Dead Space: Event Horizon = Cake Walk

Before I get started, please completely ignore the review that OXM did: OXM review.  It is horrible and completely unjust.  It’s quite obvious that the writer does not like survival horror games and didn’t want to deal with this… so sad.  Obvservor bias is a terrible thing to have in that profession.

I also highly recommend that you watch the 6 episodes of the animated comic, which are free for download in the Xbox Marketplace.  They give a background to what happened before the game takes place.  Don’t worry, there are no spoilers.  In fact, you get nothing less than a good story and some bonus factoids which you discover later on in the game: well worth your time.

Now onto the review…

We’ve all played survival horror games before: *cough* Resident Evil.  Sadly, this genre seemed to be dying, as the games got easier and very cheesy.  Enter stage right Dead Space, a survival horror game which takes place on a seemingly deserted spaceship out in the depths of space.  You play the silent protagonist Isaac Clarke, a technician aboard a rescue vessel charged with the task of figuring out what happened to the USG Ishimura.

The minute you step aboard the Ishimura, events take a sour turn and leave you separated from the crew you came with, only to discover for yourself firsthand what happened here.  Armed with only a plasma cutter and an armored tech. suit, you creep your way through the decimated halls with very little light to guide you.  You quickly discover that the only way to defeat these creatures is by dismembering them.  It not only slows them down, but does massive damage and helps you conserve ammo, which is not exactly plentiful, as the genre suggests.

The level layout is superb with tension and suspense moments plentiful.  The lighting throughout the game is a thing of beauty, giving a false reception that there is something behind you or in the corner at every moment.  Just when you get used to these points, something happens and you’re back to looking everywhere at all times.  Dead Space provides you with an incredible sense of paranoia and chilling fear that you’ll feel in your gut.  It is best played with headphones or a very good surround sound setup and little light in the room.  My eyes usually hurts from staring at a TV without light on, but the dim environment aboard the Ishimura will test you, and the pain is well worth it.  The movie Event Horizon looks like a training ground compared to this bad boy.

As with every game in this genre, you are constantly searching for inventory items, as well as running back and forth to reach your objectives.  But these are mere necessities.  My first play through was around 15 ½ hours on normal, as I spent a lot of time soaking in the immense environment and figuring out what the hell was going on.  The second play through took me 8 ½ hours on hard, but it only took that long because I was only using the cutter (hard, but fun).  I’m currently working on impossible mode, which is almost just that.  The replay value to more than enough to get you throwing it in again when you feel like getting the crap scared out of you.  Even better, if you load the completed game you already finished, you start the game over with everything you had and even unlock some cool gear.

The combat system is very well designed and the upgrade possibilities are tough to choose between, but are essential and well crafted.  The team did an amazing job with this game, especially since it got bumped forward almost 2 weeks, finishing ahead of schedule.  If you are a fan of science fiction and the survival horror genre, this is a must have.  While I love this game to death (no pun intended), it is not one of the best games I’ve played, so it can’t rank up there with BioShock, but it definitely deserves a solid 9.0.  I have highly recommended this game to everyone I know with a 360.  Originally, I gave this an 8.75, but after how many times I have played this game and still enjoy every minute of it, I had to bump it up to a 9.0

For those with Mirror’s Edge, I suggest you play it for a good week, then throw Dead Space back in.  It’ll be like you barely played it before, making you jump at things you should already know are there.

Viking: Blood, Limbs, Heads, and Mead

This is one of those games that I never got around to playing until now.  I saw it on the shelf of a CEX and decided that now was the time to test drive this guy, despite the poor reviews that a lot of people gave it.  To me, the concept seemed interesting: a Viking warrior who has been recently granted immortality by the goddess Freya in exchange for battling Hel’s forces across Midgard. Now I’m a completely sucker for Ragnarok and all the lore behind it, so this game has been in the back of my mind for a while.  Please note that given the fact that I got Viking used, the reduced price I paid will definitely reflect in my review; at least I’m being honest.

Now it is true that this is a hack-n-slash styled game, but not as mundane as playing Dynasty Warriors 5, 6, 7, and whatever else they come up with; once you’ve played one DW, you’ve played them all.  Viking, on the other hand, gives a bit of an RPG feel to the game and has 3 separate islands full of open ground for you to explore.  You can pretty much go anywhere at any time, provided that you have a key to unlock a gate or something to that regard; it gives a more realistic feel to having boundries.

A great part about the RPG aspect is that it’s not experience-based, but rather gold-based: the spoils of war.  You go around collecting gold bags, smashing urns with gold in them, and opening up chests for gold.  There are a lot of these, but it’s worth investing the time and effort in order to increase your character’s abilities.  Luckily, the developers knew how tedious of a task searching for bags would be, so for about 800 gold total, you can purchase 3 maps which will show these gold sources on your mini-map.  To “level up” your character, you must visit an arena to buy new fighting abilities, or moves if you will.  Now let me say that I am not a fan of fighting games, because I am horrible at memorizing 5 buttons combos.  However, I’m great with concepts: learning versus memorizing.  The most difficult combo to remember is a 5-button (A) combo followed by a strong blow (X).  Not very hard.  The rest of the battle controls feel a little awkward at first, but by the end of the first island, you’ve definitely gotten the hang of it.

I’ve said that it’s a hack-n-slash, but Viking is more than that; it’s also a stealth-like game, to a minor degree.  On each island, you must infiltrate an enemy infested base to obtain certain items.  This requires a lot of planning on the fly about how to go around hoards of Hel’s beasts.  And don’t try taking them all on at once.  I did for the first mission and died numerous times before deciding that I should follow the instructions given to me.  One move that is crucial is a sneak attack that cuts your enemy in two if you go unnoticed while sneaking up.  It’s a move you’ll use throughout the game.  There really is a certain glory that you feel after stealthly moving around a huge enemy fort and then try to make it out.  Sure, you could just jump off a cliff and kill yourself, but that’s lame and not half as entertaining.  By the way, killing yourself doesn’t rid you of any items you’ve picked up: a very useful trait.

The storyline isn’t completely original, but at least they do a good job in not botching the notion of Ragnarok (Too Human kind of did, but they tried it with a futuristic twist).  The in-between-island scenes, as well as the ending, has a narrator who’s not only too brief, but is trying too hard to sound almost prophetic.  It’s honestly a little cheesy and makes it seem like the script writers just wanted to get the story done, as if it were a chore instead of an honor to work with the game.

Each island gets larger and more difficult, so you’ll find yourself getting frustrated with having to run around so often, all for a stupid key that you could have saved a lot of time doing if you weren’t so curious in the first place; yes, I did this a lot.  Luckily, there are large stones which you can use to teleport around.  Also, once you leave an island, you can’t go back.  At first I thought this was lame, but after running around, performing rather silly chores, I thanked the gods that I didn’t have to deal with 3 islands at once.  All this searching can bring the game down a little bit, but the terrain isn’t so vast that it can’t be done somewhat quickly.

All in all, Viking is a good game, and one that I’ve recommended to friends already.  Had I paid $60, I probably wouldn’t be as pleased with it as I am, but it’s still a lot of fun.  And if you’re an achievement whore, one detailed run through the game can land you 865 points, but you’ve got to be thorough.  The camera is a little annoying at times, mainly because you are so close to the protagonist, but the right-stick can move the camera in any direction.  My guess for this is to force the player to personally explore rather than zooming out and using the camera.  The replay value is yet to be fully determined, but I think it will be one of those games that you’ll pick up after a couple of months (in between game releases) and play it on hard for those last 135 points.  My overall rating is a 6.75.  I’m trying to keep in mind that I bought this for $20 and paying full price for it would have me felt it was almost worth a 7.  In regards to used games, this is definitely worth picking up.  Don’t let kids under 14 play this, though.  The amount of bloodshed, beheadings, and whacking off limbs is sure to give them nightmares.  Mead?  Play and you’ll see what I’m talking about.  It’s nothing special, but who doesn’t love mead?

Coming Soon… but after Dead Space

Sorry for the hiatus; lost of “real world” things going on (e.g., hockey season starting).  I’ve got a few games added to my list to write about.  Some are games from a few years back (F.E.A.R., Prey, BioShock), which I either never wrote about or finally got around to playing.  Some games are new (LEGO Indiana Jones, Star Wars Force Unleashed).

Unfortunately, those will have to wait, as Dead Space comes out on Wednesday and I’ve been longing for its arrival.  For those who don’t know about it, check out the downloadable content in the Game Videos section of the Xbox Live Marketplace: its free.  There are 5 animated comics which tell the background and 5 diaries which will give you some insight to what you can expect: a shooter/horror/survival in space, complete with zero gravity.  Let’s just say that I had a dream about it last night and woke up drenched in sweat… freaky stuff.

For anyone who actually checks back every now and then, my apologies for slacking.

UPDATE: Thanks to FYE accidently selling my reserved copy of Dead Space, I had to wait until Friday to get my well-deserved copy.  So I went ahead and wrote a review for Viking: Battle for Asgard.  At least FYE is giving me a 30% discount.  Makes me wonder if they’ll do the same thing with my Fallout 3 reservation… god help them if they do!!!

Unreal Tournament III: Old School Enhanced

For fans of the original UT on PC back in 1999, your long wait has finally come to an end.  And man did it take a while to finally bring back the old school feeling into the next-gen age.  When UT 2003 came out, I found it to be blasphemous and a horrid attempt to extend the franchise.  Well, so did the creators, as they’ve Xed out UT 2003 by naming the fourth game UT III.

This game was created solely for the online multiplayer experience, so if you can’t handle face-paced and intense online battles and prefer campaigns, stop reading and move onto another game: this isn’t for you.  While there is a single/co-op campaign, it’s there to teach you the basics of all game types, as well as introduce you to levels and weapons (in case you’ve been in a cave and never played any of the other UTs).

The newest edition to the franchise is the Warfare game style, where two teams fight to destroy each other’s core by linking nodes.  At first, this will seem so foreign that you’ll become intimidated and refuse to play it again.  However, constant practice will have you reaping the benefits in no time.  While the other game modes focus on killing each other in a massive frenzy of carnage, Warfare is a strategic mode which not only requires teamwork, but also the use of a headset.  Well, it doesn’t require it per se, but communicating with your teammates puts a huge advantage in your favor.  Even more importantly, how can you own a 360 and not have a headset?!  Warfare is by far my favorite game mode; I can even brag about being ranked 44 in the world on the 360 release.  It’s intense and all sorts of entertaining.

The other game styles are the basic ones: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag (CTF), and vehicle CTF.  I believe those games speak for themselves.  If you aren’t feeling up to a heated competition, try out the player matches.  In these, you don’t have to wait for a full room to start a game and can jump in the action at any time.  You can even invite your friends into the game at any point, provided that the map hasn’t been maxed out (up to 16 players).

However, if you feel ready enough for big-league competition, test your skills out on ranked matches.  This is where the big guns come out and true sportsmanship tends to shine.  Of course, there will always be those foul-mouthed, arrogant players out there, but ranked matches tend to be filled with professional gamers who are in it to win, but always appreciate a good match.  A thing to keep in mind is that while it is frustrating to lose a match, rankings are not based on your win-lose record, but on how you perform.  For instance, your team may get rocked in a warfare game, losing 4-0 without a single hit on their core (and you can thank the commentary for stating “humiliating defeat”), if you score 300 points, that’s a big boost to your ranking.  Only the good and experienced players tend to realize this.  If you continue to let your fingers do the talking and practice good sportsmanship, your gamertag will begin to get recognized, respected, and feared.  There are a few downfalls of playing a ranked match, but they’re so minute yet worth mentioning.  Just like many other games, you cannot invite friends to a ranked match.  Also, every ranked match will spit you back to the main menu after each is finished.  Lastly, you have to wait for the match to fill up to the minimum capacity before the host can start the match.  This is warfare’s biggest problem, as many are still intimidated by the new mode, but it’s completely worth waiting.

Unreal III is an incredible relief to a franchise which could have been easily destroyed had another UT 2003 been developed.  A lot of thought was put into level development and gameplay.  The weapon system has been balanced out better than almost any game that has come out in years.  Some of the old guns have been combined while other have been reinvented.  The biorifle, for example, is much more useful than it was in the past.  Then there’s the addition of the hoverboard.  This could have been botched so bad as to make it useless and really bring the game down, but the verdict is out: the hoverboard is amazing!  You’ll find yourself trying to use it in other games, then quickly realizing how much you miss it.

If you’re in it for the achievements, then you’re in for a long battle, as the majority of the achievement are based on how many times you receive certain rewards (e.g., Flakmaster).  Each reward requires fragging opponents a large amount of times with a single weapon.  Each achievement require that you obtain this reward 20 times, so you’ll be playing a long long time to be getting all of these achievements.

All in all, Unreal Tournament III is a blast and well worth the $60 you’ll fork out.  At almost any point in the day, there are people playing, although Warfare tends to be more of an American fascination, so you’ll have to get on during the US night time if you want to enjoy the mode.  While I fully love the entire game, design, and online enjoyment, there are a few bugs (using the hoverboard sometimes has a glitch) and requiring the gamer to press right on the D-pad to talk is just annoying.  The latter, however, has a glitch, just like CoD4.  Hold down right on the D-pad so that the mic icon is displayed.  Unplug the headset, then let go of the D-pad.  The mic icon should still be displayed.  Plug the headset back in and BLAMO, you can talk your head off without having to use a button.  The price is that if everyone is using the glitch, it can slow the server down by hogging up all the bandwidth.  The controls are quite smooth in the default mode, but if you want to change things up, you can highly customize your layout, which has greatly improved my game.  Unfortunately, there are certain functions which are considered “required” and can be a burden.  The weapon select function is useless, but “required,” so you’ll have to sacrifice one button for this.

That being said, UT III gets an 8.5 in my book.  I’d give it more, but the campaign gets boring and beating it on the insane difficulty is just that: insane.  I spend over 1.5 hours on one level without a decision as to the winner.  The graphics are surprisingly smooth, considering the constant action which you are engaged in.  For those who enjoy realistic and slow-paced FPS games, you’re going to hate this.  Take a look at the name and decide how the action is going to be: Unreal.

Turning Point: Fall of… coding?

When I first read of this game, I immediately got stoked for its arrival. The entire concept is something that has always appealed to me: a simple shift in an action of the past could have devastating effects on the rest of the future. The introduction recalls the trip Winston Churchill took to New York in 1931 when he was struck by a taxi cab. While he survived the accident, he was left with a limp for the rest of his life. As history shows, he was quite influential in the defeat of the Nazis during WWII. What if he had been killed by the accident?

As the protagonist, you are a simple member of the American working class, atop a skyscraper during its construction. Out of the blue, the Nazis invade New York with a force enough to make you just stand there staring into the sky with hell raining down upon you. You eventually make your way down the skyscraper and join a small militia force in an attempt to repel the invading Nazi forces. As the story progresses, you find yourself fighting as an insurgent… very cool. The plot is original, provided that you ignore the fact that you’ve already played too many WWII games in the past.

Despite all of the somewhat realistic weapons you are giving, this game was obviously rushed. There are so many graphical and mechanical glitches that it will downright annoy the hell out of you. A rescued scientist apparently can glide across the tiled floor without moving from his “running” stance? What the hell is going on here? Numerous times, you’ll want to drop your tommy gun so you can briefly use a shotgun to clear a narrow hallway filled with Nazis shouting German at you. Once done, you return to the spot of the tommy gun no more than 10 feet away from you to find that it has disappeared. Now that’s complete BS, if you ask me!

CodeMasters attempted to include some mini-games, but failed.  Attaching wires to arm a bomb?  No repercussions for failures?  What the hell were you thinking?  Mini-games are supposed to be challenging and distracting enough to help add to the game.  This just got annoying.  It didn’t happen often (thank god), but was just plain dumb.

Then there are the achievements. If you are looking for some easy gamer points, then pick this up or borrow it from a friend. Achievements continuously pop up for the simplest of actions. Sure, I enjoy pumping my gamer score up (currently at 10,377), but at least make them a challenge to get. But then you can point out the multiplayer achievements: they will take god knows how long to get because they are driven on getting 300 wins in ranked team games.

Speaking of multiplayer, it’s kind of lame. Deathmatch is pretty cool because it’s all based on how often you get hit. Just like in the game itself, there are no med-kits; if you get hit too much within a certain period of time, you die. This actually makes deathmatch entertaining, because if you are getting sliced to pieces, you can simply hide behind something and hope that you regain enough health before your enemy can get another shot off on you. Team matches, though, are frustrating. You can only tell what team your target is on when you are close enough to them. It might prove to be a plus in this category, but I’ve yet to find that out.

Had this game be developed 3-4 years ago, these problems would be considered a minor oversight. But in the age of next gen consoles, these types of mistakes are completely unacceptable. CodeMasters needs to, well, master their coding if they plan to stay afloat, especially after how they got ragged on about Jericho. Developers cannot be making these errors when you have so much insane competition out there. What saved the game was the fact that I get a 10% discount with my FYE card on all purchases, plus the $10 mail-in rebate, which I fully intend on sending in. I feel a little gyped, here. I’ve been expecting this awesome game to tie up the endless amount of WWII games that have flooded the market over the past 5 years and I receive an glitch-filled shooter that can’t even deliver on the promises I was given? Not cool, CodeMasters. I truly love the stories you have created, but you need to smooth out all of these issues.

I highly recommend that you wait until the price on this guy drops. Over all, I’m going to have to give this a 6.75. It’s concept is awesome. The story line isn’t too cheesey; in fact, it’s actually entertaining to see how things develop. The glitches really bring the entire experience down too much to give this a 7.0. Sorry, CodeMasters, but you cannot rely solely on story lines anymore.

RezHD: Shooting to the Beat

For any of you who remember and enjoyed Nitrous Oxide on the original PlayStation, then you need to check this game out.  It’s a 3rd-person shooter which coincides with the music.  If you don’t like electronic music (e.g., house, trance, breakbeats), then you might find this game a little annoying, as the entire soundtrack is electronic.  Then again, it might make you appreciate the genre a little more and pull you away from generalizing it with all the crap on the radio.

The story line is pretty simple: you’re a hacker breaking into a system which suposedly has a virus at the core.  If virus = synthetic female being saved, then okay.  It’s a little bizzare, if you ask me, but it does fit in with the level design and how you progress through the game.

Essentially, you are a human-form-like program using a box (controlled by the left analog stick) to shot at all the enemies coming at you.  By holding down A, you can lock onto up to 8 targets at once.  Once you release A, old-school-styled missles (like from Missle Command) head towards their victims and explode in sync with the music.  At the end of each level layer is a box which has to be breached.  As you ascend through each layer (10 total) the music intensifies, as do the enemies in both size and quantity.

 Seems basic, right?  That’s because it is, but it’s done so in quite a creative manner.  And new aspects of the game keep unfolding, as you can only reach certain game types by completing areas in a certain way.   By the time you finish all five areas, your thumbs are sure to be aching, yet your mind wants more.  That’s the type of arcade game we all know and love!

Being 800 credits, it’s well worth the purchase.  I’d suggest checking out the demo first, just to make sure that you’ll actually enjoy the game.  I can easily see how some people might not enjoy this type of game.  Then again, if you are that type of person, what are you doing with a console?  All in all, I’d have to give it an 8.5 is respect to Xbox Live Arcade games.

Rock Band: If Your Wallet Can Dig It, So Can You

First off, let’s just start with my stance on this genre: not a big fan usually.  I liked all the old school versions of rhythm games like Frequency and the music games from Fusion Frenzy (I’d love to include Nitrous Oxide, but it was definitely more of a shoot-em-up with kick ass music).  These were some insane games which only required a few buttons, but highly addictive.  Then came Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)… I thoroughly loathe that game.  Really, I do.  I finally was convinced to try it out at a party, only because I was completely drunk.  I spent less than a minute on it before saying “This sucks,” grabbing my beer, and walking away.  I never played it again.

Guitar Hero?  Eh, it’s okay, but nothing I’d really want to spend any money on.  Well, my fiancé wanted Rock Band for Christmas this year, but she really wanted the drums.  Unfortunately for me, the drums only come in the bundle pack, which cost me almost $200 (including parts warranty extensions).  Normally, I would never do this, but all of our Christmas present had been stolen, our roommates split on us without paying rent, and sold a bunch of our DVDs and my games to support his crack habit…jackass (nice guy, huh?); and all of this happened just two weeks before Christmas.  So I figured Rock Band would cheer her up.

What I didn’t expect was how much fun I actually had with it.  Playing alone, well, it’s more for practice than anything else.  It got very repetitive playing the same songs over and over and over.  Now when you get multiple people playing together, now “That’s freakin’ sweet!” as Peter Griffin would say.  Me on guitar, her friend on drums, and her on the mic: bliss.

The only downfalls with this game are the cost associated with owning it and… cables?  Yeah, it’s wired.  Sucks, but it makes sense seeing as all the instruments have to connect to the USB hub, as the 360 only has one USB port.  As for the costs, you got about $170 for the bundle pack (game, guitar, mic, drum set, USB hub, wires, bla bla bla, pretty box), music downloads, plus the additional guitar if you want to be able to have a guitar and bass at the same time.  Is it a lot?  Yeah, for game it is, but it’s just so damn entertaining and addictive.

I fully condone paying for additional music, as you can simply expand your game instead of waiting for the new one to come out.  They have to make up the development costs for each song, plus music licenses, plus make a little off it in the end in order to make it worth their while.  Remember: this is a business, people, and it’s about making money.  It’s not too expensive either, provided that you stick to downloading the packs and not do what my soon-to-be-wife did: download individual songs, then realize you could have just downloaded a single pack which had all three of the ones you just bought separately (which is more expensive).  I just looked at her blankly as she bowed her head and said sorry.  Yeah, it’s a waste of points, so make sure you know what you have available before you get all trigger happy with your points.

The initial music selection is just plain amazing.  It’s so diverse, almost too diverse.  I was forced to play a Rush song… god, I hate those guys!!!  Now I’m more of a metal-head (Tool, Acid Bath, Isis, Clutch, to mention a few), but there were still some great riffs on there, man.  Who can refuse grooving to Mississippi Woman?!  Of course, you’ll end up with half the songs you played the night before getting stuck in your head.  Honestly, it’s time to become very good friends with your MP3 player or discman.  It’s the only way to free yourself from Rock Band playing in your head all day.

By far, the most innovative aspect of the game is the drum set.  Yeah, I know you’ve eyed that set in Best Buy and wanted to go give it a shot.  It’s sick, really.  But keep in mind that it is probably the most difficult instrument to start with, as you not only have four pads to pound away at, but the bass pedal takes some getting used to.  The guitar is way too simplistic at first, but gets insanely challenging later on.

Now I’m not very good at these games, so you may find yourself progressing with much more ease than myself.  Regardless, this game rocks!  As cheesy as it sounds, this game is actually a damn cool gathering instrument; you can entice people to come over and jam away.  All in all, this is definitely a 9.0.  I’d love to give this something better than a 9.0, but in comparison to other games, it wouldn’t be fair to rate it any higher.  Still, it’s an amazing game that almost anyone can enjoy, provided you have the cash to throw down.

Jericho: Underappreciated Terror

Upon reading that a game was being brought to us by Clive Barker, I remember forgetting to breathe. I’ve always been a huge Clive Barker fan, from his movies (most notably the Hellraiser series, as well as In the Mouth of Madness) and his books (my favorite being Weaveworld). Yes, I’m a sucker for the twisted, freakish horror stories which are always accompanied by some cheesiness.

Unfortunately, I hardly read anything good about the game. The concept sounded awesome to me: forcing a player to switch between six different players, each having unique weapons and abilities. Writers were constantly complaining about the poor level design and how the playing field was always too narrow, giving the feeling of being trapped. Yet still, I longed to test this bad boy out.

Now I admit, I only paid $16 for the game at a used shop. Yeah, I know it’s not right of me, but I’ve been quite low on funds lately and I would have damned myself for spending $60 on a game if it was as horrible as all the review claimed it to be.

So how was it? Hell, I enjoyed myself. The graphics weren’t great, but still pleasing on the eyes. Here’s where I start in with my usual shaking-the-fist-at-reviewers rant. Yes, the levels are narrow and yes they make you feel trapped. These people obviously have never truly experienced Clive Barker. Send 6 heavily armed militia into a narrow alley, doused in blood and body parts, poorly lit, then add on the undead of WWII Nazis, young Christian crusaders, and god knows how many winged demons at you… It was supposed to be that way! Tension gets to you, not to mention pissing you off occasionally because you’re pinned down and running backwards is much slower than running forwards.  But that’s the point.  It’s meant to get the user to feel that way.  It makes you feel more like what the characters are experiencing, despite the fact that you’re safely at home on your couch.  People are getting too comfortable with the standard field being vast spaces, allowing for margin of errors.  Jericho does not, hence why so many people spoke ill of the game.  The frustration and tension combined made me determined to get through to the next checkpoint.  It made me want to show those undead pansies who they were messing with.  A nerdy comment?  Definitely, but I’m a gamer.  How “bad ass” can a gamer really be anyways?  Face it, people: we’re dorks.

I will also admit that they game is quite difficult on the first run-through. The only reason for this is because half the time, you’re trying to figure out which character you’re supposed to be using to finish a checkpoint and how to do it. Frustrating? Yes, but I still enjoyed it.

The replay value is kind of up there. While the game itself is not amazing, most of the accomplishments are accumulated throughout all of the games: 150 kills using the Ghost Bullet?! It forces you to play the game mostly with one character in order to obtain those acheivements.  It’s kind of cool playing the game using only one set of tactics each time. 

The ending was one of those typical “Hey, let’s just end the damn thing” developments, which is very lame. I think that the game may have either been rushed, under financed, or both.  It’s a shame though, because Clive Barker just does such great things.  Maybe there was something after the credits. I don’t know, as I hit buttons until the menu popped up so that I could start playing again.  Point proven on the replay value?

Bottom line is this: if you are a Clive Barker fan and don’t mind a challenge (and cheesy horror moments, including bad dialogue), check Jericho out. If you are looking for a blockbuster or stereo-typical FPS, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Overall, I’d have to give it a 7: worth playing, worth a reference, but not a must-have.  I truly hope that this is only the begining of what Clive Barker will bring us as he transcends into the console world.

Assassin’s Creed: Graphics to Drool Over and a Replay to Cry At

Well, I apologize for the absence.  I’ve been caught up with work, real-life and Mass Effect.  I finally finished Assassin’s Creed on 11/22, but never got around to finalizing my take on the game, so here it goes.

As stated before, I waited 2 years for the release of this masterpiece, and I don’t really feel let down at all.  Unfortunately, it isn’t quite a masterpiece; the replay value is not as high as I had expected and the ending had me gawking at the credits while repeatedly screaming “NO!”  The end screams sequel, which really isn’t that bad.  I honestly just thought I was about to hit the high-point of the game where everything comes together.  To rub the salt in the wound a little more, they allow you to browse around a bit more and continue to pick up alternate clues which just frustrates you that much more.  It wasn’t a disappointment.  Rather, it was a letdown because you wanted to see what happens next.

As for the game play itself, I was and am impressed with it.  I found the control scheme very entertaining.  Best of all, I didn’t feel like I truly mastered the setup and weapons until about two-thirds of the way through the game.  That being said, I have to say this: the short sword-dagger combination rocks.  The ability to attack multiple guards and then throw a dagger at one further away, just to turn back to the guard you were attacking was pure bliss.  And then there are the finishing moves.  There is something beautiful about stabbing a short sword into the foot of a guard and, as he’s bending over in agony, bringing the sword straight up his torso and watching him fall to the ground.

Another aspect of the game which got annoying at times, but added to the concept, was the ever-increasing need to progress slowly through the streets.  As each target is assassinated, the guard-awareness level intensifies, causing them to notice even the slightest socially unacceptable action.  I found out the hard way that while running from point A to B is technically faster than walking, spending 15-20 minutes constantly out running guards and hiding is much longer and more frustrating than the 8 minutes of walking and blending.  Again, while this got annoying (more frustrating than anything), it really forced the user to become immersed in the culture of the game: an assassin strikes unnoticed.

The flags really grinded my gears, as searching for all of them lead me in endless circles until I gave up.  I’m sure I’ll eventually look for the maps online just so I can get the achievements.  Is that lame?  Yeah, it is, but try to find all of those blasted flags by yourself and then question the action of using some hints.  Speaking of achievements, you have to love getting gamer points for throwing beggars out of the way.  I laughed my ass off when that popped up: Enemy of the Poor.

All in all, I’m going to have to give Assassin’s Creed an 8.5, as it is a cleverly crafted game with an environment that is almost completely open, provided that you have unlocked the area.  The graphics are as intense as the commercials make them out to be, assuming that you have an HDTV.  Honestly, if you don’t have an HDTV and have an Xbox 360, I strongly advise you to start saving up, as it’s completely worth it.  Now I know that I had originally stated that Halo 3 deserved an 8.5, but I’ve had to re-evaluate it and upgraded it to a 9.0.  It is definitely still not a 10 in my book.  Had Halo 3 not been part of the Halo series, do you really think it would still have gotten the ratings that it did?  Sorry, but my answer is no.

Assassin’s Creed is definitely for those of you who enjoyed the Price of Persia series, but wanted more.  It’s also for those who enjoy the idea of stealth-based missions.  Granted that you can just run in and start hacking away, but once you learn how to properly take your targets out, the game goes from amazing to nasty.  I highly recommend this game.  Seeing as I’m in the middle of Mass Effect, if 3^rd-person shooters/action RPGs/Strategy games are your thing, then you might want to wait until after the New Year’s to see if you could get a cheaper copy.  Still, I loved this game and promote it to my fellow gamers.

Up next: Mass Effect.  I’ve already put in 26+ hours into my first character, so who knows how long it will take me to write another review.  You might see some other ones though, as I’d love to complete a review of BioShock: the best game I’ve played in years.  I’ll need to snag it back from my friend, though.  Kid’s had it long enough.

Assassin’s Creed: 2 Years and Worth the Wait

After two years of anticipation, my wait for the release of Assassin’s Creed was finally over.  Originally, it was only supposed to be released for the PS3, which almost had me thinking about getting one (thank god I didn’t).  But when the developers announced that it would also be available on the Xbox 360, my eagerness became almost uncontrollable.  Today had to be the longest day I’ve had at work in a while, because all I could think about was getting home to continue my experience as Altäir, after only getting a taste of it last night.

Part of the wonder that I encountered had to do with some horrible reviews on the game that I have read lately.  Several people complained about the button layout, how it didn’t make sense and was too hard to control the protagonist.  Then there were others who claimed that the story lacked originality.  Honestly, I believe these people to not know how a game is supposed to be developed and how developers try to evolve one of their previous games.

So here’s my take.  I personally have enjoyed the button schematics.  I’ve never played a game that uses the ABXY setup to control different parts of the body like this.  I’m used to jump, reload/action, switch item/weapon, melee/grenade.  Instead, Assassin’s Creed uses A for the feet, X for the left hand, B for the right hand, and Y for the head: very creative and not half as complex as people made it out to seem.

What also needs to be kept in mind is that these are the same people who brought you the Prince of Persia series, so you are going to notice a lot of movement similarities, like scaling walls or running up a wall to reach a ledge.  If anyone complains about this, they need to ask themselves, “How many ways can you really scale a wall?”  There aren’t too many ways to do this, and quite honestly, if the system works, why both trying to completely change it?

While it is true that in the beginning, it almost seems like half of the feet actions are automatic, a lot of timing is involved with when you hit what button.  For instance, if you are dueling with a guard using your sword, you have to hit X at the exact moment that the two swords collide to ensure that you can get a deadly blow in.  This is actually awesome because it forces people to avoid being a button-masher (I’ve never liked those types of gamers anyways).

The only odd part as of right now (and I’m not that far into it yet) is the story line itself.  It’s kind of futuristic.  You play as a bar tender whose bloodline is of Altäir’s.  Some scientists force him to use some machine to unlock memory slots in his DNA in order to figure out what Altäir and his faction did back during the Crusades.  Don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything for you.  If you read the instruction manual, you’ll quickly find all of this out.  My guess is that everything will unfold and it will actually have a good ending, at least it better.  Nothing is worse than ruining an awesome game with a horrible story, or vice versa.

By far, my favorite part of the game is getting down from the view points where you synchronize the map memory.  You cannot see anything on a section of a map until you go to the synch spot and perform this task.  Once up there, you hit Y and get a beautiful 360 display of the wondrous view from up on high.  Now I will give you one quick hint (trust me, you’ll save yourself the trouble of dying a few times on the first couple of towers).  Atop each of these structures, there is a wooden plank extended what seems like 5 to 6 feet out.  Climb onto these and as far out as you can go.  Looking down, you’ll notice a big pile of hay.  Here’s the fun part: jump!  You perform a graphically intense swan dive and then forward flip into the hay pile.  Sorry, but I absolutely love that part.

All in all, I’m really enjoying this game right now.  The memory fast-forwarding was a letdown at first, but I’m finding that it’s actually a blessing; who really wants to spend over 20 minutes trying to drag a character across two zones?  The game is not 100% inventive, but it is doing a good job at allowing the user to experience the moments of an assassin as best as possible.  Assassin’s Creed borrowed a lot of movement ideas from Prince of Persia, but it’s a really smart move and quite fluid considering how often a simple step is affected by the surroundings.  The High/Low Profile toggling is great, slightly unrealistic, but still great.  When I’m done playing this masterpiece, I’ll be sure to fill you in on the game’s entirety.  Again, don’t fret.  I’m not going to spoil a damn thing.  I hate that.