Homecoming
I suppose the first thing I should do is apologize for a lack of posts, but I’ll trust this sentence takes care of that so it won’t be necessary. I’ll try to be a might bit more consistent with posting for what’s left of the semester, which I hope won’t be to tricky since I wrote most of these over spring break with nothing better to do, so copy and pasting shouldn’t conflict too much with my schedule.
One of the problems with not posting in months is that there was some fairly interesting news that I’d like to touch on. I’ll keep this first, returning post short, but I want to point out something that happened a few weeks ago.
Due to the tight budget and tight schedule that coincides with life of most college students, I really don’t play many video games anymore. Despite not devoting some of my time to gaming, I do follow the industry fairly closely. So, I was fairly proud of my prognosticating powers a few weeks ago.
People seemed pretty shocked when, after looking at the Square-Enix’s software for Final Fantasy XIII, called ‘Crystal Tools,’ they found that it would be compatible with the Wii. You can read the full story here, but the thing I’d most like to point out is that anybody who read this blog last year, before the Wii even came out, would have seen me postulate that this very thing could happen. And I quote:
“…Final Fantasy XIII is a long ways off, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can recall seeing previews for Final Fantasy VII being a Nintendo 64 release. I’ll leave it to you, trusty reader, to draw your own conclusions from that, but keep in mind, the last time Square decided to switch its console of choice was just as the fifth generation consoles were starting to come on the scene and gaming was beginning to be seen in a whole new light. Besides, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but as of lately Square’s been getting awful buddy-buddy with its old pal Nintendo, and who knows what strange things may come.”
That’s about all I have to say on the subject for now, I just wanted my return to involve a little bit of gloating. Though, I’d like to say that I’d still say I’m HIGHLY, highly skeptical of whether or not a Wii release for the Final Fantasy XIII would ever occur, but I will probably give it a higher likelihood than most others out there. Only time will tell whether or not I speak lunacy, but I’d like to think I could be remembered as the man who predicted first predicted the potential for high-profile, multi-platform releases from Square
Microsoft Plans Family-Orientated Games
Likely eyeing the giant fountains of money Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime bathes in daily, Microsoft Asia-Pacific’s Alan Bowman said that the company plans to compete against the Nintendo Wii and the casual-gaming market by creating more family focused games.
“A key strategy for us is to give broad choice for people. You need to provide content which broadens your base of users from core gamers to different age groups,” said Bowman.
Bowman mentioned that developer Rare was a major player in Microsoft’s plans, adding that the studio’s current projects, a Nintendo DS port of Viva Piñata and Banjo-Kazooie 3, aim for a wider market.
“Now they’re starting to produce games with very, very broad appeal. If you look at Guitar Hero, it’s something which can be played by the whole family, by kids, males, females, adults. Kids also love our Viva Piñata Party Animals game, so it’s games like that.”
ZOMG: Rock Band DLC Is Amazing
Despite Guitar Hero’s DLC being as shitty as predicted, it’s worth noting that Rock Band’s DLC is taking the non-wallet pillaging route. Case in point? Rock Band’s post-launch DLC content was announced today and it’s nothing short of amazing. The list, below:
Police pack: Roxanne, Synchronicity II, Can’t Stand Losing You (all masters)
Queens of the Stone Age pack: 3’s & 7’s, Sick Sick Sick, Little Sister (all masters)
Metallica pack: A three or six song pack, no songs announced yet
Black Sabbath pack: N.I.B, Sweet Leaf, War Pigs (all covers)
David Bowie: Moonage Daydream, Heroes, Queen Bitch
Punk Pack: Ever Fallen in Love, by Buzzcocks (cover)
I Fought the Law, by The Clash
Rockaway Beach, by Ramones
Single Songs:
Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival
Jukebox Hero - Foreigner
My Sharona - The Knack
Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
Bang a Gong (Get it On) - T. Rex
Joker and the Thief - Wolfmother
Brass in Pocket - Pretenders
My Iron Lung - Radiohead
Buddy Holly - Weezer
Minireview: Guitar Hero III
(swiped from: http://spartanedge.com/blogs/spartanedge5)
To say that reviewing a franchise like Guitar Hero would be futile is kind of a moot point; like what the A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin said about Saw IV, it doesn’t matter what I say, since by now, if you were going to pick up a copy, you probably already have a copy. For those on the fence though, there’s not really a whole lot new here, but Neversoft’s take on the GH franchise is pulled off well enough to please both casual and hardcore players.
It’s worth noting that Neversoft really didn’t divert from the basic formula that’s fueled the franchise: notes come down and you play them, etc. Neversoft’s said that they stressed making the game casual-gamer friendly and it definitely shows, as hammer-on and pull-offs are much easier to pull off, and the song list features more well-known songs (while GHII’s songs were still fun to play through, it’s not a stretch to say that “Psychobilly Freakout” doesn’t have the same recognition as Santana). Besides that, there’s not much new that Neversoft brings to the table besides online play and boss battles (however questionable of a concept that is). The Les Paul controller handles nicely compared to the Gibson SG/Xplorer; there’s a bit more heft to the controller and the buttons responsiveness is crisp.
Again, there’s not a whole lot that’s new here, but for what it’s worth, it’s a solid entry to the Guitar Hero franchise. Where the franchise goes from here is questionable though; opportunities to innovate on a formula like GH aren’t exactly bountiful (as Rock Band took the next logical extension for the franchise), but one can’t help but wonder how Neversoft’s going to keep the momentum going on the franchise.
Verdict: More of the same, for better or worse.
XBLA Review: Yaris Is Like The Xbox Shitting On Your Carpet
Game: Yaris
Platform: XBLA
It’s not often I feel the urge to throw my recently obtained Xbox 360 out the window, but Yaris, god forbid, made me come increasingly close. Unfortunately, as I can’t write a review consisting solely of “EERGH”, I’ve got to come up with at least 97 more words for this article, but that’s slightly harder than shooting fish in a a barrel of vaseline. Normally, I’m not one to shoot a gift horse in the foot, as Yaris technically is free, but Yaris, to put it plainly, isn’t worth the space it takes up on your hard drive.
Graphically, the game falls somewhere between an Atari 2600 game and a midbrow Playstation game; it looks horrid, even by XBLA standards. Yaris is plagued with lo-res textures and enough jaggies to make the game look like a low-end Nintendo 64 game. The controls are loose and unresponsive, and to boot, the gameplay’s nonsensical and bland. The game relies on the XBLA-formula of high score based gameplay, but it lacks both the addictive qualities of Geometry Wars and the visual panache of Pac-Man C.E., relying instead on a low end version the Sonic tube minigames that’s twice as repetitive and nowhere near as fun. Yaris may be free and offer 200 Gamerpoints, but it’s really not worth it to trudge through this mess of a game.
Score
-10 out of 5
Heavenly Sword Review: The Army Game
Heavenly Sword is the restart of Sony’s fall 2007 game avalanche. Lair was the actual start but it currently maintains an average review score of less than 75%, something that I’m sure will translate into more negative Sony press. Fortunately, Heavenly Sword’s angry red-head leaves a much better taste in the mouths of PS3 owners than smoldering dragon carcass ever could. But the important thing is that it’s also a much different taste than any next-generation game has left so far.
The most accurate thing I can say about Heavenly Sword is that it’s the Army game. Remember the U.S. Army’s add campaign at the dawn of the millenium when they liked to say “We do more before 6 a.m. than most people do in a lifetime”? Well Heavenly Sword does more in seven hours than most games do in an entire series. Make no mistake about it, this heavily anticipated game clocks in at only 6-8 hours even if you stop to smell the roses. However, by the time the credits roll, you’ll have a sense of conclusiveness that few games, no, few series have managed to emulate.
HS tells the story of Nariko and her clan. Led by Nariko’s father Shin, the un-named clan is one of many being hunted down by the evil King Bohan and his ninja (?) army. The game literally begins at the chapter titled “The Final Battle”, but chronologically speaking, it starts with the 50 person clan fleeing a battle with hundreds of Bohan’s troops. It’s quickly revealed that Bohan has already decimated dozens of other clans in the land, and that Nariko’s is one of few remaining forces of resistance. The king is searching for the titular Heavenly Sword.
The sword itself is one of the game’s main characters. Those who wrote this game off as another God of War clone will be quickly proven wrong after their first encounter with this weapon. It’s basically a short blade connected to a hilt with a length of chains. The chains connect to another, larger blade which also has its own hilt. Due to some pass events (as told by the Legend of the Sword, a 5-part anime/promotional tool downloadable via the Playstation Store) the sword also drains the life of any mortal who controls it.
Nariko uses it as though it is actually three different types of weapons. The three stances, range, power, and speed, are the foundation for one of the deepest combat engines of any action game to date. In range stance, Nariko seperates the two blades and swings them by their connecting chains. This obviously allows her to hit enemies who are far away, but it also takes away the heroin’s ability to block. Speed stance has Nariko using both swords seperately, with one in either hand. This is the standard combat stance and it’s also the fastest to use, hence the name. Power stance is when Nariko puts both swords together and, for lack of any other possible method of description, kicks a**. Players also have the use of a simple, yet skill-based defense system. You block automatically whenever you’re not in an attack animation. Blue attacks can only be blocked in speed stance and orange only in power stance. Hitting the triangle button immediately after a successful block leads to Nariko counterattaking her foes and pressing the button at the exact moment of a block causes a one-hit kill counter. You can pick up and throw almost anything within reason in any given environment (including your opponents’ corpses) and there’s a “kill everything” move mapped to the circle button. That’s about it. The depth and genius of the system comes from the fact that it’s so applicable. You can use the stances and counters in one-on-one fights or in 2000-on-one fights. Stances are changable mid-combo on the fly wthout the weapon switching or pause menus featured in nearly every other recent action title.
Heavenly Sword’s plot was designed to rival that of a summer blockbuster film and it more than achieves that end. It does this differently than one might expect, though. While the story isn’t rife with plot twists or moral decisions, the art of storytelling is tested here. I could probably tell you all the events of the game in two sentences, but watching them unfold is what makes this game a must-play event. The characters actually play their roles. Each one from Nairko to the bosses to a random soldier in Shin’s clan gives a dramatic performance the likes of which have yet to be seen in another video game. They all look amazing graphically, but their lifelike movements and visible emotion really sell who they are and what they feel. Mark my words, you have never seen characters talk like these do. A cutscene in Heavenly Sword is the equivalent of a clip from an oscar calibur film.
And these extremely high production values aren’t just limited to the nonplayable segments. The environments you’ll peruse are amazingly detailed no matter where you are. In any outdoor area, you can look around and see for miles. There is no “pop-in” as you close the distance between yourself and far away objects. The level of realism in this game’s visuals is absolutely unparalled in any game on shelves.
The sound also fits Heavenly Sword beautifully. The music itself isn’t exactly Halo theme memorable, but it lends itself to the atmosphere very well. There are multiple sound effects for almost every action. I actually tested this. You can stand still and keep unsheathing the sword and it’ll rarely repeat sound effects. During the large scale battles, it really sounds like there are 3000 people and a dozen catapults in the area. And in the small fights, enemies are quick to comment on the beating they’re receiving or dishing out. It was revealed sometime over the summer that Heavenly Sword has over 12 gigabytes of sound, and after finishing this game, your speakers will certainly be ringing.
There’s really only one problem with Sony’s new showcase game: It’s short. While I’m not one to say every game should be a 40-hour epic this game deserves that treatment. It gets straight to the point, but it’s the only game in recent memory that caused me to wish it digressed a little. It’s long enough to give you a conclusive feeling and it definitely tells its story all the way through, but you’re still only going to play the game for seven hours. When a game goes this far to create such a detailed world and cast of characters, a player should want to stay in that world as long as possible. Heavenly Sword doesn’t give you a chance to do that. You strictly follow Nariko’s story and when it’s over, there’s nothing else to do in the game. The initial playthrough unlocks “Hell mode”, the only other difficulty level, and there are unlockable making of videos, but that’s all you’ll get out of this $60 package. It’s almost heartbreaking that these characters and this astonishing setting will only take up a few hours of your game-playing career.
Graphics: 10-This is currently the best-looking video game on store shelves.
Sound: 9-Quality-wise, it’s top notch. The music isn’t really memorable, but it’s effective. The voice acting might as well have been ripped straight out of a 4-star film.
Gameplay: 9 The controls are tight. Sixaxis motion control use adds to the experience, but is optional. The combat engine, like most of the game, will have you begging for more.
Value: 6 Even if you love the game, the length and lack of purposeful unlockables will limit your time with it to maybe a week at best.
Overall 9
News Roundup: Rock Band Edition
News Roundup: The News You Need To Know, In A Mostly Late Fashion and credit to Jenn Frank for the original graphic
Rock Band: Dated & $169.99 For Drums, Guitar & Microphone!
-Get your plastic, peripheral-enhanced rock on the relatively cheap; PS3 & 360 version drops on November 23th (which, intrepid readers will note, is also Black Friday) and PS2 version hits two weeks later on December 10th.
Obligatory Halo Post: Halo 3 Sells Estimated 2.48 Million Copies
-The self-congratulatory press release hasn’t come down yet from Microsoft, but GameDaily, through some number crunching, figured out that, on top of the $170 million since release, at least 2.48 million copies got pushed. The numbers?
Op-Ed: Ursurper To the Plastic Guitar Throne
It's hard to rail against the simplicity of the money printing machine that is the Guitar Hero formula. After all, in the 2 years since its inception, it's now become a veritable force in the cultural lexicon, letting thousands live out their closeted rock star dreams in the comfort of their own living room/Wal-Mart kiosk/dorm room smelling faintly of booze everywhere. The beauty of the formula lies largely in its ease:
Step 1: Convert dreams of rock star/fame into video game form
Step 2: Sell
Step 3: PROFIT
As developer Harmonix raked in the money from the Guitar Hero I, Guitar Hero II for the PS2, Guitar Hero II for the 360, Guitar Hero II DLC, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rawks The 80s (or Guitar Hero II: Charging You Full Price For What Could Have Easily Been DLC), it seemed like the money machine could have kept going; after all, with such an effective and easy formula (swap out songs every iteration, a la Madden, with minimal updates) the GH series seemed nearly untouchable.
But with every fad, there’s always the inevitable creative implosion and it’s increasingly looking as if the Guitar Hero franchise is going towards skeet-shooting themselves in the face; wrapping your head around the fact that the actual creators of the franchise, developer Harmonix, are holding the proverbial gun makes the story significantly more interesting/confusing.
After the messy Kramer Vs. Kramer-caliber divorce between publisher Red Octane and developer Harmonix, each went off to their prospective corporate overlords, Red Octane to Activision (best known for the Tony Hawk series) and Harmonix to EA (best known for everything else on the known market). Inevitably, Guitar Hero III was greenlite faster than a Tony Hawk sequel for Activison’s Neversoft, but as for Harmonix, the chance to raid EA’s presumed money fountains and not have to bother with any more “As Performed By” nonsense resulted in Rock Band, or Guitar Hero’s de facto gravestone. Cynical? Overreaching, perhaps? Well, probably.
But, observe:
And for purely qualitative purposes, Guitar Hero III’s trailer:
I’ve got to give credit to Jane Pinckard’s Game Girl Advance for turning me towards this Blogspot blog, which summed up far too eloquently the disparity between the two competing games (and which is definitely worth a read for another opinion on the two games].
For better or worse, Neversoft has been guilty on numerous counts of churning out games a la Madden (read: Tony Hawk..); while it’s certainly helped to fill up their coffers and get games like the criminally under appreciated GUN off the ground (slightly racist aspects notwithstanding), it’s hard not to suspect that the new features were melded from some ill-begotten staff meeting between Neversoft and Red Octane on the first day in the office that had to have used darts in some capacity.
Neversoft E.P: We need new features to spice things up! Throw the dart, intern!
Intern: *whoosh* … *kathunk* (several times)
Neversoft E.P: We’ve got boss battles against guitarists and power-ups to use in the middle of a solo! Good work! See, that’s what we in the business call “innovation.”
[I imagine this is how most creative decisions are decided at Activision. Either that or over a game of foosball.]
Both of these new “features” are demonstrated in the video a few paragraphs up, and while the idea of having guitar duels sounds excellent in concept, (to not completely berate GH; after all, I’ve got a GH shirt, and I’m a certified addict) the execution’s inane; besides having power-ups with names like “Amp Overload” and “String Break”, they break the game completely, since they effectively take out the competitor, turning multiplayer into a game of “Get the Power-up” over, say, actually playing the game well.
This underscores the biggest problem with the GH franchise, as it stands right now; going the Madden route in development is certainly effective in sating an audience that’s demanding more and more, regardless of quality. The problem is, repackaging what’s essentially DLC and charging $59.99 for it every year isn’t effective in the long term; in the larger picture, it’s bad for the industry, as the penchant for publishers to flood the market with crapware sequels hurts its health as a whole.
On top of that, it’s hard not to argue that the “features” of GHIII all point to stagnation. No longer the proverbial underdog, GH holds an unbelievably tight monopoly on the market (look no further than Activision taking over the #1 3rd-party spot from EA thanks to GHII, among other things) and it’s a given that monopolies and innovation rarely go hand in hand; with no competition, why bother making your latest iteration anything different than the last? Slapping on some new, ill-conceived modes and calling it good (or in Activision’s terms, “playing it safe”) may be par for too many developers these days but either way, it still points to lazy development all across the board.
The biggest problem with this mindset (which far too much of the industry swears by/is guilty of) is that it, in plain terms, it’s not sustainable. Unless developers can keep a franchise fresh enough for buyers to keep on coming back, the audience will move on and this problem is especially relevant for Red Octane & Activision; the GH gravy train can’t keep on going forever and unless Activision can find a way to keep on refilling that gravy (and apologies for that disgusting metaphor), it’ll leave Activision with a $100 million hole in the bank and a one-trick pony of a company otherwise known for making low end DDR dance mats.
On the flip side, developer Harmonix’s Rock Band, which likely would have been GHIII had Harmonix and Red Octane not gone Van Hagar, is already attracting its share of critical buzz, and for good reason. It’s certainly a potent formula, even moreso than the original one behind GH; while GH was bound by the obvious limitations of just having a guitar, the ability to play along and actually interact with the music more than made up for it. Rock Band still retains that core concept behind GH, but adding vocals, bass and drums to the equation adds exponentially to the game experience; you’re no longer just a single, lone guitar player, but you’re having conveyed to you the experience of playing in a rock band, short of actually being in one.
As for who’ll come out on top, it’s still too early to call; GHIII raking in its share of money is a definite given, (brand loyalty’s a pain in the ass) but where Rock Band ends up in the crossfire is still a crapshoot. Pricing’s still unconfirmed and even if instruments can get bought separately, the entrance fee’s still a high barrier, even with the clout of the Almighty EA behind them. [though for what it’s worth, Activision might be feeling the presure, if their pulling out of a recent EGM feature might suggest. Either that or they were just being douche bags.]
At the very least, you’ve got to admire Harmonix’s chutzpah in taking on their former Red Octane. Like Krelborn beating away at Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Harmonix is more than ready to take down the overblown, gigantic monster of a franchise they’ve created in GH. And, for what it’s worth, here’s hoping they do.
Linkage: New PSP? Notsomuch.
If Sony releases a new PSP and no one buys it, does it make a sound?
[and some original content will be coming.. soon.]
Video: Ninja Gaiden 2 Teaser
Relatively fresh off the pre-TGS table, Ninja Gaiden 2’s teaser looks expectedly sharp; 360 owners wanting their ninja fix are stuck to wait for an announcement, as a release date’s still TBA, but at they very least, they can replay the teaser and go over the screenshots until then.