Game Review: Uncharted 2 (2009)

Played on: PS3

First off, a little rant about the PS3. I've owned a 360 since 2006 and just recently put together a pretty spiffy computer. Now all I've heard is how much PS3 is better than 360 and how technically superior it is. So I set up my PS3 to my 42" tv to find out only the dashboard and the blu ray movies run in 1080p. The games run on whatever resolution they were built on... and all of them, every one I have seen is 720p. When I forced Uncharted 2 to play on my 42 on 1080p it looked like shit. X-Box 360 has had every single game in 1080p for at least the last two years. What the hell is the excuse here? I had to move my PS3 to play on a 19" 720p tv. Once I got that all figured out I was ready to go because the game looked gorgeous.

So this is one of the big reasons I bought a PS3. It was game of the year last year by most major publications so I figured I should give it a go. I played on normal difficulty and it took me about 10 hours to complete.

First and foremost, this is cinematic gaming. Uncharted 2 is the perfect blend between giving the player enough control and the direction of the action/cameras the game scripts for the experience. Every mission is designed with these "movie-moments" that you just don't get in conventional games. Some early examples are running along the outside of a building when a fucking attack helicopter appears and starts blasting away at you. Every thing around you starts getting shredded and though you can die if you stay out in the open too long, the game is designed to put you into harms way just long enough to get the "oh shit!" excitement out of it without killing you.

I gotta talk about the train level. Now I love me a good train level (Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Blood) but never have I experienced one like this before. Absolutely amazing game design. First its just a matter of making it from the last car up to the front. Then you'll be forced to the outside of the train and then have to avoid oncoming rail lights and signs. Then the fucking attack helicopter comes back! I'm not going to spoil how it ends but the intensity lasts throughout.

One thing I noticed, now I've heard this is a great game to play in front of people who don't play games because it looks so much like a movie. If you are planning on doing this (obviously) play on the easiest difficulty. I played on normal and there were some parts in the game I died over and over and it got frustrating. I didn't want to drop to a lower difficulty so I just persevered and eventually got through it. However I am interested in playing through the game again on the easiest setting just to see how much more cinematic the game is when you don't get stopped by deaths.

Best writing and voice acting in any video game I've ever played. Nathan Drake is a funny and very likable protagonist, a young Indiana Jones/Han Solo (which I assume is what they were going for). The ladies... haha ohhh the ladies... I liked Chloe (brunette) over the blond from the first game (Elena?) because she was more of a bad ass and the accent helps too. I didn't play the first game but from what I can tell one of your friends from the first game turns on you and ends up being one of the prime villains (until he does the most retarded thing ever...) and the big boss of the game is a generic power-hungry tyrant but aren't they always? The game isn't about the villains anyway.

Its funny because this is an action adventure game and I think the levels I liked the most were when you were just traversing or exploring. Starting the game off hanging from a train over a cliff and climbing up it was epic. There are some parts in the game I saw something I wanted to jump and grab and I couldn't, but those are few and far between.

Not to say I didn't like the shooting in this game, I just think there was a little too much of it. This could be because there were some parts where I died over and over and got tired of it, but I felt some levels had a shooting arena tacked on just for the sake of it. This is where I have to say I didn't really like the last boss fight. You have this epic cinematic game with levels where your on a speeding train or where your jumping from truck to truck as you take down a convoy. Where the final boss fight is just set in a small arena where an invincible enemy chases after you until you can blow him up enough... its just kinda weak compared to the rest of the game. I wish they had made it a more cinematic experience.

To my next point, a lot of people would hate 'simplifying' the boss fight by making it something cinematic. I'm not suggesting quick time events like in God of War or Bayonetta. But sure if it makes the game more cinematic and enjoyable, make the end boss fight a scripted out and easier experience. If I want a challenging game with an equally challenging boss, I'll play Ghosts n Goblins. Games these days are getting easier because the developers want to create a better experience and they want the gamer to finish that experience. I see a challenging experience and cinematic experience as two ends to the same spectrum and you should go one way or the other. When I say challenging experience I'm talking about REAL hard games, like Mega Man 9 and when I say cinematic experience I'm talking about Heavy Rain.

So final thoughts here... amazing game, totally worth your time. It hasn't sold very well so if you have a PS3 get out there and fucking buy it because every time I see a game like Uncharted not sell and then have customers come up to me with Just Dance for the Wii, i DIE inside. Support good games people - support Canadian game devs

Game Review: Bioshock 2 (2010)

Played on: PC

Whats there to say about Bioshock or its sequel that haven't already been said. One I can think of is that it's actually a lot of fun to play and that's saying something for a modern shooter. I've played more shooting games than any other genre I can think of. Doom in grade 3, Duke in grade 4, Quake in grade 5, Goldeneye in grade 6 and on and on. Its to the point where I hate most modern shooters. I have to give props to Modern Warfare for its cinematic quality but its about the only shooter (pure shooter mind you, tactical shooters or shooter/rpg's don't count) that I can stand playing (probably because its so cinematic). So how is Bioshock any different?

I guess Bioshock is put into the shooter/rpg genre, where it's not really a rpg but it has the element of leveling (through the plasmids) and also has a (albeit, weak) morality system. Save the girls or harvest the girls: now that i've played through twice - once being evil and once being good, I can say there are few differences. The outcome of the final cinematic is different and there are a few parts involving your daughter that are also affected.

The experience of Rapture will be a "been here before" feeling to vets of the first game. There are a good amount of changes added. The hacking has been cut down from the pipedream minigame it was in the first game to a much faster, more streamlined "stop the ticker on the blue or green" minigame. There is even a gun for hacking from a distance (great addition). I like how you are an actual big daddy this time around. The drill is my favourite new weapon in the game, especially once you unlock the bash ability. There are two major new baddies in this rapture. First you have the brute splicer, which is just a huge bodybuilder who started mixing steroids and adam (not recommended), the other being the big sister. These girls are fast, pissed off and tough, making them the hardest fights in the game. Once you get to the end you'll be jacked up (if you have been researching every enemy, even turrets), full of cash and ammo and its pretty much a cakewalk.

My first play through I went heavy on upgrading my drill and my rivet gun as fast as possible. My 2 punch combo was the old freeze and drill bash technique (which ended up destroying big daddies at the end). I upgraded my electro shock and freeze to level 3 and bought pretty much every tonic (and opened every slot). I harvested every little sister (you end up with roughly the same amount of adam).

On my second playthrough I wanted to make sure I was playing a lot differently than on my first. I would say my first character was a tank for assaulting the enemy head on. This second character was more defensive; I leveled up the cyclone to level 3 and started utilizing the traps both in my arsenal and scattered around rapture. That's one of the things that sets this game apart from the halo's or the call of duties. Those games put you at point A and make you go to B and kill anything in your way, in the bioshock games sure you have your objectives but each level is a giant world to explore. I turned off my objective arrow and just went around the level at my own leisure which is what I enjoyed most about this game, I felt so much more immersed. I also really felt the connection between my character and his little sister. I liked the little touches where if you got shot by a grenade that rocked you back, you could see your little sister on top of your helmet almost get knocked off.

It's funny because with most of the reviews I'm seeing, a lot of people are saying they enjoyed the first one more. I had that feeling until about half way through my first game. I remember playing Bioshock 1 and rushing the last few levels because I just wanted it to be finished whereas in the sequel I found it to be shorter, sweeter, and didn't overstay its welcome.

The multiplayer was designed by Digital Extremes (who operate here in London Ontario) of Unreal Tournament and UT2003/4. They know how to make shooters plain and simple. However it just didn't translate over for Bioshock 2. As soon as I joined a game I could tell something was amiss, it didn't feel like the same game I had just played back to back. The thing with the multiplayer is that it feels stuttery. No it wasn't my machine, cmon people, it plays Crysis for petes sake). Yeah I felt the multiplayer was just kind of an afterthought with some basic FFA, TDM, LMS, CTF and a couple of others. If that's the multiplayer you want, play Quake. I will admit it was fun getting inside a big daddy outfit and having everyone in the server coming after me and mowing them down. I just didn't really have fun with a standard death match game anymore. I see how it's set up similar to Call of Duty's leveling system but the carrot on the stick is not appetizing enough for me to want to rank up so I can use a thompson as an example.

So yeah, amazing game. This one wasn't exactly on my radar either. I knew it was coming out but I was expecting a 'same-old' experience and was pleasantly surprised. It's not necessarily long so rent it if you can for a weekend game. If multiplayer is your thing, steer clear. This is not a game for multiplayer.

Game Review: Aliens Versus Predator (2010)

Played on: PC

I need to start this review off with one simple fact. I don't think there is a franchise I have enjoyed and absorbed more than Aliens. When I was eight and all the other school kids were into Star Wars or Indiana Jones, I was watching Weaver blow xenomorphs out of airlocks. The comics I collected weren't Archie & Jughead or the Caped Crusader; they were set in the graphic and adult universe that only the Alien and Predator (and also the Terminator, but that's another review) could inhabit. I have four copies of the Alien trilogy; three on VHS and the quadrilogy (worst name ever). I have the kenner toys from the 80s & some of the newer figures standing up on my bookshelf. When we were ten, my schoolyard chum Wesley and I would deck up in NERF armor and weapons and play Aliens on weekends (revealing a bit too much here...). I guess the point I'm trying to get across with all this embarrassing info is that I was a huge Aliens nerd, and have always had a soft spot for the franchise to say the least.

The new movies, the AVP movies, are terrible. The first one was watchable but I switched the second one off as soon as it turned into American Pie (a good ten minutes in). The series is not getting the treatment and respect it deserves and is instead being used as a cash cow by Hollywood and FOX. However the games have always upheld a certain level of quality. I put a good amount of multiplayer hours into both the 1999 and 2001 games. Both were exceptional, especially the second one. So I was pleased to hear Rebellion, the developers of the original game were returning to develop the latest game.

What we have here is a flawed FPS. Since the three races play so differently from one another its important to discuss each one separately.

The Predator was by far the best campaign to play through. Your taking on the roll of a hunter in the jungles (much like the 1986 film). The Predator has the ability to cloak, accurately mark and execute jumps (a new addition to the series - and much welcomed), distract the marines, use your mask to target marines and aliens, and an arsenal of weapons (wrist blades, disc, shoulder cannon, stick, bombs). I enjoyed the wide open areas where you could separate and hunt the marines individually. There are some problems however. I found the distraction tool a cool concept from the first movie however it was little cheap (though in the players favor) as the AI is too dumb to team up when they hear the Predator call out to them.

Addressing the AI directly, picking off the marines is way too easy. They don't even take notice that their friend is now a fresh headless corpse on the ground, they just carry on with their patrol. Fighting the aliens is a chore: you hold down block until they attack, counter, and then either grab them for a finishing move or dice them when they're on the ground. Over and over. This is not a hard game simply because the AI is terrible.

I had more problems with the alien, starting with the controls. What happened?? The first two AVP games had great controls for the alien but they just dropped the ball here. Maybe they needed to refine it to work with dual analogue sticks for the consoles but there is something broken here. One part I was crawling up the wall of an elevator shaft and kept switching off the wall onto a rotating fan, getting turned around and was refaced pointing in the opposite direction. Another thing, the crawling around needs to feel cool in this game, that's whats so sweet about the alien in the first place. You don't know its there until its on top of you. When your in the vents you have to press a button to go through a hole to the exterior and you must be precise in where you are standing to activate the movement. I didn't like how there was only a few certain spots to come in and out of the vents when the shafts had numerous barred shafts. Why can't the alien break these? How cool would it be to plot out your own assault on the people below by making your way through the vents the way you wanted to, instead of being limited by the two ways in or out? I found the alien levels somewhat disorienting and once again the campaign is plagued by poor AI.

The Marine campaign would be my least favorite. Coming off of Bioshock 2 and into the boots of AVP's marine is painful. Its as generic a shooter as it gets. Its 2010, we're on to Call of Duty 6 now and your still fighting the aliens all alone as a marine. When I watch Aliens and see the whole squad working together and fighting as a unit, that is what I want in a game (gearbox is making this in Aliens: Colonial Marines to be released in 2011 I hope). Why can't we have that in this game? The experience just feels really uninspired and bland. The level design is boring and fighting in the dark feels cheap when you don't have a decent flashlight. The alien AI is retarded, they run up walls on the other side of the room to come after me and a few even got stuck mid-way.

I loved the kill moves in the game... until they started repeating themselves (there are only like 5-10 for both the alien and pred) and the game is pretty picky about where you are when you execute them (this is more a problem with the alien than the predator). However the feeling of ripping a humans head off is great!

One of the main reasons I bought this was for the multiplayer but I have yet been able to find a single server! Does nobody own this on steam or something? I'm sure it will be fixed and I'll update my impressions then.

There is fun to be had with the singleplayer campaign, I would recommend the Predator levels at least but the Marine stuff is so generic in this age of gaming. The production values are great. Good graphics, pays amazing attention to the source material, etc. However the gameplay itself falls short of greatness. It suffers from terrible AI, bland "go from point A-B" gameplay, terrible melee combat, and a lack of inspiration in many areas. It pains me to say this because I am such a huge fan of the franchise, but unless your an aliens/predator fan, I'd rent this.