Reviewed on PC. Also on: PS3, Xbox 360. Developed by Rocksteady. Published by Eidos (Square Enix)
So you’re Batman. You’ve just captured the Joker and are just dropping him off at Arkham Asylum, Gotham City’s biggest and best nuthouse. And then, shit gets real…
All hell breaks loose on Arkham Island and Batman has to track down his nemesis, as well as several other villains conveniently locked up in the asylum. It’s a mix of exploration, combat and action, telling a story in a way that sounds like an ordinary license but has so much flair and inventiveness that you will never automatically talk about Uncharted 2 as the best game of 2009. How is this possible? Let’s break it down.
Note: I played this on PC with a mouse and keyboard. And it needs a gamepad and since there’s no 360 gamepad driver for my computer, mouse and keyboard it is. I recommend playing this with a controller.
You play as Batman (duh), criss-crossing the island in search of clues, beating up roid head convicts, taking on the odd boss, exploring all sorts of nooks and crannies. You detect, you codebreak, you grapple and you beat the living shit out of things. You are, after all, THE Batman. Not just a batman. The definite article.
Unlike other superheroes, Batman doesn’t have superpowers. He’s just an ordinary roid-enhanced (as are all the men in this, it has to be said) dude with lots of gadgets such as his Batarang, a grappling hook, a decoder etc, to help him through his tasks. Gadgets unlock at salient points in the game, many of which allow Batman to get to areas you would have noticed during the early stages of your travels, areas that early on, you can merely look at longfully, ruing that you will have to come back at a later date if you’re remotely OCD. Batman also has Detective mode, which highlights areas of interest and x-rayed allies/enemies. It will help Bats to find ledges to grapple to, to find vents, track down traces of DNA, etc. And if you find yourself not playing in Detective mode 90% of the time, I would be royally surprised. Some gadgets can also be used as weapons, but these generally only have a temporary stunning effect on some foes, but useful nonetheless. Batman doesn’t use guns. He’s Batman.
Combat in the game is simple- usually just a button for attack with another for countering and a third to stun some foes who are otherwise impervious to your blows. Combat is generally not random and metered out in a fun way at intervals that help vary the game’s overall pacing nicely. Often the game will lock you in a room with a set number of foes to beat (like 90% of other games). Of course if you knock them down, you’ll still need to perform a takedown in many cases. Bosses are well thought out in general with a degree of variety (apart from Scarecrow encounters, which are really just 2D stealth missions) though your enjoyment of them may vary. Of course, the game, though it looks like a brawler, isn’t a beat-em-up. It just does the fights it does offer quite well. This could so easily have turned into fight wave after wave of enemies, monotony being your constant companion and repetition your amusingly Southern sidekick dealio.
If you end up in an area with armed foes, then the game requires you to take a stealthier approach, since if you run in expecting to take out armed guards with just your fists, you’re going to die faster than a whale on a plankton-free diet. These chambers usually have stone gargoyles along the ceiling and you’re meant to take a guard out quietly, then using your grappling hook to zip up to a Gargoyle. If you’re seen, rapidly moving between gargoyles seems to confuse your pursuers, because really, they’re that stupid. AA is easily the best stealth game since Metal Gear 3 or Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory (not to denigrate MGS4 or the latest Splinter Cell- but they aren’t really stealth games any more, are they?). Many of your gadgets also assist in combat with the batarang, explosive gel and grapple gun able to assist you in briefly disarming foes while you move in for the takedown. The game will also mix these up by placing restrictions and adds to the feeling that everything old is new but still way cool and fresher than a daisy that’s won Fresh Daisy of the Year. Remember how everyone says Grabbed By the Ghoulies is one of Rare’s worst games (I’d put Perfect Dark Zero in that slot)? Well Rocksteady obviously took something away from that game since they do the exact same thing here.
You upgrade your gadgets by finding them, but every little thing you do contributes experience points, which will unlock upgrades such as better suit armour, enhanced abilities for your gadgets etc. You also have The Riddler placing puzzles all over the island, most of which just involve finding an icon, but some others require scanning using detective mode. You can also find recordings of Therapy sessions with some of the choice inmates. Replay is a big focus with this game, with challenges unlocked as you play the game (these are accessed separately from the main game.
The game has a story to tell, something many titles based on comics don’t do very well, concentrating on action. Comics have wiz-bang action but they tell a story and here, story is well serviced by what’s happening. You feel the story unfolds around you, not just in loading mission briefing screens on games such as MW2. The story also doesn’t usurp the game as Hideo Kojima fails to understand time and time again. So we do get to see a fair few of Batman’s favourites, to name them all would A) spoil the game and B) reveal I haven’t gotten to the end. Oops, what a giveaway! Batman fans of most persuasions will get a kick out of this game (unless you can’t accept anyone other than Heath Ledger portraying the Joker).
Speaking of actors, Kevin Conroy’s more measured Batman is easier to listen to than the what-the-fuck-is-going-on with Christian Bales’ voice in the latest films. Occasionally there’s a little wood in some of his lines, such is the deadpan delivery but he’s as badass as he needs to be. Of note is Mark Hamill’s performance as The Joker. Whether in cutscenes or bombarding you with his wisdom over the Asylum’s public address system, he gets it note perfect. All’s I can say Luke- lay off the lucky strikes and Bourbon-flavoured Corn Flakes. Huskier than the Iditarod, he gives it his all. It’s probably his best villainous performances since Cock-knocker but since that wasn’t that great. Anyhoo…
The presentation in this game is uniformly excellent with this being possibly THE single most polished game of last year. Visuals are fantastic with an art style that let Rocksteady’s team bring this dense world alive. Sounds is top notch with a sound design that games will be referencing for years to come. It’s purdy and sounds nice, too. I’m assured the console versions look nice as well.
It’s hard not to recommend this game to practically anyone referring to gaming as a hobby. It’s got action, it’s got drama, it’s got Harley Quinn upskirts, it’s got a ***-**** (how the fuck to you build that under a high security installation with no-one noticing?). Also- it’s usually quite cheap by now so no excuses.
Controller1.com Rating 3/3
Review rig specs: quadcore PC with 8GB RAM and a 512MB ATI 4870 card. Monitor resolution at 1920X1200. Win 7 64 bit. Steam version tested.
So, we’ve had the glut of holdover games from 2009 mostly been released. Dante’s Inferno, Mass Effect 2, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII, Bioshock 2 and now Splinter Cell: Conviction are all out. Hell, Alan Wake is out in a timeframe that can be described as soon. We know a few of the big games later in the year (Medal of Honor, a new Call of Duty, maybe even Gran Turismo 5 and Little Big Planet 2), and of course many E3 announcements are anticipate, but what are we going to be playing or ignoring during the coming mid-year void. Will we have games like inFamous, Prototype and Red Faction to tide us over?
ALAN WAKE
It’s taken longer to develop than it took to get a black man in the White House without someone calling the cops. Will Remedy’s thriller entertain us more than Max Payne?
LOST PLANET 2: MORE LOSTER
The 3rd-person shooter that bushwacked you and became a mech game is back. Does this one start as a mech game and become an on-foot shooter?
SKATE 3.
So EA/Black Box didn’t go the cool route and call it Skat3. Of course you just know what the 8th installment is going to be called, don’t you. Continuing to use the Flick-It control system, the only time a control system is named after a popular method for disposing of boogers; Skate 3 drives home the final nails in the coffin of the Tony Hawk series almost as fast as Activision. Coming Soon: Tony Hawk:Shred, then Tony Hawk: Please followed by Tony Hawk: Pretty Please.
PRINCE OF PERSIA: FORGOTTEN SANDS OF TIME STORYLINE
Prince of Persia has been reinvented more times than Cher’s ass, so this game of the movie of the game features Jake’s Abs. While Sands of Time was my favourite PoP game, it is the only one I liked. And Jake is no Nolan.
RED DEAD REDEMPTION
An open world sequel to GUN Red Dead Revolver, Rock Star San Diego’s latest has been shrouded in controversies over working conditions and publishers attempting to influence review scores. Is it going to be as much fun as Red Faction or Just Cause 2. Or is it going to be as mundane as GTA IV?
BLUR
Bizzarre Creations first racing game for new owners Activision is likely to give former PGR fans a run for their money. Being Activision, literally giving them a run for their money.
METAL GEAR PEACE WALKER
See Hideo make a PSP game. See Konami flushing money down the toilet in the US and Europe as this title hits pirate websites faster than a casual MGS fan skips a cutscene. “Snake, do you think love can” *Presses Triangle*
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
It would be hilarious if some kind of reference to Tiger’s personal issues were made. “Tiger’s scored a hole in one” takes on a new meaning
METROID: OTHER M
The other M stands for M&M. MMmmmmmmmmm
APB
Real-Time Worlds’ MMO-esque gangster game, their follow up to Crackdown and one hell of an awesome-sounding project. PC only, but don’t that against this.
QUANTUM THEORY
A Japanese take on Gears of War. Except it’s Japanese and the guy through he throws his partner through the air. So it’s Japanese.
CRACKDOWN 2
YES! CRACKDOWN 2. Cam is looking forward to getting this game for free from some random person and jumping off the roof of a building. I think he intends on recording a podcast via Skype on the way down.
oh and Mafia II, Kane and Lynch 2 (Giant Bomb’s GOTY), Dead Rising 2. In amongst all of this will be Modern Warfare 2 map packs, Halo Reach Beta and hopefully some download only gems.
That should be enough to tide most of us over until Halo Reach, Portal 2 and Gran Turismo turn up from September onwards…
For my sins I can only see myself grabbing Alan Wake, Crackdown 2 and maybe APB with an outside possibility of Red Dead Redemption. How ’bout you?
Available on Gamecube and Playstation 2. Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.
Here’s an example of a story-based game done right. Killer 7 is a fever dream of a game, comprised of an off-the-wall collection of experimental ideas. Goichi Suda, its writer, designer, and director, deserves the acclaim that this title has brought him. He has made a game that is truly unlike any other. It’s a fine game for action-adventure lovers, but you should try Killer 7 even if you just enjoy a good mindfuck. Killer 7 is not always an easy game to play, or even to understand, but don’t give up on it. It’ll haunt you.
It’s Friday night, and Harman Smith (God) and Kun Lan (the devil) are in the mood for a friendly competition. They take a good look at the world, and see that its nations are at peace, having stamped out terrorism, opened up all trade, and destroyed their nuclear stockpiles. Kun Lan decides that it’s time to introduce a new threat to humanity: the Heaven Smiles, an army of cackling suicide bombers who exist only to inspire fear. In response, Harman takes charge of a mysterious group of assassins called the Killer 7, who are singularly skilled at hunting the Smiles. So begins another turn in the cycle of human history, one that will be marked by many bizarre and terrible events.
THE KILLER 7
Garcian Smith, the front man. He’s the one who takes orders from Harman and missions from the U.S. Government. His silenced pistol is a poor weapon, but he’ll have to risk his neck occasionally to do corpse runs: Garcian is the only one who can recover fallen members of the team and bring them back to life.
Dan Smith, the all-rounder. He’s a cocky and angry fellow in a business suit who hefts a huge revolver. He can “charge” his gunshots to take out even the toughest enemies instantly.
Kaede Smith, a.k.a. Barefoot. Her pistol bears a scope for long-range sniping, and she can open hidden doors by showering them with her blood.
Kevin Smith, the oddball. Kevin is as pale as the moon, he never speaks, and he prefers throwing knives to guns. He can also turn invisible for short periods to sneak past enemies and tripwires.
Con Smith, the kid. Quickness is the name of Con’s game. His automatic pistols fire rapidly, he can sprint at high speed for a short time, and he can squeeze through tiny passages.
Coyote Smith, the thief. Sort of a mix between Dan’s power and Con’s mobility, Coyote can charge his shots, jump onto roofs, and pick padlocks.
Mask de Smith, the luchador. He’s big and slow, but when you need heavy firepower, Mask’s your man. His twin grenade launchers are devastating to groups of enemies, as well as to certain cracked walls.
The game’s look is as memorable as its cast. Few of its polygons are textured. The backgrounds are filled with simple color gradients, and every surface is edged with hard black shadows. It looks like an elaborately lit stage play, and that works to the game’s benefit: you can view any given screenshot of Killer 7 and recognize it immediately.
The game is divided into six chapters, and each chapter is represented by the target you’re out to eliminate. You’ll take control of the Killer 7 and pilot them through large, maze-like buildings and complexes. As you go, you’ll shoot down hordes of Heaven Smile, converse with the ghosts of your past kills, solve the occasional puzzle, and collect widgey-whazzits to open doors and gain access to your targets.
None of these conventions sounds particularly unique for a video game, but Killer 7 grabs them and twists them into new shapes. While most shooting games give you an arsenal of weapons to switch between at any time, Killer 7 lets you switch entire assassins at any time. You choose the Smith you want from the pause menu, and your character literally transmogrifies from one form to another. You’ll have to do this many times to advance in the game.
Another striking feature is that you don’t use the control stick for movement. Instead, you hold A to move your character along a pre-determined path. You press B to turn him or her around to move in the opposite direction down that path. When you reach a point where you can choose from multiple paths or interact with objects, a list of choices appears. You select your choice of direction with the control stick, and then continue holding A to move along the path. You don’t have the freedom to move wherever you like, but in a way, this is kind of a relief. You don’t have to adjust the camera, and you’re only ever presented with meaningful options. You’re not going to be obsessively checking every door, corner, and wall for secrets to hoard, because you can’t. It’s really a daring and brilliant design choice. The only game I can think of that incorporates a similar sort of “on-rails” movement is The 7th Guest, but that game didn’t have bloodthirsty terrorists out to kill you.
The Heaven Smile are a violent lot, but they’re also rather cheery. As you run about the area, you’ll hear these mad bombers snicker at you. When that happens, hold the R trigger to enter first-person aiming mode. While aiming, pull the L trigger to perform a “scan,” which neutralizes the Predator-like camouflage the Smiles use. Suddenly, you’ll see these hideous, gangly beasts creeping toward you. Lock on to them using B, aim manually with the left stick, and press A to fire.
The shooting action plays something like The House of the Dead. None of the Smiles have long-range attacks; their only method of fighting is to march up to you and detonate their bombs. You must finish them off before they can get close enough to do that. The trouble is that most of the Smiles don’t go down easily. You can tear off their arms, legs, and even their heads, and they’ll continue to come after you. Every Smile has a glowing weak point which can be shot for a one-hit kill, but it’s not easy to hit, and sometimes it’s in an awkward place, like a knee or an elbow.
You could just use Mask and his grenades to burn up the bad guys, but there are a couple of drawbacks to that strategy. First, some enemies are immune to grenades, and second, burning the enemies wins you no blood.
Blood is the currency of Killer 7, and you earn it by blasting off Smile limbs or by shooting out their weak points. You’ll collect two kinds of blood: thin blood, which is depicted as test tubes while aiming, and thick blood, which is depicted as a beaker in the pause menu.
Thin blood can be used to heal your character, or to power special attacks. Dan, Kevin, Mask, and Coyote can each “charge up” their weapons by pressing Y while aiming. Each level of charge requires one tube of thin blood. Some enemies can only be killed using these charged attacks, and sometimes you’ll be unable to advance in the game until those enemies are killed. This means that without blood, you’re fucked.
The key to success is to be a sharpshooter. Your gunplay must be accurate enough to consistently hit the Smiles’ blood-spilling weak points, while also being fast enough to kill the Smiles before they can reach you. Once you get the hang of it, picking off Smiles with one shot a piece is a thrilling and wonderful rush.
It’ll take practice to get to that point, but upgrades are available to help you along. You can purchase them at the “Harman’s Rooms” that are scattered about each area. Thick blood is converted into a special serum, which is then used to improve the stats of your team members. You can boost each assassin’s attack power, increase their firing rates, reduce the kicks of their guns, and inflate the hitboxes of enemy weak points. At the beginning of the game, it’s easy to keep every member at an even level of strength, but towards the end, the upgrades become pricey, and you’ll have to make some tough choices about whom to improve and in what areas. Odds are you’ll grow to specialize in the use of a particular Smith, and I recommend you pour most of your upgrades into that guy (or girl).
As a bizarre game, Killer 7 also has some bizarre problems. The worst one is that its difficulty is uneven. It’s all over the place. Early missions have some tough encounters against hordes of spawning Smiles, while later areas can be extremely tame. These tough fights aren’t too bad if you use the different skills of the Smiths effectively, but they still seem as though they belong in later stages. Meanwhile the final areas offer hardly any combat at all.
The puzzles are so simple as to be laughable, and if you still get stumped by them, there is a friendly character who will give you complete solutions in exchange for some thick blood. In case you encounter a confusing obstacle, you can check the map screen for icons that tell you exactly which Smith you need to use to get past that obstacle. It’s nice that you’ll rarely get stuck, but it makes me wonder why the puzzles are even there in the first place.
Then there’s the story. It’s a cool story, told in a tongue-in-cheek, horror-movie style that keeps you from taking it too seriously, but it’s also a little ambitious, and by “ambitious,” I mean confusing. It’s messy and wild, which can be fun if you’re in the mood for it, but after a while it can make you crazy. This is a story you want to seize by the shoulders and force down in a chair so it can start talking sense. It leaps from one plot thread to another in an instant, it dramatically introduces characters who may or may not be significant, it delves into the pasts of some of the Smiths while ignoring others, and it never bothers to piece its own dreamlike fragments together. You might be able to connect some of the dots if you’re especially attentive, but a host of unanswered questions will still remain. The natures of Harman, Dan, and Garcian are especially strange, but the game never clarifies them, so you have to draw your own conclusions. The finale is a series of half-revelations that seem like they could be powerful and resonant, if only they actually explained anything.
I get the feeling that Goichi Suda had a hell of a lot to say in this game, but he didn’t have the time or the resources to make it all fit. If you’re the sort of person who pores over episodes of Twin Peaks, Aeon Flux, or Lost in search of the tiniest connections in logic, then Killer 7 will keep your mind revved and spinning for weeks. If you’d rather ignore a game’s story, or prefer that the it tie up its own loose ends, then Killer 7 is not the one for you.
Killer 7 is a polarizing experience. Its nightmarish look, unorthodox controls, freaky characters, and shattered plot pissed off a ton of gamers back in 2005, and it didn’t sell well in any territory. Odds are that it will still piss off a lot of people today. Your enjoyment of this game will depend on your willingness to be hypnotized by its creepy world. Once you’re drawn into it, you’ll find Killer 7 to be a lovely gem.
If I still haven’t convinced you of how exceptional this game is, check out the following video, which illustrates the action better than I can describe it.
So hands up who has spent large parts of their life unable to buy all the latest games? I know I spent most of the 90′s being either underemployed or just plain out of work. Whether you’re a kid, student, unemployed, have kids are are just gosh darn poor; gaming can be an expensive business. It’s very easy to game for cheap- buy a PS2 and partake in the thousands of games available in bargain bins, thrift stores, Ebay and the like. But here’s a guide to how you can get the costs of playing a Wii, PS3, PC and Or Xbox 360 down whilst keeping up with the Joneses- most of the time. Using this post as a guide won’t get you every game at launch but may at least help.
Pick what you buy/ Buy it when you have time to play it: Of course, the most important thing is to only get games you are likely to enjoy. I know this sounds obvious but it is important. Every time I hear about someone’s gaming backlog you feel like throttling them. A backlog and being cheap does not compute since any games you don’t start straight away may fall in price by the time you get to play them. It’s silly to buy a game for $50, let it sit on a shelf at home for six months while you play other games, and then play your $50 game when it’s on sale at EB for $10. If you are playing a game that you enjoy, finish it before you get the next game. If there’s a demo of a game you’re interested in- play that to see whether it’s going to be your cup of tea. Often you will avoid some bad games. Sometimes a demo will turn you off but the full game is much better. This is where anecdotal evidence comes into play. I only bought Red Faction after hearing so many stories about how much fun it was.
How long are you honestly going to play it for? Why the fuck did I buy Buzz or Singstar, I barely played either. Why did I buy House of the Dead Overkill- I barely played that. Why did I buy Banjo Kazooie: nuts and Bolts despite hating the demo? I’d love to play Beatles Rock Band but the fact I’m going to play it for an hour puts me off. A few years ago, I came up with a metric- 1 hour of play for every $10 it cost to buy. I still sort of live by this- or at least feel more comfortable with a game once I’ve hit the threshold. One year I had GH World Tour bundle, Fallout 3, BK Nuts and Bolts and Prince of Persia and the time I put into Fallout 3 more or less paid for the others (the same year, I had Gears 2, Fable II, LBP, CoD WaW and Mirror’s Edge but they all easily paid for themselves).
The Waiting Game: Simple fact is most games will drop in price within a year of release. Greatest Hits or Platinum games are a given. inFamous came out midway through 2009, made a decent splash on the NPD’s yet was a greatest hit at less than half the price within only a few months on market. Games that don’t perform to expectations, such as Bayonetta (released January, sold OK but not as well as Sega would have liked, seen for around 30% cheaper) or sent to die by the publisher like The Saboteur (similar pricing after 6 months on the market. Games don’t even have to be a flop for publishers to dump. Red Faction Guerrilla was a decent hit last year but they are practically giving it away with Corn Flakes these days. The longer you wait, the more the price will drop though there’s no rule of thumb as to how long you might wait. Of course, some games never drop. The original Halo was full price for several years before it finally dropped, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has only dropped because the sequel is out. Absolute bombs will drop faster than an original Xbox in a pond. Dark Void came out a few months ago and today I read it’s 1/4 of it’s new price at one local discount store. But that’s an ordinary game and you need to avoid those.
If you like sports games, it’s funny how EA pumps one out every year. Madden 2011 will be out soon, meaning Madden 2010 will be cheaper. So online play may be compromised by EA, but if you just want a solo game of NHL 08, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to find. Tiger Woods games may, for some reason, be cheaper at the moment. If for some reason, you wanted to play the Vancouver 2010 game, or the World Cup Soccer game, see how cheap they are a few weeks after the event has finished. Seasonal games have inbuilt obsolescence after a very short window of relevancy. The same with that tie-in game for a Harry Potter Movie or any other big summer blockbuster. I bet you can find GI:Joe quite cheaply.
Who knew Guitar Hero and Rock Band instrument kits would become so cheap this year? Aren’t we all kicking ourselves for buying last year?
Shopping Around/ Choose Your Retailer: I can go buy a game from a variety of retailers. Some will feature a game at full recommended retail no matter what other places are selling for. Well don’t go there to buy games. I can go to others who will advertise lower prices. I go there. In Australia I would often buy from Discount Department Stores (Kmart, Target or Big W) or JB Hi-Fi (hard to describe- sells HiFi, TV, games, movies, music and has a low-rent at most but there are hundreds of stores) and never from premium department stores or rarely from specialist games retailers like Game, Game Traders or EB Games. Mom and pop outfits don’t exist here but since there’s at least one EB or Game in any shopping mall (no matter how small it seems), you’d think they’d use their buying power to offer a lower price? Think again.
Price-Matching. So the place that says they will not be undersold doesn’t actually offer a decent price on a game. But if you can show them proof of a competitor selling it cheaper, you might be in luck. I’ve only successfully done this once (at EB for Fable II) and not-so-successfully for GTA IV so It can be an exercise in futility.
Timing: This is important. Every country has this at different times but there are two times each year when I know when there will be big sale on games, often quite recent ones. Just after Christmas or in June around the end of the Financial Year in Australia. Now that’s different in most countries but they are a great sales magnet since companies want to divest themselves of as much stock as possible. After Christmas is good because it’s often a way to get good games that didn’t do so well at retail quite cheaply. I have a rule- Try not to Buy a Ubisoft game at launch unless it’s a hit. I can’t tell you how many January Sales at EB have depressed me because that Rainbow Six game I bought before Christmas is now half price. Not every game but any- I mean Assassin’s Creed II price has held up, but the 2008 Prince of Persia game price went south faster than a coed on Spring Break (whatever the fuck that means). Stocktake sales, usually near these big Finance milestones can also offer booty, and of course there’s Black Friday in the US.
Steam: So steam is great for a PC gamer since they are practically giving away older games. Psychonauts for $2? Maybe that’s not such a great example but I’m still pleased with getting Batman AA and Just Cause for just over $20 recently. I mean they’ve already done big discounts on Left 4 Dead 2 and had weekends where you could play some of their games for free. Now, Steam, outside of the US, can be a bit hit or miss. A famous story is how when when CoD4 came out on steam, people in Australia could by the Steam version for US$50- with the exchange rate at the time, it was a hell of a lot cheaper than buying instore. Someone realised this and the Steam version shot up to US$88 if your account was an Australian one. Same thing happened with Borderlands and more recently, BC2.
SELL, SELL, SELL: Don’t be a collector hoarder if you can’t afford it. Finished with Bioshock 2? Are you ever ever ever going to replay it? Sell it while it’s still worth something. The secret to selling something is to not say “it cost me $50 so I’m selling it for $50.” Find out how much the cheapest that game is new and then sell it for less than that. Borderlands is now $40? Offer it for $30. Trading in to EB/ Gamestop is sorta worth it if you do it in the first few days of the games release but do it yourself and it will pay for itself.
Import (note: not always applicable to the US): Being from Australia, I’m used the Australian Dollar being fairly low compared to most other currencies. At the moment it’s worth more than ever against other currencies so I’m importing a bit. But even when when we referred to the Kanga-Dollar as the Aussie Peso, importing was a way to save money. Even now, Splinter Cell: Conviction is around AU$88-$98 in stores (cheapest at launch was at Target for $78)but only $55 shipped from Play Asia. And Play Asia’s weekly special can often bring some welcome treats such as Bioshock 2 for US$33. And they give you a $5 coupon with each purchase (the trick is to not use everyone of them). There are others such as Zavvi, 365 games, CDWow (mostly UK versions). I found Play-Asia to often offer Asian Versions, which are still in full English but you might get some Chinese/ Korean characters on the box. My copy of Crackdown has a Manga-style cover- the disc contents are the same as the US version. What I have found funny in the past is getting the Australian versions of games from Play-Asia for much cheaper than buying from shops. The other thing is, not all games sell as well in different territories. Singstar in the US isn’t as ubiquitous as the UK, same with Eye Toy. 360 games won’t sell as well in Europe as the UK so there may be some specials to be had by trying other regions.
There are caveats to importing. First, we’ll assume you’re such a tightwad that you don’t have an imported console. So you need to be sure the game you buy is Region Free, or at least compatible with your machine. So PS3 games are almost all Region Free (the only exception I can think of is Stranglehold Special Edition), all Wii games are region-locked and all DS/PSP games on disc/cart are region free (not necessarily download versions, though).
Most- BUT NOT ALL- Xbox 360 games are region Free. Places like Play-Asia will mention which regions the games will play on. A quick google serach of the name of the game along with the phrase region free will yield the answer- though most of the results pre-release are, er , dodgy. Sites like vgplus.blogspot.com are useful in determining region status- NOTE: THIS APPLIES TO BLU-RAY MOVIES AS WELL (http://bluray.liesinc.net and http://movietyme.blogspot.com/ are good resources though I guess if you’re cheap, you’ll be sticking with DVD and the like).
Lastly- PS3 patches are region free along with the games. BUT THE DLC IS NOT REGION FREE. If you have a US version of game, you need to make a US PSN account to buy the DLC, etc. If you have say, the Asian version of Burnout Paradise, you can’t use a Euro PSN account to buy DLC. Well, you can still buy it, it just won’t show up in the game. YOU FUCKERS SONY!
Research: So sites like (US) http://www.cheapassgamer.com/ and (AU) ecogamer.com can help get you deals as can the flyers, circulars and other assorted Junk Mail you get in your physical mail box. I used to pour over these each week but these days I have a “No FUCKING Junk Mail” sign on the front of the house- which keeps 99% of junk mail away. Of course, most bricks and mortar stores all replicate their catalogues online now anyway and still more sites collate these and rehost them ie cataloguecentral.com.au
Rent: Why buy when you can rent from Netflix or Blockbuster?
Borrow: Here’s where being a social outcast bites you in the bum but if you have a friend who buys all the latest, try borrowing games when they’re done.
DLC: Here’s the biggest way to save money. Don’t buy DLC. It’s rare that DLC is so compelling you must have it. Fallout 3 offered five extra DLC missions and by all accounts, none was worth it. Even better was the fact if you waited a year, you could get the GOTY edition with all of the DLC missions.
ReIssues: Why are you buying Super Street Fighter IV?
Collector’s Editions: Unless you manage to get these for the same price as the standard edition- avoid. Do you really need a cat helmet or night vision goggles?
Multiplayer: A good multiplayer game can last for months. I played CoD4 with workmates for nearly two years. They lasted two weeks on MW2 before giving up and playing CoD4 again. I think they’re back to CoD 2 for now. It’s hit and miss as to what takes off but it’s rarely from an unknown source these days. you can expect a Valve MP game to last a long time ( I know i was able to play Day of Defeat Source online for several months last year). I’m guessing Epic and id didn’t expect Quaker Wars and Unreal III to die so quickly.
iPhone/iPod Touch: So if you already have one of these, there are thousands of games for far less than you would pay for the same/similar thing on DS or PSP.
This may be of less use but…
Friends in High Places: If you know someone who works at a publisher or publisher-owned developer, they can often get games from their employers catalogue at a substantial discount.
Tax: If by some chance you can actually work making games, you could be able to claim a tax deduction (Important to note: THIS IS DEPENDING ON YOUR COUNTRY’s TAX LAWS- SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE BECAUSE I AM MANY THINGS BUT I AM NOT AN ACCOUNTANT)
Start a videogame website: You might get the chance to get freebies. LOL
So there you have a cheat sheet for being a cheap-ass. You could go even cheaper and do what Cam does and never play anything new unless he gets it as a present or freebie from a publisher for his day job.
Reviewed on PS3. Also on PC, Xbox 360 Developed by Pandemic. Send to to die by EA.
Pandemic’s last release before being shuttered late last year, The Saboteur is a third-person, open world action game set in Paris during the Nazi occupation of WWII. You play as Sean Devlin, a hard drinkin’, hard-lovin’, hard drivin’, hard swearin’ fecker possibly from Ireland who wreaks havoc throughout gay Paris. Released with less fanfare than a deaf marching band, The Saboteur set new records for a major release being barely marketed and therefore ignored by the buying public. It’s also a cracker of a game.
As with many Pandemic games, it’s a melting pot of other games, most notably GTA. Take GTA and set it in World War II, an idea that is surprising only in that it took so long for someone to actually do it. You’ve played GTA, right? Well add in the ability to climb up most buildings a la inFamous or Assassin’s Creed; then add the dozens of items to blow up (channeling, though not copying, Red Faction Guerrilla’s biggest thrill) and add in some rather wonky driving mechanics; add a pinch of over the top stereotypical accents and more tits than you can poke something resembling a stick at or at least something that is stick-shaped in a NSFW type of way and you have The Saboteur.
Sean Devlin is an Irish mechanic-cum-racing driver in Paris during the Nazi occupation who fast becomes the go-to guy for most of the resistance factions. You’ll meet a faction leader and they may give you a mission that’s either a side mission or one that will advance the storyline. Variety here is pretty good and you don’t get the feeling that you did the same mission for another guy earlier in the game. Now some of the story missions have a really epic scope. Not to say they’re overly long, but you don’t that “scripted by a level designer out of available elements” feeling that many of the missions in GTA /GTA-style games engender. So you might be assassinating an informant in one mission with a sniper rifle; having to kill a German general locked up safely in an armoured car surrounded by a division on men; Or take sabotage a bridge, then kidnap a defecting scientist from the train before it reaches said bridge, all the while laying waste to Germans. Lots of laffs guaranteed. Play this game and join the Laffwaffer.
Some of these side missions can be done easily by hijacking a gun emplacement or unlocking certain weapons, others can be exercises in frustration as you attempt to escape from hordes of Nazis. And I mean hordes. Not so much at the start, but around the time you hit the game’s halfway point, there is a marked spike in Nazi aggression to the point where mission restarts become commonplace. There are at least checkpoints during missions which often (but not always) lessen the sting of death.
The next type of mission is a sort of target-of-opportunity called Freeplay. This basically means that many signs of Nazi occupation, whether it’s a stationery armoured vehicle, a German general, propaganda speakers, AA gun, guard tower, etc can be blown up with dynamite or a remote detonator. And there are hundreds of these across the maps you can atatck at any time, even during missions. They are invaluable for collecting contraband and the like; though so of these targets, such as gun emplacements, can be more useful to keep around since you can use them yourself to blow up other targets or pursuing soldiers (even the Zeppelin’s hovering over Paris’ skyline). They are also a massive distraction whenever you are out and about as blowing them up becomes somewhat addictive, and working out ways to get everything in a clustered area before you are overrun by pursuing Germans is a hell of a lot of fun. Best thing is, as long as the game registers the destruction of the target before you die, you can respawn from your last checkpoint or safehouse.
Being a Saboteur implies some sort of stealth and this game uses stealth in a variety of ways. Unlike Liberty City, this is a town occupied by soldiers. If you are just walking around with no guns on show, you’ll be fine. But if you start waving your piece around, or worse, pull out a gun near a Nazi, the soldiers will often react. If this happens you can try and lower their suspicion level by walking in the other direction but if they get too hyped up, they will call for backup and that’s where the fun starts. Climbing or running near troops can also raise the suspicion level, but somehow you seem able to get close enough to parked vehicle to set a charge even with two guards nearby. They will be roused by the explosion but you have to be right on top of them for them to spot you. If you destroy Freeplay targets clustered together (as often they are), you may find the Alert level rising faster than a Swiss Banker denying rightful owners of their gold fillings. This generally means guards with bigger weapons, airships and even the odd Messerschmidt fighter attacking you with a vigour not seen since the French rush to surrender in 1940. The Germans get plenty pissed and you can get away either by driving (or running) out of the area of investigation indicated on your minimap or find a hiding place (also marked on your map). Alternatively you can find an alarm button and as long as you aren’t being watched by a German, you can deactivate the alarm. Later on, you can lead the Germans into areas where your resistance friends are fighting Germans in the streets and join them. Once you’ve killed a number of Germans, the alarm is over and you can continue with the mayhem. If you despatch a German soldier using stealth tactics or unarmed combat, you can borrow his uniform if no one’s about. This will also cancel alerts so it’s quite a good habit to get into, even if it isn’t as polished as it should be. A number of missions reply on the disguise mechanic to get you into even more trouble. You hold a button down to walk like a Nazi, which reduces the distance around you where you will be spotted as a spy, but you can get further this way that rolling in guns blazing. You can’t get too close as Germans are smarter than the average Fascist.
The Saboteur also adds free climbing into the mix, handy for evading pursuers as you seem to take less damage from enemy fire whilst climbing. It’s not as fluid as the climbing in inFamous or ACII, but it works relatively well and adds verticality to a game world that is very open. The game handily highlights what you can grab onto next but unfortunately doesn’t handle an eave or a protruding ledge quite as nicely as ACII does. If every game did things as nicely as ACII, we wouldn’t need the 2010 Assassin’s Creed II-2 that seems to be coming out.
Everything you achieve earns you contraband, the game’s currency (I can’t see why francs or marks couldn’t have been used), whether it’s the reward for successfully completing a mission, freeplay target destruction or just finding a crate from an OSS drop. Contraband can be used to unlock maps showing freeplay targets, new weapons car upgrades, etc. Or you can gamble with it in the boob room (more on that later). There are a lot of freeplay targets in this game but the reason seems to be the contraband you get for things is rather measly. A few missions need you to have a certain amount in order to bribe a black market operator which will usually mean stocking up on dynamite and going fishing. A pleasant drive through the Parisian burbs later and I’ve destroyed two sniper towers, a fuel dump, an AA gun, three propaganda speakers and two searchlights. And collected several hundred in contraband.
There are also races. I hate races. Most of them are optional apart from the few that aren’t. I hate races.
One element I’ve not found a use for, nor be able to get to work is you can apparently call back up from resistance members. Every time I try to use it, I get a big fat zip in response. Oh well.
The presentation is interesting. At the start of the game, most of Paris is black and white with the colour returning to an area after you’ve beaten a major mission. Apparently the locals are inspired by your actions to resist the Nazi’s. These areas are now in full colour and feature points mentioned earlier in the review where you can cancel an alarm by picking off a set number of Germans. So sounds great when you first see the game, and then progressively less so when you can’t see a fucking thing on the screen (especially in some night time scenes). You’re totally fucked if your screen gets lots of reflections (such as the glass screen on a Plasma or a somputer with a glossy monitor) The graphics (on PS3) are crisp and the frame rate usually behaves itself though after a recent firmware update, I did have a problem where the game constantly hard locked the PS3 (about 4 times in an hour) but it’s behaved itself since then. The audio is mostly excellent save for for the outrageously fake accents sported by most of the cast.
The main character is voiced by actor is Robin Atkin-Downes, who Babylon 5 fans may remember as the much vilified Bryon in that show’s last season but fear not her could star in a Father Ted remake. Lots of shits, feckers and pronouncing ‘I’ as ‘Oi.’ Also, UNCHARTED GUY is in here as a bald Frenchman with a hook! Nolan North represent! The worst voice is a character called Mingo, who seems like winning a race for bass with Paul Robeson. The initial safehouse is in a burlesque theatre, so there are lots of scantily clad, if not topless, ladies with really bad accents but surprisingly modern lingerie and could best be described as ‘pert gallic.’ Lastly, the history in this game is only slightly more reliable that that featured in Inglourious Basterds.
This being an EA game, it features, like Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2, a coupon inside the box with a redeemable one-use code meant for the person who buys the game new. Mass Effect 2 gave you some items and an extra character with some missions. Battlefield gave you a weapon. The Saboteur takes a different tack. There is a secret passage in the Burlesque theatre called The Midnight Room that is only accessible with the code which you can enter for free if you buy new or EA would like to charge you $15 to buy online if you buy pre-owned. Now, since the new price of the game has actually fallen to only marginally more than the DLC, let me tell you what you get. A speakeasy with even more topless girls, one (admittedly fun)betting game combining alcohol, knives and Wheel of Fortune; and a bunch of topless girls who will dance for you in close-up. YMMV.
So the design is ambitious and Pandemic manages to tie it together well for the most part. Like any open world game there will be a few annoyances in there but I’ve been mostly impressed by how Pandemic dealt with those. Fast Travel between hideouts might have been nice but overall it’s a credible effort. There are a few edges that could use a bit of sandpaper, but nothing you could cut yourself on. I’m actually surprised how polished it is considering Pandemic’s fate. It’s not an essential purchase, by any means. But if you do spring for it, it is a good time and it’s also now a cheap date as well.
You don’t hate WWII games, like Pandemic’s output, like open world games with a ton of things to do and blow up? Then get this.
Controller1.com Rating 2/3
Get it if you liked Just Cause 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, Medal of Honor Underground, GTA, Saint’s Row, Red Faction Guerilla.
Don’t get it if you like: Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Imagine: Nazis
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Also on: PC, PS3 Developed by 2K Marin, Digital Extremes (multiplayer), Irrational Games, 2K China, Arkane Studios. Published by 2k Games
The sequel no-one wanted to a decent-selling but critically-loved game, Bioshock 2 shouldn’t work as well as it does. The original’s story wasn’t shouting out for continued adventures; the original studio wasn’t involved (apart from the crew who developed the PC version of the original); multiple dev studios all served to engender the sequel with a “it should fail” aura. But here we are, the game is out, has sold well enough and the game itself doesn’t actually suck. It’s quite good without feeling like a mere expansion.
In BS2, you are a Big Daddy named Delta, stuck in Rapture several years after the death of Andrew Ryan. Dr Sofia Lamb, one of Ryan’s former advisors/rivals, has her own plans for Rapture, plans which you aren’t a part of. Melding her interest for controlling others for their own good and social experimentation, Lamb’s own daughter is the Little Sister to your Big Daddy. The story is a simple, yet unusual for a game, tale of family, megalomania and the recovery of humanity, though without the dramatic plot twists of the original game, nor the iconic philosophy of Andrew Ryan (though his sayings do occasionally crop up in some of the audio diaries).
The game itself is very heavily based on the design of the original with a few crucial changes. You can’t customise weapons in BS2 though upgrades are still available. If you choose to rescue a Little Sister, you need to hunt down corpses from which your ward will extract precious ADAM you miss out on due to altruism. Of course, this is more or less an escort mission since you have to keep the hordes of enemies away from your charge. You still have a large variety of plasmids and gene tonics to alter your character’s abilities but its’ still a case of “red M&M’s, blue M&M’s, they all end up the same colour in the end.”
So if you rescue the little sisters, you then have to guard them while they extract ADAM since you get less of the stuff this way than if you just harvested them. In BS2, once you’re accounted for all of the Little Sisters in a level, you then have to face off against a Big Sister, who are faster and more agile than Big Daddies, but still pack a mean punch.
One criticism of the first game was that many found the way the Vita Chamber/ Checkpoints worked made the game feel a bit easy, something that was made optional in a post-release patch. Here they work much the same way, retaining the option to turn them off. But, if you happen to die whilst protecting a Little Sister during an extraction, you will return to the last Vita Chamber and have to restart the extraction process. However, all the ammo you may have expended in unsuccessfully defending her is gone and you may find yourself having to fend off splicers with no ammo and no money to buy more.
So it feels like a sequel to Bioshock and feels new enough to be worthwhile. The texture work seems a bit hit and miss compared to the original and the sounds aren’t always as crisp as other games. But they do set the mood very well. The actual art and sound work is still top notch. There’s even effective lip sync here. The script is excellent even without the massive twist the first game managed so well. The shocking parts here aren’t quite as shocking but it’s an interesting story and Sofia Lamb’s philosophy provide and interesting counterpoint to that of Andrew Ryan.
There is apparently some multiplayer, which I have not tested. By all accounts it’s competent but not worth buying the game for.
A good game, worth playing if you’re after a good single player FPS. It’s as different from Call of Duty, Killzone, Halo and Battlefield as you’re likely to get yet is a better shooter than Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3 or Borderlands.
Controller1.com rating 2/3
(3/3 if you think you’re entitled to the sweat on your brow)
Reviewed on PS3 Developed by Sony Santa Monica/ Published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Oh (Greek) God. Kratos is back in town, and he’s pissed. I mean, really pissed. He’s so pissed this time, that tearing off heads and slitting open bellies isn’t enough for him; now he’s out to annihilate the very fabric of nature.
In God of War III: Kratos Kills Everybody, the outlandish violence that’s the signature of the series has been inflated to a ridiculous level, and the Playstation 3’s hardware makes it look prettier than ever before. Unfortunately, little has been done to adjust or improve the structure of the game. If anything, with the game’s new emphasis on showing off artwork and fancy cinematics, it’s gotten worse.
The game begins with Kratos riding the shoulders of Gaia, a woodsy, rocky giant who’s clambering up Mount Olympus in a balls-out assault on the gods. Zeus and his posse, which includes Poseidon, Hades, Helios, and the very annoying Hermes, are none too happy about this aggression, and each god will set out to taunt and irritate Kratos in his own way. Before Kratos will take his precious revenge on Zeus (which he reminds us of regularly), he’ll plod through several gorgeous mythological backdrops, ride on the backs of titans, collect weapons and magic spells, rescue Scarlett Johansson, and endure endless flashbacks that clobber us over the head with their message of hope.
Throughout this trek, Kratos will repeatedly face the typical God of War challenge: barriers will enclose you in a small arena, and a crowd of ineffectual, undead Greek soldiers will pour out of the ground, spoiling for a fight. What you do in these situations is hit Square over and over, occasionally throwing a Triangle in for variety. Kratos will do a little dance, swinging his chain-blades around in fancy patterns, until all the enemies are dead. If you see an bad guy winding up to get a hit of his own, just hold L1 to block, and then commence the Squaring.
After going through this ceremony dozens of times over the past few years, I began to wonder if God of War would play just as well if Kratos just swung his blades constantly, and you’d have to press a button to stop him. It would probably work.
When you’re done Squaring your enemies to death, the barriers will vanish, and you get to run ahead for a minute or so. Eventually you’ll encounter…a puzzle.
Most of the puzzles in God of War III use familiar video game logic: activate a switch to open the way forward. Kratos can push buttons and pull cranks, set things on fire, or search for hidden passageways using a glowing severed head. You’ll also find weird, blue stones jutting from the ground here and there. They usually obstruct you from reaching a secret or a goal. You’ll need the Cestus, a pair of laughably large metal gloves, to punch through the stone. Since they’re also powerful enough to fell even the biggest creatures in a few hits, I recommend that you just keep the Cestus equipped at all times. They really are all-purpose tools, silly and uncomfortable though they look.
A couple of the puzzle sections are clever, like a garden that uses Escher-like illusions to connect pathways, or a labyrinth constructed from an array of rotating cubes. The rest, though, are recycled from the Book of Zelda, and they go on for so long that you’ll start to wonder when you can just back to killing monsters already.
If you’re especially patient, you can always travel off the path that the game’s camera leads you down, and try to find some secrets. Kratos can discover treasure chests that contain the usual collections of Gorgon Eyes, Phoenix Feathers, and red orbs, which increase his health and magic meters, and the strengths and capabilities of his weapons. The game is very generous with these orbs, and you won’t have to stray from the main road too often to get most of your weapons maxed out. I guess the designers wanted to be sure that everyone will get to see all the fancy combo animations they came up with.
One of the few additions to God of War is the Minotaur Horn, which increases the length of Kratos’s new Item meter. Kratos is now limited on how often he can use special items, such as Apollo’s Bow, Hermes’s Shoes, and Helios’s Head. I’m not sure why there are limitations on these things, as they don’t provide any great advantages to Kratos in combat, but the meter is there anyway, and now we have Minotaur Horns to go searching for. Locating a hidden chest and finding a Minotaur Horn, when you were hoping for a far more desirable Gorgon Eye, is a tremendous disappointment.
As in previous God of War games, you’ll run into some stupid segments that break things up rather unpleasantly. Like the parts when Kratos has to climb hand-over-hand across ropes, kicking at approaching enemies like a spastic idiot. Then there are the scenes where he has to ride steam plumes up enormous shafts, dodging obstacles and unexplained balls of fire like this is Star Fox or Battletoads or something. I dreaded these scenes, and couldn’t wait for them to be over.
So what, if anything, is the true draw of God of War III? It would seem to be, as with Heavy Rain, the dazzling Quick-Time Events, which involve astounding action and camerawork that still isn’t possible in regular gameplay. After you’ve beaten an enemy or boss into a sufficient level of weakness, a huge, flaming Circle will appear above it. Get Kratos close and press Circle, and watch the magic begin!
Kratos is as gymnastically skilled and cruel as ever in this game, and in these Quick-Time Events, he’ll swing, jump, fly, stab, and just beat the hell out of whatever he’s up against, provided you press the buttons that appear on the screen at the right times. It’s Dragon’s Lair rendered on a Cell processor. I must admit, though, that these scenes really are impressive, and even therapeutic, especially when you get to see Kratos punish an irritating boss.
The violence in God of War III has already garnered a ton of internet attention and gorehound love, but those who are squeamish probably won’t have to turn their heads. Sure, the grisly deaths Kratos imparts on his opponents are pretty gross, but they’re also so bizarre, and so far over the top, that they’re hilarious. The flashy spectacle of the QTEs had me saying “whoa” quite often, but they also had me cracking up. The designers at Sony Santa Monica have obviously watched a lot of horror movies in order to devise kills this creative.
What I realized while “playing” God of War III is that it’s not a game to be played so much as a game to be looked at. The QTEs are impressive enough, but there are plenty of other aspects the designers labored over to make the game an eye-popper. The characters are superbly detailed, especially Hephaestus and Kronos, with their wrinkled, stained skin and burnt out eyes. The designers planted some books on pedestals at scenic overlooks throughout the game, and they function like the mounted binoculars in Brutal Legend: they do nothing but allow you a lengthy eyeful of the landmarks the artists constructed. Aside from the Cestus, Kratos’s multitude of weapons and attacks differ in appearance only. You’re not going to be changing them because one weapon is more effective against a specific enemy than another, and it’s pretty safe to ignore the many combos the game offers in favor of hitting the Square button over and over. One attack works just as well as another.
Pretty pictures don’t make a game worth buying. This is a rental, through and through. It will take around eight or nine hours to complete, so maybe two rentals will be necessary, but that will still be cheaper than buying the game. I hope that games like Heavy Rain and God of War III – and hell, let’s throw Metal Gear Solid 4 in there too – are not representative of a trend, one in which video games throw out all the thoughtful and challenging play and then replace it with cutting-edge imagery and interactive movies. That stuff is entertaining in its own way, but it should be kept in the venue where it belongs: the theater.
To close, I’ll say that even God of War III’s cover is stupid. It’s just Kratos’s eye, glowering with rage. It’s a terrible cover that tells us nothing about what you actually do in the game. It looks like the teaser poster for a movie, which is probably fitting, because that’s more or less what’s in the case.
