If there had to be one title to act as the envoy for the video games industry in 2010 it would have to be Starcraft 2.
You’d be hard pressed to find any other game appeals to everyone from the 30 minutes a day casual player all the way up to the professional Korean player making seven figures with an entourage of bodyguards and female groupies.
Yes, you read correctly. Seven figures. Groupies. Entering live tournaments on rock stages on a speedboat.
There’s three audiences that I think should run out and give this game a shot:
- Tower defense game junkies (whether it’s on your phone, iPad, computer, or console)
- People who already enjoy real time strategy games (How can you like RTS games and not at least give Starcraft 2 a shot? That’s like saying I like action movies, but I refuse to watch Inception.)
- Professional Starcraft players. (though I think those don’t really need to read this review)
Starcraft 2 is an interesting game because it’s one that’s physically impossible to play on any current console. It doesn’t mean that the game is that complex, it just means that it’s a genre that’s best controlled with a mouse and keyboard due to the nature of the tasks needed to be done. The game will run on almost any modern computer, Mac or PC alike, so chances are if you own a computer made within the last few years, you can play it.
The game belongs to the “real time strategy” genre. Ten years ago this would have required no explanation, but it’s been 12 years since the original Starcraft was released. There’s an entire generation who will see video of Starcraft 2 and think it’s the craziest variant of Plants vs Zombies ever. In broad terms, the goal of the game is to establish an economy, build an army, and tactically command them to destroy your opponent.
Most RTS games’ single player campaigns are a linear progression of missions. That’s certainly what I expected with Starcraft 2, but Blizzard actually exceeded my expectations in this regard. Once you finish the first couple of missions, the game takes a surprisingly non-linear turn. The meat of the game consists of 3 to 4 mission lines all going on simultaneously. You can choose to complete these in any order. There are even some optional missions, though you would be be missing out on some content if you choose to skip them.
On top of this, Blizzard has included several RPG-like elements to the campaign as well. Finishing missions and optional objectives earns you credits. These credits can be used to either upgrade some aspects of your units/buildings or they can be used to hire Mercenary units that can be deployed on any subsequent mission. There’s also two sets of talent trees that you can develop by completing certain bonus objectives throughout the campaign by accumulating “research points.” Every 5 research points you obtain, you can choose one of two new abilities for your forces. There’s really no wrong way of going about developing your forces. Most of the choices have some merit, so you can feel free to pick whatever suits your style of play best without fear of choosing incorrectly.
The story and cinematics of the game are solidly constructed and presented. With Wings of Liberty, we’re given the Terran side of the story. Most of the missions are played through as the Terran race, with a short Protoss mini-campaign. The tale is a fairly straightforward space-opera, yet doesn’t seem overly hackneyed. Blizzard is well versed in crafting gorgeous cinematics and entertaining backstory/lore for their gaming “worlds” and Starcraft 2 is no exception. We’re not getting Battlestar Galactica or Firefly quality stuff here, but if you like space epics, you’ll find yourself wanting to complete the story.
Many people were concerned that Blizzard’s decision to split the game’s single player storyline over the course of 3 titles would produce a substandard single player experience. Their concerns were for naught. It arguably ends up being a better experience, as we’re given more time to get invested in the plot and characters. After playing through Wings of Liberty, I undoubtedly cared about Jim Raynor more than I would have if he only showed up in a handful of missions.
Despite this, I will say that the ending to Wings of Liberty campaign felt a little rushed and had me scratching my head in a “it feels like there had to have been some plot holes there…” kind of way. Regardless, I still ended up wanting the next installment of the series to arrive, STAT.
Beyond the single player campaign, there lies a transitory “gametype” in the form of challenges. These short mini-games are meant to teach you the basics of playing the multiplayer mode of Starcraft 2 and they are a much welcome addition to the game. Multiplayer Starcraft 2 is a complete different animal from the single player and these challenges are a sort of “training wheels” to get you in the right mindset. You’ll learn how to use hotkeys, when to use what units, and defend against early rush attacks. There’s bronze, silver, and gold medals to earn for each of the 12 challenges and they’re a fun way to “learn” the multiplayer game.
I wish they would have included more challenges, though. Multiplayer Starcraft is essentially an extremely layered version of rock-paper-scissors. The included challenges only teach you what to do when rock fights paper, so to speak. When you have a game that can support leagues professional players, there has to be a certain level of complexity, but the game can feel like walking down three steps into a pool and suddenly dropping off into the deep end.
Fortunately, Starcraft 2 employs one of the best matchmaking systems for a computer game. The game will have you play 5 placement matches and then put you in a league of similarly skilled players. Even if you’re one handed and incompetent, you’re supposed to be matched up with someone equally as inept. Eventually the goal is to have you winning the same amount of games as you’re losing.
This is as far as I’m going into the multiplayer component as there’s literally thousands of hours one could spend reading and talking about it. If you manage to get this far into the experience, there a wealth of communities for you to discover and engage in.
Oh, let’s not forget the fact that Starcraft 2 is extensively moddable. And it’s not confined to just new maps or even real time strategy game variants. Enterprising developers have sculpted amazing games with the engine, such as a 3rd person zombie shooter, a recreation of the Playstation Network game flOw, and even a version of Final Fantasy.
All of this adds up to an extremely comprehensive gaming experience that can be enjoyed whether you’re a casual gamer or a professional player with groupies. Even if you’re not going to touch competitive multiplayer, there’s enough compelling content within the single player component to be worthwhile.
Multiplayer-focused games are a tough animal to “review” since the experiences are so intertwined with the playerbases. At the same time, you can usually tell within the first 30 minutes or so if a game is going to be fun for you or not.
I had a chance to spend a couple of hours with Monday Night Combat today and I’m here to tell you it’s something worth looking into.
In a nutshell, Monday Night Combat is a 3rd person class-based multiplayer action game. You can choose to be one of various classes (such as a sniper, support, assassin etc.), each of which has its own unique powers, weapons, and playstyle. Additionally, anyone can build or upgrade turrets around the map. Think Team Fortress 2 meets <insert your favorite tower defense game here>. There’s two modes of play: Blitz and Crossfire.
Blitz is essentially Halo Firefight or Gears of War Horde or any other 4 player cooperative “survival” mode that’s become all the rage these days in action games. You and three other people try to defend a location from increasingly difficult waves of enemies for as long as you can. The twist that MNC brings to this subgenre is turret building and management, much like a desktop tower defense game. You can build four different kinds of turrets at designated locations around your base to help defend your “Moneyball.”
It’s pretty fun, but honestly got old after a couple of sessions. There’s only one map that Blitz is played on and 5 different “challenges” to conquer (the 5th challenge is infinite waves so there’s really only 4 “winnable” challenges). These challenges are essentially difficulty modifiers, as they involve more rounds and more enemies being thrown at you. We finished the easiest difficulty with no problem, but the next level up took us to the brink of losing on the last wave. The third difficulty kicked our asses fairly quickly. Granted, your mileage may vary with the people you go to battle with. Just be warned, it’s going to take some pretty shrewd teamwork, turret placements, and aiming skill to defeat the harder challenges.
Unless I’ve got a good group of friends who really want to play Blitz, I can’t see myself wanting to play the mode again once I’ve finished the 4 winnable challenges and nabbed the 4 achievements for doing so. This is a mode that could have really used some variety or other incentives to keep playing.
The other gametype is Crossfire and it’s where the meat of the game lies. Here, you actually get to fight against real people! Your goal is to escort enough of your team’s computer controlled bots over to the opponent’s Moneyball to deplete its shields. Once this is accomplished, players on your team can start to damage it. The first team to destroy the other’s Moneyball wins the match.
It’s an interesting dynamic to have to worry about both bots and actual players. Many times I found myself wanting to destroy the hapless AI robots, but as soon as I concentrated too hard on gleefully blowing up bots, I’d get murdered from behind by an invisible human assassin. Or the opposite would happen where I would get into a skirmish with another player and be completely unaware of the giant Jackbot about to pound me out of the arena.
Speaking of interesting dynamics, I love how there’s an element of resource management in the game as well. You gain money for killing robots and people (and from shooting the bonus mascot as well). With money earned you can choose to upgrade your current class, build or upgrade turrets around your base, or use various jump pads/ejectors/annihilator devices around the arena.
Some of the money you earn from each match is added to your overall winnings across all games played. You can use your money to buy custom classes, which allow you to be “sponsored” and attain different perks. There’s definitely a feeling that each game you play progresses you towards something grander. It’s not quite as salient as Call of Duty, but it’s something.
Listen, for $15 Monday Night Combat is a pretty good value proposition. It doesn’t quite have the polish and presentation of Team Fortress 2, but it’s also not part of a $60 retail game. If you enjoy the gameplay, you’ll definitely wring $15 of entertainment from this one.
MNC also fills the void of fantastical team-based shooter on the Xbox 360 that doesn’t involve modern warfare. (I’m not counting TF2 on the 360 because 1: no one plays it and 2: Valve isn’t supporting it) If you’re like me and a bit sick of the whole real gun schtick and want to get back to shooting railguns, this game certainly fulfills that desire.
However, if for some reason your Xbox 360 isn’t online, stay away from this one. It’s not completely multiplayer-only, but if you like playing with AI bots versus AI bots all day… you’re a special person.
Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, the trial version of Monday Night Combat gives you 30 minutes of multiplayer time to figure out if it’s a game for you. Guess Uber Entertainment knows all about the “30-Minute Rule” of multiplayer gaming.
I think the my days of having the patience to sit through a 40 hour video game are through.
It took me almost 5 months to put in the 45 hours needed to finish Final Fantasy 13, with a lot of it feeling like an obligation to my sometimes misguided principle to always finish what i start. That’s not to say there weren’t some great moments in the experience, but by and large everything the Final Fantasy franchise stands for has become stale.
Final Fantasy 13 tries so very hard to advance the aging Japanese RPG genre and actually does succeed in doing so on some levels. I, for one, am actually glad they got rid of towns in this game. When you boil it down, the only thing towns are good for are a) buying items and equipment and b) fulfilling a required plot/character interaction in order to advance the storyline. Getting rid of them streamlines the gameplay. It’s much more convenient to be able to buy items at any save point instead of hunting for several buildings in a town to complete your shopping list.
One omission that really irked longtime series fans is the lack of an “overworld” area. On the surface this may seem confining, but it’s an attempt by Square to focus the game more on moving the story along. There’s still a sense of exploration through hidden chests and areas in each section of the game. And really – Final Fantasy 10′s “overworld” consisted of a text menu of different locations. Is getting rid of that in favor of a continuous travel progression that onerous?
The other thing Final Fantasy 13 does very well is introduce a very thrilling and original battle system. This is by far the most redeeming quality of the game. Instead of a traditional menu based system where the player selects commands for each of his characters against the enemies, the player acts more like a general relaying orders through the use of “Paradigm Shifts.” You only have direct control over one character in Final Fantasy 13, but you can direct how the two AI-piloted characters act through the Paradigm system.
Paradigm Shifts are on the fly role (job) changes for the party. For example, you might start the battle off in a very aggressive paradigm in order to end the encounter quickly. If something goes awry, you may switch into a defensive paradigm where one character defends to soak up damages while the others become medics to heal. Another solution may be switch into a unit that attempts to inflict status enhancements on allies and ailments on the enemy. There are 6 types of jobs in the game and they should be very familiar to players of MMORPGs. There’s a tank, two different kind of DPS dealers, a healer, a status buffer, and a debuffer.
Encounters can become quite engaging to play as some of the more challenging ones involve precise and constant changing of Paradigm strategies over the course of battle. You can only program a “deck” of 6 different paradigms at a time, but there’s a lot of room for customization as each character has 3 “primary” roles to develop. Needless to say, there’s a lot of options to use in battles. It’s a thrilling blend of real time strategy, MMORPG boss fight tactics, with a touch of the Final Fantasy franchise’s signature Active-Time Battle system.
The bad news, though, is that it takes time for the game to deem you worthy enough to utilize the full capabilities of the battle system. You’ll have to play through about 10 hours to really get to interesting battle dynamics. Unfortunately, the point at which battles become interesting is when the game’s plot starts to become hackneyed and predictable.
I actually had optimistic hopes for the game’s characters and plot near the outset of the adventure. Final Fantasy 13′s “main character”, Lightning, is introduced as a no-nonsense soldier for the Sanctum Guardian Corps. She’s a realist and takes no guff from anyone. Think Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 without the brooding and mopiness, but with a gunblade.
One of my favorite scenes involved her and another character (Snow), who was your typical gung-ho Japanese-RPG “Let’s save the world… I swear it!” hero. Snow launches into some monologue about saving the world no matter the cost when, all of a sudden, Lightning just starts punching him in the face for spewing such unrealistic drivel. I loved it. She does what I’ve been wanting to do to JRPG heroes for years.
At this point I was impressed that Square had become aware that the Final Fantasy franchise was devolving into a formulaic excuse to render expensive CGI. I thought Lightning’s punch to Snow’s face was the sign of things to come. Regrettably, this was as far as they got. The game eventually settled into an easily predictable tale about defying fate in order to save the world. All the characters could easily be described by bullet points of every RPG character you’ve ever known. Even Lightning is neutered into a stereotypical hero by the end.
It behooves me to mention the game’s absolutely horrendous system for upgrading weapons and items. Instead of opting for simplicity here, Square has made an needlessly complex system involving hundreds of organic and tech components. I can’t even begin to explain it, but it took the skimming of several FAQs, message boards, and even the official strategy guide in order to begin to understand how to upgrade my weapons. The process was worse (and actually comparable) than having to study and apply organic chemistry.
Final Fantasy’s iconic summons are also underutilized in the game. Each character eventually gains access to his or her own unique Eidolon. Unfortunately, since you only control one character at a time, I never got to see or use any of the other summons because it was just too much of a hassle to be swapping party leaders. Plus, there was just no point to as there’s no practical benefit to use one summon over another. They’re basically there as glorified eye candy.
When you add it up, Final Fantasy 13 makes for a very unremarkable experience. The cutscenes and graphics are breathtakingly gorgeous in full 1080p HD. However, I used to love Final Fantasy because I was attached to the dynamic characters and the epic plots, not because of the pretty graphics. I can’t even remember the characters and outcomes of the last three entries to the series.
There’s some great tactical gameplay to be had here, but it’s just not worth slogging through the muck of mediocre plot and exposition to get through.
They say that the 21st century belongs to the geeks. If that’s the case, then Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World may just be the film of the century.
Sound absurd? Maybe. But at the very least, this action-romance-comedy is the quintessential film of the geek generation.
Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) once described this movie as a cross between Say Anything and Kill Bill. It may sound ridiculous, but it’s an apt description for this deliciously fun movie based on Brian Lee O’Malley’s six volume graphic novel series.
Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, a 22 year old Toronto slacker who is currently “in-between jobs.” He’s the bassist of a band with his friends and they have aspirations of signing a record label contract and making it big. On the personal front, Scott’s recently started dating high-schooler, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), as his way of rebounding from a heart-wrenching breakup he had just gone through. Scott meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), at a party and is immediately smitten by her. Unfortunately, Ramona comes with some heavy baggage in the form of “seven evil exes” which Scott must defeat in battle if he is to date her.
Sounds like a reasonable premise for a movie, right? If you can buy into that, you’re going to love this film. (If not, well, you’ll probably feel like this fuddy duddy did.)
What Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World does best is encapsulate all the things I liked about my childhood into one very nostalgic and fun film. References to video games, comic books, television, music, and pop culture naturally pepper the film throughout without seeming forced. Co-Screenwriter Michael Bacall explains the film’s secret in handling references as “…trying to make it punctuation as opposed to prose.”
Did I love every single one of the references the movie makes? Of course not. I didn’t particularly care for the pseudo Dance Dance Revolution-ninja game Scott and Knives play together, but it was a necessary plot device in the film to show a visceral video game rather than a couch/controller based one. There’s also a much ballyhooed Seinfeld reference that I didn’t LOL at personally, but I did respect the fact that they got the rights to Jonathan Wolff’s theme music from the show while also shooting the scene like an authentic Seinfeld scene.
That’s the key here – authenticity. See, the internet generation can smell a phony a mile away. A lot of the drek Hollywood has put out in the last decade reeks of cashing in (Gamer, anyone?) on what studio executives perceive as the “geek culture.”
One of the reasons why Scott Pilgrim works is because it’s crafted by geeks (Brian Lee O’Malley and Edgar Wright) who grew up with the very same things the film refers to. These people have played those video games, read those comics, watched those television shows, and listened to those bands. They just happen to be accomplished writers and filmmakers with the means and creativity to share highlights from their formative years.
Most of the video game references are general enough that people who aren’t avid video game players will enjoy them. Do you get the concept of receiving points for defeating an enemy? Ok, how about the concept of landing multiple punches in a row on an enemy constituting a “combo”? Not so obscure, right? Now, let’s take it a step further. What if defeating an enemy turns them into a bunch of coins that fall to the floor? I hope you see where the film goes with this.
For people who have played a lot of video games in their childhood, boy are you in for a treat. It starts with a smirk or maybe even a chuckle at the opening Universal logo ditty rendered completely in 8-bit sounds. Your ears will perk up when you hear the “finding a secret” sound from Zelda in the opening scene. You may even fist pump when the ethereal “choose your Zelda file” music plays during an early dream sequence. By the time you hear the announcer from Tekken exclaim “KO!” as Scott defeats the first evil Ex you’ll undoubtedly have a shit-eating grin on your face.
My personal favorite, though, was a scene in which Scott tries to deflect attention away from his girl issues by exclaiming to his band, “Hey guys, I learned the bass line from Final Fantasy II!” He then proceeds to play the battle theme from Final Fantasy II on his bass guitar!
Edgar Wright earns +999 geek credibility!
While Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’s video game references may receive the lion’s share of attention, music also plays a huge role in the film as well. Besides the core love story, the film is also about Scott’s band, Sex Bob-Omb (+200 points if you can name that reference), as it progresses through multiple battle-of-the-bands competitions in its quest to receive a lucrative label deal.
Sex Bob-Omb’s music is actually done by Beck and he hasn’t sounded this lo-fi and raw since 1994′s “Loser.” There’s no shortage of actual musical talent standing in for the other in-film “bands” either. Members of Broken Social Scene play Crash and the Boys’ music while Canadian indie rockers Metric stand in for the heavenly Clash at Demonhead. To top it all off, renowned producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead’s “sixth member”) composes an 8-bit infused punk score for the film.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice Scott Pilgrim wearing different band T-shirts throughout the film. Plumtree and The Smashing Pumpkins (with the apropos “SP” logo) come to mind. Hell, there’s even a Tragically Hip acknowledgement in the movie! (The movie is set in Canada, after all)
The film itself is a fantastic concert of grin-inducing visual and audio effects, endearing acting, and witty repartee. Edgar Wright’s previous two films have shown that he’s a master of quick edits, scene transitions, and comedic timing. These skills allow him take Scott Pilgrim’s visual panache to dizzying heights.
It may sound trite at this point to declare that a movie is like a comic book brought to life, but it’s truly appropriate for this film. This movie is like a comic book brought to life.
Seriously, no other film this side of Sin City has come this close to imagining what a comic book would look like with live on-screen characters. Verbs and phrases in stylized lettering slickly animate onto the screen when the action calls for it. Multiple split screens capture character reactions, evoking images of split comic panels. Scenes quickly cut from one to another seamlessly, giving the feeling of hurriedly flipping to find out what’s on the next page. The film’s style is just as much of a star as any of the actors and will quite probably be the focus of word-of-mouth buzz.
image courtesy of entertainment weekly
Scott Pilgrim’s cast is a veritable who’s who of a new generation of talented Hollywood actors. Many will talk about Kieran Culkin stealing the show as Scott’s gay roommate, Wallace, and deservedly so. His grounded wisdom and comedic chops would make even a straight man want to sleep in the same bed with him. Ellen Wong is an adorable manga character come to life as Knives Chau. It’s hard to imagine that this is her film debut, as she nails every scene she’s in.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a confident and cool Ramona Flowers – I just wish there was more time to fall in love with her. The film clocks in at just about 2 hours, but between squeezing in 7 epic fight scenes and establishing Scott’s world, there’s not much time for Ramona’s character to breathe and develop fully. Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Mark Webber, Alison Pill, and Johnny Webber round out Scott’s group of friends and they all lend their own charm to the film.
On the dark side of the room, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, and Jason Schwartzman delight in tormenting our precious little Scott Pilgrim. Evans in particular is memorable as an over the top skateboarder/movie star whose voice can be only described as Gob Bluth mixed with Christian Bale’s Batman. Even “unknown” actor, Satya Bhabha, has an epic Bollywood-meets-mystical-internet-humor fight scene as Ramona’s first “Evil Ex,” Matthew Patel.
I realize that the Michael Cera backlash is out in full force, but please don’t let whatever feelings you may have on him stop you from seeing this film. His performance is decidedly Ceran, but he does do the Scott Pilgrim character justice. If you want to, you can even talk yourself into believing that Cera has increased his acting range to include nerd-rage and almost-asshole.
Plus, if you’re an Arrested Development fan you won’t want to miss the George Michael/Ann reunion during the film. Yes, Mae Whitman is in this movie and no, she’s not quite as…homely.
I’m 28 years old. I’ve seen movies in the past that I could partly relate to as a portrait of a generation. Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything comes to mind as a particular highlight. I just wasn’t born in the right era to call it my own.
With Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, my generation finally has it’s Say Anything. Well, if Lloyd Dobler could wield a flaming sword and inflict a 64-hit air combo on Diane’s dad.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World opens in US theaters on August 13th.
I had a tough time playing Limbo.
It wasn’t due to deficient game playing skills on my part or any bugs or faults with the game’s programming. No, I had a tough time playing through Limbo because I was genuinely unsettled by the hauntingly melancholy game atmosphere with its grainy black and white visuals and sparse, yet disturbing ambient sounds and audio cues.
You may think I’m talking about a new survival horror game, but I’m not. Limbo is a 2D platforming puzzle game.
“How is this possible?” you may ask. Just watch this short trailer:
I found it appropriate that the protagonist of the game is a young boy because a lot of what disturbed me in Limbo scared me as a child. I have a ghastly fear of spiders, insects, and man eating plants that crystallized in my youth somewhere between the piranha plants in Super Mario Bros. and the insects in Daikatana.
Death in Limbo is also an infinitely more powerful on screen event because it is happening to a little boy. My first death happened via running into a bear trap on the ground. The trap chomped my boy into an aerial concerto of bloody body parts which then collapsed limply to the ground. It quickly became obvious that I wasn’t going to be playing Rayman.
One particular scene early in the game has you walk by a white butterfly on the ground who flies off towards a tree that is clearly harboring a giant black spider lurking in the branches above. I must have spent a good five minutes sitting in my chair, paralyzed. I saw no obvious route around the tree, yet there was no fucking way I wanted to walk under three giant spider legs. Given that the game had established a precedent for grisly deaths by that point, I especially did not want to see what this spider was going to do to the little boy.
Eventually, I excruciatingly faced my fears and found a way past the spider situation. The game may “just” be in black and white, but the realistic animations of the boy and the world combine with the game’s desolate atmosphere to create a completely immersive experience.
Who are you? Why are you here? Where are you?
These are questions Danish developer Playdead want you to wonder about while playing through Limbo. And they did, in fact, linger in the back of my mind throughout the game’s first half, especially with the appearance of other humanoids (dead and alive). However, as the game progressed, I found myself caring less and less about these things and just focusing on what my next destination was and how to reach it. In other words, gameplay became the driving motivational force, not the search for greater meaning in the story.
A word about the gameplay: much of it is based on a “die first, figure out why after you respawn” paradigm. During your first playthrough you should expect to die often and die unexpectedly. This may sound like a frustrating nightmare, but for the most part isn’t, because there are bountiful checkpoints that place you close to your place of death. However, there are a couple of places in the game where I repeatedly yelled “Come on!” at my screen because I could not discern a certain goal and the death checkpoint forced me to play through a previous section before I could take a crack at it again.
Comparisons to Jonathan Blow’s breakthrough “indie” game, Braid, are bound to pop up due to both games belonging to a similar genre. I’ll take a shot at declaring a “winner” by saying that Limbo doesn’t quite reach Braid from both a gameplay and narrative standpoint. Overall, Limbo’s puzzles aren’t as elegantly designed as Braid’s. Many of the more difficult ones require precision timing and button pressing dexterity to solve problems, rather than imaginative and cereberal solutions. That’s not to say Limbo is poorly designed – there are some wonderfully devious puzzles that give a real sense of fulfillment once you figure them out. It just doesn’t feel as naturally rewarding as Braid did.
Braid’s narrative benefited from the use of prose in its introductory and ending sequences. These words really tugged at me emotionally and provided context for the story it was trying to get across. Limbo, on the other hand, does not have one word of text within the game. It relies solely on its greatest strength, its visual and audio atmosphere, to convey its message. Limbo starts off strong in this regard, but the sense of uneasy wonderment slowly peters out until the ending is reached. It’s an ending which I feel tries to capture the same level of existential meaningfulness as Braid, but ultimately falls short.
Having said all of this, Limbo still comes highly recommended if you enjoy playing puzzle platformers and/or delight in immersive and unique art styles. It’s unquestionably the best downloadable game I have played in 2010 thus far. Just be warned if you have qualms about viewing gruesome child deaths or have fear of giant insects.
One final tip: Don’t read the game’s description on Xbox Live Marketplace if you can avoid doing so. I think the game’s ultimate meaning is far more interesting and thought provoking were I not to have read the short premise on the description. For me, it was a throwaway fact that served to only narrow the possibilities of the game’s conclusion.
Limbo costs 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) as a downloadable title from the Xbox Live Marketplace. There is a trial version that encompasses the first two game chapters.
Like the Wii Motion Plus, all it took was some hands on gameplay experience before I “got” it.
Eliminate: Gun Range is a simple shooting gallery game that requires the iPhone 4. (supposedly a 3GS version is on the way) You’ll earn credits by hitting a certain target number threshold on a given range scenario. Credits can then be used to unlock more guns and challenge levels to play. The game itself not very original, but the method of control is.
Aiming in Gun Range utilizes the iPhone 4′s gyroscope to present a 1:1 movement to graphics representation on the screen ratio. Think about how fluid the screen display is when you use the camera app to take a picture. Now imagine that smooth display in a game. That’s basically how Gun Range feels. The graphics are also very nice, taking advantage of the Retina Display, but the star of this show is the control scheme.
It’s almost more of a tech demo than a fleshed out game, but there’s enough entertainment in this $0.99 package that it’s worth keeping around to play even after you’re done showing off your new iPhone 4 to your friends. I can’t wait to see where this leads iPhone game developers. If nothing else, we’ll have a great way of aiming in iPhone first person shooters.
Contrary to what some sensationalists will say, the gaming industry is not crumbling before our very eyes. E3 2010 was not a complete disaster, nor was it an undeniable success. It was, for lack of a better term, average. Generally, the most memorable E3 years tend to be those where new console generations are announced or a blockbuster game franchise debuts on said new consoles. Unfortunately, we just happen to be in the current generation’s mid-life point. A new Halo title for Xbox 360 just doesn’t have that “wow” factor of being the first Halo title on the Xbox 360. In spite of this, it was still exciting to try out new ways of playing games in the form of motion and 3D gaming. Whether or not this actually panned out…well that’s an issue we’ll get to.
The Press Conferences
I want to address the “Big 3″ press conferences first. Video game pundits and fanboys alike take part in the yearly ritual of declaring “Who won E3?” as if the show was a competition. I’m not going to pretend I’m above this sort of thing, so here’s my ranking of the press events:
1. Nintendo
2. (tie) Sony and Microsoft
Nintendo’s event was far and away the most compelling of the show. It was tightly presented, contained minimal gaffes (only miyamoto’s controller issues), and had the most “surprises” in terms of great games we didn’t know about prior to the show (Goldeneye, Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Epic Mickey). To top it off, Nintendo announced a new piece of hardware that we had heard only rumors of before, the 3DS. With a robust roster of developers and franchises (e.g. Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts), the 3DS looks like it’ll be a force to be reckoned with next year.
Sony’s event wasn’t as embarrassing as Microsoft’s, presentation-wise, but didn’t provide much in the “wow” department. A new David Jaffe-helmed Twisted Metal game is pretty cool, but it doesn’t quite carry the weight of a Donkey Kong Country or Goldeneye remake. An appearance and endorsement by Valve’s Gabe Newell as “best” platform for Portal 2 was a huge coup for Sony’s credibility. Playstation Move wasn’t as cringe-inducing as Kinect’s demos the day before, but didn’t do much to sell the platform as anything more than a glorified Wiimote.
I had already written about Microsoft’s presentation last week. It had some really cool moments (ESPN and New Xbox 360s for everyone!) balanced by some facepalmy ones too (every word uttered by an executive, Kinectimals). Overall, I felt it evened out to around Sony’s level once I took into account the peaks and valleys of the presentation.
As a short aside, I really feel that Apple has raised the bar for geek press events since the iPhone announcement in January, 2007. Steve Jobs’ and crew are incredibly well rehearsed keynote machines. Say what you want about the guy, but he doesn’t give ho-hum or embarrassing (wifi issues withstanding) presentations. Every time you hear him talk, you can’t help but feel the urge to buy whatever he’s selling to you. Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft? Not so much.
The Show Floor
If you’ve never been to E3 before, the best way to describe it is an indoor Times Square. There is an overwhelming rush of sensory overload the moment you walk into either of the large halls. Gigantic 100+ inch HD screens pepper the showfloor. Disneyland-like booth constructions, like a haunted house or a post-apocalyptic shelter, are the norm. It’s quite unlike anything you’ve seen indoors.
There’s no way I could see everything at the show, even over the course of three days, so I tried to sample the titles I’ve been anticipating prior to the show along with the new hardware that was announced. I also kept my eyes and ears open for stuff people were buzzing about and caught a couple of interesting titles I would’t have thought of otherwise.
All three console manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft) and virtually all of the major games software publishers had a presence at the show. Countless other small games publishers and accessories manufacturers had booths as well. There was even a company called “Gamer Grub” that sells “performance snack foods.” Yeah. Really.
Other than Blizzard (who are so big they have their own yearly expo, Blizzcon), the only major games publisher that was conspicuously absent from the show floor this year was parent company Activision. However, the big A-B’s presence was still felt during the week as Uncle Bobby Kotick put on an absolutely ridiculous $6 million concert/party on Monday. We’re talking indoor fireworks and a private concert that would put many music festivals to shame. (some artists: Eminem, Rihanna, Chris Cornell, deadmau5, David Guetta, Usher, Maynard James Keenan, Jane’s Addiction) I mean, why spend the money on an E3 booth when you can just throw the most insane party ever. Fuck Cirque du Soleil’s Kinect premiere, why didn’t MTV broadcast this event?
The Takeaway Themes
I came away from E3 2010 taking away 3 prevalent themes: Motion Gaming, 3D Gaming, and Sequels Galore. I had originally intended to elaborate on these themes in this recap, but ended up with a 3000 word monstrosity, so I split this up into another article. You can read that here.
Here is the TL;DR version:
- 3D Gaming - They work as advertised. The effect isn’t annoying and is actually kind of cool. Not significant enough to warrant replacing your home theater or current Nintendo DS, though.
- Sequels Galore – We’re getting too many sequels too frequently. They’re becoming too predictable and unexciting. It’d be great if we increased the time between major franchise entries at the very least. Ideally, the interim years would see the release of more original titles.
- Motion Gaming - Mixed bag here. The first party Kinect and Playstation Move titles were generally uninspiring, but there were a couple of standout third-party games that make convincing arguments for buying a motion gaming controller. Dance Central by Harmonix and Child of Eden by Ubisoft are titles that couldn’t have been done with current consoles and provide truly fun experiences. If I had to pick between the Kinect or Move, I would go with the Kinect. Simpler, cheaper, and true hands-free motion gaming is hard to argue with.
Warning: This game requires patience. If you have none, stay away. It’s not a straight shooter.
If you’ve ever wanted to be as badass, cunning, and ruthless as Jack Bauer in a video game, Splinter Cell Conviction is the game for you. Do you want to act out one (or several) of Jack Bauer’s famous interrogation scenes? Done. There are almost an excessive number of situations for you to brutally ask bad guys where stuff is. Conviction’s situation is a departure from previous games in the series. Longtime protagonist Sam Fisher is not ostensibly working with any sort of government agency. For most of the game Fisher’s only contact with “the good guys” is with a woman he used to work with in the government. Sound familiar?
I loved the way new objectives are presented to you in this game. Many have called the way the game projects text onto the game world “Fringe Lettering” (yes, referring to the JJ Abrams show). I’d say it goes a bit further, as the show’s lettering is limited to large block letters hanging in mid air introducing new locations. Conviction goes a step further and blends the text into walls and objects in the world seamlessly. More games need to do this.
Diehard Splinter Cell fans lamented the loss of certain gameplay elements such as hiding bodies. I found it refreshing. Hiding bodies always felt like a chore, rather than “ooh, this is cool because it’s realistic.” Fisher has a new trick called “Execution” where you can mark anywhere between 2-4 targets (depending on how much you’ve upgraded your gun) and can instantly kill them all with one button if you are within line of sight. It’s balanced since you have to “earn” the right to do this by successfully melee killing someone. While some critics may complain this cheapens the gameplay, at the end of the day, it serves to make the player feel like a badass. I’m ok with this. I want to be the action hero I see in the final cut of film. I’m ok with cutting out “realistic” elements for more fun.
Broken down into its core elements, Conviction is a sequence of situations in which Sam Fisher has to deal with bad guys who don’t know he’s there. Usually, I’d start off trying to take out everyone stealthily from the shadows. I’m not one for elaborate planning, so invariably I’d get seen, shit would hit the fan, and I’d have to shoot my way out of the mess. Oftentimes this would end in failure, but since I’m an above-average shooter player, I imagine I brute-forced my way through more than most players would. Generally, Conviction does a good job of preventing you from just run and gunning your way through the game, as a veritable clown bus of bad guys will swarm you if you try to do this. (Protip: There are always more dudes in the room than you think there are.)
I played through the single-player campaign through on “Realistic” difficulty. I usually play most games on normal difficulty, but I strongly recommend that you play this game on “Realistic” if you do. Playing through on anything less will give you far more leeway to run and gun your way through the game and I think that detracts from the experience. The most memorable moments you will have while playing will be the stealth kills and planned gadget kills, not the machinegun kills you get from playing Call of Duty style.
My favorite moment in the game was a planned attack where I planted a remote explosive on the ground next to a pair of armed guards. I scaled the building to their right, overlooking another guard from behind. Jumping down, I broke the neck of the hapless guard from behind. The original pair saw this and began to run towards me. Calmly, I pressed the button, detonated the explosive, and took out the remaining guards LIKE A BOSS.
The biggest complaint people have of Conviction is the “insta-fail” section well-into the game. I can’t defend this; it’s some bullshit. I’d like to think there’s a better solution to forcing players to act in a stealthy manner. However, part of the reason I got through it with minimal yelling at the screen was due to my Realistic difficulty training. By the time I got to the chapter in question, I was already used to basically “insta-failing” if I was detected (due to the immense swarms of enemies and inability to absorb much gunfire). It still sucked, though, because I could do everything right except for one tiny mistake, and I’d be forced to reload a checkpoint. Perhaps a better way of enforcing this would be to elevate the difficulty level to Realistic for everyone, regardless of what they are playing at. It’ll train the player to be more stealthy, but also give them the feeling that they could progress even if they make a mistake.
It’ll take a certain type of mindset to succeed and have fun with Conviction. You need to be prepared to be methodical and inconspicuous. If you can and are willing to do this, I guarantee you will have a great time with this game.
Sam and Max Visit The Alien Brain
Playing Sam and Max Episode 1: The Penal Zone on the iPad was like dating a gorgeous, funny woman who was prone to random crazy breakdowns. You put up with the crazy stuff because you love the highs and try to ignore the lows. The Penal Zone has gorgeous graphics and fully voiced characters. The game’s presentation is pretty much exactly what you would see on the PC or Xbox 360. Unfortunately, it’s pretty obvious Telltale Games didn’t have access to a preproduction iPad because the number of technical issues that plagued this title were abundant. Random crashes, freezes, sporadic long load times, and framerate slowdowns plagued my playthrough of the game. (Coming from a PC game “save early and often” background, the crashes never set me back too far.) I’m sure they did the best that they could to make the launch date given what they had to work with, but telling the user to reboot the iPad each time he wants to play, DOS boot disk style, is almost too much to ask. On the bright side, I think Telltale knew this and that’s why the price of the game was lowered to $6.99 (from $9.99).
Max Versus Stinky
I’m going to be honest and say I have never been that great at adventure games. Inevitably I’d always end up using a walkthrough for some or most of the game. With that said, I’m proud to say I completed all of The Penal Zone without looking to the internet for help. I’d like to say it’s all due to my leet deductive reasoning skillz, but it’s mainly a credit to great game design. There’s an excellent subtle hint system manifested through one of Max’s new psychic powers, future vision. With it, you can see what the future of certain items/people brings. Armed with this information, you can divine what you should do next. It’s a great way to help dense players like me get on the right track while making them feel awesome for figuring things out own their own. Max’s other main psychic power, teleportation, adds an almost Portal-like way to approach problems.
RAWRAHGUAHRHG
The Penal Zone is a great adventure game. You’d be hard pressed to find a more high quality 3-4 hour experience on the iPad. It’s just a shame the technical issues mar the otherwise awesome game. If you have the patience to deal with some slowdowns and random crashes, it’s a recommended purchase on the iPad since it’s only $6.99. Otherwise, I’d recommend getting it on the 360/PS3/PC/MAC platforms. It’ll cost a bit more, but you’re paying for stability.
Comic Zeal Splash Screen
Without question, one of the killer apps for the iPad is the ability to read comics/graphic novels digitally. While the screen size of the iPad isn’t exactly 1:1 with the size of a comic, it’s close enough to provide an almost identical reading experience. It might be even better than the real thing, since you can easily screen shot pages and email them to friends. No other device on the market currently can offer this capability. In fact, I’ve probably spent more time reading digital comics on the iPad than doing anything else on it so far.
You’ll need to download an app to read comics, as there’s no built-in function on the iPad to do so. I’ve been using Bitolithic’s Comic Zeal 4 for iPad since launch week and have put it through its paces.
TL;DR version of this review: While not perfect, Comic Zeal is worth the $7.99 price if you intend to spend any significant time reading multiple comic files on your iPad.
File Import:
Comic Zeal 4 supports the .cbr, .cbz, and.cbi filetypes for digital comics import. I haven’t come across a situation yet where I needed more filetypes supported, but if you need PDF or RAR support, you’ll need to either convert them or find another app. Transferring comics to the iPad is very simple. You plug in your iPad to your computer’s USB port, navigate to the Apps tab in iTunes, and click on the Comic Zeal icon under the “file sharing” section. From there, you drag and drop any number of comic files to transfer them over. I found transfer speeds comparable to those of mp3 files. Finally, the next time you open the Comic Zeal app on your iPad, there will be a short processing queue for all of the comics you transferred earlier. In the initial version of the app, this process took an unbearably long time. Fortunately, the 4.0.2 update addressed this and the queue is now a minor inconvenience. According to the developer, this extra bit of processing is needed in order to optimize reading performance for the iPad.
I’d like to see a form of Wi-Fi syncing in the future, preferably a solution that accounts for batch file importing. (Update: I’ve been informed that you can do this currently via Comic Zeal Sync, a free Java app downloadable from the Bitolithic website. It is very simple to use and sync. No fiddling with network settings is necessary. It would still be nice to have a solution that doesn’t require the installation of a standalone app, though.) I can see myself in situations where I’m away from my main PC, but would like the capability to add content to read. The recently released free Cloud Reader app offers this capability, but requires far too many clicks in order to get over a large number of files.
The UI:
Comic Zeal UI
As you can see above, Comic Zeal makes good use of pop-over window panes in its interface. The biggest strength of Comic Zeal is its thoughtful interface for organizing and navigating your collection. All of the comics in your collection are represented by icons of the actual comic’s cover. You can then sort your comics into graphically represented long comic boxes (think folders) via a slick tap interface. Once you go into edit mode by tapping the edit button, you can then tap the comics you want to select. Selected comics will jiggle, like when you manipulate icons on the iPad home page. From there you can either delete the selected comics or move them into an “other” or existing folder. You can also change the view to display only icons or text and icons. It’s pretty nice, but there are a few nits I’d pick. A “select all” button would be nice, along with a clarification that the “other…” selection on the move window really means “new folder”. Also, the ability to rename folders seems like an obvious oversight. Finally, as cool as the “jiggling” animation looks, it can be hard to tell what’s jiggling and whats not when you have an entire screen of icons selected. Some simple checkboxes may provide a more salient solution. Nevertheless, organizing your digital collection on Comic Zeal is a treat.
The other icons I didn’t find as useful. The “Recents” and “Downloads” sections are currently useless as they puts the most recently accessed or downloaded files on the bottom, forcing you to scroll through pages before getting to them. (Bitolithic has confirmed this as an issue and will have it fixed for a future release.) There’s also a “Featured” button which should be labeled most appropriately as “Download” or “Store”. From there, you can download selected golden age and Flashback Universe comics for free.
The Reading Experience:
Comic Zeal 4′s reading experience is polished. Your trusty swipe and pinch gestures make it intuitive to flip pages and zoom in and out. Unlike it’s competition, pages are displayed in the correct order and distinctly on each screen. Splash pages automatically resize to fit width-wise in portrait form. You’ll probably want to rotate the screen to landscape in order to properly read the pages without zooming.
There are a few puzzling interface decisions, though. I’ve been trained by iBooks, Kindle, instapaper, Goodreader, and countless other apps that single tapping the middle of the screen hides and shows the menu bars. Single tapping in Comic Zeal zooms in to wherever you tap. It takes a double tap (or a tap on the watermarked arrow) to bring up the menu. You can change this behavior by going into the iPad settings section, but it’s odd as to why the default settings aren’t set up like most iPad apps. I also found myself constantly wanting to tap the margins to change pages, but the app doesn’t have that capability yet. (Bitolithic promises this will be in the new version.)
Buttons on the bottom bar allow you to snap a screen shot, lock the screen orientation, open a file, page forward and backwards, and seek to a page with a slider. I love the screen shot button, as it provides an obvious way to snap a page to share with people. In future versions, I’d like to see this expanded upon to allow for a screen shot of selected panels and easy access to share them via twitter/email/etc. It would also be great to have a way to read lots of consecutive single issues without having to navigate the collection through multiple taps. Perhaps the arrow keys on the bottom menu could be used for next/previous issue in a folder.
Reading in Comic Zeal is a breeze once you learn the quirks of the interface. It’s relatively clean, but could be so much better with a few small changes.
Conclusion:
At iPad launch, Comic Zeal was one of two solutions for reading your own comics digitally. It still is, with the difference being that the alternative app, Cloud Reader, is now free rather than more expensive. That being said, I still think Comic Zeal provides enough in the way of features to warrant the purchase if you plan on frequently reading digital comics. If you’re only looking for an app to demo to your friends or read a digital comic file here and there, you’re better off with the official Marvel app or Cloud Reader.
A promising sign with Comic Zeal is that Bitolithic appears to be listening to feedback and has provided transparency in their development process through their twitter feed. $7.99 is a bit more than an impulse purchase on the app store, but for an app i use constantly, I consider it worth the investment. If Bitolithic follows through on its promises and continually evolves Comic Zeal, it could be the beacon for a true digital comics revolution.
