Better late than never?

After writing my previous article regarding my review for Alice: the Madness Returns I got motivated to finally sit down and compose my little review for Portal 2.

The original portal game began as a small little filler game created by Valve and wasn’t meant to be this high budget franchise like so many other games out there. In spite of this, Portal developed a rabid cult following due to its original concept, brilliant writing and the ease and simplicity of the gameplay. It is no wonder that when Valve released the announcement of Portal 2 we die-hards peed in our proverbial pants at the mere sound of GladOs’s voice.  I usually don’t make a habit of pre-ordering games for release date, but I had to make an exception for my beloved Portal.

Even with its rabid following I am surprised when I hear gamers (even those who have played Half Life) say they know nothing about it. The premise is simple for both the original and the sequel. You are Chell, a test subject stuck in an immense lab/testing facility being run by GladOs, a self aware ego maniacal AI whose sole purpose is to put you through these tests. The only weapon you are given (if you wish to call it that) is your trusty portal gun which gives you the ability to create entrance and exit portals throughout various parts of the maze levels. It is part first person shooter, part puzzle game, and all fun.

The first Portal ends (and since it has been out many many years I don’t feel the least bit bad about spoiling it) you fight GladOs and it looks all but certain you defeated her. It wasn’t until the Alternate ending came out that you got a glimpse of a possible sequel (well that and now famous and catchy end song “Still Alive” should have been a give away) but here we are. Chell wakes up after being in suspension for god knows how long only to find out she is still in the lab and is still getting tested.

There was a lot of speculation and skepticism from the fan base that regarding Portal 2 and its ability to impress and entertain the masses. I can honestly say it did not disappoint.  There is still a beautiful simplicity to the game paired with amazing character voices and humor to go along with it. Because the first Portal was meant to be a filler game they didn’t include all of the nuances that they did in the second. There are more levels (3 stages each with its own, unique flavor and a buttload of test chambers) as well as other hazards and tools used to help you solve the puzzles.

Another point that adds to the success of this series isn’t simply the game; its the marketing behind the game. During the game itself there is very little story to go on. It is more about solving the test chambers than sullying it with plot (really they are doing what people wished porn producers did; skip the story and go straight on to the action). However, there are nuances, little Easter eggs strewn about to help you piece together the story behind Aperture Science, it’s founder, it’s Ties to Black Mesa in Half life, an much much more. It isn’t blatant, but it is there if you look for it. And it isn’t on the game… Valve has an Aperture Science website that was an Easter Egg filled paradise that can only be compared to the Dharma Experience in LOST. They give you the clues and it is up to you to put the story together. Even pre release date they had something called the potato sack pack which allowed Steam users to get the game sooner if they helped to “power up” GladOs. You throw in some brilliant TV spots that made me giggle each time I saw it and you get an amazing marketing strategy*.

Along with an amazing single player, Portal 2 gives you a whole second experience in the form of Cooperative Testing allowing you to co-op locally or online with a buddy (in the form of 2 Laurel and Hardy-esque robots Atlas and P-Body) to get through the test chambers. It ads another great layer of entertainment on top of an already brilliant game.

My only negative critique is that once the game has been played and beaten in both single player and co-op replaying it isn’t as brilliant. Yes you can go back, Hunt for Easter Eggs and get achievements but unlike other co-op first person shooters replay is very limited. If you have played with someone who hasn’t it is frustrating for both of you, because one of you knows how to solve the puzzle while the other one is confused as all hell (that is, of course you have a friend who you simply like to spend hours on end figuring out ways to blow each other up…that’s kind of fun..;) ) . However, Valve (being brilliant and awesome again) is going to be offering DLC (the first one will be dropping soon and it is FREE) as well as offering the map gen software to Steam users to create their own maps.

Overall I give Portal 2 a 9.5 out of 10. the half star being deducted for the original replayability. Everything else is amazing and it is going to be one tough game to dethrone in my book as far as best game.

*You should check out Chuck Wendigs post about the mythos of Portal. You can find it HERE.

Once again as the resident spooky estrogen based life form it is a moral obligation for me to play and review Alice: The Madness Returns. So without further ado:

Enter into the rabbit hole:

As a fan of the book and the former game this was probably one of the easiest sells EA had. pile on top of it the promise of Spooky steampunk stabby Alice  I was sold.

The story of this game goes much in line with its predecessor. You play the protagonist Alice Liddel of Lewis Carol storybook fame. After returning from Wonderland the first time (aka the much acclaimed story books) you come home only to lose your entire family to a house fire. Suffering from PTSD, survivors guilt and pretty much a case of over all delusion you reenter Wonderland, but this time it is dark and disturbing to match your madness. The first Alice video game deals is your original mental reaction to losing your entire life. In Alice: the Madness returns it is just that; having a complete mental relapse you return again to Wonderland to deal with your emotional trauma. In both cases the Wonderland landscape is a twisted, distorted version of its original version and you must fight your way through to wondering to help to restore your sanity. In Alice: the Madness Returns you delve deeper into your psyche to recover pieces of your memories that have been lost due to years of bad psychotherapy.

Helping you along the way are some old characters who themselves have been distorted and twisted. The lovably fluffy but mad Cheshire Cat is still mad, but in a darker, more demented way. The Grin is still there, but now it is surrounded by skin, bones, piercings and tattoos. The Mad Hatter has become a steampunk bio-mechanical version of himself that still has a penchant for tea. They give you clues and tools you need to fight the baddies you come across. You get to hack and slash your way around fighting off various species of Ruin, which I can best describe as a gooey doll part encrusted version of the Heartless from Kingdom hearts.  Put is all together it is one romping, stomping good time.

The landscape and themes are amazing. Each level has it’s own world and with it, its own theme each of course me made me squeal with girlish glee. They have everything from a steampunk tea party to a nightmarish world that looks like it is straight out of a Mark Ryden art book filled with meat and broken doll parts. Visually it is an amazing and surreal feast for the eyes. Each level also gives Alice new garb and upon completion of the game gives Alice attributes. There is also a Weapons and Dresses pack that gives you bonus outfits that also give you attributes as well as pimped up weapons versions that improve the stats of your existing weapons.

Hands down the story line is the best part of the game itself. The mood was dark an psychotic The graphics are good, but not mind blowingly awesome. They are leaps and bounds beyond the original, but no where near some of the games that are out there. Game play is glitchy, and there are points where you need to do some step retracing but it is impossible because the shut points off once you pass them. You can’t randomly save points in the previous game which makes level completion a bit frustrating. I was also disappointed with the lack of boss fights. At the end of the first chapter I was prepping for an all out brawl only to be disappointed with a cut scene.

Overall I give Alice: the Madness Returns 7 stars out of 10. It has all of my favorite things: Victorian era psychology, Dickensian London, A homicidal Alice thwomping baddies with a Hobby horse and a parasol, Steampunk tea parties, Japanese Samurai fighting wasps and mantis geishas, a hauntingly child like soundtrack , and of course cake. But all of that doesn’t make up for the fact that there were several times I threw my controller in frustration because I had to restart due to a glitch or I went to claim one of the extras to complete a collection only to be forced to a new board. As much as I wanted to be blown away I wasn’t. This also means that Portal 2 has still not been dethroned as my favorite video game ever. But that is a whole other story to be told at a later date.

Playing through smaller XBLA titles sometimes leaves me at a loss for words about how I might review them. As I thought about Limbo (both during and now after having beat the game), I realized a few things about it that are germane to the discussion of reviewing it. The first thing is that it isn’t really “about” a whole heck of a whole lot. I remember seeing the following thing twice, once at the Six Lounge event I went to last year (it was part of a now-reduced instructions screen) and once in the Metacritic/XBLA tagline:

“Uncertain of his sister’s fate, a boy enters LIMBO.”

And that’s pretty much all you have to go on in terms of plot. I won’t really say more about that, but what I will say is that, much like some moments in Lost (although Lost is encyclopedic in its telling of facts and plot when compared to Limbo), the few things you do get are so wide open that you can riff endlessly on what you weren’t told. Even Braid gave you more than this, and that’s saying quite a bit (for what it’s worth, I preferred Limbo’s quieter, more intimate message vs. Braid’s bloated over-importance). There is an interesting (but INCREDIBLY spoiler-rific) thread on GameFAQs about the ending and the multiple interpretations, and I am continually amazed with the things people pick up on/make up.

The second thing is how incredibly experiential your consumption of this game will be. This game NEVER should have been presented at that Six Lounge event, because while you do miss some key sound design cues from a gameplay perspective, more importantly the rest of the presentation is meant to be drilled into your eyeballs at 2AM with the sound turned up just a bit and a completely dark, cold room surrounding you. There are a few moments in the almost totally music-less game that have some ambient soundscape-ey pieces that really add to the breathtaking minimalist graphics. This game is meant to be admired and interfaced with as much as it is meant to be played. I say all of this because your willingness/availability to be exposed to this game in this matter will be commensurate with your enjoyment of it, without question.

I realized this pretty early on, so I insisted that I only play this game under those admittedly rare circumstances. In doing so, I feel comfortable in dinging PlayDead for the few things that they didn’t do…perfectly. There are a few puzzles that are not very well explained, and on those few puzzles, I felt like I was stuck there for a startlingly disproportionate amount of time (this game isn’t a fraction as hard as Braid is). I can say this happened twice during the play-through (I’m talking the whole, “I’m turning this off now.”-then-think-of-the-solution-a-day-or-two-later type of stuck), and almost a third time. The unfortunate thing about all of these times (particularly the third instance) is that it got dangerously close to impacting my enjoyment of the ambiance and “story” of what was being delivered to me. And without that…this game could take a nosedive in its final rating. My only advice for PlayDead here would be to get some of the head-scratching challenge out of the way earlier rather than waiting for the 11th hour. While such a thing would be very anti-game of them, this is a title that banks way too heavily on its experience and far too little on its gameplay and mechanics for this not to be an exception.

The other questionable piece of this is the value proposition at $15, and that’s a rough one. I actually grabbed this on New Year’s Eve when it dropped to $10 for one day, and I think that $10 is probably the more appropriate price for this. Barring the tougher puzzles (for which everyone’s mileage will vary significantly), the game is only a handful of hours to complete. I am certain that this particular game does not need anything else in terms of playtime or features, but it does call into question whether $15 is going to satiate the budget-minded gamer focused on quantity vs. quality. While I always fall into the latter category (I’m embarrassed by how many terrible movies I’ve paid to watch in my lifetime), it is fair to state that Limbo teeters on the edge of this territory, and might anger those that don’t get the very specific meal that is being offered by the developers.

I’m happy to report that despite the rhythm gaffs and economics of Limbo, my opinion of the game wasn’t marred significantly. The experience of Limbo is a really engaging and riveting one, and in many ways this felt like a refinement to the Braid formula, much like Mass Effect 2 was a refinement of the original Mass Effect. There were many more moments of quick-yet-satisfying puzzles and much fewer head-scratchers, and while the work of art they were producing required that balance (and almost lost it a few times), I feel like Limbo achieved what it set out to do. I will fondly remember this strange, hauntingly beautiful tale as an advancement of the art of gaming, and hope that many others do as well.

Final Scoring
Graphics
Everything it needs, and nothing that it doesn't. A rare example of a title that delivers visuals on par with the promise of the concept.
Sound
Almost non-existent (and unneeded) scoring coupled with lush, chilling sound effects.
Story
I have no...idea.
Presentation
A game that begs for the right mental and environmental conditions in which to play it, and rewards you handsomely.

Overall
Scary, engaging, and satisfying. A ride worth taking.

I have finished Dead Rising 2, not without complication mind you. We shall get to that later.

Should you buy it?

Do you like zombies? Do you have a sense of humor? Do you like to bash things about the head? If you answered yes then this one is for you.

There have been many improvements since the original DR, mostly the use of guns. For the most part guns are really not that useful; until you get into taking out psychopaths- then they can be your best friend.

The controls are fairly simple and comfortable. One thing I thought they could have added for Chuck (as stated in my DR2 case zero review) is the ability to run. Sometimes plodding along at a brisk pace is not as helpful as a short sprint, especially in later levels where the zombies are more aggressive.

The music was done very well. You can pick out dozens of songs that they chose to bastardize into muzack in the mall setting.

Weapons upgrades are very helpful and added a lot to the game. My personal favorite being the “Laser Sword”. If you find a flashlight and some gems from a jewelry store you can have your own Lightsaber. This weapon is a must for boss battles. It can be slow at times but it causes huge damage. Another of my favorite weapons was the baseball bat with nails. It was the ol standby for me- being able to quickly clear out a zombie infested area without losing too much time.

I think Capcom had the right idea on this one, they could have just spread out the missions a bit more to give some more time to explore etc…

Another great addition of Dead Rising 2 is the “Terror is reality” game show which is accessible from the main menu. You get to play the reality game show that Chuck has reluctantly become a part of. The best part is that you can earn cash and prizes to use in the DR2 game. This was really awesome up until I had to start over, more on that later.  With the money you earn in these games you can buy zombrex in the pawn shops of fortune city and you can also buy weapons. The games are presented as 4 challenges each time you play, three random and the final is always “Slicecycles”. Some of the challenges are pretty fun; Ball Busters, Pounds of Flesh and Headache are some of the best. Others can be quite frustrating like Ramsterball, Stand up Zomedy, Zomboni and especially Master Shafter (sequence button pushing).

The lobby system is a big headache though. It takes FOREVER to get a game going. Once you do get a game it gets a little easier to get into the next one but a lot of times you end up playing the same games over and over. I did not even know there were any more than 4 different games until the second day I played TIR.

One other thing I learned was to stick to the ranked matches, if you do any of the others you don’t get to cash out the money you earn on the actual game, it is just “for fun”. The one thing I suggest to you reader is to skip the TIR intro by using the menu button on your controller, If you don’t you will permanently have the following stuck in your brain forever…

“Welcome to Terror is Reality Seventeeeeeeeeeeen!”

I have yet to try any of the co-op play since I wanted to finish solo first. So I have no opinion on that. I did get a lot of invites.

On to the issues… well issue.

I had reached case 5-1 and then experienced a nasty bug in the game that I have yet to hear explanation about. You see, once the time for the case winds down you have to be at a certain place at a certain time. The place was the roof of the safe house and I needed to meet reporter Rebecca Chang on the helipad to further the fight for Chuck’s innocence. When I got there the arrow pointed me to the corner of the helipad and then in circles until the time ran out and the case was failed. I re-tried this 5 times and got the same result each time.

Consulting the message boards on Capcom unity I found that there are a LOT of bugs in this game. I was asked if I could Re-Create the issue and informed them that yes, I could do it at least 6 times at that point. I pleaded to Capcom to put out a patch to fix the game; I paid $60 for Dead Rising 2, Not “Zoltar the Gelatinous Cube”.

Eventually, after having a bunch of know it all dummies on the board tell me that it was impossible and that the cut scene did not start as soon as I exited the elevator, I may have jumped off of the ledge at the wrong time, I am an idiot etc… I got fed up and decided to start over.

Starting over does have advantages. I was about level 25ish so the extra inventory and life was good. Most of the missions went pretty quickly and after a few hours I was back where I had been interrupted in the first place.

And whaddaya know? The cut scene DOES start when you exit the elevator.

From there I had no more problems with the game other than a lack of exploration time. I really wanted to search the mall more and work on weapons upgrades etc but it seemed like there were always too many other things going on and people to save. Chuck could not get any alone time.

The way the game is built you can go back and mess around whenever you like, and that is what I plan on doing. Having seen the “S” ending I feel there is no reason to check out the A or B etc… Just initiate some zombie carnage.

So now I will concentrate on earning monies in TIR and buying the Humvee so I can work on the Zombie Genocide achievement.

Bottom line, great game with a lot of replay value. Chuck approves.

(Chuck's Approval face)

 Go buy it, if you have the means.  

Until next time…

Let’s get the hard stuff out of the way first.

This is NOT the perfect game I had imagined it to be so many moons ago.  Perhaps it is the jaded fingers of this reviewer, or the wisdom of the many years (feels like it anyway) I’ve put in front of gaming, but I can confidently say that while this is a wonderful game, and deserving of your gaming time and dollar, it is not flawless.  I am here to discuss those flaws with you now.

Graphics: Many moons ago, Khidr and I put the better part of a month into Need for Speed: Underground (and we have the indelible remembrance of ‘Lil Jon’s anthem to prove it…brrrum bum bum…).  After much meditation and medication, we finally crowned NFS:U “The Best Street Car Sim Set Between 1AM-4AM On Recently Rained-Upon Streets”.  I am here to tell you that another similarly-fashioned crowning may now occur: Alan Wake is “The Best Third Person Action Game Set Between 1AM-4AM In Pacific Northwest Forests”.  Dense rolling fog swirls around thick foliage, angry wind tosses the trees about with breathtaking animation, and eerie moonlight drenches every scene with just the scariest possible amount of light.  And the lighting?  *single tear* Outside of Killzone 2 (their deferred lighting technique is still probably the high watermark for this generation), this is some of the most impressive lighting (and therefore shadowing) of a game I’ve seen in a very long time.  Admittedly, light and shadow play a central role in the story, so it’s probably best they got this part right, but it’s a grand slam, no questions asked.  Huge displays of light sources never seem to stress out the engine, with flares burning brightly and melting the darkness away while smoke billows from them.  Your nearly ever-present flashlight is also a sight to behold, rendering exactly the correct shadows against everything from people to ladders to bed frames.  There are also some awe-inspiring set pieces that happen throughout the game (which I won’t spoil here) that occur with nary a hiccup in the framerate or experience.  Puzzling, then, that, true-to-its-recent-crowning, simple things like interiors of buildings cause the engine to strain and the frames to tear.  It’s quite infrequent (this IS TBTPAGSB1AM4AMIPNF, after all), but it’s just rather odd that while most engines strain under the conditions of an outdoor environment, this engine has the precise opposite problem.  Also weak are the facial and body animations.  With such a protracted development cycle, this may be nothing more than leftover tech, but for a narrative-heavy game such as this, having to stare at the wrong side of Uncanny Valley for too long can take you out of the experience somewhat.  It is rumored that the upcoming DLC will…ahem…remedy…this, but that doesn’t do much for the reviewed title here.

Sound: Remedy has crafted a near perfect soundscape for the game to unfold upon.  The dynamic, unsettling scoring is matched with stellar sound design in the weapons, Taken (possessed demonic dudes tryin’ to off ya), and nature itself.  When combined with the simulation of the rural Pacific Northwest, a real sense of dread gripped me on a few occasions.  A hand-selected soundtrack also punctuates each of the “episodes” (more on this in a moment), and the selections are quite good and appropriate to the TV-like feel Remedy was shooting for.  The weakness in the sound department must be chalked up to the voice acting, however.  While some brilliant deliveries can be had (Barry Wheeler steals the show, and seems like the only one taking this gig seriously…strange for the comic relief character, no?), some of them were bad enough that it pulled me right out of the story.  This particular gem had me laughing for hours after the game was over (the delivery in the game is pr0n-bad):

“Well *redacted* might as well be Paul Bunyan or Bigfoot!”

“Yeah well “redacted” is real.”

Story: The story for Alan Wake has certainly been the cause for much debate, and far be it from this reviewer to delve into those details lest I ruin the reveals and twists for you.  I will comment on the pacing of the story, and that it is, in a word, odd.  I felt like the biggest of the twists was revealed a tad earlier than I had anticipated, and that the final moments, while very effective and chilling, didn’t leave me with the perfectly satisfied feeling a compelling story should.  Considering what short shrift most stories in games receive, this is a relative masterwork, and deserves recognition.  Perhaps the snafus in presentation I mention below soured me slightly to the whole ordeal, or perhaps it was truly the pace.  In any event, it was a story worth telling and a fun ride to get there.  It is one of the few stories that makes me excited for the pending DLC ( I shall be reviewing these as time allows).

Presentation: This is a rather important category for Alan Wake.  Remedy has been talking about how very much like a TV serial this game is supposed to be, and that means that the experience one has when playing (and not playing) this game should be reminiscent of your favorite TV programming.  There are some great steps taken here, but the whole is simply not realized, and it’s a bloody shame.  In the handful of surprisingly lengthy chapters that make up the game’s narrative, there is an intro (for all but the first chapter, the chapters start with a Previously on Alan Wake), and an outro (of appropriately variable length).  Each chapter tries to end on a dramatic moment, panning out to the Alan Wake logo, and then a full-screen End of Chapter X fills the screen, with that chapter being wrapped with the aforementioned hand-picked song.  At this point, a few things should be happening that are not: Where are the credits?  TV shows have credits.  I realize that we wouldn’t have the time for a game’s full end credits at this point, but what about some faux credits?  Or, some shifting imagery?  Or a mini-game?  Or the ability to check my bank statement?  Nothing.  You will sit here starting at End of Chapter Whatever until the song is over, or hit the B button and miss the song entirely.  If you wait to listen to the whole song, the game will move you directly into the next section of the game.  At this point, a few things are happening that should not: you get your achievement for clearing the last stage.  Turned your game off before skipping or completing the song?  Tough shit, asshole, do it right next time.  You also get that Previously on Alan Wake I talked about.  Great idea…except…isn’t this probably the ONLY time I’m not going to need this?  I just played the last level!!!  And since I’m forced to at least begin the next one if I want my progress saved (oh yeah, you don’t checkpoint again until after the achievement, Previously on, and intro movie), won’t this pretty much never be necessary in this context?  Never fear, perhaps they’ll show me this when I load up my save from a few days ago since I’ve been sick with a 103 fever for most of my vacation.  Wait, what?  You’re not gonna play it for me?  I have to go into the Extras>>Cinematics>>blah>>blah section and choose the right one for myself?  And then find the corresponding intro movie of the next chapter that would have gotten played right afterwards had I just sat through all 12 hours of the game in rapid succession? Isn’t this something that far less narrative games have done for me in the distant and recent past, and therefore not innovative in the slightest?  Ug, guys.  Just.  Ug.

(I’d also like to take a side note to mention Remedy’s family business atmosphere.  Folks who have experienced either of the Max Payne video games are going to feel quite at home here.  Poets of the Fall songs (three of ‘em!)?  Check.  Nods to bullet time with rippling bullets?  Check.  Max Payne himself voicing one of the characters briefly?  An icy, relentless check streaking down the sky to mock my pain.)

Other elements of the presentation like cinematic production values, flashbacks, and the alternate “game modes” like driving and some mild rail-shooting elements are all handled quite well, and on balance the presentation isn’t really suffering in any notable way, just as a proper triple-A shouldn’t.  I know that looking at the body of text I’ve written regarding the generally broken episodic feel of the game makes it seem like the whole category is a failure, but I do want to be clear; there is a ton to like here.  However, I would be remiss not to mention my strong disappointment in the fairly headlining presentation feature; namely, the TV show vibe they shot for, and missed just enough to be infuriating.  The organizational changes I mentioned above wouldn’t have cost but a few hours of someone’s time to implement, and the overall rhythm they were shooting for would have been achieved.  This sort of housekeeping would have been nitpicking and absurd 10+ years ago, but it is a testament to both Alan Wake and the state of the gaming art that it is this sort of “little stuff” that can be the difference between a good title and an amazing one.

I heartily recommend Alan Wake to anyone who would like a fun narrative-rich story with some great gameplay mechanics and some generally stellar graphical stylings.  Just keep those jaded fingers handy for the comments.

Final Scoring
Graphics
Some occasional screen tearing and a trip to Uncanny Valley can't take away from breathtaking lighting and stunning outdoor environments
Sound
Wondrous sound design around effects and scoring, but less-than-exciting voice work
Story
While the pacing is not ideal, the story has some great beats to it.
Presentation
Everything is near perfect. Except for the recap system. Which is broken.

Overall
A fine step in the evolution of filmic gaming.

I know it is a bit late to review this but at least I did it before the actual DR2 release date on September 28th.

Case Zero is good.

I was a little uneasy about paying for a demo but there is definitely some replay value as well as achievement perks (for all of you achievement whores out there- that’s me, and I still don’t know why) that you can carry over to the actual game.

The feel of the original is here but they tweaked a few of the flaws from the first- all tweaks were an improvement. The best improvement is the aim function when you are using guns. You can strafe and fire at the same time, and when you run out of bullets you can throw the gun- perfect. While guns are more useful Dead Rising is still all about melee.

The second best improvement- weapon upgrades. Through the game you find a work station and you can take items to it to create your own customized weapon, my favorite is the good ol baseball bat with nails. As you use these weapons you gain additional PP (he he) and you can collect weapons cards a la pokemon, but that does not make you less of man… just a little more girly.

The structure of the game is much the same, you have X amount of time to find your daughter her next dose of Zombrex to keep her from becoming a lil zombie. In that time you run into other survivors that you can choose to help or not, hey its the apocalypse and you have a daughter to look after- nobody should judge you.

One of the things that a lot of people did not like about the first Dead Rising other than the smell was the save system. Here you get 3 slots and it helps a lot. This is good when you decide killing 1,000 zombies for an achievement is more important than building a dirt bike to get Chuck and his daughter out of town. In my first play through I made sure 1,000 were down before I went to administer the Zombrex but it got too dark and you have to fight a psycho- then the army shows up. This is where the save feature rocks. After getting whatever achievement I was after I can just go back earlier to finish the storyline, no DeLorean necessary.

Another small nit I had with this is that Chuck doesn’t really run so well, he kind of gallops about and it gets a little tedious at times. It would have been great if there were a run button to get just a little extra burst of speed at least for a short time. Some of the new zombies are quick.

Weapons, Weapons, Weapons… did I mention Weapons? There are so many things you can use and so many things you can see that will be used in the main game. I am looking forward to using the scissor boxing gloves. Until I get the Kruger-Tyson special I am enjoying having Chuck consume massive amounts of booze until he throws up, causing Zombie-stooge-esque hijinks to ensue. While this can be hilarious if you time

it just right in front of a group you tend to drop any weapon you have in hand so it can get dangerous. If you are the adventurous type and like jumping on buildings check out the ledge above the diner- Broadsword. Yes, you can be William Wallace, just mind the life of the sword so you don’t get your face bitten off.

Over all I really liked this DLC, yes it is 400 Microsoft points but it is actually worth it. I am Hopeful that Dead Rising 2 will put the DLC to shame.

Enjoy,

Trowa

One of my favorite games of LAST generation has unequivocally got to be God of War 2.  I have not owned a single Sony console in my life, but I did borrow a PS2 from The DLB and worked my way through the entire game, a full two years after the launch of the Xbox 360.  While the God of War series isn’t really a poster child for subtlety and restraint, the execution of the action, the breathtaking boss battles, and the ever-changing-but-always-well-delivered set pieces made me feel like we had actually moved the ball forward to the endzone known as True Cinematic Gaming™.

You can imagine, then, that I had (perhaps unreasonably) high hopes for Dante’s Inferno.  A combination of God of War-style gameplay and a studio that created one of this generation’s coolest games?  Instant win, yes?I regret to inform you that this isn’t the perfect game.  I also regret to inform you that it’s not even close to that.  A few of the high points first:

- If you’ve played God of War, you’ll be very at home here.  The combat system, the power-up system, even how you acquire health, experience and mana, are painfully and shamelessly ripped from Kratos’ world.  God of War IS genius, though, so if you’re going to copy something, make it the best.  (I am reminded of Uncharted’s “homage” to the Gears of War-style stop and pop style of gameplay, a system that they recognized as genius for the type of game they were creating and ran with it to wonderful effect).

- The presentation elements surrounding the game are pretty wonderful.  The cutscenes are a mix of pre-rendered CG movies and in-game interchanges, but they take advantage of the extra fidelity during the CG portions by blending high-quality renderings and a disturbingly effective hand-drawn animation style (this is sold to you through the era-appropriate tapestry artwork that starts moving from time-to-time).  None of it ever felt forced, and it was usually quite chilling, which a game of this subject matter should achieve.

As for the other shoe:

- It’s wonderful that the game is running at 60fps at all times (especially during the more stunning moments such as the church falling apart around you), but I can’t help feeling like we could’ve used just a bit more in the lighting/texture work/animation department and trade that in for something closer to 30fps. (while inconclusive, DigitalFoundry is banking on God of War 3 being 720p/30fps, and everything we’ve seen so far is nothing short of stunning in comparison to Dante’s Inferno).  There are definitely “seams” in the presentation that feel a bit like a step backward in terms of the generational leap we’ve been experiencing in game engines over the past few years.  Levels feel very “geometric”, animations of enemies are synchronized like a robotic dance squad, and the lack of some now fairly common special effects (depth of field in particular comes to mind), all scream last-gen.  There are some AMAZING moments of high-quality texture work, though: the fire effect used for your “you can’t move forward until you beat up these guys” wall, the lightning storm outside the church, and a few other moments of note all pop off the screen.

- The voice acting is a little bit on the suspect side.  For such a narrative-heavy game, I really do wish they landed this part.

- Shock value is great, but sometimes the showing of breasts without any real meaningful context feels more juvenile then perhaps originally intended (of course, it’s looking like we won’t be stopping at naked boobs…).  The violence portion of the game isn’t really a huge deal for me in a game where you FIGHT through hell, but the nudity just didn’t come off as serving any purpose outside of getting people to talk about the game.  Congratulations guys, you win.

If the demo is the sole basis one should use in considering this game, I currently am going to classify it as a rental.  As is typical for most demos, there is a sizzle reel of upcoming moments in the full game (which I had already seen once before), and after playing through the demo and peeling back the mask of the quick cuts and explosive musical score, I found myself a little less excited for Dante’s trip through Hell.

What did you think?

So, not really for the kiddies…keep THAT in mind when you think about downloading/playing it.

There is a basic tutorial mode in the beginning that demonstrates what a badass bitch you are in the game.  After that, they dump you into the most intensely confusing and difficult 3 minutes of gameplay you’ll ever play.  I played it twice and nearly turned the demo off because I was SURE this was not a game for me.

It is totally worth it to play through, though.  The game then pulls that, “Well wasn’t that trippy?!  Now let’s start back at the beginning of our story” sort of bit (albeit with a different narrative trick), and then the actual demo starts.  The demo material that follows is MUCH easier on you, and actually lets you figure out how to apply those tricks from the tutorial in the beginning.  Without spoiling the moments, I actually didn’t want the demo to end, and considering how I almost deleted it from the first “mission”, that’s a pretty amazing feat.

The game is exceptionally weird, with the full Japanese womanizing erotica and absolutely strange mashups of different genre pieces (angels, fairies, and torture devices?  Ooooo…K?), but it was dealt with so confidently (especially when you are introduced to new enemies…weird but clever “journal entries” are presented referencing them) that somehow it all “works”, at least as well as this sort of quirky Japanese actioner can work.

The graphics are pretty nice, ranging from “meh” to “wow, that is actually an enormous hair monster eating a mini-boss”.  Nothing that is advancing the state of the art, but very confidently delivered and it runs smooth as butter even when craziness is at its peak.

It’s definitely something that sticks with you, and not necessarily in a bad way.  In a sea of gaming experiences, that’s saying something.

Can’t a guy just get to bed at a decent hour?  After a somewhat ho-hum episode of FlashForward last night, I stopped my Windows Media Center Extender DVR session on my Xbox 360 and booted back to the dashboard, ready to do a quick check for new content before SleepyTime.  Alas, I was kicked from Xbox Live and prompted for an update!  Almost 2 hours later, here’s what I stumbled across.

As a sidenote, I have NOT tested the Facebook app, Halo Waypoint, or the MSNBC.com news feed.  (In short, I am not a Facebook member, and the other two options are not available as of yet).  Moving on…

Last.FM: For those of you not familiar with the service, Last.FM is a music discovery service in the vein of Pandora and Slacker.  It allows you to create customized streaming “radio stations” based on artist or keyword (if such a keyword has already been populated on the service, of course).  Last.FM also offers a service called “scrobbling”, which is essentially Last.FM’s term for “listen to what you like and sculpt your listening habits”.  The implementation for the Xbox 360 delivers these features quite effectively.  When I added my Last.FM login info, it had my custom radio stations and preferences downloaded in under 60 seconds.  Choosing one of those stations almost instantly begins to stream that station, complete with photos of the artist playing.  A tap of the “X” button fades the radio station bar into the background, allowing you to navigate through the various options, create new stations, etc.  It is surprisingly fast and smooth.  The major gripe against this feature is that you are stuck in the Last.FM app for your listening experience.  As incredible as the in-app experience is implemented, you don’t get to go cruising about the dashboard, in games, or really anywhere outside of the app and its nifty artist slideshow.  As disappointing as this is, it also relegates this to a far different purpose from  replacing in-game music streaming from your personal music collections.  I can actually see this being a great option for gatherings or really any occasion where you might want to jam out to some tunes while NOT sitting at the 360.  It doesn’t really soothe the wounds inflicted by not having ubiquitous Last.FM support, but more is still more, and I’ll take it over not having any streaming radio.

Twitter: Not too much to say here.  I posted two tweets from my Xbox 360, and it works just how you might think it would.  The inability to surf to links or see pictures makes the experience pretty limited, but what is here is nice.  I sincerely hope they at least add the ability to see Twicpics, otherwise I can’t imagine being here very often (as it is I open/update twitter about once every 2 months anymore).

Zune Video: From a technological perspective, this is probably the most exciting of the updates.  This update to the Video Marketplace (launched three years ago this Thanksgiving) allows all video content to be streamed rather than downloaded.  The streaming is also adaptive, meaning that your video stream (if you meet the minimum bandwidth requirements, of course) will start at a lower video quality and ramp up.  I tested the trailer for Caprica, and I had been ramped up from a rough, low-res Youtube-esque quality up to what was called (via a small prompt in the top righthand corner of the info pane) 1080p HD, all within about 28 seconds.  Not bad considering most feature length content has title cards during this period anyway.  The quality was quite good when we achieved 1080p, so I have high hopes that this technology will quickly be adopted by those deterred by the need to download releases before now.  (I was one of those people, in fact; as much as I prefer digital media to physical, I could not recommend the Video Marketplace before now, since it defeated the one major advantage that streaming video could always claim: instant grat).  Keep an eye on this one, folks; I think this is going to be bigger than most folks are giving it credit for.

I’ll try to put out updated impressions of the remaining features as I’m able to test them.  Overall, great stuff coming this November!

For those of you that might be familiar with a recent post of mine, take heed: Microsoft isn’t a big fan of such things any longer.

Major Nelson just posted on his blog that as of the new system update being sent out (first to Preview Program participants but then to all by the end of November) to all Xbox 360 consoles, your “unauthorized memory unit” will no longer be accessible through your console.

A quick check of Amazon.com shows that the 120GB to be $135 shipped.  I guess all that cross-mojination of the Zune Video Marketplace has Big Content scared (as in perhaps Microsoft can’t allow purchased movies until they lock up the DRM hardware-wise)?  This obviously also protects Microsoft’s hardware ecosystem, so it would be natural to assume this is Microsoft protecting their peripheral price points, but if anyone has read what is involved in the DIY hard drive upgrade for your 360, I doubt they’ve lost too much money except to the occasional 133t haxx0rz who want to stick it to M$.  In any case, paying more for something that doesn’t actually cost that much without the fancy Microsoft packaging/software just sucks, plain and simple.  Here’s hoping for a swift price drop of the 120GB drives if they want to continue to sell them.  Me, I’ll be slogging along with my 20GB until we’re sub-$100.