Dragon Age: Origins Awakening: Mystical boys feeling alright, raggedy wisdom falls from my hand

Peculiar as the word expansion usually coexists with the notion that owning the original is a must, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is one of the very few “stand-alone expansions”.  Brought to us by Bioware, DA:OA builds on the hefty success of its company’s namesake as well as its predecessor.  For those that never played the original, there may be some major elements missing for the player to truly grasp the game’s entirety.  For those that have dived deep into the ideal dungeons of our youth in the first, you may be slightly surprised at DA:OA. 

By tossing around the term “stand-alone expansion,” confusion and jaw dropping anger are just a couple of the mental states that can result not to be mixed up with a Rick roll while cruising around Youtube.  On the one hand DA:OA feels like a large amount of extra downloadable content that’s wrapped into one extra large present you didn’t see coming especially with it’s quick release date after the original (four months apart).  On the other hand it isn’t as obviously advertised and priced as such.  Bioware has been known to be able to keep the drive and gameplay experience felt in an original game willing and able in its sequels.  If Mass Effect is any measure at this momentous achievement then players expect the same level of brilliance in other releases from its parent company.  Expectations run higher as companies show us they can make the high jump into success when others have failed.

The cause and effect of DA:OA is shown in its display and contours.  For a player to understand and begin to enjoy themselves while playing DA:OA, the original needs to have been conquered first.  A player can create a hero from scratch and hop right into DA:OA but the journey will begin at level twenty, the same level cap DA:O left us at.  The abilities available at this point can confuse a new player as well as trying to setting up not just one, but a full party of characters.  By comparison it would be as if a person was invited for the first time over to Bob’s house for a classic D&D pen and paper session and asked to roll a high level character and join in out of the blue.  That person might have a grasp of D&D but Bob’s house rules can be a bit different and everyone else’s eyes in the room are a bit bloodshot and glazed over from the 36 hour session filled with Monster energy drinks and Pop Tarts.  Yes, scary and intimidating just for a pen and paper game.  Much of the same can be said for never playing DA:O and hoping to somehow piece together a joyful experience in DA:OA. 

Sure DA:OA does fulfill the term “stand-alone expansion” in a sensible manner even if they don’t plaster a nice neon sign on this factor.  The story continues on from the end of DA:O as years have past.  An interesting twist on the end of the first as some darkspawn have begun to rise again.  As the darkspawn had been thwarted and driven back, most of the land has become complacent with their time of peace.  A new uprising of darkspawn occurs only this time the mindless zombie routine has been dropped and intelligent spawn leaders have surfaced.  The story references many portions of the first and the gaps in a knowledge base for the second will frustrate a person trying to piece it all together.

Characters from the first are found throughout the game, some joining your quest for glory while others become part of the backdrop.  Choices made before do affect you in this game although most will barely tweak the storyline.  An unbalanced mix of character classes are prevalent in the expansion (I had no tank/sword + board type of character and instead had an over abundance of casters) due to not being able to play all the previous characters or being unable to foresee the classes of upcoming party members.  The significance of some interactions with characters/npcs for a newcomer would add another level of scrambled nonsense as the player would ask themselves, “why do I have five minutes of dialog with someone who has no quests and won’t join my party?”

Controls, visuals, sounds, and almost everything else are identical to the previous game. The difficulty however is on scale with getting lost in the bird’s nest known as Justin Bieber’s hair.  Where the first was a die, respawn, die, respawn, routine of roulette, on the hard and Mountain Dew X-treme settings, DA:OA was quite a breeze.  This may be due to having access to high level abilities from the get go or working strategies already in use from all the dying the first caused.  Either way the only real challenge encountered in this entire expansion was the very last portion giving quite the sigh of relief to an expert of the first but causing a craving for the feel of accomplishment after it’s completed. 

With the very successful franchises Bioware has employed, Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is a small blip on the radar that will soon be forgotten unless an odd reference to a highly priced expansion has to be made in conversations of the future.  While fans of the first will somewhat enjoy this extra release, it is by all means an unnecessary whimper of an achievement to play through to the finish (10-15 hours).  Unless my judgment is clouded and narrow minded somehow, after completing DA:OA I found it hard to believe that another sequel will be made to import characters into without the same issue of ease with childlike difficulty. 

Rating: 3.5 {on a scale of –10 to 10} 

Vampire Weekend – Boston (Ladies of Cambridge)

 

------------ Upcoming Reviews still in the works ------------

Splinter Cell: Conviction / King’s Bounty: Armored Princess / Red Dead Redemption / Lost Planet 2 / Alpha Protocol

Final Fantasy XIII: You know you can’t keep letting it get you down and you can’t keep dragging that dead weight around

And it’s with a heavy heart, Square-Enix, that I feel we should reevaluate our longstanding relationship.  We’ve had so many good memories together since 1987 when we were both so young, filled with curiosity and wonder.   As one of the oldest and respected gaming companies I’ve enjoyed growing old with you, from the earliest days of FFI, to Secret of Mana, to Chrono Trigger, to FFTactics, to FFXI, to even those different times like Vagrant Story, Front Mission, and Parasite Eve.  But with your latest project, Final Fantasy XIII, I feel like you’ve slipped away from what’s made you so amazing.  I feel like we’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even exist anymore except to sit and watch you like I’m a ghost.  I’d hate to think all of the time we’ve spent together has now come to this but since our relationship now is on the edge of possibly ending for good, I think it’s best just to spend some time apart.

While I wish game company relationships were a little more straightforward like this, the complexities of what make a good customer/product provider relationship can depend on many things, and to keep that relationship strong over time, a company has to evolve to an ever changing world.  Final Fantasy XIII from Square-Enix, which is the longest running game series for consoles filled with its own self-titled irony, is in all respects an attempt to adapt into a new decade of possibilities.  It is another train stop from a quite triumphant and glorious game company.  It’s on the level with an almost decade of searching for the next big pop star, regardless of the country. 

With such a powerhouse company with many notches on its belt, it’s hard to imagine finding a game to dislike, especially one within their cash cow series.  Picking apart the previous 12 games, searching for identifiable aspects that make the Final Fantasy the series that has captivated gamers since its conception, one can easily find some of the best written stories games have to offer, character sets who have grown and developed as the age of games gets older, musical scores that are now performed by sponsored orchestras, and one of the most copied RPG battle systems since consoles were first born.  Yes, there are also a lot of Japanese culture-esque informalities from gigantic chicken/ostriches to white demons that have a very extensive vocabulary of one word, but all of these can be brushed to the side as you focus on the vital portions of Square-Enix’s games. 

In FFXIII, the story, characters, and entirety of the game is all separate from previous games once again.  In XIII there are six characters all unique with interlacing back stories.  The main story itself is quite involved, containing a boat load of cutscenes to move it along, probably giving XIII an unofficial award for amount of cutscenes ever in a single game (I’m still searching for a montage of the words focus and choice on youtube as they become the most overused words throughout all of XIII’s cutscenes).  The voice acting is beautifully done with the addition of Australian accents for a couple characters that are supposed to be from a separate planet.  Like much of the RPG genre, at least 50-60 hours have to be spent in order to finish this game.  This should not come as too much of a surprise though as the game is contained within three DVDs, an amount of memory the original FF could only dream of having in it’s time.  And while having dreams of ramming a Delorean to 88 to give NASA the processing power of today before we ever landed on the moon, FFXIII spits out a long story reveling within itself to the well over three hour mark of a total movie.  So make sure you bust out your entire box of Orville because there is a lot of sitting time. 

While you’re taking in all of the sights of the story, there is a lot of music to be had and all of it seems somewhat muted or swept beneath the rest of the game.  When the music does awaken, you realize it’s repetition has become rampant.  This is also expected as leveling within a Square-Enix RPG has previously taken people to the point of mental instability, the same place in your mind where you begin to argue with yourself over dye numbers used in Twinkies and names of actors from your favorite 80’s sitcoms. 

The idea of repetition is not the terrible notion in XIII unlike other RPGs or even older FFs, and this is due to its linearity.  Whilst you dungeon dive with your minimap is on, all crevices and hiding places are within short walks, enemies are all visible, some can be avoided, and enemies no longer drop currency.  Gone is the idea of off the beaten path for dungeons, the idea of towns to explore has faded, and leveling is done differently as exp is now awarded directly as points to purchase abilities and stats under a system with few choices.  Stats have been whittled down to strength, magic, and hp alone making the understanding of their correlations easier.  Gone are mana bars and item management (to keep health high) is negligible as health is reset after each battle.  Dropped items and treasure sold is almost the only way to make a living in XIII, fully immersing players in the old unused economic system of bartering.  And since most are out of touch with the going rate of sheep’s wool and tiger fangs, be prepared to be swindled and taken for all your worth; every piece of scrap metal and dead carcass feels like a rare drop.  Items dropped are used for weapon and accessory upgrades (no armor or equipment whatsoever) and require a large amount of farming and input to be worth the effort.  All of these tiny facets of XIII make for a simplified RPG compared to all of the predecessors appealing to a wider age group.

Everything described, small similarities or differences, are just offsets of something deeper.  It might be tough to figure out where all my earlier disdain comes from; in fact, with the barter economy, every gamer should have the same amount of excitement as a kid opening a Nintendo 64.  If you search anywhere on the big I you’ll find it quickly as it is the largest topic of discussion.  Skipping your Topeka searches, and right in time for Easter, Square-Enix has decided to put all its eggs in one place:  the battle system.  Map designs, storyline, simplification of stats and leveling, etc, are all based off their interactions with the system.  Everything else meshes well in regards to the system in FFXIII, but this is where I decided to take a step back and really wonder why I began to rush right to the end of the game to be done with it, rather than become engulfed within the enjoyment of playing it or bothering to scrounge up every treasure. 

The battle system is the core of any RPG as it puts the player in the driver seat, enveloping the gamer as a part of the story, deciding the destiny and outcome of its characters.  In XI and XII the battle systems were quite a step away from the turned based types of the previous ten.  For FFXI, the real time system made sense as the game was MMO in nature, and the idea of a turned based MMO combo is about as bad as kitty boxing without youtube.  For XII, the system mimicked XI being very difficult to handle at times in a single player way, but battles were fun and actually worked well, being closely relatable to Bioware’s systems.  So where does a company go from making ten turned based games and a couple of real-time?  Well if not improving either one, why not combine the two?

It sounds like an interesting idea, one that would spice up the series again and be different and unique enough to call it another milestone.  Well pay close attention and try to picture how this system works.  The system is first set in such a way that it takes the first twenty five hours to go through the entire tutorial for it and gain total control of your squad of six.  (The first twenty five hours you run a constant gauntlet of battles and cutscenes while heading in only a single direction.)  A party is set up of three members, each of which is made up of mix of three out of six classes: two offensive (commando/melee and ravager/magic), a buffer (synergist), debuffer (saboteur), a healer (medic), and a tank (sentinel).  During each battle you only actively control one character and passively control the other two.  What this means is you can only control the class your other two characters are using and their chosen abilities are automatic.  Not only are theirs chosen automatically but you can hit one button to automatically fill in abilities to be used by your active character.  As time passes, your action bar fills and abilities with differing amounts of your action bar can be chosen and executed but only for the previously chosen active character (you cannot switch while in battle).  This means that for almost all of your battle time you pound on one button on the controller to autofill the action bar and the other times you are just switching class sets back and forth (class sets are also prechosen and you can only choose six sets prior to battles), i.e., Commando/Ravager/Medic and Medic/Sentinel/Ravager, etc.  Trying to individually choose abilities of your active character is slower than autofill and leads to enemies feeling hastily aggressive since battles are still in real-time. 

To sum up everything about the battle system take a game series that contained twelve games each having the complexities of chess and throw in a thirteenth that feels much like checkers.  Ok maybe a slight step up like 3d checkers but very limited in its control of battles.  In turn that dreaded repetition found in every Final Fantasy game appears only this time it’s in the wrong place.  The game is still a challenge regardless of the system but the difficulty is unforgiving and more frustration than outthinking an opponent as damage predictions, life bar watching, and enemy action patterns run wild and are almost too fast to keep up with.  Blind luck at times seems to be cause of outcomes because a poor switch of classes can quickly lead to your party leader’s death (only one needed for) and game over and the same pattern of choices the next time will work even if everything is copied identically.  Battles now are timed and item rewards for successes are based on hitting goal times to attempt to keep your battles on the offensive side, dancing with luck in the pale moonlight.  Even with the drive to finish battles quickly, battles become quite lengthy and combinations of class sets utilizing the sentinel class draw out battles to the far side of madness.  A nicely implemented retry option allows for less save point reloading frustration after a game over, but the amount of retries I needed to finish the entire game was more deaths than I ever remember having in any of the previous FF games.  So add in all the lost battle time to bad luck, timing, or poor predictions, and you’ll find your two feet ever closer to the edge of the cliff.         

After unwrapping it all, starting with that little bow on top, the surprise you find in the box is a shiny movie.  The game portion of FFXIII feels like a boring and frustrating blockade preventing the player from the next cutscene.  And even though the cutscenes are all an amazing presentation of the story, the $60 pricetag for a game where the interactive portion is not fun makes for a very expensive movie.  Maybe it was the amount of love I had for Square-Enix before this release and the length of time between XIII and XII that makes the gaming relationship hurt so much.  No matter the causes, the consequences are hard to forgive.  So Square-Enix, I tried to understand some of the reasons for your latest changes, but jeopardizing the loyalty of an already long existing relationship can cause terrible effects for both sides for years to come.  Buy it used if you must, enjoy the movie, and maybe we’ll see something different in a few years. 

Rating = 3.0 {out of a –10 to 10 scale}

Ok Go – This Too Shall Pass

Mass Effect 2: But as she shook your hand, she stole your man, it was done so swift it had to be a plan

Getting a present a couple months after the holiday season, especially when your birthday is in the later half of the year makes a person feel real special.  Mass Effect 2 from Bioware delivers that oh so sweet feeling that doesn’t come around too often with the additional surprise being it’s so early in the year. The size of the joy ME2 can bring is dependant on something that few sequels care to worry about, but in the case of ME2 creates a stepping stone for any wannabe series to come.  But before all of that, lets get deep into the vastness that is Mass Effect 2.

It has been three years since the first release so comparisons are necessary in nature but overall, ME2 is a large improvement over the first.  The final product is more slick and polished much like Sean Connery has become with time and an equal happy memory to dwell on for years to come.  And what makes all of this possible?  Nothing as large as some controversial issues or groundbreaking ideas even though there are a couple of each.  They are not the focus.  And no, not the large thrills you get while watching the World Series of Poker repeats on ESPN Classics or the highlight reels from Millionaire Matchmaker and the Bad Girls Club on REALtv.  Those are close but with ME2 it’s truly just a beautiful mixture of roleplaying, story, characters, graphics, music, and gameplay or as the lapers say, everything you want out of a game.

Mass Effect 2 takes place in 2183 out among the depths of space.  The story is a direct continuation of the first game transitioning with little questions other than those intentionally put there.  You are put in charge of a crew and a ship and are asked to put together an elite squad who are scattered throughout the universe each with unique abilities to solve a threat to all of humanity.  If you happened to have played through the entire first Mass Effect, you can import your character with all your previous choices made which in turn affects the 2nd’s plot and characters.  Bioware’s trademark dialogue choices are abound as you interact with those old and new giving you the chance to be a true renegade or a goody two shoes.  Added to this version are opportunities to enforce extreme instances of painful force or saving grace simply by hitting the appropriate button during dialogue cutscenes.   

With all the dialogue choices it is apparent that Mass Effect 2 is a roleplaying game which gives some a bad feeling to start but the flip side is the over the shoulder 3rd person combat.  The combat improvements over the first installment are all shining examples of a company listening to their fanbase.  The controls are easier to handle with squadmate commands and abilities and layouts of environments make more sense tactically even though they are obvious indicators of incoming fights on occasion.  The fighting itself is tougher than ME1 requiring you to stay as low as much as possible, timing and taking good shots, and playing the angles with your group.  A new addition is the attribute of abilities to specific classes such as special ammunition, biotic and tech abilities, and military type abilities such as increased shields or a cloaking device.  Each additional character is assigned a character class that is unique in weaponry and abilities and is larger in number than ME1.  There is some building on technical attributes such as specific ammo working well on robotic enemies and also working well on shields, but the combinations and best use matches are at times tough to predict with regards to group makeup or even on the fly with changing combat conditions.  All of this makes you forget about your missing pet Wookie.     

Equipment, armor, and upgrades are under a completely revised system making full use of resources and credits.  The idea of credits in the first was a complete waste if you scoured the universe for upgrades in turn not needing to spend a single one, but in this version credits become essential for needed equipment upgrades, ship fuel, and probes used to gain resources necessary to create upgrades.  The searching of planets with probes is the only real downfall of the game as the pace and repetitiveness is aggravating if not downright headshakingly mind numbing.  But even this is a step up from the driving of the survey vehicle over gigantic terrain in the first. 

The characters in ME2 are quite diverse and with much more personality than those Hadouken guys of Street Fighter. Each are vital help in your endgame mission to save humanity as well as possible choices for an out of this world love interest.  Where the first installment would allow you to completely ignore some characters the entire game, ME2 has specific missions for each character to gain their loyalty and unlock additional abilities.  This is important as the final outcome is judged on the loyalty gained before undertaking the endgame missions.  And with all of the different missions it becomes apparent quickly that no 2 missions in ME2 feel repetitious in design unlike most of the additional side quests of ME1.  Many of the locations throughout the universe are quite stunning visually with music to match inside and outside of combat.  Specific city locations are much more simple in layout and require a lot less travel time and loading screens to get to where you need to go.  

Most importantly, the story with the character development, new and old included, is by far the biggest highlight for the game.  This aspect is where this series makes others shameful to consider sequels and will make a few companies stare longingly into Bioware’s eyes wondering how they got so cute.  As a standalone game for someone that did not play the first my enthusiasm may be hard to comprehend even if most of the previous highlights are explained in this game.  But the intertwining of both games and their storyline with its character presentation and evolution in the second is done even better than most movie sequels have ever been able to accomplish save for maybe Rambo or Land Before Time.  A nice bonus is the new plot character who rivals the cigarette smoking man from X-Files.  He is played by actor Martin Sheen doing one of the best voice acting jobs since the narrator of the Fallout series or any character in Resident Evil 1.  And not to be overshadowed by Martin’s spectacular job, the rest of the voice acting is top notch even if some of the facial expressions during dialogue scenes don’t do the best job conveying emotions.

In theory, RPG fans will automatically pick this title up without batting an eye while others may be slightly apprehensive.  But after playing through this and the first game, it is easy to see that fans of action movies or games or sci-fi in general will find a place on the dusty trophy shelf for Mass Effect 2.  Without playing the first there is still enough meaty goodness within this game for anyone as long as you are a bit on the mature side with the snap violence that even the dialogue can bring.  With the amazing storyline, gameplay, characters, etc, Mass Effect 2 is a game you’ll not regret later in life.  So with the dry year of 2009, start off 2010 right with all your extra saved cash on Mass Effect 2.

Rating: {9.5}

Whodini – Friends

2009 year end wrap up: With the beating of a tiny heart, hang on to the things you're supposed to say

In like a lamb and out like a lion, 2009 was a big year breaking records in the entertainment industry when others suffered under a brittle economy.  So jumping right into it, here were some of the supernovas and black holes of this year:

360

Having another harrowing year choosing which mulitplatform format to run with, 360 almost trumped all.  Regretting only that programs such as Steam and Xboxlive don't overlap servers, the 360 was quite a workhorse for me this year.

Modern Warfare 2 -  {Rating: 10}  Record-breaking release, living up to the hype, best game of the year, etc, etc.  Really what can I say that hasn’t already been said?  Multiplayer that is more addicting than the first one being free, single player that hits all the major highlights of what a story should be (including the first time ever "If you are offended easily you are allowed to skip one mission"), and the best collector's edition extra to be included with a game.  This game is the first online FPSer since Counterstrike that will keep you occupied for months and months to come.  Stop spending time reading about it and start playing it.  

 

 

Borderlands - {Rating: 8.5}  I knew you were in the mood to go buy some books today and what better place to do it than your local Borders....land's end catalog....  Wait this is nothing like the book store at all.  Instead it's a true MMO take on a FPSer.  Ok maybe just stealing all the great ideas from diablo:  Visible damage numbers, an odd but workable art style, co-op play much like the good old days of diablo (scaling difficulty with additional players), and a bajazillion guns, Borderlands made quite a sleeper hit.  Additional expansion packs are already available and if you're not playing with a buddy, then you're not getting the full run for the border experience. 

 

 

Dragon Age: Origins - {Rating: 7} Stepping back to the direction of Knights of the Old Republic focusing on the RPG portions of its games, Bioware hits it high with Dragon Age.  Slow to start and enough spoken dialogue to rival many books on tape, Dragon Age is the first game where a dialogue decision making system has found the right way to write in a very ambiguous fashion giving a heavy responsibility to what choices are the ones you really want to make.  The combat system is a bit rough at times and the length of the game increases exponentially with scaling the difficulty higher but is rewarding in replayability with the first choice of class/race.  This is another game with additional downloadable content and will probably lead to a few sequels to come.      

 

Wet - {Rating: 3.5} Ewww. That's just icky.  Oh you meant wet work.  But what happened to the work?  And what happened to the amount of fun Max Payne brought me?  You probably won't find a lot of it with Wet.  There are some highlights such as the southwest atmosphere, B-movie presentation, and camera work.  But most of it is lost in the repetition and short story.  [Previous Review]

 

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - {Rating: 4.5} Semper sac' a really ack.  This game was overshadowed by MW2 and the size of that shadow is ginormous.  As far as military simulations goes, OF games are the way to go but in knowing that OF games are a simulation and not your typical FPSer paced game, most will not find pleasure in this game.  Great graphics, and easy control system, and mission openness rivaling a Bethesda game, OF is for the few,the proud, the simulated marines.  [Previous Review]

 

Resident Evil 5 - {Rating: 9.0}  The rest of the world was pretty upset by this game claiming it was not as good as the 4th installment and was terrible when played solo.  Well why the heck would you want to play it solo anyway?  The biggest plus for this game was that it was the only serious release from the beginning of the year until August.  So it's easy to Monday morning quarterback this game now, but this game will always have a special place in my heart, especially since they've improved their voice acting. [Previous Review]

 

 

Rogue Warrior - {Rating: –3}  With only a single highlight for this release (being able to rival Bob Seger for knife moves) this sad excuse for a game was made even worse by the exceptional looking trailer released earlier this year touting direct inspiration from real life Seal Team 6 creator Dick Marcinko.  After creating the hype, the final release waned into oblivion with atrocious AI, voice acting that needed a swear jar of ridiculousness (Yes my opinion was quite the opposite of that reviewer), and a presentation built on a nine year old’s dream. This game isn’t based on a movie so it had no excuse for its lack of quality and was even delivered by Bethesda which twice in one year makes me leery to purchase any more games not created by them directly.

 

 

 

Wheelman - {Rating: –5} Does everyone love the steak necked Vin Diesel for his tour de force acting roles such as Shane Wolf in the Pacifier like I do?  Well Wheelman is another in a fine line of versatile voice acting performances that Shakespeare himself would envy.  And even Vinny can’t be the salvaging saving grace for this disaster.  Midway has been decent with their releases for a few years but an occasional hiccup is bound to occur.  This GTA wannabe is that nagging case of the hiccups that a good scare can’t save you from.  Trying to mesh a GTA style game with Burnout driving sounds like potential is there but after trying it once, repetition and lack of creativeness are what you find.  A storyline that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, an idiotic Tarzan carjacking ability that makes you king of the concrete jungle alright, and a sandbox environment that a cat just got done using, Wheelman is for no one no matter what your IQ or how much of a Diesel fangirl you are.  Maybe the subtitle of this game was actually supposed to be Pacifier 2. 

 

 

Call of Juarez - {Rating 3.5}  Wild Bill sure loves his pistolas.  This spaghetti western game was an improvement from it's predecessor but for most players finding enjoyment would be a challenge.  No Co-op main story, so-so multiplay, and little to nothing to separate this from any other FPSer other than it’s a western setting made Call of Juarez rentable during the summer of no releases but now it’s definitely a skipper.  Hopefully sometime in the future a quality western FPSer will be made.  [Previous Review]

 

Star Ocean: The Last Hope - {Rating 7.5} Many gamers looking to branch to new areas of gameplay could find salvation in Star Ocean as prequels did not need to be played to grasp the storyline.  Few advertisements made availability of this game very minimal and at first glace the game looked difficult to handle but this was not exactly the case.  Good cinematics, plot and gameplay made this RPG one of the first quality RPG released on the 360. [Previous Review]

 

 

Forza 3 - {Rating 8} Vroom Vroom Vroom I want you in my room.  Since the advent of Gran Turismo many great racing games have come and gone and Forza 3 is not only a good racing simulation game but a great one.  Hundreds of tracks, cars, and mods make Forza the first to meet Gran Turismo head on and give it a run for its money.  Visually stunning graphics at very high frames per second make this game not only a fun one to play but also one to watch.  This is also the first racing simulation game where you can breeze through the simulation portions (quick customization, etc) or dive deep into modifying each one of your lovely racing tools appealing to avid car fans as well as your average Sunday driver.  I’m still waiting for the day when racing simulation games make it to driver’s ed classes.   

 

 

 

Wii

 

This year was a bit light on the Wii.  Not many quality releases throughout the entire year were made and the few that would of made some huge highlights are not due out until 2010.  Oh what patience Wii owners must wield. 

 

Wii Resort - {Rating: 7} You and your friends sick of Wii Sports yet?  Want to swordfight with your buddy with all your clothes on and still come up a winner?  Or how about reenact your favorite scene from Robin Hood?  You can do all of this and more in Wii Resort. A nice array of solo or multiplay games with a few different game modes, Wii Resort is a great game to embarrass or humiliate your friends and family as they attempt to become Larry Bird in the 3-point contest.  You also get the opportunity to force man’s best friend to fetch your wild frisbee tosses and slap a newspaper against his head when he doesn’t win it for you.  Ok no slapping is allowed but I’ll bet there’s a real dog laying around somewhere you can take you all your aggression out on.  With all the games to choose from coupled with the original Wii Sports, Wii Resort is a great addition to the entertaining guests library.  Just be patient sitting through the tutorial at the beginning of the game, since Nintendo is showing the world that they feel some sort of responsibility for broken TVs.

 

Tiger Woods 2010 - {Rating: 6.5}  Just like creating a sex tape to boost popularity, Tiger Woods knows the right way to boost his game sales.  With all the controversy and gossip to take up eons of time at work having to listen to Debbie’s (from accounting) opinion on Tiger’s home life and how she’s ‘got it all figured out’, you can go home and take out all your anger driving little white balls 300+ yards into a tiny little hole with the first game to utilize Wii Motion Plus. The putting will begin to help rise your hulk rage, but after a ton of practice, you can actually feel rewarded with a job well done.  [Previous Review]

 

Deblob - {Rating: 4} Music, paint, and oddity surround Deblob.  The game is quite the mystery as to how it came into being but now that it is around us all, slamming paint against your neighborhood walls seems to be an enjoyable hobby to have.  Some usual platforming frustration with camera angles and controls are not missing but tend to be made up by the amazing sounds and music that occur while painting the town red.  Not for everyone, Deblob will probably appeal more to those that care about creativity than destruction so avoid this title if you believe you can sniff the paint through the TV.  (These two I’ll bet spent plenty of days doing just that.) [Previous Review] 

 

 

PC

Picking up the pace from previous years of only notable mentions, the PC titles are starting to become a stronger choice from previous years especially with the small arcade style games.  2010 should also be a strong year with the big upcoming release of Starcraft 2, if it ever really does happen. 

 

Left for Dead 2 - {Rating: 8}  As I said with the release of the first LFD, if you can find 3 buddies that all have this game, and can find a time when all 4 of you can play it, this is a great title and will give you a craving to watch every zombie movie known to man.  But after purchasing this title, I realized the game is still a quality game with only 1 friend to co-op with.  Solo play has some good intentions but will frustrate as AI does not compare to your neighbor that was ate by zombies.  Controls and gameplay are straightforward FPS in nature but what separates this title is the Half-life style of presentation, level design, and overwhelming zombie hordes that feel a better match than the types from Serious Sam.   So grab a chainsaw and start taking down trunks.

 

 

Aion - {Rating: 3.5}  There are a few absolute truths in this world and when you play Aion, the obvious underlying truth is Koreans hate free time.  This beast of a release will attempt to steal every waking hour of your life and give you little reward for your efforts.  The visuals are a step above for MMOs, but the quest line organization and communication windows are lacking.  The quests, which show a level limit, do not show a group necessity but almost are impossible without them and leveling shows suicidal tendencies when calculated to level per hour.  The ability to fly is a great addition but becomes quite a novelty quickly.   Beyond not being WoW, Aion did not strike me to be anything groundbreaking or capable of swooning millions.  Those that already played and enjoyed other NCSoft games may find a new home but for most others, good luck.

 

 

X3: Terran Conflict - {Rating: 2}  The rare space simulation game that’s not actually that new of a release, X3:TC is a game that isn’t self-aware enough to realize just how big of a game it is.  Not focused on solo ship combat, and instead believing in trade routes and mining operations, X3 takes away from what most other space games profit from and makes for a hard game to sell and describe.  A small story, vast amounts of controls to master, and a very high difficulty, X3 is neither for the meek or merry.  The graphics and idea are good but not having a good combat system keeps the appeal to those that really enjoy the Civilization series.  Either that or those who majored in international trade back in college. [Previous Review]

 

Peggle - {Rating: 4.5} The chances of getting a seat on the Price is Right are small and actually becoming a contestant even smaller, so for those that don’t make it to the showcase showdown please enjoy Peggle.  The bleeps, bings and dings are abound when you plop your way through Peggle’s lovely simple physics of bouncing.  It’s a simple game to figure out and can appeal to those of young and old, large and small, illiterate and colorblind.  The only thing that doesn’t work well is the title as it rhymes with words that often accompany clowns and your creepy uncle that always does magic tricks to impress the ladies.  Becoming a master of Peggle would also put you in this category so be careful.  [Previous Review]

 

 

 

Plants vs Zombies – {Rating: 6}  By far the best penny arcade game of the year, Plants vs. Zombies is an easy game to figure out and creates hours of fun by balancing RTS ideas with speed and zombies.  As you protect yourself from a home invasion of brain eaters, your vegetable garden becomes the ultimate defense weapon and is done with simple but great animations and designs.  This game was also the first game to predict the death of Michael Jackson by including his Thriller zombie right into the mix so kudos for hitting the deadpool predictions PopCap.  If you like the constant struggle of the living versus the living dead, fun puzzle/strategy games, or if you are just looking to find another game that anyone and everyone can play, Plants Vs Zombies is a sound choice.  So get planting.  [Previous Review]

 

 

Machinarium - {Rating: 5.5}  If Tim Burton made the movie Wall-E, Machinarium would be the outcome in game form.  A mixture of quirky flash animation puzzles, Machinarium will keep that noodle of yours stirring until it finds just the right shape.  The only issue with Mach was once you play through the game once, there’s no need to play it again.  Some puzzles are a bit on the tough side even for experts at riddles and jumbles so youngin’s might be a bit frustrated but an added feature of a minigame hint book allows for some help from time to time.  The backgrounds and animations were among some of the most creative and brilliant designs for a game on the simpler side of things so if you enjoy not so easy puzzles and the movies of Timmy B, try Machinarium. 

 

 

Empire Total War - {Rating: 8}  The RTS behemoth of 2009, Empire Total War is a reminder what it would take to actually win a game of Risk.  Taking a lot of time to complete an entire campaign, ETW is quite an interesting game as its AI attempts to stay within true historical guidelines as long as you allow it to.  Controls are on par with any RTS and difficulties scale well with world domination, ETW is for those that love RTS games and also for those that want a little more out of their board game night.  Ground battles feel repetitive after a short while but naval battles are something to behold as the graphics, controls and strategies are unlike anything before it. And who can argue with having to battle actual pirates of the world?  Take that Jack Sparrow.  [Previous Review]

 

Hired Guns: Jagged Edge - {Rating: 1.5}  Haunted with former versions of itself, HGJE made me die a little inside.  Loving the genre so much and with the technology of today, I assumed such a great game could of been created but this was not the case.  Extremely hard three dimensional control, bugs, and terrible characters, HGJE will be an eternal reminder that no matter how good a series was, when rights are transferred to a new company great things may not happen.  [Previous Review]

 

2009 memoranda

1. Total new games purchased: 20 (22 in 2008)
2. Best 1st person shooter: Modern Warfare 2
3. Best RPG: Borderlands
4. Best Strategy: Empire Total War
5. Best Multiplayer game with friends in the same room: Wii Resort
6. Best Multiplayer game with friends across the world: Aion
7. Best Penny Arcade type game: Plants vs Zombies
8. Biggest surprise of the year: Borderlands
9. # of new games beat: 13 (8 in 2008)
10. # of unfinished single player games: 4 (7 in 2008)
11. # of controllers broken: 1 mouse
12. System played the most: 360 (not counting time on computers)
13. # of times playing games pissed off the wife: 156 (Modern Warfare 2 is her favorite)
14. Biggest hopeful for 2010: Starcraft 2
15. Other hopefuls: FFXIII, Splinter Cell Conviction, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2

 

Beach House - Norway

     

Favorite video of 2009 –> Ramona Falls - I Say Fever 

    

Aion MMO Preview: Lava flows over crooks and cragged cliffs to the ocean and explodes in a steam heat fevered cyclical motion

Over the history of MMOs and even other genres, there has been a representable and recognizable feature to the graphics and gameplay of games.  It comes with being able to distinguish what country/company the makers of that particular game happen to be or being able to come reasonably close to guessing who the man behind the curtain is with just a glance.  Another "putting the face to the name" game is Aion for the PC.  Made by the well known Korean company NCSoft (Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars), this MMORPG is another sci-fi fantasy fiction MMO but from what I can translate from forums and reviews, contains less hardship and grindy-ness than the typical run of the mill Korean MMO.  

The graphics are some of the highest quality above and beyond FFXI, Everquest, and WoW, allowing for excessive video card settings whether it's to be a big time showoff or for visual stimulation.  This brings with it the problem of using an older computer to run the game and having to deal with graphical errors besides networking ones if you are still forcing a dinosaur to play with hover-boards and space guns.  

One look at the game and there should be some tingling of deja vu occurring in the back of your head.   NCSoft has taken what works in games such as WoW and built from those ideas.  The interface down to the action bars, chat logs, and menus all look eerily similar to WoW.  From what I can tell it is all fully customizable with the ability to resize and move things as you see fit.  Fighting and combat text looks much like it's predecessor City of Heroes as does the extremely large character customization feature when doing character creation and item customizing.  This allows for people to not fall into the Age of Conan issue of all looking exactly the same from level 1 - 20.  Class selection is the usual D+D montage as seen by the video below.

Aion boasts both PvE as well as PvP, also sporting what it calls PvEvP where races can fight along side of NPCs against opposing races.  Quick transportation is available by means of metamorphosing flying creatures but a new idea is indulged upon when it comes to close proximity's.  Not the water wing kind of your childhood but more like the advertising ploys of Victoria Secret.  Missing the laciness and tassel-liness, after completing part of the main quest you are given angel wings to allow you to explore areas in the upward direction and in essence becoming a flying mount.  A nice addition to this is the ability to fight foes in the air making for an even larger variety of motion and fighting sequences as well as new challenges with PvP.

What's interesting about Aion is it has already been released in the Far East for over a year now.  This will make the release to North America and Europe a far more mature one in terms of bug issues and latency problems that other recent MMOs have suffered from on initial release and should keep more people interested beyond the one month break or make point.

There has been enough time since the initial release of WoW for companies to shrug their shoulders and give in to completely running with everything that works for keeping an MMO fun and easy enough to play.  Quests are given to the player with easy directions, such as waypoints, and with the old question mark/exclamation point indicators.  English folk that are playing the Korean version now can still accomplish the quests without the ability to read the text.  Items when equipped become soul bound and can no longer resold keeping auction house enthusiasts from the ability to hold the market hostage (FFXI).  Party play is done with an almost carbon copy interface to WoW showing buffs, debuffs, health bars, etc, all in the same arrangement.    

The setting may not be for everyone, a lot of ideas have been done before, and the drudgery of having to start over again make Aion a game for those that can put all that aside.  It's probably not the best MMO to start with for those that are new to MMORPGs, but for those looking to branch off slightly, specifically from WoW, may have a good transitional feel with Aion.  I can see that this is NCSoft's answer to WoW and I have decided to see for myself if Aion will stand the test of time.  Open beta weekends are available to those that pre-purchase either from NCSoft directly or from Gamestop or Amazon.    

Andrew Bird - Fitz and Dizzyspells

Star Ocean: The Last Hope: I could spend the rest of my days playing through what might have been in love

Star Ocean: The Last Hope from Square-Enix and developed by the small company Tri-Ace is the 5th (and possibly last) installment in the Star Ocean series only out for Xbox360.  A nice reminder of RPGs of the past, SO: TLH is a good example of a stereotypical Japanese RPG especially if you don't normally play RPGs.  A rich and cutscene-a-plenty storyline, just enough repetitive fighting to level your opposables to a thumb wrestling championship, and item management that would go better with an day shift manager, TLH is good RPG for new and old gamers alike.

Made by the same company that brought us Infinite Undiscovery, TLH is a much better step toward what fans of RPGs expect to get from a single game.  And for those that never owned a Super Famicom, PS1, or PS2 to be able to play the other Star Ocean games, TLH is very much a standalone since it is a prequel taking place a few centuries prior to the first Star Ocean.  The story does tie into the other Star Ocean games and helps explain the somewhat surprise ending for Till the End of Time but anyone new to the Star Ocean series can still find themselves not needing to research anything from the older games.

For those unfamiliar with previous Star Ocean games the core background to the games follow with an Earth that was scorched from nuclear war.  The survivors put all of their efforts into space exploration trying to find a new planet to call home.   You are a part of the first exploration party and the actual game portion is the adventures you encounter while out in the "star ocean".  

Star Ocean was one of the first RPGs to change from menu driven turn based combat system to a real-time type.  Encounters, whether randomly popping from out of nowhere or actually touching an enemy on a map/dungeon, were still done with the classic cut-away screens unlike Castlevania, Zelda, or Secret of Mana that kept combat and wandering in real-time.  On top of it, the combat for SO was all party based.  Besides unique combat, other factors such as the large crafting system made this series a building block for later days with the later advent of MMOs.  Take that Doom!

The biggest selling point for all RPG video games is the storyline and the meshing of the player actually feeling like they are "role-playing".  An entire book's worth of dialog can be crammed into an  RPG making a way to bridge the gap of tedious page flipping in some old dusty book that weighs a ton and smells like mothballs.  If the storyline has substance then working through all the battles over and over just to go up a single level makes it all worth it or ends up taking away 80+ hours of your life you'll never get back (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Battletoads thank you).  TLH has a novel's worth of dialog and contained within 3 DVD discs are a plethora of cutscenes to fill out the story nicely.  On top of the usual read-along just as much voice acted dialog is done in case you hated reading everything and wanted to forget what books were altogether.  

Combat is better than the older SO games and doesn't evolve into impossibility like some of the previous SOs.  Previous SOs were so difficult, especially toward the endgame, that trying to figure out a trickeration type strategy to just finish the game was a usual implementation for disheartened gamers.  I remember playing SO2 and seeing a strategy in which a single party member was utilized and only one ability was used (ah, AIRSLASH) and not even bothering with other party members or any other abilities.  The strategy worked so well that the whole game could be completed this way.  This time all party members pull their weight with or without your direct input and do a decent job with self preservation even on harder boss fights and endgame.  Not as much saving, dying, reloading, and repeating till your head spins, thankfully.

Repetitiveness isn't as big a factor since combat is a challenge and rewarding when mastered.  Enemy difficulty keeps pace when sticking with the storyline instead of having to take extra time to "level".  There are some nice additions such as combos that can be done with fellow party members and in addition, they can even be micromanaged and changed to fit your damage needs. 

The overall look of combat is a big step up from previous SOs and is very fluid in it's delivery.  And it's not only the combat that shows off the graphics as the rest of the game grinds on your 360's hardware constantly.  Cutscenes aren't above the visual quality of the rest of the game showing that the entire game can not only look fantastic but help to give the feeling that a lot of work was done making the gameplay look spectacular.  The cutscenes don't act like separate movies inserted here and there but instead are like a part of the gameplay and story keeping the player enthralled with everything and not making the gameplay a disappointing experience when the player is given control again.

This SO had very few low points that stuck out.  With all RPGs, the way in which directions on what to do and where to go next is a big part of the presentation.  TLH utilizes a lot of the cutscenes to do this but in a few cases trying to figure out the next step for progression isn't the easiest thing for your cereal box decoder ring.  There are also handfuls of awkward and head scratching "situations" that only anime fandom would ever consider a necessity. These can be seen with some of the characters like the personal crafting utilization program: Welch.  One big teeth grinder comes from the monotone character Lymle as the creators decided to add in a South Park type tagline to the end of EVERY sentence she decides to speak ('kay).  After about 20 minutes of being forced to hear the joke being taken too far, the cuteness gets loaded into a weapon of scary proportions as you begin to look into the barrel instead of looking down the sights.  

Small hiccups aside, from start to finish Star Ocean: The Last Hope is an experience that fans of all of the classics will enjoy, worth the play through for any RPGer, and a good choice for those that have never ventured into needing experience points.  Hours upon hours of cutscenes, gameplay that's enjoyable, minimized repetitive leveling, atypical combat that's fun, and a good return on the investment for time given, SO: TLH is by far an RPG Xbox 360 owners have been looking for ever since the console's release.  

Rating: 7.5 {on a scale of -10 to 10, 5+ being a must play}

O + S - We Do What We Want To [only actual video available is Permanent Scar]