fortytwo points

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-06-11T12:07:43-07:00

Despite all the time spent reading CSS, Windows networking, and Eckhart Tolle books I've still managed to squeeze in some video gaming here and there. When the Battlefield Heroes servers came down for maintenance recently however, my routine was interrupted and I had to find something else to enjoy. Along came X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and I was relieved.

It's good to see Raven Software's kept their standards of quality consistent over the years, and Wolverine does not fail to deliver in the quality department. Thanks to the action-paced gameplay, you really get a feel for what being Wolverine could be like, and holy shit is it awesome (most of the time).

The game largely revolves around Logan's (Wolverine) quest to find Sabretooth or save his no-name girlfriend or some shit... I wasn't really paying attention because quite frankly I couldn't give less of a fuck about the plot-line in a movie tie-in game. Not that it was poorly executed; the cut-scenes are actually quite exhilarating and the stars of the movie have done an adequate job voicing the stars of the game, but there's not depth here so much as motivation. Honestly, most of the really good cut-scenes left me asking "Why the hell wasn't I the one doing that?", which I don't think is the reaction they were going for.

The graphics in-game are really sharp and pretty readable so you won't often get confused, and they've done a great job of concealing the redundant use of art assets by arranging them in organic ways throughout the environments. However you rarely inhabit any locale other than Vietnam's seemingly South-American jungles or the Weapon X facility/nameless underground laboratory and it's easy to tire of the sights, especially on the second play-through.

This also a very violent game, and blood gushes with almost every attack, especially when you decapitate and dismember your foes. Wolvie's animations while attacking are smooth and rewarding and your foes always react to be chopped to bits in a perhaps sickly gratifying manner. As they wriggle on the ground dying in agony and despair, it's not hard to believe their anguish and to feel a bit bad about inserting your claws into their throats. And when you tear guys in half like a piece of notebook paper that raped your wife.. sweet god it's just gruesome...

Audio is your standard fare of adequate gunfire and monstrous roars from the games larger enemies, and every pop and stick of your adamantium fist-knives responds with a pretty satisfying effect. The "snikt' when you retract and extract them is good, but perhaps not exactly what I imagine in my head. Subjective, so take it for what you will.

The combat is fast and feral and over time you can earn new abilities by way of leveling. You can also acquire and use up to 3 items that will boost your statistics in various ways, such as giving you more health or adding more damage to your special attacks but these are not substantial boosts, even when you've leveled an item up to its third tier. There are also various dog-tags that can be ripped from the fallen soldiers for additional experience and a few secrets items that will unlock costumes from Wolverine's comic book origins., and there's nothing like tearing bitches apart in the evil-looking X-Factor outfit. It's like Wolverine is finally the villain you always wish he would be (okay maybe that's just me).

However, Wolvie's repertoire never feels quite as verbose as it should be. You do a lot of fighting in this game, and that means you will see a lot of the same moves over and over. and over and over again. Really if you slowed down Wolvie's speed a bit it would be irritating, but I digress.

There aren't too many substantially different enemy types either. Some shoot, others are excellent melee fighters, a few turn invisible which does almost absolutely nothing since your feral sense ability instantly reveals them, and then there are the giant monsters whom you just have to ride like the bomb in Blazing Saddles until you've scratched them enough that they bleed to death. Repetitive on the Normal difficulty mode, irritating on Hard when they have much more health. Mind you, there are other ways to take them down, but few as effective as the ol' pounce and scratch.

Speaking of the pounce attack, one of Wolvie's most commonly used skills, it makes the game too easy. You can leap 50 yards in a single bound during which time slows to a crawl for effect, which means anytime you use this infinitely repeatable ability it's essentially an instantaneous attack that incapacitates the vast majority of bad guys momentarily as they try and get back to their feet. Turn the difficulty up to Hard and it's no less effective; it just takes more time to bleed them out and you have to hop around a bit more.

AI is weak, and that's being kind. Enemies never do much more than circle you and shoot or get close and melee. They take cover, but it appears as if they only do that when they've been spawned next to it in the first place. Couple this with the genetically engineered super-soldiers' complete inability to hit any kind of target with a gun and what you have here is a game that is much less challenging than it should be or could be considering Logan never stops regenerating health.

Logan's special abilities aren't exactly the most exciting moves either. I couldn't get enough of the berserk ability as it always seemed to be in his character to shred people like a blender liquefying sausage, but the Claw Drill and Claw Spin abilities have been played out since X-Men: Children of the Atom. The Windmill Claw attack is a bit better, but I would've liked to see something more creative than what we've had since Wolverine's first appearance in a video game.

The last few levels of X-men Origins are a collection of drawn out battles with notable characters like the Blob, Gambit, and even an enormous Sentinel who's so large you typically only see his ankles. These aren't bad sections of the game per se, but they feel tacked on, as if the developers thought that if they were not there, we'd easily notice that the game is pretty repetitive. Even the dabbling of brain-dead puzzles meant to artificially lengthen the gameplay offer almost nothing to the fun aspects of this title and often feel distracting.

"Distracting", because despite some significant faults in the replayability department, this really is a fun game. The hack-and-slash-and-then-dice-and-dissect-style combat is exhilarating. When you gain a few moves and really start to get a feel for the flow of combat, you can rip people to shreds in some pretty impressive ways. Considering that the distractions from that aspect of the gameplay are minimal, and that the game ends before you can become too tired of it, I have to say that I would score this game highly were I the kind of person who cared to do so.

Still, I might suggest that you rent it instead of dropping more than half a hundo on it. You can easily finish this game in a weekend, and I don't know if there's 60 dollars worth of gameplay here, although I might argue that there's 60 dollars worth of satisfaction. I wouldn't get my hopes up about DLC either, because any additional content would be have to be equal if not greater than what the game already is to be worth parting ways with any more money for. And at that point, they could justifiably call it a sequel and charge full price again.

So while X-Men Origins: Wolverine itself is an occasionally exceptional game, perhaps a better question is "Would I again pay 60-70 bucks for something else of equivalent merit?" Probably not.

Verdict: Rent it, Love it
Multiplayer: No
Replayability: Hell no
Fun: Yes

-Unfather

Fortytwo Points Gets the Best Birthday Present / Marketing Material Ever

2009-04-16T19:41:11-07:00

I turned 25 today and although we swore not to get each other anything, my love got me by far the best gift I have ever gotten. I am fully devoted to making this website into something special and knowing that, my girlfriend Reembeat designed and ordered two of these awesome t-shirts (one for me and one for her). You can see The Reemster modeling her's below:

Like any respectable broke-ass website owner, I plan on hawking these suckers right here on fortytwo points. That way you can out-obscure people with your choice in amateur game sites.

-Unfather

Pandemic and EA's The Saboteur Brings Us Back to WWII; Nazis Groan

2009-03-19T15:51:09-07:00

I've certainly made no effort to garner EA's The Publisher's good will in the past, but despite my ill comments I am willing to accept that they frequently have their hands shoved into the warm, beating chest cavities of great developing partners. This time it's Pandemic's heart that is at risk, yet I can't help feeling like, maybe this time, it will be for the better. Having access to pockets that deep should certainly help a little...

Pandemic have built themselves a sound legacy with Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans! 1 and 2, and the Mercenaries games, yet they've never really exploded into the zeitgeist with a smash hit that the community just can't stop talking about. They seem to have an excellent talent for creating engrossing worlds and genuinely likable (if not sometimes hollow) characters, so hopefully their latest efforts with Saboteur for the Xbox360 and PS3 will change this.

You play as an Irish racer who decides to fight his own war against the Nazis after they kill one of his friends. The protagonist was inspired by William Grover-Williams, a war hero for the French Resistance during WWII, and your most important weapons are infiltration and sabotage. Using them, an arsenal of period appropriate lead-spitters, and your own cold, murderous hands, you set out to reclaim portions of occupied territory for the native people.

One of the most intriguing features of the game is the groan-inducingly named WtF, or "Will to Fight", factor. As you overcome and slay filthy Nazis, the resident citizens will gradually become motivated by your actions to fight themselves. Slightly motivated they may offer you goods and supplies, but when exceptionally motivated they will trade blows and bullets with your foes as well.

Allegedly, you can never truly clear an area of Nazi resistance, but once you've made strides in that direction your continued efforts in the region will be made easier by the assistance of the resistance. Whether this is a valid gameplay feature or just a bullet-point meant to make us care about a title that is otherwise lacking in creativity is yet to be seen, though.

It isn't much, but you can check out this teaser-and-then-some video from IGN.com:

The voice acting is sound, the art style looks like it could really help it contend in a stale genre, and there's something about that song at the end that's juuuusssst right ("Feeling Good" possibly by Nina Simone). Of course, they'll likely Watchmen-trailer our asses and we'll never hear it in the final product, but at least it set the mood.

I am a genuine fan of Pandemic's work, but I'm also genuinely concerned about EA's willingness to involve themselves in matters they should not, like other people's development processes. Still, I am confident this will turn out to be at least rent worthy product, and I look forward to learning more about it.

Lord knows killing Nazis can get redundant, but I'll be damned if it ever gets old.

-Unfather (hates Nazis)

"5 Awesome Video Game Consoles That Never Made it to Market" by Gamal

2009-03-10T13:54:24-07:00

"There's nothing I love more than not having to work to add content to my own site, so today is just as much a treat for me as I hope it is for you. Enlightening us about some of gaming history's most depressing hardware flops is Gamal, fortytwopoints newest contributor, so please welcome him to the party. Let us weep together about what may have been and hopefully we will be inspired to do it better ourselves in the future. -Unfather"

>O<>O<

Since the late 70’s, gamers all over the world have had their own specific wish lists of what they wanted in a console. From how their dream console should have looked and what features that console should have had. It’s natural to dream up the ideal piece of technology that could cover one’s own specific needs and very often, those needs show up when there is a particular disadvantage in one or all of the consoles that have already been released. Who the hell would want a PS2 when you could have had a PS3?

===

The Phantom, by Phantom Entertainment

Expected Cost:

Never officially announced but just to make ends meet, they'd have to charge $700 for the console

Why was it awesome?

The Phantom was such a great idea because it was purely a content delivery service console. In other words, gamers wouldn't have to worry about buying and losing CDs or cartridges but could instead download everything via Phantom's rumored internet delivery service. Phantom boasted that the console would have been able to play PC games and future games as well. In 2004 the graphics on this thing would have absolutely blown away the PS2 and Xbox and upon release it would have dominated with the sheer number of games that were offered, including PC games and the games that were manufactured solely for the console. To make the Phantom’s case even stronger, users would only have had to pay a dirt cheap monthly fee to download a selected number of games per month from Phantom’s On-Demand service. Don't take our word for it though; check out the video:

Why wasn't it released?

Phantom Entertainment began taking pre-orders from prospective customers and sending out thousands of communications claiming the console and content delivery service would be ready by the beginning of 2005 prior to actually developing the service, licensing games, or finding retailers to sell the console. The reason that was such a dick move was purely because Phantom Entertainment’s great idea was simply a great idea; nothing more than some marketing hype whose biggest selling point hadn’t even been conceptually designed yet. Phantom delayed the console time and time again while they hemorrhaged money due to lawsuits filed by the SEC for pushing penny stocks, blowing $62.7 million on marketing for products that were never released, and greatly over-paying design and marketing consultants. In the end, Phantom Entertainment spent a paltry $2.5 million on the development of the Phantom itself. For those of you who aren't savvy in the console development arena, $2.5 million would most likely get you a console blueprint and a couple of half-assed demo systems to show off at game shows. After years of patting themselves on the back and blowing millions of dollars on the development of a console that would have brought the video entertainment market to its knees, Phantom had one last card up their sleeves…

… a fucking lap keyboard.

The Indrema L600, by the Indrema Electronics Company

Expected Cost: $300

Why was it awesome?

The Indrema L600 was designed to be a step above the PS2 and Xbox. The console whooped the bastard children of Sony and Microsoft in several different areas such as graphics power, hardware flexibility, software library, and HD capability and came with a web browser, MP3 storage device, DVD player, and video recorder to boot. To top it all off, it offered consumers a way to upgrade the console’s hardware in contrast to the overly expensive and lame peripherals that were being sold by the other major system vendors at the time. The biggest selling point of the L600 was the fact that Indrema not only allowed unlicensed game development for the console, they condoned it by packing in a fully-featured, functional software development kit to enable extreme hobbyists and/or gamers to make their own titles. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo allow hobbyists and underground developers to make their own titles too, but only at an obscenely high price tag.

Why wasn't it released?

Indrema finally called it quits in April of 2001, about $10 million short of keeping their own damned company alive. It turned out that most of the development work was falsified and thus simply vaporware. Indrema received no support from commercial software companies either, since their console was supposed to work at nullifying high price tags for their own commercial software. The L600 couldn’t survive in the competitive gaming market because they were opposed to suckling at the teats of the industry overlords.

The EVE, by VIA technologies and Ministry of Mobile Affairs or MOMA

Expected Cost: Under $500

Why was it awesome?

The EVE was supposed to be a Palmtop mini-PC that would have played movies, music, and games. The only thing at the time that came somewhat close to this was the PSP, which did NOT have a hard drive and did NOT play movies that weren’t on a UMD diskette. The EVE would have came equipped with a 20GB hard drive, 533 MHz Eden-N processor, flash card slot, USB 2.0 port, 802.11b wireless connectivity, and a 4" LCD screen which would have ran at 640x480 max resolution, along with the ability to download games on-demand from the GameDweller network. x86-based architecture complete with embedded Windows XP allowed downloading of games along with the option of playing PC-based titles. All in all, this thing was set to be more featured, more powerful, and more compatible than the competition.

Why wasn’t it released?

Well it turned out that prior to marketing, branding of the product, and creating a following, someone forgot to do a trademark search. A company in Iceland called CCP, Ltd had already registered the name. In response to the company in Iceland requesting that they change their name or face a lawsuit, MOMA decided to put their work on hiatus. Here is the message from their website:

“Error 404: page not found bulletin:
If you are looking for a page that belongs to the Ministry of Mobile Affairs Inc, please note that due to a trademark issue this website has been temporarily suspended. The Ministry of Mobile Affairs’ mobile gaming product, formerly codenamed “Eve”, shall be renamed and this website re-launched. “Eve” is in fact a registered trademark of CCP Ltd., an Icelandic company. We appreciate their graciousness in notifying us of the issue in a cordial manner.
All of your bookmarks and old hyperlinks will work once the website is re-launched, so there is no need to update your hyperlinks during this temporary service interruption. We estimate this website will be back on-line in mid-July 2004”

Who’d think that a trademark issue could scrap an entire project?

Gamepark XGP, by Gamepark

Expected Cost: $300

Why was it awesome?

The XGP ran on a Linux-based operating system, it was equipped with wireless internet functionality, 32 MB MORE RAM than Sony’s PSP, TV-Out, could download commercial games, and was equipped and supported with homebrew user-created content. Later concept models included a screen that popped out and swiveled similar to Sony’s Clie PDA. Not only was the XGP small and sleek, it gave die-hard enthusiasts the opportunity to develop their own games for free which, of course, is an option Sony and Nintendo would like to stay away from.

Why wasn’t it released?

As of March 2007, Gamepark declared bankruptcy and for a brief amount of time, seemed to be selling footwear.

Ericsson Red Jade, by Ericsson

Estimated Cost: Around $150

Why was it awesome?

The Red Jade would have combined both handheld gaming and PDA functionality using a 64-bit processor with mobile connectivity, Bluetooth options, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, GPS capability, MP3 player, built-in camera, and the ability to play DivX movies. Aside from those options, the Red Jade would have also had graphics on par or better than Sony’s original Playstation or Nintendo’s N64 and, similar to our other candidates on this list, the console would have allowed the downloading of games through a secure system, cutting software prices by at least 33%. Ericsson’s only real competition would have been the Gameboy Advance which of course, only played cartridge-based games.

Why wasn’t it released?

Ericsson invested over $10 million in developing the handheld but a shitty economy after September 11th hit Ericsson with a dose of reality, forcing them to lay off 22,000 people and scrap the project.

===

This list encompasses what gamers would have wanted since most of these systems were made by die hard fans with backgrounds in technology that took that leap of faith and tried to fight the good battle against the Microsofts and SONYs of the world. Unfortunately for all of these contenders on the list, they either went totally bankrupt or lied profusely. In the end, we’re really getting a taste of what the largest companies want us to eat, not what we might really want. The harsh realization is that if you’re not a an enormous company, your chances of developing and releasing a system that can whomp the popular competition are slim to none.

-Gamal