Category Archives: Game Review

Action, Game Review, PC Games, PS3, Reviews, Video Games, Xbox 360

Batman Arkham City – Initial Impressions

October 18, 2011 JamesInDigital 1 Comment

Arkham City Impressions

I spent a few hours with Arkham City this evening. I have to say that I can definitely see where all the positive hype is coming from. As I discussed in the preview article, Arkham Asylum was a bit of a surprise. There wasn’t much to complain about with the first game and from my initial play-time it feels as though they have been able to improve on virtually everything somehow. I made the brash decision to go ahead and begin my play-through on hard difficulty, having recently replayed Asylum in Hard mode. Now, maybe it’s just me but this game feels to have amped up the difficulty.

Arkham City’s world is large and open and you can encounter groups of gangs almost anywhere. Even the small groups tend call in reinforcements having you fight at a bare minimum a dozen foes at once. When a game gives me free roaming and load of side objectives I tend to forget the main quest for large portions of time. So it is, that after several game-play hours I have managed to complete only 3% of the games main quest. Within a half hour of playing this game I had already encountered Dr. Strange, Two-Face, Catwoman, The Penguin aka Oswald Cobblepot, Bane, a mysterious unnamed observer and had the Riddler chirping in my ear. There have already been mentions of Mr. Freeze amongst bantering Arkham City residents (aka prisoners) as well.

The graphics are excellent, dark and moody and light touches of snow are always good in my book. Combat remains fluid and you have one of you power takes downs fairly quickly along with most of your gadgets. Be careful when roaming freely, there are inmates with firearms not far from your starting point and firearms are death for The Bat nearly instantly on hard difficulty. Weapon upgrades are done through VR Challenges which all seem to involve advanced versions of Batman’s gliding mechanics. While I successfully completed the first set to upgrade my grapnel, I am having difficulty mastering the dive mechanics for some of the new challenges.

The music seems to have taken it up a notch from the first and become even more cinematic feeling to match the visuals. Everything in general is just expanded in quality including counters and takedowns which can now include multiple bad guys simultaneously. And, I almost forgot to mention, pre-orders should have received a copy of the Catwoman DLC. This should be installed immediately. Catwoman’s combat is not as strong, but increases the acrobatics and speed. It’s really beautiful animation. I can see a lot of hours being “wasted” on this game, but the first play-through is going to need to speed up; we’ve got Uncharted 3, Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed revelations mere weeks away. So many games and so little time. Batman Arkham City is definitely recommended.

Action, Adventure Game, Console, FPS, Game Review, PC Games, PS3, Reviews, Video Games, Xbox 360

Recent Gaming Roundup – Juarez, F.E.A.R. 3, Catherine

August 15, 2011 JamesInDigital Leave a comment

Hearing the Call

The Call of Juarez features a spiritual-successor storyline to the original games. One of the main characters, and if we’re honest the focal point of the game, is Ben McCall, ancient ancestor to the Reverend Ray McCall, gun-toting preacher from the previous two games. That’s kind of where the connection stops. There are dialogue references and even scenes that are supposed to take place in locations from the original games. It’s a weak call-back at most. McCall’s voice is appropriately gruff and matches that of his fore-runners quite well. He even manages to spit out some biblical references in the game’s pseudo bullet-time concentration mode.

McCall’s dialogue is the strongest of the lot, which isn’t saying much given the weak script. I find myself often saying this, the storyline itself is passable. There are some forced moments of drama, one in particular featuring the daughter of one of McCalls old Vietnam buddies actually works to draw some emotion, though there’s not enough of a build-up to payoff for most people.

The cast is flushed out with a black female FBI agent and hispanic male DEA agent joining McCall in a special task-force. I like the diversity, but it feels like the stereotypes are played up to try and give them strength as characters and it doesn’t pass muster for my tastes. Most of it has to do with the dialogue, of which the one-liners during combat are the worst. Fans of the original Juarez games will most likely be disappointed. The game is also very short even on the hardest difficulty setting.

Fear 3 – Fear Hard with a Vengeance

I’m not a huge fan of this series, though I think it’s alright and I’ve played through both games and two spin-offs, which are now considered “non-cannon” to the overall storyline arc. I found this sequel to be less tense and scary than the previous two games. There are lots of outdoor areas which pull the game away from the shadows and get the game into more action (even combat-mechs) mode.

I’m not sure that the straying from the shadows is what has lessened the atmosphere of the game for me, but it maybe be more-so the “cheap” thrill that lay within that darkness. Most of these scares don’t deviate enough from the first two games to be new and thrilling or get the adrenaline up. The sound design again is good and the models and textures are decent. Blood trails and spatter are quality as always.

Fans of the series will probably enjoy the game and the added perk of being able to play as Fettel, the lead character’s brother in every level of the game that has already been completed. Fettel is endowed with powers from Alma, spoiler alert! spoiler alert, both of these character’s mother, though she is represented most often by a creepy looking, bloody child. Fettel’s powers were fun to play with for a little bit after running through the game, which again is a very short one.

Catherine – From the WTF?! Genre

I’ve only played this for a little bit and I’m not sure if I’m going to continue. Here is how I attempted to explain it to a friend over instant-messenger.

James: its like an anime relationship themed game built on top of crazy qbert block puzzles

Alex: (silent wide eyed shrug)

The overall idea seems to be leading towards wanting you, the player and lead character, to think about the validity of marriage and taking the steps towards committent in a long-term relationship. And if you have any doubts or cheat (one of the things that turned me off pretty quickly is that you as the character cheat on your girlfriend without any choice or say almost right off the bat) on your partner you will be cursed and a long-nailed Freddy Krueger-clawed female will try to murder you and other single men (who appear as sheep in your nightmares, get et?!) as you navigate through Q-Bert-like wall-climbing puzzles. Gotta love Japanese culture, film and games, but I’ll go back to my Yakuza series I think.

P.S. Pervs, there’s no nudity in this game, it’s just a big tease for you as you play a what appears to be, though with plenty of Japanese quirkiness, an attempt to make a game that deals seriously with relationship issues.

Action, Blog, Console, Game Review, PC Games, PS3, Video Games, Xbox 360

Forgotten Sands and Bloodstones

July 5, 2011 JamesInDigital Leave a comment

Two quick blurbs for ya today. Prince of Persia (the newest version Forgotten Sands) and James Bond Bloodstone both for the PS3.

Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands Thoughts

Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands is the newest entry in the Prince of Persia series and yet another reboot for it as well. I guess, technically it is just a return to the story-line that was broken up by the appearance of 2008′s Prince of Persia which broke up the trilogy that began with Sands of Time…. confused yet? While the game introduces new powers that compliment the time-freezing and rewinding mechanics, it’s not really enough to be called innovative. They introduce new powers every so often throughout the game, and it feels like they come a little to late, as you’re already somewhat bored by that point. They momentarily recapture interest, but they also make combat. which is already far too easy, even more-so.

The voice-acting and music are fairly plain Jane here as is the simple story-line anchored by the ancient Djinn, who are attempting to help restore balance after an army of the undead is released in an attempt to defend the city from attacking invaders. That force takes over and defeats our main character’s (The Prince’s) brother Malik. This forcse the Prince, of course, to go reluctantly against him. The game is not terrible, but it’s not good either. I was surprised that the visuals seemed to have actually taken a step back from the 2008 incarnation. If you’re a fan of the series you may still enjoy the game. The series strength has always been on it’s level design, built to showcase the wall-running, time-freezing gameplay. That strength is still here and played out in this game with varying degrees of success.

James Bond Bloodstone in Brief

As Gamefly slowly expands its arsenal, and increases its speed thanks to a new Seattle shipping center, I can slowly removal some the very poorly rated games from the limited (50 games) queue. James Bond: Bloodstone has been in that queue since it’s release. Strangely and surprisingly the game has almost always had a “low” status on the availability scale. I had hoped this meant that it was a decent Bond game, despite what other review sites had suggested. Unfortunately this was not the case.

The game has Craig and Dench to do the voice acting and a passable story about the creation, smuggling and possible deployment of a mass bio-weapon. Apart from that, there’s not much going. It appears they’re going with much the same engine that the last Bond went with. This means you have a simplistic, somewhat clunky cover system, last gen graphics and some poor A.I. For some reason they cast a pop singer as the lead female role, and although adequate, there’s not a lot of life there. Maybe get a professional next time?

In the end I would point to the lack of any new Bond films as a more reasonable explanation of the low availability of this game, rather than it being goood. In Gamefly’s eyes Bond is worth $28 while Prince of Persia is worth about $13. If you switch those numbers, you’re much closer to price points at which I would suggest looking into either of these games.

Action, Console, Game Review, PS3, Reviews, Video Games, Xbox 360

On the Brink of Something Good

June 22, 2011 JamesInDigital 1 Comment

Brink made a promise upon it initial debut to reinvent or at the least reinvigorate the first person shooter. Early media gave us glimpses of highly stylized characters and an interesting mixture of traditional shooting mechanics with free-running (parkour) mixed in for good measure. Most people were touting the game as Mirror’s Edge with much more shooting. So how does Brink measure up to expectations?

Basics of Brink

I took me only a couple nights, with a few hours each night to play through the main “storyline” for each of the two factions, Security and Resistance. Your play time will vary
Brink Box Cover greatly depending on how you choose to play the game. The real innovation of brink is the ability to coop though with human players filling the roles on both sides of the conflict. If you turn the options on, your squad can be coop, the enemies can be coop, or you can play through with AI through a single player campaign. Either way the story is the same.

Having your squad made up of other players brings with it the same issues that any mult-player game does. For a good example see Team Fortress 2(which is also a good comparison for the art style). How long your matches last and whether you succeed or not are based on the skill not only of the individual, but the other players as well. So if you get stuck with a squad that doesn’t know what they’re doing, you could fail multiple times, or you could breeze through the game fairly quickly as I did.

Brink - Security Faction

Brink Classes and Gameplay

Again, like TF2, Brink is played by character classes. Here we have the Medic, the Operative, the Soldier and the Engineer. Each have their own unique skills which can be added to and upgraded as the character earns skill points through gaining experience. I spent the majority of my time playing as the engineer. After only a little upgrading of my characters engineer skills I was regularly getting Best Overall Player, Most Kills and Best Engineer awards at the end of the majority of my rounds/levels.

None of the classes are at any real disadvantage when it comes to combat, which could be seen as a knock on the game by some. With proper weapon modifications and upgrades, it was easy for my engineer to carry out his duties and still get quite a few combat kills. It’s a standard shooter apart from the parkour aspects. And that parkour system, dubbed SMART or Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain by Bethesda has mixed results. Sliding under obstacles and at or away from enemies is a nice little touch, but the free-running aspects don’t feel anywhere near as fluid as they did in Mirror’s Edge.

Brink - Resistance Faction

On the Brink

I think Brink is really on the verge of being something quite special, but is just not there yet. The multi-player story is an excellent function and I think one that can only get better if more games go that route. As it stands, Brink’s story is very loose and limited to retain emphasis on the multi-player. Neither faction is inherently the “bad guy” which perhaps takes some of the weight out of the fight story-wise. For this to work really well, I think the good and bad have to be very defined and the story more fleshed out.

The next step is to refine and extend the free-running elements of the game. The thing I most enjoyed about the game was the art direction. While the environments are limited they fit the story and the style of the game (I would like to see more variation and enhanced textures and lighting in a sequel). The stylized characters are very cool, and being able to customize them enables you to separate yourself a little from everyone else.

Brink is definitely moving towards some good things and some innovation in a genre that is definitely stagnating significantly. I hope that they continue the brand and take their concepts even further to really push through the doldrums of FPS gaming. Thanks to Bethesda and Splash Damage (Enemy Territory gave me hours and hours of enjoyment) for putting an effort into the genre. Brink is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Action, Console, Game Review, PS3, Reviews, RPG, Video Games, Xbox 360

Knights Contract has been Revoked

June 20, 2011 JamesInDigital Leave a comment

Every time I see or hear anything remotely like “has just been revoked” I automatically think of the end of Lethal Weapon 2 after Riggs has been shot, and the South African d-bag claims diplomatic immunity. BLAM! “It’s just been revoked”. Hell yeah, Sgt. Murtaugh! That was Lethal Weapon 2, wasn’t it? Where was I… This is supposed to be about Knights Contract, I’d just rather it not be.

The Knight’s Contract

So the contract was written with the trailer, looking like this:

The contract carried out aka what you really get is this:

See those brick textures in the background? They don’t look any better up close. Notice the washed out, muted tone to everything. That’s how it all looks, with attempts at separating the objects with what look like primitive specular maps and simple lighting. However, I’m not one who holds to bad graphics = bad game.

Knights Contract Mechanics

Knights Contract plays with elements seen in other recent games, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom and Enslaved Odyssey, where you not only have to be aware of your health, but your partner’s as well. Like in Majin, working with your partner in Knights Contract, you can execute special dual moves that serve as finishers. Each fight, combo and execution builds a rating grade that is tallied up at the end of the segments. You are graded, as is traditional in many Japanese-style action games (think ranking system). What this does I’m not sure, or didn’t pay attention enough to learn. You earn “witch” powers for your side-kick and collect souls or orbs or insert keyword for killing points, which are used to upgrade those powers. Gameplay is simple enough, yet tedious and repetitive and I couldn’t stick with it long enough to see if that improved.

A Strong Story Saves the Day?

Our basic setup is that witches, wrongfully executed under a corrupt “inquistor”, have come back from the dead to wreak havoc on manking through a plague. These are allusions to the Spanish Inquistion / Salem Witch Trials and the Bubonic Plauge. It’s late, so I’m not sure of the historical timeline, but I don’t think those events line up. You control Heinrich who was the executioner of these witches and when he “carrying out justice” upon a final innocent witch is cursed with immortality. Forward 100 years or so and Heinrich has now met up with a witch seeking to rid his “curse” (why am I using so many quotes in this “article”), only to find that the singular good witch he is helping was the one he executed all those years ago. The overriding theme is that the corrupt inquisitor actually wanted an item the witches had that would preserve his life, as he has actually been dabbling in dark arts to become immortal himself.

Knights Contract Void

They have a decent story setup, they have an amazing trailer full of promises that need to only deliver, oh…. say 50% of to be great. And they didn’t meet their contractual obligation (having way to much fun with this). Knights Contract is bubonicly plagued by poor visuals: bland textures, washed out color, simplified normal maps, washed out lighting and clipping issues. The music is fairly generic as well. Our story is interested, but the dialogue is awful and carried out by mostly sub-par voice-acting. Occasionally when voice acting is this bad, I can switch over to original Japanese and extend my play; there was no such option here. Worst of all was the cardinal sin of designing a trailer that had no chance in hell of even being remotely like what the final game came out to be. Unforgiveable. So read the not so fine print on this article, and avoid Knights contract.

Action, Game Review, PS3, Reviews, Video Games

Killzone Takes a Step Back – Killzone 3 Review

June 1, 2011 JamesInDigital Leave a comment

Killzone History

I came to the series late. In fact, I never played the first entry. I remember it receiving much hype. I was almost 100% a PC gamer at the time and didn’t by a PS2 until very late in the cycle. As some of you may have read or know I absolutely hate FPS shooting with a controller. It feels clunky and unintuitive after experiencing years and years of precision FPS gaming on the PC. Fast forward to the late 2000s and I am forced to do a little shooting with amazing first party title Uncharted for the PS3 and likewise through its sequel. While playing 3rd person shooters with the controller is at least manageable it is a struggle for FPS unless I am playing the game daily. Much as I would like, my schedule doesn’t always allow for that. When I got a Dual SFX Frag Pro controller for cheap on a Christmas sale I started being able to do a lot more shooters on the console. I picked up Killzone 2 on the cheap from an Amazon Warehouse deal and played through the game over the course of a couple of weeks.

Killzone 2 I assume continues the story of the peoples of earth against the people of Helghan, a harsh and unforgiving land. The Helghast (Higgs) soldiers are like red storm troopers and their leaders are futuristic incarnations of Nazi Germany, complete with Hitler-staches. And they are completely evil too, going so far as to nuke their own planet, pretending it was done by soldiers of earth. Killzone 2 was fairly difficult, the shooting mechanic has a bit of a delay to it and some of the battles were downright set up for your failure, especially the final battle where waves upon waves of enemy soldier assail you from multiple directions. The story was interesting enough, the difficulty was fairly strong IMO. I’m not much of a deathmatch online gamer, but I didn’t really get the opportunity to test that out, as the server were already down (PSN was down anyway).

Killzone 3

I liked Killzone 3 enough to want to continue the story, but not enough for a full-on purchase, though I was tempted by the collector’s edition. My new weakness comes in the form of collector’s edition games. It was a pretty popular title on Gamefly so it didn’t come to me right away, which is fine because I got busy with Yakuza 4, and handful of other games and then ultimately L.A. Noire. There are tons of other Killzone 3 reviews that extensively go over the game, so I will talk about the things important to me, and the rest of it briefly.

It’s a decent enough continuation of the story, but is too easy and too short and in the end feels as though it just “another entry”, It was built as a way to simple continue the franchise not a singular great game. Coop reinforced these feelings. Playing with a friend, I didn’t find going through the game a second time any more enjoyable. You simply march through, rarely dying and it didn’t feel very enjoyable. The game is pretty enough, though texture pops sometimes occur. The entire beginning tutorial section is designed to show of the clean futuristic sets, with nice, clean textures, quality models and the real highlight, the quality light sources and glow.

The music and sound design remain appropriately cinematic, the music of the previous entry was a very strong point. Collectors of game music will definitely want to add this to their collection. Voice Acting similarly remains superb, with Brian Cox reprising his roll through flashbacks as Visari. Malcolm McDowell and Ray Winstone get to clash with each other on the Helghast side of things as a bureaucrat and general respectively. James Remar, most recently of Dexter fame, is strong as Captain Narville. Quality voice acting really boosts a game like this up.

When it comes times for Killzone 4, I’ll give it a play at some point. It will not be a day one or even week one purchase for me however. The multiplayer features are not enough to entice me with any game like this, so the single player story has to be extra strong. While it’s good, I don’t think it’s enough to be a purchase for me. Gamefly it is.