Not being a real journalist I stand very little chance of ever attending E3 in person, but all the media that comes out of it from various websites is quite comprehensive, so the following is my opinions of what was on show based on the reports and footage from other sources. Of course if anyone is in a position to hook me up for next year then by all means, drop me a line.
Industry Innovations
So, let's start with thing's that are moving the industry forward, and hot on the heels of James Cameron's Avatar we're now seeing video games making the move to 3D. Arguably the biggest move in this direction comes in the smallest package (see what I did there?), I'm of course talking about the Nintendo 3DS. when this was first announced a few months ago I was quite skeptical and uninterested, not really being one for hand held consoles and the concept just seemed too advanced to be real or as described, a 3D screen that doesn't require glasses. But the independent reports following the hands on opportunity at Nintendo's press conference all say that it truly is a 3D experience, with objects seemingly jumping out of the screen, which has made me really want to see it for myself, especially seeing as a port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been announced. On the big screen side of things Sony were very keen to push their 3D TVs by showcasing their first party title Killzone 3 on the PS3 which reportedly makes great use of 3D, and is the first real nudge Ive had towards thinking about upgrading to a 3D TV (although it's still plenty of nudges and out right shoves away yet).
The other innovation that caught my eye was the game Black Light: Tango Down, while not a technically amazing game by any standards, looking at the footage I find graphics lacking by modern standards but that's not the point of the game, nor does it have any baring on it being mentioned here. I'm interested in it on the grounds of the way it is being made available, namely a digital delivery only release which is interesting from the stand point of where the industry is heading. Digital delivery is nothing new, but this is a move towards full games from big name studios and developers being made available solely through this method of distribution, maybe by the next generation of consoles we won't have packaged products or even downloaded products on hard drives anymore, maybe everything will be played remotely. that said, I can't see me buying the finished product, I tend to rate games on their single player experience and think of multiplayer as an added bonus, but Black Light: Tango Down is just a multiplayer package, although the co-op side of things could go some way towards tempting me.
The return of the old skool
A growing trend at the minute among developers is to add a retro flavour to their games, which I believe is largely inspired by increased interest in retro games and the production of simplistic indie games. What are are now seeing though is a number of well established franchises going back to their roots, in either a full blown retro style of play or borrowing from their earlier iterations to make a hybrid in play styles and presentation, and from what I've seen this is a very good thing! One franchise that used to hypnotise me with it's bright colours and funky sound track right from the original in 1990 was Sonic the Hedgehog, but the move to 3D for this franchise has been plagued with lack luster games, so Sonic 4: Episode 1 is like all my childhood dreams coming true, a true Sonic sequel with all the same style and flare as the Mega Drive (that's Genesis to you guys the other side of the Atlantic) originals and is only 1 of 2 new Sonic games to have caught my attention. Sonic Colours has peaked my interest more than any other 3D Sonic game, which is probably because a totally new direction has been taken to the design. The game appears to be 2D side scrolling platforming like the old Sonic games (and now Sonic 4) which seamlessly transitions into behind view racing and platforming of the more recent games and this currently looks like it's been executed with much more care than previous attempts.
Next on the list of games following this trend is Donkey Kong Country Returns which is being developed by Retro Studios, and like Sonic 4, it doesn't look like a huge departure from the original DK titles, which makes perfect sense for Nintendo after their success with Super Mario Bros Wii and New Super Mario Bros on the DS.
Team Ninja seem to have taken this on board as well for their up coming Wii title Metroid: Other M. Until this E3 I was under the impression that this was going to be a combat based game with a flashy new fighting style partially inspired by the recent Ninja Gaiden games, which would have been a massive departure from the classic Metroid games and the first person action of the Metroid Prime trilogy. But now it appears to be a throw back to Super Metroid crossed with many of the play elements of the Metroid Prime games, which I think is a smart move, and has made me pay a bit more attention to this work in progress.
One more from Nintendo's offering from the old school was the remake of GoldenEye for Wii. Now I didn't think that last sentence really does my feelings on this justice, so I will reiterate: GOLDENEYE! FUCKING GOLDENEYE! Oh my god I'm pumped for this, not 100% sure about having Daniel Craig playing Bond as Pierce Brosnan was a pretty good bond in the movie (not so much in his other Bond outing though sadly) but in essence this game could make me cum in my pants.
The last throw back that I'm way too excited about is Mortal Kombat, this looks to be another nice dose of nostalgia with a modern lick of paint. I lost interest in this series when it made the transition to 3D, and I don't seem to be the only one Ed Boon, series creator, has stated this new game has been crafted out of fan feedback, and seemingly the fans want a modernised version of the original trilogy, which makes me a giddy inside!
The big hype games
Before we get into the run down of the big name games which, while not really breaking any new ground or trying anything too far removed from the proven formulas, I first want to cover a couple of titles that have really caught my eye. First up is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, which I'm suddenly hungry for due to the epic cinematic trailer that was put on display which, if representative of the ingame action, could make this game very special. I wasn't really paying attention to this title until I saw the trailer but I'm now thinking and praying that this could be the Jedi game we've always wanted. The original Force Unleashed was a move in the right direction towards that lofty goal but it suffered from loose controls which caused the player to feel a but detached from the action. And speaking of giving us what we've always wanted, we're brought nicely onto Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which might possibly be the MGS Ninja game we've always wanted. Konami showcased their sword cutting game mechanics and amazing visuals, but not too much else, so time will tell and it's unlike Kojima to let us down... after all, we already know Raiden is the main character this time around, which in the past was the biggest failing they've made.
The best of the rest
Moving onto the assortment games that aren't breaking new ground but still look good enough to bust out the credit card for. I'm going to let my fanboyism for this series break through to get the ball rolling with Halo Reach which we finally got to see some campaign footage for. I wasn't too hyped about the space battle section which everyone seems to be creaming over, but it does look like it has all the super soldier comic book infantry action fun of the Halo series intact, so consider me signed up.
Returning series Medal of Honor are busting out a blatant Modern Warfare rip off, but you know what, who fucking cares, they're not the first to do it and won't be the last, and most importantly it looks good so I'm keen.
Trayarch are taking their bi-annual stab at the Call of Duty series with COD: Black Ops, taking a page out of Infinity Ward's book (quite probably their last ever book) they are making an overdue departure from World War Two setting, and offering up more of the same well executed first person shooter action but in a selection of scenarios spread out over the cold war era. That's pretty new and intriguing on it's own and if it has the zombies mode like World at War I'm sold.
Gears of War 3 is looking, not too much new stuff from what we've already seen, new enemy characters and 4 player co-op are new aspects but essentially it's still the well realised 3rd person shooter it's always been. that said I'm hoping for more out of the multiplayer this time, I never really found much to enjoy in the last two Gears on that front.
I enjoyed Assassin's Creed despite it's short comings, and I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed 2, so I'm very much looking forward to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, essentially this looks like more of the same but with expansion on the villa upgrade gameplay of AC2. The new recruiting and levelling mechanics for building your brotherhood look like a nice new layer of gameplay mechanics and multiplayer component appears to be quite a different type of experience from anything else currently on offer.
As far as new IP's go, Spec Ops: The Line looks like a solid third person shooter with an interesting setting and unique gameplay mechanics around dynamic changes to the environment as you play and Rage from id Software is something that I'm super pumped for. It just looks like a really awesome FPS with a fallout type setting and stunning visuals, I want to get my hands on this little beast sooner rather than later.
The ones that failed to inspire
A couple of key announcements failed to deliver in my opinion, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword left me quite underwhelmed after so much hype leading up to the announcement. It doesn't look like any kind of step forward visually than the last game, in fact I thought it looked worse with drab blocky textures and clunky character models, if it wasn't for the motion plus controls I would have felt totally dejected by this. And speaking of motion controls, the Kinect is without doubt amazing technology, but it has nothing in the way of software that interests me, and the same can be said of Sony's all too familiar offering to the point and waggle market, the so called PlayStation Move. I can't help but feel these thing's are out there just to test the market for what is to come a couple more years down the line.
Where are they now?
It may have been the biggest video game event of the year, but a few games were strangely absent, both the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and the PS3 exclusive The Last Guardian were nowhere in sight which I found bemusing. Batman already has the engine and mechanics in place so I at least expected to see a few environements and character teasers, and The Last Guardian is something that I'm starting to think was just an illusion.
One other disappointing no show, although not at all surprising was Aliens: Colonial Marines, I mean where the hell is it? It's in development, it's out of development, will we ever fucking see it? Is anyone working on it, I gotta say, I've lost track of what is meant to be happening with this game, if anything at all.
One to watch
Before I wrap up I want to give special mention to Devils Third, we only got to see a brief reveal trailer, but that trailer contained nothing but gameplay, which consisted of big guns and samurai swords being used generously in chaotic fast paced third person action, which are things that rate very highly with me. this is something I want to see more of and will be watching the development of this potential gem closely.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, Microsoft are making a nice move with their Xbox 360 Slim and have a nice line up of forthcoming games that I want to play (a lot of which will be available on the PS3 as well) but none of which are especially innovative, however I'm totally not into the Kinect and the same goes for Sony's Playstation Move, but I do like that they are starting to push for 3D games on the PS3 (although I don't have a PS3 yet and sure as shit won't be getting a 3D TV for quite some time). But ultimately Nintendo wiped the floor with both of them for cool upcoming games and technological innovation, so well done to the oldest player of the big three.
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Monday, 21 June 2010
Monday, 28 September 2009
How Long is Long Enough?
This is not a post about penis size, let's get that out the way now before all the comedians out there pipe up and get the two pence (cents) worth in.
I find myself getting frustrated with the length of video games, and it's a problem that has seemingly been present since I got my PS2 back in 2001, and has steadily become more of an issue since then. I don't know if it's just me that finds this, but most modern games have a very short length, which is something that I found to be an issue in both of my recent reviews for Wet and Halo 3: ODST. I find this to be an issue with a good 80% of the games I have played through in the last 7 or 8 years, even COD4 and Halo 3 were not as long as would have liked, it seems to be a common trend now that singleplayer campaigns average out at around 7 - 15 hours, which leads me to ask: is this long enough?
The games I played through prior to 2001 had much longer length, and while I wasn't anywhere near as involved in video games than as I am now, I played a variety of games across SNES, Megadrive (Genesis), Master System, PC, PlayStation and N64, all of which had some good sized games that kept you playing for hours upon hours. In my childhood, I spent hours on the SNES, playing games like Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, and even games where saving wasn't common place, they were huge adventures that would absorb hours upon hours of button bashing, brightly coloured, imaginative mayhem. But then again, time is relative to the observer, and when you are a kid time seemed to move much slower, so is this all a figment of my imagination? I also have to appreciate that my gaming sessions had time limits placed on them by my parents to an extent, so probably only lasted 1 or 2 hours at a time as opposed to the 5 or even 10 hour sessions I sometimes clock in at on a lazy Sunday these days.
I think not, because even today there are a few games that just seem to last forever, and a stark contrast exists between these long epic adventures compared to the short chapter like games that account for most of what is out there. Final Fantasy games can easily suck up over 100 hours if you try to accomplish everything on offer, and a couple of these are so good that you want to play them through a second, or even third time. The gargantuan offerings from Bethesda that take the forms of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Fallout 3 both have had me clocking in over 100 hours each, and with such gigantic single player adventures such as these I can't help but feel other game developers are simply lazy and looking to make a quick buck.
It's a difficult to take a side on this argument, because I am also aware that there are limitations on technology, story, and ideas, as well as limitations posed by the type of games. when a shorter game is released, is it because the developer has spent their time trying to make a more solid gaming experience, so that what is offered may not be very long, but is of extremely high quality? This is certainly the case some of the time, COD4 and Halo 3 being the two examples used above that would also fall into this category, but there are also some very low quality items produced that are also very short in length, but maybe due to their poor quality that is a blessing, I've had a run in with a couple of less than amazing games recently (reviews pending), and I find that I can't be bothered to finish these.
The other factor that changes the shape of the argument completely is the presence of multiplayer, I may hammer my way through most FPS' in 2 or 3 sittings, but if the multiplayer is good, there really is no limit to the amount of time you could spend interacting and shooting other human beings, and I'm sure the same is true for many other genres such as racing games. But should a game rely on multiplayer? For me, multiplayer is an afterthought when I consider buying a game, unless I know ahead of time it's something that me and my friends are all going to get heavily involved in.
I don't really have a conclusion or direction to take this debate to, but if anyone has any thoughts or opposing views I would love to hear them.
I find myself getting frustrated with the length of video games, and it's a problem that has seemingly been present since I got my PS2 back in 2001, and has steadily become more of an issue since then. I don't know if it's just me that finds this, but most modern games have a very short length, which is something that I found to be an issue in both of my recent reviews for Wet and Halo 3: ODST. I find this to be an issue with a good 80% of the games I have played through in the last 7 or 8 years, even COD4 and Halo 3 were not as long as would have liked, it seems to be a common trend now that singleplayer campaigns average out at around 7 - 15 hours, which leads me to ask: is this long enough?
The games I played through prior to 2001 had much longer length, and while I wasn't anywhere near as involved in video games than as I am now, I played a variety of games across SNES, Megadrive (Genesis), Master System, PC, PlayStation and N64, all of which had some good sized games that kept you playing for hours upon hours. In my childhood, I spent hours on the SNES, playing games like Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, and even games where saving wasn't common place, they were huge adventures that would absorb hours upon hours of button bashing, brightly coloured, imaginative mayhem. But then again, time is relative to the observer, and when you are a kid time seemed to move much slower, so is this all a figment of my imagination? I also have to appreciate that my gaming sessions had time limits placed on them by my parents to an extent, so probably only lasted 1 or 2 hours at a time as opposed to the 5 or even 10 hour sessions I sometimes clock in at on a lazy Sunday these days.
I think not, because even today there are a few games that just seem to last forever, and a stark contrast exists between these long epic adventures compared to the short chapter like games that account for most of what is out there. Final Fantasy games can easily suck up over 100 hours if you try to accomplish everything on offer, and a couple of these are so good that you want to play them through a second, or even third time. The gargantuan offerings from Bethesda that take the forms of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Fallout 3 both have had me clocking in over 100 hours each, and with such gigantic single player adventures such as these I can't help but feel other game developers are simply lazy and looking to make a quick buck.
It's a difficult to take a side on this argument, because I am also aware that there are limitations on technology, story, and ideas, as well as limitations posed by the type of games. when a shorter game is released, is it because the developer has spent their time trying to make a more solid gaming experience, so that what is offered may not be very long, but is of extremely high quality? This is certainly the case some of the time, COD4 and Halo 3 being the two examples used above that would also fall into this category, but there are also some very low quality items produced that are also very short in length, but maybe due to their poor quality that is a blessing, I've had a run in with a couple of less than amazing games recently (reviews pending), and I find that I can't be bothered to finish these.
The other factor that changes the shape of the argument completely is the presence of multiplayer, I may hammer my way through most FPS' in 2 or 3 sittings, but if the multiplayer is good, there really is no limit to the amount of time you could spend interacting and shooting other human beings, and I'm sure the same is true for many other genres such as racing games. But should a game rely on multiplayer? For me, multiplayer is an afterthought when I consider buying a game, unless I know ahead of time it's something that me and my friends are all going to get heavily involved in.
I don't really have a conclusion or direction to take this debate to, but if anyone has any thoughts or opposing views I would love to hear them.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Review: Halo 3 ODST - Xbox 360 (Part 1)
This is not just a review of a game, it's a review of a story and a package as well, and it's likely that because of this review I will come off as being a Halo 'fan boy', which to be fair, I am. Why am I a Halo fan boy? Because I like to play things that I think I will enjoy, and even when I pick up a game I think I will enjoy, some still fail to hold my attention, most recently this was the case with prototype and bioshock, I played them for as long as I could but they failed to engage me, failed to fill me with excitement, failed to have give me consistent fun... I have never grown bored of playing Halo, from the moment I first picked up an Xbox controller at a friends house when we were drunk and asked with a love at first sight slur; 'what's this game?' I was in love with it. Even if I'm not in the mood to play, within a few minutes of blasting aliens or other people in multiplayer I can't put it down... or at least that has always been the case with the 'Halo trilogy'.
Earlier this year I downloaded and played the demo of 'Halo Wars', the first Halo spin off game, which failed to draw my attention, it was set in the Halo universe and was relevant to the events of the over arching story that I have grown to love, but the game itself failed to inspire me. So as ODST is the second spin off game, and while the first was not a product of Bungie studios as this and the Halo trilogy are, I approached it with a little more caution... This was unnecessary, I've had it for 11 hours and have been playing it for a good 9 and a half of those, only breaking for the toilet and a quick session at the gym. In fact as I write this, I have an empty feeling in my soul that I think will only be filled with more ODST action.... or a blow job... turning on my Xbox is the quick fix so we'll stick with that for tonight.
I'm going to assume that you know what ODST is, so I won't put you through the 'previously on Battlestar Galactica' style recap of the rest of the Halo franchise, instead lets get to what is awesome about it, and then I'll try to find some faults with it just to avoid being labelled a whore to Halo.
The Halo story line as a whole is epic, now spanning 5 games a graphic novel and a number of actual novels (I promise this isn't a recap, I'm going somewhere with this), the main story arc being that of the Halo Trilogy, and ODST does a very good job of fitting it's story into neatly into the existing events (it's set between Halo 2 and Halo 3) but for the most part avoids the main plot devices of the Halo trilogy other than the circumstances that were set up in Halo 2 that set the scene for this game. In fact, if you have never played a Halo game before, you wouldn't be totally lost coming into ODST, the year is 2552 and a coalition of alien races have successfully invaded earth and are now occupying an African city. You are an ODST (Orbital Shock Drop Trooper, basically the SAS of the Halo universe) and you are about to be sent into the hot zone with the rest of your squad on a classified mission, the details of which have not been disclosed to you. You and your team load up and get in your pods (you are in orbit and will drop down into the conflict in armoured capsules as the ODST name suggests, like modern day paratroopers but with a serious sci-fi twist), but the shit hits the fan immediately causing you to crash land and get knocked unconscious for 6 hours, when you wake you are stranded all alone at night in a city occupied by hostile forces. It's now your job to track down the rest of your team and make it out in one piece. To do this you will have to explore the (free roaming) city, finding items that will take you into various flash backs where you will find yourself playing as one of your squad mates at some point in the 6 hours you were unconscious. This is a very new and fresh way to play Halo, and also a very clever way to make the samey scenery of the city seem much more interesting, seeing as in previous Halo games you were put on a linear path through various locations such as space stations, ancient temples, swamps, desserts, icy mountains, etc. It's also nice to have a more compact story, you are not here to take on the entire invading army, you have a specific mission, you are not about to win back earth all on your own, as you probably guessed due to this being set between Halo 2 and 3 (and if you've played through 3 you know how the war ends anyway)
The characters in this game are much more fleshed out than those of previous Halo games, the ODST squad you find yourself part of are all quirky in their own way and they actually give a sense of friendship in the way they interact with each other and causes you to become emotionally invested in them much quicker than those of the Halo trilogy (after all, they had the luxury of 3 games to make you fall in love with them) , the only odd one out being you, the new member of the team, only referred to as 'The Rookie'. As 'The Rookie', you are a silent protagonist, almost an observer caught up in events, which makes you feel almost as if you are your own narrator within this story, especially due to the playable flash backs you experience. Much like the Master Chief of the Halo Trilogy, the face you have under your helmet is never revealed, the difference being that even the Chief had the odd line of dialogue here and there, giving him a strong silent type personality, The Rookie however is just silent, but that's not to say you are made to feel totally devoid of character. I believe that keeping The Rookie silent was a necessary step to avoid over shadowing the Master Chief, who has become one of the biggest gaming icons of all time, and as I already stated he had very little dialogue in his appearances, so to give the new protagonist more of a personality might have upset some of the fans. This is nicely offset within the game by it being mentioned and indicated by other characters a number of times throughout the game, that you, the Rookie, have seen combat before, but this is never detailed or expanded upon. I found this to be very clever, as it feels like the characters within the game are acknowledging and respecting The Rookie for getting into the ODST squad and for standing up and being a man in the face of danger. But this also me the sense that it's the game developers alluding the probability that the player has likely blasted his or her way through the Halo Trilogy, which is a curious paradox when you consider that the events of those games run parallel to the events of ODST and are carried out by a different character.
So how does it feel to play, firstly it is very evident that you are not the walking battle tank cyborg of previous Halo games that was the Master Chief (and by this point it's possibly starting to sound like I have the hots for him... I don't know, maybe I do). You are normal human being this time around, you can no longer jump from a rooftop into a crowd of enemy soldiers, blasting, punching and sticking grenades to them until you are the only one left standing, allowing you to walk away like John Wayne with a smug grin on your face as you shoot off a cliche one liner at your TV screen. In fact if you attempt this, the fall will likely kill you, and if it doesn't, the heavily armed party goers you just dropped in on (see what I did there?) will make swift work of you.
Because you are a normal man, the enemies you face will seem much more daunting than they did when you were the Chief, thankfully you have a few things working in your favour. Firstly, you are in the middle of an occupation, not a raging battle as used to be the norm, the fights you find yourself in are for the most part smaller scale affairs, and when the larger battles do occur in the game, they are set piece battles designed to look epic, so you are suitably armed with heavier weapons, equipment and reinforcements to deal with them. A lot of the game also takes place at night, and thanks to you being a normal sized human, as opposed to a 7 foot walking tank that can jump 15 feet in the air or take down a tank with it's fists, you are able to hide and sneak easier, allowing you to bypass enemies without alerting them or sneak up on them to get a tactical advantage, one which is helped by your stealthy load out of a sci-fi night vision/threat detecting visor and silenced weaponry. This gives the entire experience a much more desperate and tactical feel rather than the super-heroics of past installments, but still remains true to the feel of a Halo game.
One of the curious things I noticed was that due to the more subtle nature of the game and the isolated lonely atmosphere, there was a much mellower tone to the music used, which isn't something that I am used to in a Halo game, as previously it was always all out action, ever escalating to higher states of destruction, but this time around, you are made to feel lonely and find yourself wondering if you will be able to get down the next street unscathed, or be unlucky enough to run into an enemy patrol.
The voice acting is superb, easily the best in the Halo series thus far, Tricia Helfer fits her role well, as do the members of the ODST squad, but Nathan Fillion steals the show, accentuated by some genuinely funny lines of dialogue, particularly towards the end of the campaign.
This is only part one of my review, as I said at the beginning, I was reviewing more than just the game, but the story and package as well. Well, so far I've reviewed the story, and the game to the extent that I have played it, it took me the better part of the day but I ploughed through the solo campaign on normal difficulty, and had a riot all the way. I won't be able to finish this review until I have played through the harder settings, which is something I only do if I really enjoy a game (Halo and COD being the only games that have sucked me down that route in recent years), tried the new 'Firefight' mode, played through the campaign with a friend (or friends) in co-op, and done something else I'm almost dreading... the Halo 3 multiplayer suite that came as part of the package on a second disc, but I'll go into why I'm uneasy about that after I've done it.
To be continued... (next time on Battlestar Galactica...)
Earlier this year I downloaded and played the demo of 'Halo Wars', the first Halo spin off game, which failed to draw my attention, it was set in the Halo universe and was relevant to the events of the over arching story that I have grown to love, but the game itself failed to inspire me. So as ODST is the second spin off game, and while the first was not a product of Bungie studios as this and the Halo trilogy are, I approached it with a little more caution... This was unnecessary, I've had it for 11 hours and have been playing it for a good 9 and a half of those, only breaking for the toilet and a quick session at the gym. In fact as I write this, I have an empty feeling in my soul that I think will only be filled with more ODST action.... or a blow job... turning on my Xbox is the quick fix so we'll stick with that for tonight.
I'm going to assume that you know what ODST is, so I won't put you through the 'previously on Battlestar Galactica' style recap of the rest of the Halo franchise, instead lets get to what is awesome about it, and then I'll try to find some faults with it just to avoid being labelled a whore to Halo.
The Halo story line as a whole is epic, now spanning 5 games a graphic novel and a number of actual novels (I promise this isn't a recap, I'm going somewhere with this), the main story arc being that of the Halo Trilogy, and ODST does a very good job of fitting it's story into neatly into the existing events (it's set between Halo 2 and Halo 3) but for the most part avoids the main plot devices of the Halo trilogy other than the circumstances that were set up in Halo 2 that set the scene for this game. In fact, if you have never played a Halo game before, you wouldn't be totally lost coming into ODST, the year is 2552 and a coalition of alien races have successfully invaded earth and are now occupying an African city. You are an ODST (Orbital Shock Drop Trooper, basically the SAS of the Halo universe) and you are about to be sent into the hot zone with the rest of your squad on a classified mission, the details of which have not been disclosed to you. You and your team load up and get in your pods (you are in orbit and will drop down into the conflict in armoured capsules as the ODST name suggests, like modern day paratroopers but with a serious sci-fi twist), but the shit hits the fan immediately causing you to crash land and get knocked unconscious for 6 hours, when you wake you are stranded all alone at night in a city occupied by hostile forces. It's now your job to track down the rest of your team and make it out in one piece. To do this you will have to explore the (free roaming) city, finding items that will take you into various flash backs where you will find yourself playing as one of your squad mates at some point in the 6 hours you were unconscious. This is a very new and fresh way to play Halo, and also a very clever way to make the samey scenery of the city seem much more interesting, seeing as in previous Halo games you were put on a linear path through various locations such as space stations, ancient temples, swamps, desserts, icy mountains, etc. It's also nice to have a more compact story, you are not here to take on the entire invading army, you have a specific mission, you are not about to win back earth all on your own, as you probably guessed due to this being set between Halo 2 and 3 (and if you've played through 3 you know how the war ends anyway)
The characters in this game are much more fleshed out than those of previous Halo games, the ODST squad you find yourself part of are all quirky in their own way and they actually give a sense of friendship in the way they interact with each other and causes you to become emotionally invested in them much quicker than those of the Halo trilogy (after all, they had the luxury of 3 games to make you fall in love with them) , the only odd one out being you, the new member of the team, only referred to as 'The Rookie'. As 'The Rookie', you are a silent protagonist, almost an observer caught up in events, which makes you feel almost as if you are your own narrator within this story, especially due to the playable flash backs you experience. Much like the Master Chief of the Halo Trilogy, the face you have under your helmet is never revealed, the difference being that even the Chief had the odd line of dialogue here and there, giving him a strong silent type personality, The Rookie however is just silent, but that's not to say you are made to feel totally devoid of character. I believe that keeping The Rookie silent was a necessary step to avoid over shadowing the Master Chief, who has become one of the biggest gaming icons of all time, and as I already stated he had very little dialogue in his appearances, so to give the new protagonist more of a personality might have upset some of the fans. This is nicely offset within the game by it being mentioned and indicated by other characters a number of times throughout the game, that you, the Rookie, have seen combat before, but this is never detailed or expanded upon. I found this to be very clever, as it feels like the characters within the game are acknowledging and respecting The Rookie for getting into the ODST squad and for standing up and being a man in the face of danger. But this also me the sense that it's the game developers alluding the probability that the player has likely blasted his or her way through the Halo Trilogy, which is a curious paradox when you consider that the events of those games run parallel to the events of ODST and are carried out by a different character.
So how does it feel to play, firstly it is very evident that you are not the walking battle tank cyborg of previous Halo games that was the Master Chief (and by this point it's possibly starting to sound like I have the hots for him... I don't know, maybe I do). You are normal human being this time around, you can no longer jump from a rooftop into a crowd of enemy soldiers, blasting, punching and sticking grenades to them until you are the only one left standing, allowing you to walk away like John Wayne with a smug grin on your face as you shoot off a cliche one liner at your TV screen. In fact if you attempt this, the fall will likely kill you, and if it doesn't, the heavily armed party goers you just dropped in on (see what I did there?) will make swift work of you.
Because you are a normal man, the enemies you face will seem much more daunting than they did when you were the Chief, thankfully you have a few things working in your favour. Firstly, you are in the middle of an occupation, not a raging battle as used to be the norm, the fights you find yourself in are for the most part smaller scale affairs, and when the larger battles do occur in the game, they are set piece battles designed to look epic, so you are suitably armed with heavier weapons, equipment and reinforcements to deal with them. A lot of the game also takes place at night, and thanks to you being a normal sized human, as opposed to a 7 foot walking tank that can jump 15 feet in the air or take down a tank with it's fists, you are able to hide and sneak easier, allowing you to bypass enemies without alerting them or sneak up on them to get a tactical advantage, one which is helped by your stealthy load out of a sci-fi night vision/threat detecting visor and silenced weaponry. This gives the entire experience a much more desperate and tactical feel rather than the super-heroics of past installments, but still remains true to the feel of a Halo game.
One of the curious things I noticed was that due to the more subtle nature of the game and the isolated lonely atmosphere, there was a much mellower tone to the music used, which isn't something that I am used to in a Halo game, as previously it was always all out action, ever escalating to higher states of destruction, but this time around, you are made to feel lonely and find yourself wondering if you will be able to get down the next street unscathed, or be unlucky enough to run into an enemy patrol.
The voice acting is superb, easily the best in the Halo series thus far, Tricia Helfer fits her role well, as do the members of the ODST squad, but Nathan Fillion steals the show, accentuated by some genuinely funny lines of dialogue, particularly towards the end of the campaign.
This is only part one of my review, as I said at the beginning, I was reviewing more than just the game, but the story and package as well. Well, so far I've reviewed the story, and the game to the extent that I have played it, it took me the better part of the day but I ploughed through the solo campaign on normal difficulty, and had a riot all the way. I won't be able to finish this review until I have played through the harder settings, which is something I only do if I really enjoy a game (Halo and COD being the only games that have sucked me down that route in recent years), tried the new 'Firefight' mode, played through the campaign with a friend (or friends) in co-op, and done something else I'm almost dreading... the Halo 3 multiplayer suite that came as part of the package on a second disc, but I'll go into why I'm uneasy about that after I've done it.
To be continued... (next time on Battlestar Galactica...)
Review: Wet - Xbox 360
If Max Payne and Lara Croft had a drunk and steamy night together, then Rubi - Wet's anti hero protagonist - would have been their daughter... their rebellious, morally grey daughter. She dives, slides, flips, runs up and along walls, and swings around flag poles in slow motion while blasting dual weapons at relentless crowds of thugs, criminals and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in her way. She's crude, she's rude and if you tried to chat her up in a bar you'd probably end up locked in a cubicle in the gents sobbing into your lap. Controlling her is relatively easy and standard, left stick for movement, right stick for camera/aiming, right trigger to shoot. Other buttons are mapped as follows: A - Jump/Dive in slow motion, B - Slide along the floor in slow mo (which you can do on it's own or at the end of a dive), X - use your sword, Y - is your context sensitive action button, use zip lines, open doors, etc. Any time you do anything slightly acrobatic and pull the right trigger to fire your gun, the world slows down but you can still aim in real time, giving a very matrix effect to the whole affair. One very cool thing about this is that Rubi makes good use of dual wielding her guns, any time you are in acrobatic slow mo, she will auto aim one of her guns at an enemy who will be highlighted, allowing you to either target the same one or a totally different guy to make every bullet count, which provides some awesome cinematic moments as you slide on your knees into a room shooting two gangsters in the head at the same time.
The more stylish your moves the more points you rack up, and these are used in an upgrade shop to purchase new moves and upgrade your guns. And with that masterfully executed link, your guns come in 4 flavours, standard dual pistols which provide infinite ammo, dual shotguns for getting up close and personal, dual sub machine guns for spray and prey mayhem, and lastly dual cross bows that fire explosive bolts for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every mother f*cker in the room.
The levels themselves are all designed with plenty of scenery to dive behind, jump onto, grab hold of, and leap from to showcase Rubi's acrobatic prowess, and are all styled in the appropriate scenery as the story demands - US west coast freeway, hong kong opera house, london docks, and so forth. The story is presented in a Tarantino grindhouse style, larger than life characters that are treated as every day occurrences the world they exist in, the midget torture expert, the female, blind, albino, gothic body guard, the token British bad guy (4 of them in fact) and of course rubi herself closely resembles a more gothy version of the bride from Kill Bill.
A few set piece levels break up the action a bit; jumping from car to car on the freeway while having a shoot out with the mafia who are shooting at you from speeding cars, various sections of levels where Rubi gets blood in her eyes and literally sees red allowing you to go into a berserker mode painted in a noir pallet of reds, whites and blacks. There is even one level, caused by Rubi's less than stealthy infiltration of a carrier jet, that sees Rubi sky diving without a parachute amongst the wreckage of said jet, while shooting the other doomed occupants (who despite their predicament still seem to be hell bent on putting as many bullets your way as possible), avoiding the chunks of wreckage that are hurtling towards London's sky line with you, and trying to grab the only parachute in sight, which is bolted to the inside of a piece of the hull. This scene seems to have been completely lifted from the Clive Owen movie 'shoot 'em up', only Wet somehow manages to make it more believable!
The run time of 8 - 9 hours on normal difficulty seems to be pretty standard these days, I'd rather it was longer but as all other games of it's type seem to be about the same length, criticising it would be unfair. What really got my goat was the lack of New Game+ or being able to revisit the levels you have already done, once you reach the end of the game, that's it, you can either start over, from scratch without any of the skills you have unlocked, or just play through the final scene again, which wasn't much of a boss fight, but fitted well with the grindhouse setting. Not being able to go back and play the memorable moments again with your full arsenal feels, at best, like a huge oversight, and at worst, like a very cheap way of forcing you to replay the game.
Technically there are not many faults with the game, I didn't see many glitches, a couple of visual quips here and there, and while the graphics aren't ground breaking, they are tailored to the grindhouse theme, although I turned off the movie scratch/grain effect immediately to avoid feeling ill.
Scoring this game isn't all that easy, I had fun playing it and there were some truly breathtaking moments of over the top action and violence. It's faults are not really in what it has and does, but rather in what it lacks, there are key features that I feel should have been included, some as standard, and that's what really brings this game down for me, an anti climax to the fun.
6.5/10
The more stylish your moves the more points you rack up, and these are used in an upgrade shop to purchase new moves and upgrade your guns. And with that masterfully executed link, your guns come in 4 flavours, standard dual pistols which provide infinite ammo, dual shotguns for getting up close and personal, dual sub machine guns for spray and prey mayhem, and lastly dual cross bows that fire explosive bolts for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every mother f*cker in the room.
The levels themselves are all designed with plenty of scenery to dive behind, jump onto, grab hold of, and leap from to showcase Rubi's acrobatic prowess, and are all styled in the appropriate scenery as the story demands - US west coast freeway, hong kong opera house, london docks, and so forth. The story is presented in a Tarantino grindhouse style, larger than life characters that are treated as every day occurrences the world they exist in, the midget torture expert, the female, blind, albino, gothic body guard, the token British bad guy (4 of them in fact) and of course rubi herself closely resembles a more gothy version of the bride from Kill Bill.
A few set piece levels break up the action a bit; jumping from car to car on the freeway while having a shoot out with the mafia who are shooting at you from speeding cars, various sections of levels where Rubi gets blood in her eyes and literally sees red allowing you to go into a berserker mode painted in a noir pallet of reds, whites and blacks. There is even one level, caused by Rubi's less than stealthy infiltration of a carrier jet, that sees Rubi sky diving without a parachute amongst the wreckage of said jet, while shooting the other doomed occupants (who despite their predicament still seem to be hell bent on putting as many bullets your way as possible), avoiding the chunks of wreckage that are hurtling towards London's sky line with you, and trying to grab the only parachute in sight, which is bolted to the inside of a piece of the hull. This scene seems to have been completely lifted from the Clive Owen movie 'shoot 'em up', only Wet somehow manages to make it more believable!
The run time of 8 - 9 hours on normal difficulty seems to be pretty standard these days, I'd rather it was longer but as all other games of it's type seem to be about the same length, criticising it would be unfair. What really got my goat was the lack of New Game+ or being able to revisit the levels you have already done, once you reach the end of the game, that's it, you can either start over, from scratch without any of the skills you have unlocked, or just play through the final scene again, which wasn't much of a boss fight, but fitted well with the grindhouse setting. Not being able to go back and play the memorable moments again with your full arsenal feels, at best, like a huge oversight, and at worst, like a very cheap way of forcing you to replay the game.
Technically there are not many faults with the game, I didn't see many glitches, a couple of visual quips here and there, and while the graphics aren't ground breaking, they are tailored to the grindhouse theme, although I turned off the movie scratch/grain effect immediately to avoid feeling ill.
Scoring this game isn't all that easy, I had fun playing it and there were some truly breathtaking moments of over the top action and violence. It's faults are not really in what it has and does, but rather in what it lacks, there are key features that I feel should have been included, some as standard, and that's what really brings this game down for me, an anti climax to the fun.
6.5/10
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