reward the player for stealth more than anything else but in the end you are free to tackle every situation in an incredible number of ways. You can release a wild predator from a cage in the middle of a pirate camp and watch it do all the work for you or you can sneak up behind someone and chain a huge knife take down from enemy to enemy as long as you can remain hidden. Of course the good old shoot until every living thing you can see is dead approach is also a viable option and the best part is all of these are fun to do and all of them award you experience to level up your character. Yes there is a leveling system in this game that awards your character some really interesting perks and killing techniques besides being a really cool incentive for progression. In addition to which, every time you level up and choose a skill another tattoo will appear on your arm proving Jason's progress as a warrior.
There really is not too much else that I can say about Far Cry 3 without ruining the story or mystery of the island which is one of the greatest parts of discovering this game. I absolutely recommend Far Cry 3 it is the last great release of this year.
Far Cry 3 is very much about survival. You hunt various animals, who will hunt you back, in order to upgrade your weapons and weapon carrying capacity. You must explore the island and take back encampments and radio towers in order to liberate the natives and receive help. You will even pick flowers to make syringes that can heal you and give you other physical and mental enhancements. All this combined with the rolling theme of insanity make a very interesting and fun experience.
Your character, Jason Brody, has never really felt right in any job that he has attempted but after the third or fourth time he kills a slave trading pirate he starts to feel right at home and he begins to question his lifestyle as his friends cower in fear of what he his becoming despite the fact that he risks his life to save them. Far Cry 3 tends to ask you what kind of person you are. Is it wrong to become a killer in order to save those dear to you? What must you sacrifice for your happiness? These questions tend to come up throughout the narrative making it incredibly enthralling. In addition to this, Far Cry 3 has some of the best written dialogue I have seen since Assassins Creed 2 which is just as well as the same studio made both games. Of course we all know that a good story does not make a very good video game without good game play well you can rest easy as Far Cry 3 is one of the most fun first person shooters I have ever played.
The shooting mechanics are solid and the dynamic between the different weapons and the way they handle are ever present and force you to use well thought out tactics on every approach. The game tends to reward the player for stealth more than anything else but in the end you are free to tackle every situation in an incredible number of ways. You can release a wild predator from a cage in the middle of a pirate camp and watch it do all the work for you or you can sneak up behind someone and chain a huge knife take down from enemy to enemy as long as you can remain hidden. Of course the good old shoot until every living thing you can see is dead approach is also a viable option and the best part is all of these are fun to do and all of them award you experience to level up your character. Yes there is a leveling system in this game that awards your character some really interesting perks and killing techniques besides being a really cool incentive for progression. In addition to which, every time you level up and choose a skill another tattoo will appear on your arm proving Jason's progress as a warrior.
There really is not too much else that I can say about Far Cry 3 without ruining the story or mystery of the island which is one of the greatest parts of discovering this game. I absolutely recommend Far Cry 3 it is the last great release of this year.
Assassins Creed 3 Review
I was so terribly excited for AC3 that my anticipation bordered on, no scratch that, my anticipation of this game did become obsessions which them turned into full blown insanity. I could not stand the wait for this game it was literally killing me on the inside. So you can imagine how chagrin I must be when it did not meet my expectations at all. Don't get me wrong, AC3 is by no stretch of the imagination a bad game, in fact it is an absolutely amazing game, but in the context of what an AC game, how highly I revere them, and the amount of hype that surrounded this title it was just nowhere near as good as it should have been and it is probably safe to say that this game was the biggest disappoint to me in gaming in quite sometime.
As I said before, AC3 is not a bad game, it is easily one of the best games in the series, but it was in far too many areas that Ubisoft completely dropped the ball on this one. Let's begin with this supposed brand new engine that they built, AnvilNext. From early on in this game's development, Ubisoft promised big things from this brand new engine that they built from the ground up. They promised better graphics, which did not happen at all, better environments which, in a way, are there but there are far too many of the same old technical issues with the environments to truly call them better. They said we would see much better character animations which is the only thing I can truly say was delivered but I feel as though the original Anvil engine could have handled a lot of these animations. Now game play has been improved greatly, this is where AC3 shines.
Not only does AC3 have the best traversal and setting that the series has had thus far, running through the trees is absolutely incredible, it has also made some of the best improvements to the combat. First of all, to make Connor sprint and climb you need only hold down one button now freeing up your thumb to control the camera as you move, this is a fix that probably should have been applied 3 or 4 games ago. Combat now yields many more options for awesome kills. Connor has tons of toys to work with and interesting moves that come as a product of the period this is set in. There are tons of soldiers walking around with muskets that Connor can steal and use to run people through with the bayonette or fire off at long range. There are also times when firing lines will form up to take Connor down and if you stun someone you can use them as a human shield and then move up to the men who just fired at you during their long reload period. The counter system has also been changed as you have many more options after a counter now. First of all, Connor does have to be in a counter stance in order to counter, you merely need to press B at the right time after which you have the choice to strike, use your secondary weapon, steal a weapon, throw, or stun. Certain enemies require you to use a combination of these options in order for you to defeat them. Since I have been mentioning Connor so often, I figured now would be a good time to discuss the new assassin.
Unlike the assassins before him, Connor is a horribly written character. You get the feeling he has no idea what he is doing and his choices are terribly unfounded. I find that a lot of my animosity towards Connor is likely a product of his terrible voice acting but even so, the choices he makes throughout the game do not really make sense and the way they write him into history does not really seem to fit most of the time. This is incredibly sad as the story of Assassin's Creed has been one of the greatest things about the series for a long time. Speaking of which, I will not say anything about what happens but I personally hated the ending. I sort of just felt empty and unaccomplished inside at the end, and for a series that I have been playing for the past 7 years that is really not a good thing. AC3 is a great game as all of the AC games are, however, it falls short of the spectacular expectations that so many of us had for it, if only it had been written better.
As I said before, AC3 is not a bad game, it is easily one of the best games in the series, but it was in far too many areas that Ubisoft completely dropped the ball on this one. Let's begin with this supposed brand new engine that they built, AnvilNext. From early on in this game's development, Ubisoft promised big things from this brand new engine that they built from the ground up. They promised better graphics, which did not happen at all, better environments which, in a way, are there but there are far too many of the same old technical issues with the environments to truly call them better. They said we would see much better character animations which is the only thing I can truly say was delivered but I feel as though the original Anvil engine could have handled a lot of these animations. Now game play has been improved greatly, this is where AC3 shines.
Not only does AC3 have the best traversal and setting that the series has had thus far, running through the trees is absolutely incredible, it has also made some of the best improvements to the combat. First of all, to make Connor sprint and climb you need only hold down one button now freeing up your thumb to control the camera as you move, this is a fix that probably should have been applied 3 or 4 games ago. Combat now yields many more options for awesome kills. Connor has tons of toys to work with and interesting moves that come as a product of the period this is set in. There are tons of soldiers walking around with muskets that Connor can steal and use to run people through with the bayonette or fire off at long range. There are also times when firing lines will form up to take Connor down and if you stun someone you can use them as a human shield and then move up to the men who just fired at you during their long reload period. The counter system has also been changed as you have many more options after a counter now. First of all, Connor does have to be in a counter stance in order to counter, you merely need to press B at the right time after which you have the choice to strike, use your secondary weapon, steal a weapon, throw, or stun. Certain enemies require you to use a combination of these options in order for you to defeat them. Since I have been mentioning Connor so often, I figured now would be a good time to discuss the new assassin.
Unlike the assassins before him, Connor is a horribly written character. You get the feeling he has no idea what he is doing and his choices are terribly unfounded. I find that a lot of my animosity towards Connor is likely a product of his terrible voice acting but even so, the choices he makes throughout the game do not really make sense and the way they write him into history does not really seem to fit most of the time. This is incredibly sad as the story of Assassin's Creed has been one of the greatest things about the series for a long time. Speaking of which, I will not say anything about what happens but I personally hated the ending. I sort of just felt empty and unaccomplished inside at the end, and for a series that I have been playing for the past 7 years that is really not a good thing. AC3 is a great game as all of the AC games are, however, it falls short of the spectacular expectations that so many of us had for it, if only it had been written better.
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