Author: Sonic Rob

The Madden Plan

Every review I’ve seen for Madden 11 mentions that “if you haven’t picked up Madden in a few years, this is the year to do it.” Honestly, the reviewers say that every year, like it’s the qualifier that makes the glacial pace of Madden’s evolution ok. You know what? I did pick up Madden last year. It was fine. In fact, I spent some time totally obsessed with it, as our fourth podcast demonstrated. When I want some computer football action, I throw the disc in and play my Niners franchise through a few more games and have a high old time.

I think I’m gonna pass.

-ssr

Bioshock Ad Infinitum

Irrational Games has released what amounts to a very full-featured cinematic trailer for the fifth game in their loosely-related series of Shock games:

Is it just me, or does this seem a bit… conservative? As always, no judgments are laid upon a mere trailer, but a lot of the thematic elements in this clip – the elitist exclusive society, the nigh-magical city hidden from the common world via fantastic technology, a hulking mechanical monster, the young girl in need of rescue, the haunting sensation we get from a dangerous place redolent of naiive American protoculture – seem terribly familiar. I’m willing to cop that these are themes that have been explored in pop literature for some time. Still, I would have been more excited to see the creative folks at Irrational pop out something that suggested a bit more reach outside of their comfort zone.

-ssr

Why Do You Live?

I was playing Modern Warfare’s singleplayer campaign last night (yes I fucking know), and was struck by the incongruity of the health regeneration in the game. It’s basically the same damage forgiveness system as Halo’s shield regeneration, right? If you take fire, you can either tough it out or duck into cover and rebuild your strength for another go. As a game mechanic it treats the player a little more kindly than simply giving her a static pool of life points that only renews or depletes in response to interactions like getting shot or stepping on a medical kit with her boot. Sure, you got shot, but you shook it off after a second; maybe it was just a graze that stunned you, or the adrenaline kicked in. These are rationalizations, really, for a strangely gamey system that softens the difficulty of the game a bit.

On the other hand – big stupid what if question incoming – the only reason that the player needs forgiveness is that taking too much damage results in a fail state. You die, get a pithy anti-war quote from some who ought to know, and restart in ludus res at one of the game’s generously-distributed checkpoints as though the death had never actually happened. The only way to end a mission is to keep soldiering through until you complete all of the objectives given to you.

How come?

Continue reading Why Do You Live?

Trailer Chat: The Green Hornet

Sonic Rob: if seth rogen is not fat, is he still seth rogen?

Sonic Rob: it’s like a tree falling in the forest kinda thing

FyreHaar: Seth Rogen not fat is like Seth Rogen

FyreHaar: for the ladies

FyreHaar: like, we like him when he’s schlubby and charming, but with a little more muscle definition he definitely starts to move the mercury

FyreHaar: I like skinny Seth

FyreHaar: I don’t really have any knowledge of the pre-history of the GH

FyreHaar: and I have to say that preview seems to indicate a fun summer action movie with lots of the funny

FyreHaar: and a sweet car with guns

Sonic Rob: well, it’s Michele Gondry directing

FyreHaar: OOOhhhh!

FyreHaar: Gondry!

Sonic Rob: so I expect that the movie will suck fucking donkey balls until the third act

FyreHaar: It’s got Tom Wilkinson, who is good in everything

FyreHaar: he’s like the thinking man’s Harvey Keitel

Sonic Rob: how come he never lives past the halfway point of a film?

FyreHaar: better things to do

Sonic Rob: got another movie to be in

FyreHaar: “I’m due on the West End next week, hurry it up and write me out!”

Continue reading Trailer Chat: The Green Hornet

Trailer Trash: Let Me In

So here we have a very noisy trailer for the totally unnecessary US remake of Let The Right One In, which was mostly quiet and all the scarier for it.

I am by default opposed to this sort of remake – the immediate do-over in American English as soon as a film finds any sort of success abroad. It seems like fixing something that ain’t broke for lack of any better ideas.

-ssr

Dawn of God of Gears of War

There was a tide of new Warhammer 40k video game publicity earlier this week for some reason, and I’d like to address it really quickly since we’re fans of the franchise generally. First off, I’m not that likely to get into it anyway but the teaser video for the new 40k MMO didn’t excite me much.

Yeah, that one.

I’m willing to reserve judgement until more is known – like, anything at all – but aside from the scenes with Titans the whole thing looks like a WoWalike, right down to the button bar at the bottom and the portrait/resources panel at the top left. I’ve said it before: WoW does what it does very well, and you’re more likely to beat Blizzard with something truly different than by beating them at their own game. WoW with bolters doesn’t count as “truly different”, especially when your art style looks more like WoW than it does the rest of 40k.

So let’s talk Space Marine.

There’s still plenty we don’t know about this game either, but the in-engine footage of combat looks interesting. The shooting looks really reminiscent of Resident Evil 4/Gears of War over-the-shoulder style action games, which I quite enjoy. The melee seems nice and fast, with the marines jumping and lunging into their attacks rather than plodding about; I quite liked the bit early on where a marine charges through the sort of chest-high concrete wall that usually winds up inviolate in shooter games. I didn’t see a wide variety of attacks, though which suggests the possible danger that things could get into throbbing red Dynasty Thumbs territory rather than tasty and caramel-flavored God of War-ville.

I’ve got questions, of course, but I’ll try to avoid the ones that are just thinly-veiled speculation. Who’s the unhelmed marine we see in some of the shooting segments? Do we still get to use any weapons aside from the bolter and chainsword? Are there enemies aside from the orks? Multi?

There’s still plenty of time for them to screw this up, but it would be possible for the stuff shown in that trailer to be parts of a game I would enjoy. Beyond that I allow for nothing!

-ssr

Say It With Me, Children: “Day Use”, Not “Deuce”

I totally slept on the original Deus Ex games back in Ye Olde Gaming Times; I was a Mac/PS gamer, and PC gaming was a sort of terrifying black sewer complex of command line prompts and hardware incompatibilities. Many years later, I was intrigued enough by the reputation of Warren Specter’s open-ended FPS to give them a shot. Sadly, I found they just hadn’t aged well enough to retain my interest past the opening Statue of Liberty level. Maybe I suck, but as I recall the experience, Deux Ex was firmly rooted in the “I’m not telling you shit, Mr Player; just die until you figure me out” school of game design that’s been all-to-slowly dying out this last decade or so. It’s too bad really, as I normally tend to enjoy games with a strong non-combat component, but for whatever reason the experience not only didn’t grab me, but was actively repellant, so I mentally shrugged and set the whole thing aside.

And now, here’s Squenix with the trailer for a nice, current-gen entry to the franchise! Will it retain the previous games’ multiplicity of approaches and update them with nice modern design touches? Almost undoubtedly. Will it be able to set itself apart from all the other games that have built on its fight/sneak/talk approach to mission choice?

Uhhhhhh… Maybe. Watch the video after the jump and we’ll talk.

Continue reading Say It With Me, Children: “Day Use”, Not “Deuce”

Front On

Hey, ShackNews has brand new information on Front Mission Evolved, the latest in the long-running mech strategy game that I used to really like back on the PS1! It’s supposed to be coming out any day now, so I’m really looking forward to some really polished pre-release publicity stuff! Let’s dig in:

Previously due during the vague “Spring 2010” timeframe, Double Helix’s mech-tastic action game Front Mission Evolved will now arrive at North American retailers in PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 form on September 14, 2010.

Oh. Dang. Well, I guess they’re taking the time to really do the game right!

Alongside the release date, publisher Square Enix offered up a new trailer and several new screenshots, plus word that the PC edition will be playable in stereoscopic 3D.

I… wait, what? Why? What could adding 3-d headache-o-vision add? I could see it maybe being relevant for an action title, but certainly not for a turn-based strategy title.

Evolved marks a departure from traditional Front Mission entries, focusing on real-time third-person action instead of the turn-based strategy the series is known for. In addition to its single-player campaign, Evolved will also pack four multiplayer modes and the ability for players to customize their “wanzers” with a variety of parts and weapons.

…

So instead of the nichey little strategy title with the ridiculous length and deep squad customization that I was looking forward to, you’re doing the second most played-out genre possible – right after FPS – and tossing in a schlocky flavor-of-the-month technology gimmick as well?

*Sigh* If I was uninterested in Front Mission Evolved before, I’m downright incurious now. I’d be willing to give it a chance on its own terms as a new action title, but all the franchise goodwill I had saved up is out the window now.

-ssr