So someone bought my parents wii-fucking-fit. Truth be told, they kinda need it. But I don’t need to be tech support.
Like thousands of older folk on Christmas, they turned to their tech-savvy kids to set up their new Wii and show them how to use their balance boards. It is of course a fun distraction for actual gamers- for a short time- and far more fun than assembling a barbecue or a lamp. But it’s a lot of money for something I know will be set aside very shortly. My parents aren’t particularly interested in technology so their interest in Wiifit is more down the fact is an excercise gadget.
I found the balance board games to be the most fun, heading a football whilst avoiding shoes and panda heads. Running with a wiimote is pretty cool but overall this isn’t going to make you go down a shirt size. It will if you keep up with it, the same way WoW will make you fat as you head towards 80. For the oldies who do keep up their Wiifit regimen, it will suck them in just as much as a MMORPG will to a Korean student.
Its that time of the year of the year 2008 (stop that!). Gaming mags and websites are running their Games of the year awards. Controller1.com is only a small site and we don’t play everything under the sun but we’d like to see what you think.
This year was one where the heavy hitters were more evenly spaced out through the year. We’ll start by looking at the bigger games that came out in January, February and March 2008.
THE GOOD
Burnout Paradise (360 and PS3)
The only driving game that was so much fun that even non-racing fans could find enough to enjoy to justify a purchase. No retry button but the scale and depth of the game is amazing. You don’t have to be a hardcore racing fan to get a kick out of this game. From races, Takedowns, marked man, burning route (time trials in specific cars) and stunt modes, this game keeps on giving. Criterion and EA have been very good to fans of the series in so far as the many numerous FREE updates have all brought new content and challenges.
REVIEW
DEVIL MAY CRY 4 (360, PS3 and PC)
Some people really love the Devil May Cry series. Think about it, we wouldn’t have God of War without Devil May Cry. That said, now that Jaffe has the recipe, did we need DMC4? DMC fans liked this latest epic- the first game to have a long mandatory install before you started to play on PS3, yet the benefits over the 360 version were barely noticeable.
ARMY OF TWO (360, PS3)
EA Montreal’s coop-focused shooter was the butt(grab) of many jokes in the lead up to its release. It was famously retooled somewhat during a delayed release. The final product is slightly schizophrenic- It doesn’t know if it wasn’t to be a serious shooter with a political message or a braid dead action movie. It tries to be both and manages to still be fun (apart from the being dragged to cover mechanic when your health is low). This game actually sold quite well (on 360 at least) so a sequel “Army of Too” might turn up at some stage. Not essential but worth a play if you like coop. REVIEW
TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX VEGAS 2 (360, PC, PS3)
The first Vegas game was one of the best R6 games released since Ubisoft bought Red Storm. The sequel is one of the worst. It’s so fucking bad that I hope eeryone involved in its production si struck down with terminal bad breath. This game stinks. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! Which plague, you might ask? Does it fucking matter? A Plague is a plague. It scored and sold very well, unlike the games in the “NOT SO GOOD” section where it belongs>.”
GRAND THEFT AUTO IV (360, PS3, PC)
So this was expected to be the biggest game of the year. It isn’t. Its a good game in its own right, maybe not as expansive and as much fun as San Andreas, but still great. It was very daring but at the same time, kept a lot of the stuff you hated about the old games, things that Crackdown and Saint’s Row managed to get right. Definitely the most overrated game of 2008 (a lot of people fell in love with the idea that this was a near perfect game when it came out but too many cracks appears all too quickly) but still at the least, a very good and even great game. You need to play GTA IV, just be aware its flaws aren’t always minor and easy to overlook.
LEGO INDIANA JONES
The Lego Star Wars releases show that you can make fun games for kids that adults will also respond well to. Lego Indy is perhaps a test to see how well the formula can survive with Jedi involved. Indiana Jones is a huge franchise in its own right and without a Next Gen version full of DMM and the like, this was the game that came out alongside (or near enough) the cinematic return of the Man with the Hat.
This game is highly playable on whatever system you have so go play it. REVIEW
And of course,
METAL GEAR SOLID 4 (PS3)
So this was meant to be the swansong of the series but its sold well enough for Konami to invoke the “Bitch” clause in Kojima’s contract. Its a great game. If you own a PS3 and don’t have this then go and get it, This is the reason you bought the damn thing. This game will also make you take up smoking. There’s so much attention to detail in the game that you can sometimes get overwhelmed with options. Here’s a hint, you don’t need 70% of the stuff you have at your disposal. REVIEW
BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY (360, PS3)
Not Battlefield Heroes, but a better version of Battlefield 2. It works phenomenally well on PS3 and 360 online. Oh and there’s a decent single player that’s a proper single player game and not just MP maps with bots. REVIEW
SID MEIER’S CIVILISATION REVOLUTION (DS, PS3, 360)
Our own Cam has been playing Civ games since he was in nappies. In fact he still is playing Civ games in nappies. Sid Meier on a console? Outrageous. But it worked. A review is apparently coming (better late than never).
THE NOT SO GOOD:
THE CLUB (PC, 360 and PS3)- Sega and Bizarre Creations attempt to merge the Kudos systen from PGR and a shooter went largely unnoticed. A pity as the demo was fun and I still intend to pick this up (cheaply) to blast through its single player mode
FRONTLINES: FUEL OF WAR. (PC and 360) THQ and KAOS Studios’ version of Battlefield (some of the Kaos guys were originally behind the popular Battlefield 1942 mod Desert Combat) was not bad, but after a couple of demos and a stillborn PS3 version, the game was just a victim of too many better shooters already on the market. When you’re up against UT3, CoD4, Halo 3, Quake Wars, etc, you need to do something better and with more charm than the competition.
TUROK (360, PS3)
Well, this series was a really big deal back in the N64 days but Turok is not what it was. Actually, it was crap back then, so maybe it is exactly what it was.
HAZE (PS3) Ubisoft
Another overhyped failure, this game was meant to be the PS3′s top draw shooter until Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 appeared. It wasn’t. If you can talk about Haze on a message board without LOL appearing within 30 seconds, and your NOT on the “Official Haze website” you’re having a good day.
THE BOURNE CONSPIRACY (360, PS3) RENTAL OF THE YEAR!
Well no Matt Damon, no Jason Bourne. What’s the point? You might as well mocap Richard Chamberlain.
ALONE IN THE DARK (PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PS2)
Atari and its last remaining internal studio try to scare the shit out of us. They certainly scared the shit out of people who bought this. “Oh my god, I’m an idiot for buying this.”
QUAKE WARS (PC, PS3, 360)
It sorta fizzled on PC late last year and any remaing embers doused on 360 and PS3. Both console versions are to be avoided, for different reasons. The main reason to avoid it is because its Quake Wars.
and in a special sealed section on its own.
THE NINTENDO WII
A trio of Nintendo releases headlines the Wii.
WiiFit: It may not be an 800 pound gorilla, but only because the balance board’s weight limit is 130kg. My mother, who doesn’t like videogames and rarely bought me games as gifts as a child wants a Wii Fit. She doesn’t want the Wii, just the WiiFit. We tried to tell her you couldn’t use the WiiFit without a Wii but she stopped listening at that stage. So she’s getting a Wiifit for Christmas without the required Wii. What the hell do I care?
Mario Kart Wii: Mario Kart was always a big franchise but for some reason the Wii version with its multitude of control schemes (somehow all less than optimal) has managed to outsell the sublime Super Mario Galaxy. Mario Kart on the DS is kinda the reason I hooked up with these bums to make podcasts back on angry-gamer.net. But I hate Mario Kart with a passion because of those fucking snakers. Yes you can’t do it apparently on the Wii, but hatred is a keeper.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl: When I used to play wifi DS games with friends on planes, a DS SSB was what i was hanging out for as a really good MP game. But its on the Wii and its very good for the sort of game genre that you don’t get many options for on the Wii.
there’s also:
Boom Blox: Hey look, a third party Wii game. It did OK and is still selling decently (if not charting). Hey EA, make more Wii specific games designed fro the Wii.
Zak and Wiki: Puzzle game. Its a puzzle game. Its not the second coming of our lord and savior Mecha-Christ.
No More Heroes: Yes it was interesting to look at the character design. Then look at the backdrops and go driving around down. The combat was mashing buttons until you use the Wiimote for a finishing move. NEXT!
A drunken man wandered into the offices of Midway and apparently bought the company for $100, 000 and took over $70 million of the company’s debt. Former Owner Sumner Redstone could not be contacted. Well he could be, but he was laughing too hard to hear our questions.
Apparently Midway, with its plethora of valuable IP such as Smash TV, Spyhunter, Gauntlet, Joust, Paper Boy, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Blitz, Toobin’, Blegger, Bogger, Booger, Bugger, LugeyHunter, Jay Leno’s You Don’t Know Shit: The Video Game, Castle of Crasstacular,
I’ve asked around for people’s favorite Midway property and here are the responses. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Bill: I always remembered Midway’s Gall Bladder Football. That was truly a classy game.
Heather: Didn’t they, like, make, like, a ton of games, like based on
old shit and stuff?
Kyle: Midway between what and what? Is that a nice way of saying their games score 5.0′s
Quint: I always preferred Coral Sea to Midway.
So how can someone make money out of this transaction? Well the easiest way is to not buy Midway but it’s a bit late for at least one hung over fella. I saw the movie Wall Street the other day so I am a financial expert and in my expert opinion, it seems to me that the IP that Midway controls, mainly arcade hits from the 80′s
are worth substantially less than the figures being reported. Sure Blitz football might be worth a mill or two. And you could get a mill for Spyhunter, a mill for some other crap. Mortal Kombat is their only really decent size franchise but seriously, is it worth 70 million dollars?
This should be interesting
Say what you like about Fable II (which I will do shortly when our review is posted), but Gears of War 2 is out and this is the 360 game you NEED to own this year if you have a remote interest in shooting games featuring bald space marines. Except Marcus Fenix has hair under his bandana.
I liked Gears 1. I didn’t love Gears 1 like so many. As someone who enjoys lots of shooters, I found the gunplay in Gears to be not as good as it could have been and, as I occasionally do these days, played that game on Casual mode (ie easy). I’ve started playing Gears 2 (on normal) and its far better balanced. I recently attempted a playthough of Gears 1 again in anticipation of the sequel, but apart from the fact the difficulty still sucked, I came up against a glitch that didn’t affect me on my original playtrhough (the push car getting stuck). This frustrated me enough for me to say, fuck it, I remember why I didn’t like Gears 1 as much as I probably should.
Its still early days in 2, but I’m far more impressed with it than I was at the same point in the original. It just seems so much more interesting from the get go and not as shallow. The story is also more interesting that the first game. Yes, these game’s stories are all interchanghable but there’s doing something to death well and there’s doing something to death badly. And this one seems to get it right.
At some point I will hunt down Resistance 2 and play that (I wasn’t impressed at all by the original) but I see that Gears will be my shooter de jour for at least the next few weeks.
Also played, a few of the recent Demoes released for some of the season’s big hitters.
Firstly: Tomb Raider Underworld. I played this for 2 mins. I realised I was probably going to pick this up down the track when it was cheap so I gave up pretty quickly. It looks great, plays as well as Tomb Raider Legend (the first Tomb Raider game I ever enjoyed) and this time looks to have been built with 360/PS3 in mind.
Secondly: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Hmmmmmm. I’m not sure. This thing I took away most from the demo was how busy it looked. What you saw on screen wasn’t just crammed with detail, it was cluttered more than a level 70 mage’s bedroom is cluttered with diet coke cans.
I think Banjo shows the great thing about Rare. They don’t just make a game that conforms to a genre, or something that is easy to describe. It is also one of Rare’s major failings in that without knowing what to expect, its all too easy to be disappointed by the ambition sometimes not being realised. I can’t make my mind up whether I like this demo so I will still pick up the game soonish. Its not a particularly expensive game so that will help soothe the wallet sting if its not all that great.
It’s only partially a platformer the same way Uncharted is only very slightly a tomb raider style game.
Lastly, Mirror’s Edge. This is a platformer and bravely DICE have made this in first person, traditionally, the very worst way to make a platformer. The last game I played that attempted to make a first person game with decent jumping was Call of Juarez.
And that wasn’t the best bit of that game. Mirror’s Edge is all about parkour, that free running shit that is all the rage with the kids who are destined to be arthritic 30-somethings. The demo was quite good, but I don’t think that DICE have solved all of the problems but I’m up for somthing different. Hey, EA lost a bit of money just as they were starting to get out of making the same old same old all the time. Better get in on their good games now before they revert to licenses and sequels (as if there isn’t going to be Mirror’s Edge 2…)
If you’re here, chances are you wandered in looking for a-g. Well, here’s our new site. Its still under construction so come on in and kick the tyres. Still lots of work over the next few days, ie getting the podcast feed to work. (the button at the top won’t work just yet).
