So, normally I wait until I’m done with a game before I right a review for the site. This means once the review goes up, I’m generally onto the next game. According a FAQ for Litle Big Planet, I’m about 3/4 of the way through the single player and I’ve been frustrated as hell by a specific level.
Frustrated is kind of being nice about it. It’s pissing me off. I reached a similar point in Super Mario Galaxy when I hit the mechano toy robot levels of that otherwise enjoyable game. Some people call this the shelf moment which is “the moment when you take the game out and put it back on the shelf, never to be touched again.” I felt that I had done all i was ever going to do in LBP, but something in me is saying, give it another go. I will probably do that sometime this week since I’d like to finish the game.
Next on the list is Left 4 Dead, which I’ve gotten on PC. I’m glad it cost me a whole lot less than the retail price since it’s pretty clear that it really isn’t my sort of game. I don’t know what it is about Valve multiplayer games that they never gel with me. I love the single player games like HL, HL2 and Portal, but Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2 and now this just don’t seem to be my game. I will play it for a few more sessions though since some games don’t always click with me the very first time I play.
Guitar Hero World Tour has been getting a bit of a play recently (It is the subject of our next and probably most awkward Focus Test). I’ve been mostly playing with others this last week. Yesterday, I played with some colleagues who’d never played the game before and they had a blast. We also went through some songs in the Rock Band AC DC play list. This was the only Rock Band title I was able to procure, alas too late for the Focus Test. It is very interesting to compare the two games sinc ethey basically do the exact same thing, but in a slightly different way.
And of course Call of Duty World at War has been getting a going over. I’ve been playing the Night of the Undead mode a few times this week and loving it to bits (Which is why Left 4 Dead leaving me a bit cold is surprising me). But I still can’t get online on the PC version so I’ve been playing some more CoD4 Team Deathmatch on PC. You know something? I so rarely did well on the PC servers before CoD WaW came out but In the few games I played since I came back, I’ve generally been in the top 3 of most games. Is it because the good players have migrated to WaW? We’ll see.
I’m starting to develop a pile of shame. I have more GHWT to master, and now the ACDC Rock Band (Which I assume allows me to sample the DLC for this game), Mirror’s Edge (PS3), Get some fun out of L4D, play more CoD WaW (360 and PC) and then find time for Prince of Persia, Fallout 3 and Banjo Kazooie.
Well our look back on the big hitters continues (part one can be found here)
THE BIG
SOUL CALIBUR IV (360, PS3)
This game hit in July at a time when there weren’t that many big games coming out. SCIV proved to be a decent hit despite having Star Wars characters muddying the waters for the hardcore.
SPORE (PC, MAC, DS)
Will Wright’s latest formed the basis of who-knows how many GDC keynotes over the last few years. It came and made a huge splash, and then the complaining began. Spore promised something unconventional, but delivered a compilation of other games.
LEGO BATMAN (everything. Colecovision coming 2009)
Lego Conquest of gaming continues. Its not linked to the Dark Knight, more based on the comics (but with some cues from the 80s/90′s Batman films. And its more or less identical on every platform. You liked Lego Indy, right? You liked Lego Star Wars, right? You like Lego, right? You like Batman, right? Then here’s a game you will like.
SAINT’S ROW 2
Despite smelling of xerox toner, this series has managed to carve a small niche of its own. It fixes some GTA flaws, adds its own and has its own slightly off tone to the proceedings that 13 year old boys love. They wanna play at gangstas, not soldiers.
FAR CRY 2
Another sandbox shooter. This time, its set in Africa and not as much fun as the original console Far Cry. We will focus test this title over Christmas so subscribe to the Focus Test through the links at the right of the page
DEAD SPACE (PS3, PC, 360)
EA’s new survival horror greatest hits game impressed those that played it. A sequel, while not ruled out might have to wait for these guys to finish the Dante’s Inferno game just announced.
FABLE II
Wow, they managed to outdo the original and also managed to deliver on a fair amount of the hype. The amount of complaining that usually arises after a hyped game hasn’t been as bad as say, Spore, but then maybe Molyneux’s learned his lesson. “My next game will be bigger than Jesus’ balls”
Oops, spoke too soon. REVIEW
ROCK BAND 2 and GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR
I’m lumping these together for a simple reason. There are only really superficial differences between these games. RB is more fun off the bat if you just wanna play every song where GHWT makes you work for the cooler songs. GHWT has some extra pads on the drum kit and the song creator. The song creator is an absolute abomination to use with the controllers.
MIRROR’S EDGE (PS3, PS3)
Wow, this was meant to be the second coming before it came out to mixed reviews and stagnant sales. Clint loved this in the podcast and we will be posting a written review in the new year. The way EA talks about this game now in business circles does not bode well for the future of the series.
LITTLE BIG PLANET (PS3)
Remember when I said GTA IV was the most overrated game of the year? Well, meet number 2.
Little big planet is a fun platformer with a ton of replayability (if you want everything) and those
tools for making your own levels. However, to call it Game of the year is misleading as the make your own level is a toy. I played a few levels that had been posted online and was amused more than impressed. Is it youtube for gaming? Yes, in the same way You Tube is filled with Videoblogs from people whose emo angst you don’t give a fuck about. Is it worth buying a PS3 for? No. Is it worth getting if you already have a PS3? Hell yes. Its a cool platformer with some infuriating difficulty in later levels. REVIEW
GEARS OF WAR 2 (360)
Why lie? I loved this game. So do the guys who play this on Live. That is when the matchmaker service actually works. Horde mode is fantastic and a lot of fun and the single player managed to do enough new and different than the original (which I liked but not loved) REVIEW
RESISTANCE 2 (PS3)
Another on on my list to play when time is available. R2 features, by some accounts, excellent multiplayer, great coop and so-so single player. Its been outsold by our next contender, but if you only buy one alternative universe WWII shooter, don’t buy a used copy of Resistance: Fall of Man cos that’s shit, get Resistance 2.
CALL OF DUTY WORLD AT WAR (PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP)
The haters expected to hate it. Most of those who’ve migrated from CoD4 are finding it like minded but different enough for it to be a draw. Back to WWII with M1 Garands, KAR98′s and Thommy guns. BLISS! Its a pity Activision couldn’t have actually supported CoD4 properly a bit longer with map packs and the like. I mean, it’s not like they don’t like money. REVIEW
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WRATH OF THE LICH KING (PC)
Well, it makes money hand over fist. The WoW fans love it and are lapping it up. They’ve even made it easy for people who’ve never played WoW to step in (you know the type, gank fodder and people with jobs/ sex lives)
LEFT 4 DEAD (PC, 360)
Left for Dead is the Horde Mode in Gears 2 and the Nazi Zombie mode from CoD WaW and is a whole game based around it. The thing is, its full price and compared to orange box, which offered so much more, it hard to say this is a good value proposition. OB was great on console apart from TF2 which sucked ass since Valve don’t seem capable of coding an XBL game.
De Blob (Wii)
Hey I was writing this and thinking to myself “were there any decent Wii games from the second half of 2008?” Well, there’s De Blob. Paint the town red. Or green. Or Blue.
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
This game seems to be going down very will south of the Mason Dixon line. Who knew?
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (360)
Well, I was a HUGE fan of the originals back in the N64 days but yet I still haven’t picked this one up despite its cheapness. Why? I will, I promise. Building things- not my forte (see LBP) but the Banjo universe has always held a special charm.
Prince of Persia (PC, PS3, 360)
Well, there I was all set to ignore this title. I was fooled by PoP Warrior Within and Two Thrones. I even lowered my guard and bought Assassin’s creed (eventually). I was done with Ubisoft games for a bit. Then its come out and wowed everyone. So now I will play it. You should probably take a look as well. If this comes close to replicating the bliss I found in POP: Sands of Time, I will be happy.
Fallout 3. (360, PC, PS3)
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. I ‘d have played it by now if time had been available and Fable II hadn’t turned up first. Its a huge city full of choices and spoilers. Play this when you can.
AND THEN THERE’S…
Dazed and Confused:
Guitar Hero Aerosmith (everything bar the 3DO)
Yes I bought this and it was fun enough for what it was. Its the last guitar only Guitar Hero game to be released and I don’t mind this band’s catalogue but there’s not enough material to fill a full priced game with no DLC and no compatibility with the new GHWT games.
BROTHERS IN ARMS (360, PC, PS3)
Too late, Too dated and Too Meh. Its not because its a WWII game, its because its just not as much fun as the other WWII games.
FACEBREAKERS
EA’s Boxing game took a dive in the third quarter.
MERCENARIES 2
It has its it champions. A month or two earlier and it could have gained some traction
FRACTURE
Oh dear. A case where the central tenet of the game is destroyed by a Penny Arcade Comic
PS- some games not mentioned for ethical reasons. We don’t write about projects we’re involved with.
Jesus, it seemed like a good idea at the start.
oh wait, you think I forgot Too Human?
TOO HUMAN (360). Oh dear. What’s to be said that hasn’t already been said.
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Media Molecule. Published by SCEE.
We have to clear the air before we continue…
Firstly, despite the will of some people, Little Big Planet is not the game that makes people buy PS3′s in huge numbers. Secondly, although you can make levels, you can make really shitty levels. Thirdly its a good game.
Little Big Planet is a side scrolling platformer. You move from one end of a level to the other, using the world in various ways, using simple machines, sometimes with infuriating physics puzzles. But, it does play a lot lot the old 2D Mario games. You collect all manner of trinkets as you play, such as stickers (some of which are needed for puzzles- at least in the early part of the game, objects, textures and clothing for your playable character. A little cutie known as Sack Boy (or Sack Girl).
Sackboy only has a limited suite of moves. He can walk and run. He can grab (which combined with walking or running can operate switches and push/pull items) and he has his popit button. As so much o fthe game is based around a realistic physics model, you’ll find that it gets to be quite a hard and challenging platformer later on. Frustrating and infuriating beyond belief.
The popit button just brings up a menu with all of the items you have collected so that you can decorate your sack person at any stage. You can also deface the levels with stickers if you must. The levels are teeming with baubles containing some new element. Some of them in ridiculously difficult to get at spaces which seems to be why puzzles based on fitting the correct sticker seem to be less important as the game wears on. You basically see a cartboard cutout with what looks like a chip- similar to those you see on some credit cards. If you have the correct sticker in your inventory, you may be able to unlock a new area. I believe a lot of what you collect may be useful to you if you choose to make your own levels.
I found that as I progressed through the game, I became less concerned with collecting all o fthe baubles and more concerned just getting through to the end of the level. My main reason for this is the checkpoint system. You pass what looks and sounds like a gong and you get 4 attempts at getting to the next checkpoint before getting booted back to the start of the level. Hey guess what MM? The game stops being fun when you have to trawl through some of the longer levels over and over when you can’t get to the penultimate checkpoint of a level.
There are some sections that you can play as coop with a second sack person (or as we say these days, a Person of Sack) but really what a lot of people have gone gaga over is the level creation. You can make a level and put it on the web. And if it infringes on ANYONE’s copyright or might possibly infringe on someone’s copyright, it will be removed. The level creator requires you to sit through a rather long tutorial and its necessary since its actually quite a hard thing to acocomplish. I baulked at the price of entry so I downloaded some levels other people had made. One was supposedly Ghostbusters and the other was Metal Gear Sacklid. They were somewhat cruder than the MM levels but they got the job done. Just. But maybe the single player is all I needed to get out of the game.
The graphics are rather pretty and cute (if a little blurry) and the musical score is very hypnotic and memorable. And of course, since there are only four attempts per checkpoint before you have to restart the level- the music firstly becomes highly repetitive and then highly annoying.
LBP will spawn a PSP version and most likely a PS3 sequel. I like the game but I can’t call it a system seller but every PS3 owner should get it (especially since it seems to be discounted in some online retailers). If you like 2D platformers and own a PS3, get this. If you want to make your own levels and you already own a PS3, get this.
controller1.com RATING 2/3
These days its trendy to describe your game as a platform. This conjures images of one large purchase that is the basis for more content arriving later. Its not meant to sound like they’re nickel and dimeing you, but really it is.
Rock Band was the first game to describe it self as a platform. The idea is you don’t need to have every Rock Band disc that comes out in order to have everything. If you bought Rock Band 1, you could import all (bar) 5 songs into Rock Band 2. They’d be stored on your hard drive. If you wanted to play a RB 1 song whilst you have the RB2 disc in the tray you can. There’s a $5 fee, ostensibly to cover the placate the rights holders of the music licensed for the first game, but it doesn’t matter, you can have all those songs. But at some stage you need to have both discs in your possession to do this (though yes, you can rent RB1 and import). You can’t just buy RB2 and DL songs that were in RB1 from the Rock Band store. You will likely have to do this for every iteration of RB that comes down the pipe.
Guitar Hero World Tour is late to the party on this whole platform thing. You cannot import DLC you bought for GHII or III into world tour so I’m guessing that’s reserved for World Tour 2.
Singstar on PS3 has a good way of dealing with this. On PS2, there are dozens of disc-based standalone track packs for Singstar. On PS3, there’s Singstore. You only have to have one singstar PS3 disc to use as a key and you can download new tracks all the time. I have Singstar PS3 vol 2 and have bought some Queen songs from the store- these play back fine in Singstar ABBA. I’m not sure if the ABBA tracks will make it onto Singstore but for most part you can buy any track that’s been released for any singstar game (in your territory, at least). There’s apparently a patch coming for non-backwards compatible PS3′s that will let you play PS2 Singstar Discs on a PS3. Yes, the Singstore is rather slow and clunky, but it works (eventually).
Burnout Paradise is a good example of a platform in a more traditional game. Criterion have made Paradise City and have been constantly adding new features via free (and soon, pay to play) patches. Its almost as if Paradise City is what you get if you want Burnout for the next few years. GTA IV is also going down this road with its DLC. You spend a lot of effort making a huge sprawling city, why make it obsolete within a year (a la Vice City), you can make DLC cheaper and quicker than a full game or expansion pack.
PC Gamers will tell you PC has been doing this for years. WoW is a good example of a platform in this context. But so is the Source Engine and Steam, home as it is to CS: Source, DoD: S, HL2 and its episodes, TF2, Left 4 Dead etc. Any popular games with moddability (Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights) have had their life extended for years thanks to all the new content that’s been made available.
Console gamers are seeing this with Little Big Planet. But you don’t hear too much about this being a platform- which means LBP2 is coming next year. Games such as CoD4 Modern Warfare have proven to be incredibly popular but for some reason, possibly related to money, Activision has chosen not to support the game as a platform, for which they could sell more map packs and expansions and gone straight to another standalone game in CoD WaW. Why? Well $5 or $10 map packs are nice. But a $50 or $60 game is nicer.
Three men play Little Big Planet with varying intentions. Clint wants to make levels, George wants to play levels and Cam wants the levels to design themselves
Little Big Planet is a 2D platformer with a level editor built in. We have recorded a focus test for this and the instant gratification factor in wanting to build a level is zero. You need to sit though tutorials before you can do anything which insta-fail.
Hoewver the singleplayer platforming is so delightful that its a lot of fun to play. Even though I loved All New Super Mario on DS (the last great new 2D platformer), it didn’t feel all that different to what had come previously. This feels boh new and familiar. I’ve heard complaints abut the jumping, but its fine, no worse than Braids and probably more forgiving than than XBLA game.
There is one thing about LBP. It can overload you with crap. You only have a few buttons (jump, grab and your menu- popit- buttons), but the amount of stuff you collect will get pretty daunting to manage. You need this stuff for making your own levels (or, as is more likely to be the case, just redoing someone else’s levels- oh look 1:1 again) but without the create a level- the SP is almost a collect-a-thon. Hey but its a good collect-a-thon.
I’ve been playing a bit of GHWT, mainly just guitars and occasionally busting out a hit on the drums. I’ve recently investigated what I would get if I picked up Rock Band 1 and 2 as well. All of the songs I like in GHWT are also in Rock Band 1 or 2 so that sucks. New songs unique to the RB 1 or 2 discs? Nothing I like much. The DLC is where there are a few choice morsels, particularly Still Alive from Portal. So I’ve decided to get the cheapest iteration of RB which is the AC/DC track pack and just use that (assuming I don’t also need a RB 1 or 2 disc).
The thing I love about DLC is that there might be songs I like, but aren’t the best for playing in these games. I got the Quantum of Solace song for GHWT the other day. I love the song but as GHWT fodder, its quite average. So the question must be asked. Why is Bohemian Rhapsody in Singstar but not in RB/GHWT?
So last night I installed Call of Duty World at War on my new u-beaut epic mofo PC I recently got at work. I played the first couple of single player levels (up to the first Russian section). Jesus it is pretty and well made and well put together. I never hated Treyarch’s Call of Duty 3 like so many others (I thought the SP was OK but the multi was excellent) but I had my doubts about the most recent entry to the franchise being as good as CoD4.
My doubts (in the Single Player) so far have been assuaged. However I cannot give any impressions of the online Multiplayer since a charming bug means I can’t make an online profile. Even the Day 1 patch hasn’t helped. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to get this game twice (on PC and 360, as I had with CoD2 and CoD4) but I want to play the multiplayer sooooo badly. I could go and get the 360 or PS3 version for Multi, but I only want to level up once, not 5 times, like I did with CoD4 (I only got as high as level 50 on 360 and 35 ish on PC).
I am one of the few people on the planet who still loves WWII as a setting for games though only CoD and MoH (with RtCW and BF1942 in the past) being the games I ever played much of. I did however despise EA’s two Pacific Theatre set episodes (Pacific Assault and Rising Sun). They were the epitomy of crap games. So when Treyarch, so characterised as being hacks, pulled this one out of the hat, I can’t help but be impressed. A pity the Quantum of Solace game isn’t getting as good review scores as this one.
The other game I started just as I wrote this were the first few levels of Little Big Planet. So far its a complicated version of Braid but I had a hard time putting it down. I can’t see myself making all that much in the way of levels myself but the child-like joy it evokes is great. Game of the Year? no. But a welcome change of pace in a year of shooters and music games.
Expect us to focus test LBP and CoD WaW in the next few weeks. Hell, you can expect us to Focus Test anything you see with Now Playing a tag on the right side of the screen.
As I write this, I am close to the end of Gears so I won’t speak about it too much other than to say this is really a much better game (for me) than the first. The first wasn’t bad but it felt like a slog to get through the game (even on casual). Gears 2 has none of the crappy bits from the first game that I hated- Krillitane and those blind Brutes who charged you.
There are other diversions such as driving a tank, manning turrets and a reaver chase as well as boss battles that aren’t just shoot 50 mags into a big sonovabitch. But basically this is a third person shooter at its finest. The next Max Payne (and Uncharted 2, while I think of it) have some catching up to do.
Controller1.com contributor Cameron held a little soiree last weekend and we cracked open the plastic toys and rocked out to Guitar Hero World Tour. We loved it and although we plan to focus test it soon enough, we all want to play it a bit more before we do so. As you see from this next podcast, we aren’t the most tuneful trio (well, better than The Police at least) so the eventual World Tour show will be epic in its disaster like qualities.
I’ve been attempting to play drums. I’m a sound guy in real life but drums have always been something that’s alluded me. I was hoping the drums with GHWT would help my rhythm a bit but the drums aren’t sensitive enough to make a decent MIDI controller.
The make your own song thing is rather crappy to use compared to Garage Band or Logic or Cubase, but then I find simplistic sequencers a pain to use. For many people, its great and I applaud this feature. But imagine a PC based program where you could import your own tracks if you have access to them (like you own indidual mulitrack ecordings with separate Bass, Guitar, Vocals and drums.
But then Activision would be out of business.
So I hope to play more GHWT before we focus test it and finish Gears 2 this weekend. Two more games have turned up- Little Big Planet for PS3 and Call of Duty World at War for PC.
I’m primarily a console gamer these days as I don’t have a gaming PC at home anymore but I now have a beast of a work machine that can run PC games at a decent clip so CoD WaW is getting a run on PC. If I end up wanting to play more multi at home, I will pick up a 360/PS3 version as well but for now I think the PC will soothe me. I have the Cod1 and its expansion, CoD2 (my all time favourite multiplayer game) and CoD4 on PC. I also have CoD 2, 3 and 4 on 360 and have also played some of the last-gen only cod titles on Xbox1.
So, yeah. I’m a CoD whore. Whether I become a CoD WaWhore, is another thing entirely.
Well the storm begins this week with Little Big Planet and Fable II and next week, Fallout 3. Its not possible to play all of the big games coming out at once. So far this month I have already cut out of my ‘To Do’ list, the following big titles: Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Mercenaries 2, Fracture, Wii Music and Saint’s Row 2.
Why?
Dead Space: Because its a horror game and I can live without horror. Yes I’m a big scaredy cat.
Far Cry 2: I played a bit of the PC original and about 99.9% of Far Cry Instincts on the original Xbox. I though the PC one played a bit ‘meh’ but the console version (a completely different game) was really quite nice. Apart from that cheating bitch of a final boss who never ever died. I liked the game a lot and all I can remember is trying to beat that final boss over and over until he got stuck in the mesh and I stopped caring.
Mercenaries 2: More sandbox and no compelling reason to play. The demo promised much and delivered little. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original.
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway: I did beat the first game in the series but never played the second, despite my professed love of WWII shooters. Its not really a shooter and its not Full Spectrum Warrior either. I played the demo and was unimpressed. I was unmoved.
Fracture: Another demo that showed off all you need to know in 5 minutes. Generic story and gameplay built around an overused gimmick.
Wii Music: If I wanted to play a music game where all the songs sounded like a Casiotone, I would have bought Casiotone Hero.
Saint’s Row 2: I played the first one even though I wasn’t impressed by that demo. I think I’m just not that keen on sandbox games per se and having played GTA IV, I think I’m done with the genre. SR1 did do some stuff that GTA IV either stole (or should have stolen) but it’s not so great and I’m not that keen to pop caps in people’s asses anymore. I was keen once, but they say you can never go back.
So what do I want to play?
Little Big Planet. One of its major selling points is completely lost on me. I was quite happy to leave all of my spore creations untextured. I do not wish to gain employment as a level designer. I do not wish to make maps for TF2. I just want a platformer. And really, there’s this and Banjo and that’s really it for this year.
Fable II. I must one of the few people who doesn’t hang on Peter Molyneaux’s every word. And hence I wasn’t disappointed in Fable- I was able to ignore the hyperbole and just enjoy what was a very finely crafted game. I only had two minor complaints against Fable 1- you could beat enemies by running circles around them, and you were likley overpowered by the time you reached the final boss. The rest of that game was so much fun I am very much looking forward to number II.
Fallout 3. I have never, ever played a Fallout game. Somehow, this looks like I might enjoy it.
So I’ll get it.
So it looks life Fable II and Fallout 3 on Xbox 360, and Little Big Planet for PS3. Wii and PC go home empty handed.
