…. Damn. She is my favorite.

Anyways, Immediate first thoughts. I want to assure everyone that these thoughts aren’t on the game as, for I have only reached the end of chapter three. I do believe, however, I have seen enough to give a general impression.

First thought? Thank God this isn’t XII all over again. They brought back turn based encounters while remaining with visible enemies before encounters. So fear not those who thought the fighting in XII was trash, for the quick paced, exciting and super neato fighting system Square Enix attempted to create in XII has been thoroughly thought through this time around (Awesome alliteration for the win!).

This fighting system includes simple, yet necessary roles and strategies which require quick thinking on the part of the player, or in my case, pure awesome. Leveling up is similar to X though it gets rid of those items used to assist your leveling and focuses more on a variation of Exp rather than movement points. The grid system is basically still in place, though this  time you are not able to grind your way to fill it seeing as how Square Enix has put a level cap on each chapter. Whether or not that was a good idea is debatable, but honestly I have had no problems with enemies yet… Then again, I’m awesome.

Some other noted,  the voice acting is not bad, it’s actually kind of good. Dialogue is cleverly written, especially with Sazh Katzroy being a hilarious comic relief who, as a matter of fact, has a Chocobo living in his Afro.

The only problem that I can see right away is the lack of background story, they all talk as if you know whats going on.

Luckily for me, that’s not a problem seeing as how they put in the datalog this time around. Not only does the datalog inform you al about the past, present and future, it is also able to recap you on all the events which you have taken a part of. That is nice for me when I pick this game up two years from now and forgot what the hell I was doing. I assume I won’t have to restart my save AGAIN like I do with every other Final Fantasy.

Anyways, I am enjoying it greatly. It is a change from the precedent, but it is a good change and remains tied to its roots….

Except the bastards got rid of the traditional victory song.

Bastards,

-Travis

For some reason this time around, I really enjoyed the film. I don’t know why. The new parts do help to make the story flow better, but I also think that’s because I had a previous experience with the film and was able to truly notice the differences. The extra footage did help to add weight on the story side instead of too much time spent on the visual nostalgia fest side. Or it’s also possible I’m enjoying the film because of my surprise. I didn’t realize they were added. Fifteen minutes into the film, I began thinking to myself, “Wait, has it been that long, I don’t remember these parts.” The shock of not having to sit through the same film over again was indeed very welcomed last night.

This is an important key to point out. I’ll be honest. I’ve never finished Final Fantasy VII. I’ve always had a little bit of a bias against it and find it easy to dismiss as an overrated game. Final Fantasy VI is a game that is more cemented in my heart. It’s my opinion that the story line is much more sane and that Final Fantasy VII’s popularity was boosted by the advancement in graphical technology, the adoption of the Playstation, and video games beginning to spread into mainstream America. In the case of Final Fantasy VII, there were an overwhelming number of people first venturing into the Japanese RPG and in my opinon, that is why it remains so highly remembered not because of it’s actual substance but more because of it’s timing. Also it is my opinion that many got hung up on the trivial parts of Final Fantasy VII. For example, the bad guy with the large sword. The hot chick with the large bust. The death of a main character and the tear evoking theme that followed.

I feel that if you just look at these parts, then you’re missing the point of why VII truly was a genre changing game.

To be continued,
David

David

So news hit recently that valve is about ready to release Steam/Source, and something called Steam Play, to the MAC.  The latter being a utility which allows the player to seemingly switch between MAC and PC versions of the game if you own both types of computers (Portal 2 will be the first game getting a simultaneous PC/MAC release).

Fancy stuff, for sure, but honestly I’m not entirely convinced that this is a viable use of resources.  Especially since Valves development for the PS3 has been woefully ignored in comparison to other platforms.

Valve/PC development and the xbox 360 are, of course, a perfect fit…at least in terms of development for similar architectures.  But is the Macintosh really such a viable gaming platform that it’s development precludes that of the PS3?  Is the Macintosh install market for gaming really that huge?  And considering the dire truth that PC gaming in general has been waining over the years I’m not so sure that gamers should take these current announcements with any type of real levity.

We cannot doubt that MAC usage has grown recently.  Quanticast, a web analytics firm, as recently released numbers showing 10.9 percent of online users in North America signed on using MAC OS X ( a 30% increase over the past year).  But I’m not completely convinced that the majority of these users are not signing on at a coffee shop to read the newest NPR news and are, instead, booting up World of Warcraft.

The only thing I can think of here is that Valve see’s the MAC as some possibly fertile land that can be tilled.  They might have seen the World of Warcraft MAC users number and want a piece of that pie.  Personally, I don’t see it happening.  PC gaming is a slowly dying adventure and MAC gaming hardly ever existed in the first place.  As consoles become more and more popular, and the PS3 install base grows thanks to the pre-holiday price cut, Valve is going to have to seriously look at giving more love to the console market.

Missions 1 Valve: Work with XBLA, and eventually PSN, to deliver to the console market the handiwork of the robust modding community that gave so much more life to your games in the first place.

-Joseph-

Gaming site Hellforge posted an image by the artist responsible for the design of the “Vault Boy” character from the old Fallout games.

Despite being particularly disturbing, and somewhat pro-choice, it could have been a whole lot worse, considering the message it’s supposed to convey.

This particular image, which was never used, is the image supposed to show up under the Reputation tab in the character screen for the ‘Child killer’ attribute.

For those who don’t remember, or those who didn’t play the games:

The reputation tab basically displayed a list of factions that the character had interacted with, as well as the character’s standing with each one; also, there were several ‘traits’, attainable by performing certain actions.

“Made man” for example, was obtained whenever the player joined one of the 4 crime families of Fallout 2.

What does it take, then, to obtain this scandalous title of Child Killer?

You have to murder the wee ones.
Not midgets.
According to Borderlands, those are fair game.

Children were present in Fallout 1 and 2.  They scampered across the terrain, spewing forth quotes that reflected their hopeful dreams, or their prejudiced naivette.
They were never hostile, but it was still possible to injure them through a careless spray of gunfire during a heated firefight with enemies.

They were also targetable during turn-based combat.
Remember those little miscreants in the Hub that would pickpocket you when entering or leaving a building?
Yeah, the ones who made you enter combat and use up your turn walking into a building, so they couldn’t take action.
Fuckers.
I’m sure they were fired upon many times by those feuding folks wary of their personal belongings.

Since then, this touchy subject has been avoided by a variety of means.

That kid in Fallout 3 whose parents died to the ants would merely run away as if scolded when facing my hail of lead.

And remember the sandbox utopia that was Grand Theft Auto 4?
For such a bustling metropolis, there was nary a child in sight.
Liberty City must have strict truancy laws and schools that operate 24/7.
Either that or games show us the future, and the future is a Clive Owen movie.

Clearly, this is done to avoid content that could be considered in extreme bad taste, depending on what actions the player took.
I don’t oppose this approach that games usually take, it’s just kind of strange that a game actually did it, many years ago.
That and there was going to be a little cartoon picture for it.

-Carlos.

The first Tower Defense game I played, and assume many else played, were the ones created by Warcraft III players. Simple yet challenging. I think I can speak for us all when I say that the simplicity of a TD game is not only addictive, yet rewarding. Once reaching the highest point of skill in such games you are instantly rewarded with the ability to yell at anyone who is sub-par. This includes, but is not limited to screaming explicits to younger children, forcing the idea of supreme noobiness down the throats of those inferior to your TD might.

If any of this sounds exciting, Travis wants you to

Toy Soldiers is an interesting enough game, playability is high, and it does a great job of reminding me of the old N64 Army Men games. This game, which is an elaborate TD, takes place in the middle of a cardboard box which is assorted with trees, railroads and such to create a playing field.

The premise is simple, protect your toy box from the waves of enemies which attack. If you have played a TD before, it won’t be too difficult to create strategies and proper defenses via AA, Anti-Infantry, or Anti-Tank. These defenses, which can be upgraded and also involve some moderate variations, are your main form of interaction in this game. Through these defenses you are able to also directly control whichever tower you would like, which is basically a requirement for all of your soldiers graduated from the Official Academy of Down Syndrome.

Each level is set up with a set amount of waves in which you have to survive through, and each level also includes a set bonus objective (0ther than surviving) which ensures you a “ration”. These rations apparently  provide you with special camera angles. That sounds really boring so I tend not to care much about that.

Well, I have enjoyed this game so far and will probably allow it to be my new favorite arcade game… putting it right about Diner Dash! This game also includes multiplayer, but I have yet to try it out and most likely will not any time soon since I got my hands on SC II and I will be playing FFXIII tonight.

Anyways, bye,

-Travis

P.S. A god rises from the ashes come April.

I’m not the biggest fan of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The lack of puzzles, crappy combat coupled with seemingly endless waves of enemies, and the part where most of the game is spent protecting some of the most god awful (and mortal) companion AI I’ve ever seen provided for a somewhat frustrating experience.

The only new feature that I see in the trailer for Forgotten Sands is the ability to freeze and unfreeze water. And while I thought this sounded cool when hearing journalists’ first impressions of the footage, after seeing it for myself, I’m left a bit underwhelmed. It appears all the freeze mechanic allows for is the creation of more objects for the Prince to climb on and jump off of; and his animations when climbing on these frozen walls and poles are even the exact same. I would have preferred a more dynamic approach to playing with the various states of water — it just seems like wasted potential that would have been explored more fully in a less budgety non-movie tie-in game.

While I do think Forgotten Sands has a pretty cheap look to it, if it fixes the core problems I had with Sands of Time, I’m more than willing to give this game a chance.

Really though, we should all rest easy that it will be literally impossible for this game to be any worse than Prince of Persia 2008.

Brad

Thanks Brad for giving me the news.
David

GRIN+Cing

David

Your “terrorist” group has the ability to rip, drop bombs, and throw up a shield for defense. The goal is to find the best spots to tear off sections of the ship whilst dodging oncoming missile fire, airship dwellers, and other annoying hurdles. Thankfully, useful powerups spread throughout the ship will aid in your objective — which is especially important as the game gets really challenging very quickly. I still have yet to beat the third stage in the demo. You also have the optional goal of saving prisoners, but who the hell has time when there is chewing to be done.

And while the mechanics are certainly entertaining, the presentation is also top notch. The music is appropriately frantic, the “patchwork” art style is great, and the game is pretty hilarious. Your “group” of team members are nothing more than a life counter for each stage. If you take damage, one of your team members dies; and if you lose all your team members, the stage is over. But here is the greatest part — every time you lose a member, the game pauses for a second to tell you the name and age of the person met his or her grizzly fate. As far as I can tell the names and ages are random; but that just makes it all the more depressing as you replay stages. In my game, Stage 3 alone has claimed at least 30 unique lives. I will never forget you “Melissa, Age 22″.

The demo is up on the North American PSN, so I hope everyone with a PSP gives this game a download.

Oh and here is a trailer.

Brad

David

While I have argued forever that I want Link and the other characters in the Zelda universe to talk, I still feel this was a bad way to go for Metroid. As I mentioned in a previous comment, “if Samus is talking, then that means she has someone to talk to” — and something about that just feels wrong. The atmosphere of a Metroid game owes in large part to the isolation of Samus. There is something beautifully haunting and mysterious about being alone on a vast alien world.

I wouldn’t complain so much if the voice acting was purely soliloquy, but as the trailer shows, Samus is clearly talking to other people at parts. Voiced soliloquy could have been a really amazing way to add depth to her character. Having Samus awkwardly talk to herself as she tries to understand or possibly even communicate with the alien life would have been remarkable. What if Samus personified a baby metroid the way Tom Hank did his volleyball in the film, Castaway? Perhaps this could have been an interesting way to explore the frightening depths of isolation and loneliness.

But instead we get cheesy voice over to (what looks like) a cheesy, anime inspried story? The voice actress is bad and the writing is even worse. What happened to Jennifer Hale?

Bah, I’ll comment more when we see more.

What are your thoughts?

Brad

David

David

Brad says

Brad

The Rock Band Network is up on the Xbox 360 today and I’ve checked out what it has to offer. The interface is similar to the regular Rock Band store but with more sorting options. These options include sorting by artist, author (group who did the note tracking for the song), country of origin, decade, difficulty, genre, label, language and title. Along with those, there is a menu for a random song, “Harmonix Picks” and Top 10 lists of newest and highest rated songs. It is well organized for the most part but can sometimes be slow to respond, hanging up on some menu selections.

A major addition to the Network Store are the song demos. From my research, the demos are always the first minute of the song and cut off right at that minute, which can be a little jarring. At the end of playing that song there is an option to buy, replay or to exit out. Once purchased, there is an option rate quality of the note tracking at the end of the song. The authoring on the few I have played felt fine but the tuning on the levels of difficulty isn’t super consistent.

At launch, there are 105 songs with the majority of them being listed as having no label, a good sign, but there isn’t much representation from the larger indie labels like Sub Pop, who have promised support. Personally, there is a lack of the independent stuff I was looking forward to but two songs from The Shins and of Montreal isn’t too bad of a start. Hopefully, that will improve in the next few months. The songs are priced at 80 and 160 points, which is 1 and 2 dollars, respectively. Selected songs will come to other platforms at an unconfirmed later date.

Ben

Brad and David don’t eat. They talk about games….

042 – The Dinnerless Time – [download]

Love,
David

Week 1:

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360)
I enjoyed the first game’s single player campaign quite a bit, so I will be renting this for the campaign at least. I also had a pretty good experience playing the multiplayer beta, and this might be the first multiplayer game I’ve played in a long time that I want to get more invested in. Sadly, the timing couldn’t be worse for this.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)
Lunar is one of my favorite RPGs ever, and this version is yet another remake of the game. I can’t think of a video game that has a more adventurous spirit.

Week 2:

Yakuza 3 (PS3)
If a Shenmue RPG fucked a shirtless Streets of Rage, their love child would be the Yakuza series — a child I want to bang. Wait… wut?

Final Fantasy 13 (PS3)
I have picked up every Final Fantasy game day 1 since Final Fantasy 7. This game will be no exception. I have enjoyed most every game in the series (though I never played FF2), and I’m sure I will enjoy this one as well.

Mega Man 10 (PS3)
Unlike Mega Man 9, Mega Man 10 has an easy mode this time around; so I might actually have the patience to play through the game.

Week 3:

God of War 3 (PS3)
I’m not the biggest God of War fan in the world, but I will rent this none the less. I’m not sure if I will be broadcasting much of this game though (animated titties of course).

Dragon Age: Awakening (360)
Cannot come soon enough. Dragon Age: Origins was my favorite game of last year, and one of my favorite RPGs ever — and this is more of that. This is a day 1 purchase without hesitation.

METRO 2033: The Last Refuge (360)
To be honest, I haven’t been too impressed by what I’ve seen of the game. But the game is being developed by some of the people responsible for STALKER, and I’ve always wanted to play that game. I’m trying it out because I have a feeling this game is going to end up being very scary.

Resonance of Fate (whatever the lead platform was)
I don’t know when I will find the time to play this game, but if the reviews are good I’ll give it a shot. I do really like the visual style of the game though.

Infinite Space (DS)
A Japanese developed spaceship sim/RPG for the DS. Unless the reviews are terrible, I’m definitely interested enough to try this one out. It’s also being produced by Platinum Games.

Week 4:

Just Cause 2 (360)
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=ifbajp&s=6

Cave Story (Wiiware)
This is an enhanced port of one of the greatest freeware games ever made. Most of you have probably never even heard of it; but you will. This game will get fantastic scores as it is already a fantastic game. You will see me play this on the feed; and then you will go buy it. You may doubt me now, but it’s true.

Red Steel 2 (Wii)
I might try this game provided it doesn’t suck. Oh who am I kidding.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (DS)
I’ve tried to get into Shin Megami Tensei games in the past, but I always get overwhelmed by the needlessly convoluted fusion system of this series. I hear this game is making efforts to streamline this system, so hopefully it will click for me this time around. I also really like the style and setting for this game more than the Japanese school kids adventures most of the other series focuses on.

WarioWare DIY (DS)
A WarioWare game where the player makes the mini games? Sounds like I’ll be poking a lot of 8bit wieners.

Brad

Thanks to my upcoming vacation, we had to record early this week! Joseph and Nolan join me and Brad to discuss a major game release; not only a major release for Sony but an important release for gaming as a whole. Quantic Dream’s ambitious interactive mystery hit store shelves this week and we already finished the game! It is a game that really drives home player interaction and emotional storytelling unlike any game currently out on the market. Download and tune in for a heavy dose of Heavy Rain discussion. See you next week!

[download]

Jam Packed: Yakuza 3 Demo and Cuts, Trajectile, Link N Launch, Echoshift, Intelligent Systems, Advance Wars, Super Street Fighter IV, Nintendo Release Dates, Alexander O Smith, Far Cry 3, & E3 talk. Also Special Guest.

041 – Lunch @ Nintendo School – [download]

While I initially felt the way Ben did about the games contextual actions, I have completely come around on the controls. I feel like this game is doing something revolutionary with the controls that I haven’t experienced since possibly Ico.

Brad says

In Heavy Rain, the player has direct control of the character’s actions that range from mundane tasks like opening a refrigerator or flushing a toilet, to more dramatic actions such as steering a car away from on-coming traffic. The actions are executed very similarly despite the context of the situation; but it is the design choices that surround these controls that allow for more detailed interaction during action scenes, as well as increase the physical connection the player has to the game. And it does all this by maintaining an extremely cinematic look and feel.

I do agree with Ben about the “only being able to drink the OJ once” problem in Heavy Rain. But I feel it’s not so important that the actions of doing something are consistent throughout the game, but more importantly, that the game is effectively communicating that these mundane movements are challenging to execute when in a precarious situation. Grabbing something might be easy when you are walking around in your apartment in your underwear; but if you are having to grab something quickly while being chased by someone with a knife, then you start to understand why the “mundane” actions are anything but mundane when the pressure is on.

This isn’t a traditional twitch action game like Far Cry 2 — you are essentially guiding your player-controlled character through a cinematic story. While simple button presses might make the gameplay accessible in more traditional game experiences, Heavy Rain is aiming for a much different feeling. It’s trying to mimic and communicate the physicality that the in-game player-character is experiencing to the person playing the game. And for the most part, it does a really good job with this. There are two very specific applications of the context controls that work really well in this game.

I’m not entirely sure what difficulty Ben or other players have played Heavy Rain on, but on the “I play a lot of video games and am very familiar with the controller” difficulty, there are actions that require delicate motions. Actions like rocking a baby or applying disinfectant to a friend’s cuts are the “mundane” versions of these actions. The motions with the analog stick allow the player to dictate the speed and force that the player-character chooses to use. Now, it’s the application of this type of motion in precarious situations that allows for really interesting narrative moments. For example, what was mundane before, becomes really intense when that sensitive motion control is applied in the scenario when you are sneaking up on the criminal holding-up the store clerk at gunpoint. The player presses a quick button to prevent a box from falling and hitting the ground, but then has to use the pressure and speed sensitive motion to put the box back on the shelf without making any noise. This is a physical sensation that cannot be achieved with a simple button press. This type of tense situation has been in plenty of games, but only Heavy Rain’s context sensitive control system allows the player of the game to experience the same physical carefulness the player-character has to in the scenario. This is often attempted in other games, but it usually involves simply walking slowly as to not be heard (e.g. stealth games) — an action that requires delicate use of the analog sticks. Well, by mapping context sensitive actions to the analog stick as well, Heavy Rain is able to achieve this feeling in other cinematic ways.

The other type of motion that really adds a physical nature to the gameplay is the Twister-like button holding the player has to execute during very specific points in the game. These moments require the player, when prompted, to press and hold a button, and continue holding the button as more prompts appear. During these situations the player is often holding numerous buttons awkwardly at the same time. Now, Ben would probably argue that this pulls the player out of the game as they have to focus on their button presses. But I’d argue that these moments help the player feel some of the same physical awkwardness the player-character is experiencing in the game. These situations are only thrown at the player when the player-character is doing an action that requires awkward movement or tricky coordination involving multiple limbs. Throughout the game there are “mundane” situations in which you use this style of control. Changing a baby, squeezing through a tight spot, or lifting a hurt stranger from her bed is a few of the physically awkward examples that come to mind. But these situations become a lot more exciting when the stakes are really high. In one scenario you control the player-character as he tries to maneuver through a labyrinth of live electrical wires. Knowing that my player-character could die (and permanently) if I let go on the several buttons I was holding, had me clutching onto my PlayStation controller in a way I have never before playing a video game. There are even crazier examples of this technique, but I will ignore them for the sake saving readers from spoilers. Let’s just say the physical use of sharp objects in a certain scene would have had much less of an impact if I only had to press a button.

The controls are not perfect though. Simply walking was problematic until I realized I “was doing it wrong”. You “drive” the player by holding down the walk button, and you turn by looking in various directions with the left analog stick. My problem is I kept pointing the “look” in the direction I wanted to go when I was already walking in that direction; so when the angle of the scene changed, I often found my character moving around clumsily. This was remedied when I started relying less on the “look” and more on the “walk”. I do think this was a smart choice for the game, as the game offers a lot more cinematic angles than even the old Resident Evil games (angles that you can change at will as well). The learning curve is steep, but it works.

The other problems I have are with the context controls specifically. I hate how awkward it looks when I fuck up an action as mundane as reaching for something in my pocket. The strangeness is magnified when there is no real pressure (why would you fail to get something from your pocket?). The biggest problem I have though, is not knowing what the hell it is my character is about to do when prompted with a stick movement. For the most part, the game communicates these actions well enough. But there are always moments where I pause and wonder just what the hell the player character is going to do. This comic explains my frustrations better than I can. Luckily I haven’t had this issue in potential “life or death” scenarios. I also really hate having to use the motion control in “life and death” situations, as sometimes imprecise motion recognition could lead to some real trouble for my character.

I’m not looking for immersion when I play Heavy Rain — the bad voice acting and terrible dialogue has already ruined that. But what I am getting is an interactive story where I am physically experiencing things my player-character is doing in the game; and it is the contextual control design choices that allow for this. These controls are unique, but I don’t necessarily believe they should be applied to other games. All I know is that they work for a game like Heavy Rain.

The controls are not the only part of the game I’m really surprised by either. Some of the choices (and their consequences) I have to make as the player of the game have also surprised me in a way I have not experienced in other games that require choices (think Bioware). I’m still not finished with Heavy Rain, and it might not be one of my favorite games by the time I am done with it; but it is, at the very least, remarkably different and worthy of discussion.

Brad

P.S. This isn’t a rebuttal Ben. I didn’t even address many of your silly Far Cry 2 infused complaints. I wanted to my share my opinions on the controls, and you simply beat me to the punch. Maybe if Far Cry 2 was a bit more cinematic with its control choices it would be a hell of a lot less boring to play. As it stands, drinking OJ in Heavy Rain is more exciting than like… anything in Far Cry 2.

Heavy Rain pushes contextual controls more than any game in recent memory. In most games, there will be a context sensitive button that does something depending on the situation you are in or objects you are near usually to say, “Interact with this.” For example, in Far Cry 2, there is a single button to get in and out of a car while the same button is used to intimidate certain people, among other things. It all depends on the situation, being near a car or a person. This contextual button works because it is always the same button, the game lets you know when it can be done and there is an underlying system. As you go, you learn the contextual interactions you can do making the prompt less important.

In Heavy Rain, nearly everything is contextual. For example when drinking orange juice, you shake the controller then flick the right stick up, supposedly to mimic the action of drinking. Sometimes this works really well with little things like flicking the right stick in a direction to open a door or to check something on the ground. Even one instance, so far, of pushing a child in a swing using the motion sensor in the controller to push—it feels great. These kinds of things make it feel a bit more involving.

But this is rare. More often the motions are bad and detract from the experience, when it isn’t at all analogous to the in game action. An early example of this is brushing your teeth, which requires shaking the controller side to side—it just comes off as a cheap gag. The same goes for drying off with a towel or striking a match, actions that feel nothing like you would expect. Motion in this sense isn’t any more immersive and, in fact, the converse usually happens.

There are other sections that play out like the more familiar quick time event, where the game will tell you a button to press or stick to flick. It usually happens in a fight or some kind of chase sequence. This is where the game feels like I am just responding to its orders instead of being fully in control, the same issue quick time events in other games have. It takes me out of the game again, making me focus more on the controller itself instead of focusing on doing actions with said controller.

It makes me wish it was more systemized in some parts, or at least more consistent. Why can I turn some lights on but not off? Why can I only look at an item once? Why can I only knock on a door once but a particular door twice? Why does this action require a quick time event while a similar action does not? Why does that button correspond to that action in this quick time event but not another? Why can’t I explore the environment before going where the game tells me to go?

It is strange because the moments when I am taken out of the game are usually when the game asks me to do something. It ends up feeling like I am just turning Heavy Rain’s narrative crank when I press buttons, twirl the analog sticks and make motions. It seems that contextual control elements can work when supplementing a systematic base but entirely contextual controls don’t stand well on their own, at least not in Heavy Rain.

Ben

Due to an unfortunate technological failure, the first podcast of the evening was lost but never fear, our lengthy spoiler discussion of Mass Effect 2/Dragon Age Origins is safe! SPOILER WARNING! We discuss our experiences and opinions of ME2, the events of our individual endings, and the obvious effects that the game will have on Mass Effect 3. After that, we delve into comparisons between two high profile Bioware games and discuss what makes each of them unique and equally impressive.

[download]

Yeah, the game was previously announced and shown last year at E3 as Monado: Beginning of The World. Now they’re calling it “Xenoblade”. Is this deception?

It’s just a simple name change, right?

Brad disagrees. Why?

The developer Monolith Soft was founded by former members of Squaresoft (specifically much of the team that worked on Xenogears). With Namco, the studio made the Xenosaga franchise for Playstation 2; and, while not a direct sequel to Xenogears, it was very much a spiritual successor to the beloved Playstation 1 JRPG. Well, Nintendo now owns Monolith Soft, and while they have made quite a few other projects besides the “Xeno” games, Monado… err.. Xenoblade is their next big project for the Wii.

Now, I’ve played through Xenogears and the Xenosaga series, and after watching that “Xenoblade” trailer, I can safely say this game appears to have very little (if anything) in common with the “Xeno” universe. The “Xeno” games are traditional turned based RPGs with regular battles between your characters and baddies with the option of jumping into giant robots to fight battles versus larger enemies. Honestly, this game appears to better fit the Soma Bringer universe (but since they stupidly never localized that game, I’m sure Soma Blade wasn’t an option). I get a Phantasy Star Online/Monster Hunter vibe from this trailer — which is not surprising given that half of the Japanese development scene is desperately focused on making Monster Hunter clones.

So is there a problem with this? They made the game and they have the right to name their game whatever they want, sure. But when they attach a name (one previously synonymous with quality) to a new IP to increase sales, it seems a bit unfair. The “Xeno” games have always had a strong fan following and I’m sure this is the audience they are targeting.

This wouldn’t be the first time something shady like this has happened. It’s actually quite common. “Final Fantasy Adventure” and “Final Fantasy Legend” (released for the Gameboy in the states) were not “Final Fantasy” games at all. Final Fantasy Adventure was actually the first Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana is Seiken Desnsetsu 2) — while Final Fantasy Legend was the first game in the SaGa series. The problem? Well, both games are very different from Final Fantasy games. Also, when you realize that many RPG fans consider the SaGa series to be pretty shitty, changing the name to Final Fantasy is extremely shady.

More recently we’ve seen this with “Casltevania”: Lords of Shadow. In this case the game was first announced without the Castlevania name (much like Monado). It’s hard to believe that this project (being developed by the Jericho team) honestly began as a Castlevania game for HD consoles when, after the initial announcement and before the name change, a real Castlevania project with Alucard (also for HD consoles) was revealed by Koji Igarashi’s team. Accuse me a paranoia if you like, but imagine this scenario. Let’s pretend Heavenly Sword was teased by Sony and named as such at a trade show. What if then we all saw a new God of War teaser (with Kratos and all) from a different studio within Sony the same year at another event. Now let’s imagine we never heard about this God of War project ever again and suddenly it was revealed that Heavenly Sword was ACTUALLY God of War: Heavenly Sword all along? Do you really think anyone would buy that bullshit? Well, this is essentially what happened with this new “Castlevania”.

As consumers, should we accept this deception from publishers who are clearly abusing a brand name to sell extra copies of a game?

Your thoughts?

Brad

Brad

-Nick

Ever since the 2008 Independent Games Festival, I’ve had an eye on The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. It showed plenty of promise and had me hooked when it told me I could “disrupt the space-time continuum, and steal tons of pie…” Now, nearly two years later, the game is released and I’m ready for my mind to be turned into a pie and baked for Mr. Winterbottom to steal (or something else slightly less gross to signify mental challenge).

But first, the structure. The main story is spread across five worlds, represented by movie posters, each containing about ten, usually single screen, levels. In each level there are interactions with clones like swatting them with an umbrella or standing on top of their top hats. The clones are made by recording actions and will loop unless interfered with while the limit on the amount of clones varies from level to level. Each world introduces its own slight twist on the main cloning mechanic with the overall goal of figuring out how to collect all the pies scattered about. In the time since 2008, numerous browser-based games with clone mechanics have come out like Time Donkey. Having played those, the mechanics and puzzle situations are quite familiar.

Possibly as a direct result of that, I never felt the game posed much of a challenge. There are a few levels that do require unconventional thinking, like making a chain of clones to propel yourself across the level or using a clone to record a path for another clone. One of the biggest challenges early on is how to get past a wall that shows up after three pies are collected in the level. It picked my brain for a bit but when I finally solved it, I felt genuinely clever. But a majority of the fifty-one main levels are mindless, usually with the pies being a clear indicator of where to place your clones. The pace at which the puzzles go is quick and as a result, I rarely felt like I was able to take them in and really think about them.

While the bonus levels do provide more challenge with overall time or clone number limited goals, they are a pain to attempt due to a general clunky feel. All the time-based goals ask for more dexterous clone placement than quick wit, typically requiring memorization of what needs to be done beforehand. And all the clone-number limited goals are hampered by no instant restart, turning any mistake into a frustrating stumble through the menus to try again. Even in the main menu for each bonus level there is no quick indication of whether either challenge has been cleared.

The game does have an endearing style elsewhere in its design, down to the name of the main character, P.B. Winterbottom. It even contains the best use of the word “buttwitt” you will see all year. The well-written metrical intertitles between levels offer plenty of lighthearted themes but don’t provide any kind of connective tissue level to level. It gives the feeling that the puzzles were created beforehand and then stuffed in the middle of a story. The visual and audio stylings are reminiscent of the silent film era with plenty of flickering dust specs on the “film”, a great projector sound effect when recording actions and an appropriately piano heavy soundtrack that still retains a modern flare.

While it is very charming with its style, too many puzzles lack challenge. That isn’t to say there is zero challenge but the moments of feeling truly clever are few or too infuriatingly clunky to put up with. Ultimately, Mr. Winterbottom didn’t let the pie bake quite long enough and nobody, not even a pie-fiend like him, enjoys half-baked pie.

Ben

But you really need to see this.

Brad