Happy new gaming year!

So, 2010 eh? Last year was a brummer for gaming, a constant injection of greatness from the early sucker punches of Street Fighter, the slaying of zombies in numerous outstanding titles, the transformation of Resident Evil from Survival Horror to action co-op, Modern Warfare 2 being over hyped and turning out ‘as expected’ to the distant swearing of someone failing that last track on Trials HD’s superb DLC pack, there was a large torrent of strong content, but 2010 is not waiting to jump on its big guns…

Seriously, just look at January, LOOK AT IT! Take a serious, hard look at the very first week of the year.

Bayonetta – Famitsu 40, Edge 10, unofficial Devil May Cry sequel amazo-game. In the first week of 2010, in the first week of the new decade, we get one of the highest critically acclaimed games ever, 2010 starts proceedings with a game that calls one of its difficulties ‘climax mode’, with levels set on falling clock towers and has giant hair monsters nomming the faces off the bosses they dwarf. A better writer would try to make a witty remark about one more thing the developers could add to make it more insane, but it would already be in the game so there’s no freaking point.

And what sort of releases does any other kind of media get? Well, naff all from a quick scan. Films get something about lots of vampires, and a rom com starring Meryl Streep, shit all then, whilst books are so acceptably rubbish and unable to compete with a game starring what looks like a librarian, all 2010 releases have been shredded into saw dust because everyone will be playing Bayonetta instead, because it’s actually exciting.

So the year starts with Bayonetta, all I can say is that those GOTY lists at the end of 2010 best not put the blinkers on and crown Halo Reach just because it was released in September, else you’ll see a similar kind of outcry as the one that will be muddying this blog tomorrow…

Yep, daily updates again. Brilliant.

Time to revive!

*Dalagonash casts revive*

Yea I figure it’s about time I bring this thing back to life, how about my favourite games of 2009 to start off? Sounds about what is expected of a games blog in December. Well then, huzzah! See you soon for something perhaps more visual than this blog is used to…

Halo 3: ODST Review

Some years ago game ‘expansions’ were common fare, released to add more story or maps to a popular game and normally retailing for less, it was like getting a straight to DVD sequel to your favourite film except, you know, not shit.

But nowadays we rarely get retail expansions, with most games being supported through smaller DLC packs, but ODST feels like one of these releases of old, to Halo 3 what Opposing Force was to Half Life, except it carries the same price tag as its predecessor… Ho hum.

Enemies like Hunters and Brute Chieftans are more formidible foes for the squishy ODST's

So the ultimate question is whether or not it’s worth full whack. Short answer is yes, long answer is if you enjoy a spot of Halo gameplay then of course it is. The pioneering trio of shooty, hitty, explodey combat is still at its best when engineered by Bungie, not to mention the games iconic and riotous vehicle selection, and while ODST is really a bit of clichéd ‘more of the same’ it’s more of the same of the best, but with some noteworthy improvements.

However improvements is arguably the wrong word as ODST removes and re-introduces elements to the combat, gone is cumbersome dual wielding whilst Halo:CE’s health and pistol make their triumphant returns, with health adding a greater degree of tension to proceedings with the pistol being the most satisfying virtual gun you’ll wield in an FPS this year, the combat of ODST is refined, sleek, and undeniably satisfying.

And of course we’re not playing as Master Chief, instead we fill the shoes of nimble, fragile ODST soldiers in the ruins of New Mombasa, and whilst they have the hitting power of a starved grandmother they come equipped with pseudo night vision, that godly pistol, and a real personality.

The game works like this, you walk around the sometimes annoyingly quiet city at night as ‘Rookie’ looking for evidence of your squad, upon finding these pieces of evidence you play the events leading up to its eventual resting place as the vocal and surprisingly well characterised members of your ODST unit.

Also, the field of vision in ODST is notably wider than Halo 3's, which means when you go back to Halo 3 it feels like playing in a box!

And that’s the most important point, yes the campaign only lasts roughly six hours but the flashbacks are snippets of pure, concentrated Halo brilliance, never as good as Halo 3’s best but never dropping to the series lows, with the characters giving the adventure a personality that Chief and Arbitar could never manage with their gruff, action man personas, this is a group of characters you’ll actually enjoy spending time with.

And spend time you will, sure I was tossing six hours around up there but add to that finding all the ‘audio files’, playing in co-op, re-playing for achievements, and enjoying the amazing, endless fights in the genius Firefight mode then you’re looking at a solid twenty plus hours of entertainment, and if you haven’t purchased Halo 3’s map packs you get all them on a separate disk as well, and that’s more than can be said of most other retail releases.

And that’s ODST, in many ways as good as its source material, in just as many ways improved. An enjoyable and extremely replayable campaign bulked out by a great survival mode and arguably the best FPS system to grace our wonderful medium of video games, don’t let the price put you off, this love letter from Bungie shouldn’t be missed.

9

Summer of Arcade week 4 – A Trial of patience, in HD!

Trials HD, oh how you hurt me. I love you, honest to god I would marry you if it wasn’t for your digital nature  but Jesus H. Christ on an expensive bike you are a harsh lover aren’t you? One hundred tries, a quarter of an hour later and three litres of man tears and that’s only put hard mode to rest, Extreme mode and tournaments left to go… Better buy the man size pack of tissues.

But this isn’t my first run in with Red Lynx’s  mascochist machine as I fell in love with Trials 2 on the PC just last Christmas, and in a rare experience for my blog I can look back at said occasion! I put Trials 2 at number 22 in my favourite games of 2008 and said it was ’something special’ but that it made me ‘grind my teeth at the insane difficulty’. Well, Trials HD is no different.

But of course I mean that in the best way possible, there’s a reason I adore Trials more than most human beings, the generous checkpoints turn every excruciating jump into a confined mini puzzle, a minor joint in an entire level of pad twisting tempter tantrums, the visual flair as you ride through a level that literally explodes around you, and the addictive primal urge of every gamer to better your friends.

Add to the mix fun mini slices of aggrivation in the interesting skill games and a robust level editor with easy uploading and sharing abilities and you’ve got a live arcade title with unlimited staying power and one achievement you’ll never get.

Ever.

But to get hung up on a single achievement and later levels harder than Ron Jeremy during an intensive filming session would be petty because Trials HD is pure gaming nirvana, punishing yes, rewarding and ultimately satisfying? Most definately. You’d be a fool to try and talk yourself out of buying it.

You’ll still never get that achievement though.

Ever.

Summer of Arcade week 2: It is Marvel, Baby.

This week is a release that, unlike last week’s Splosion Man, you’ve probably already decided to get or avoid. Simply put Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a fighting game that mashes together characters from Marvel comics and a wide range of Capcom titles to create quite possibly the biggest cluster fuck of fan pleasing material and eye searing visual rape that has ever been called a video game, this side of Space Giraffe anyway, and I quite like it.

It’s not as clever as Street Fighter and, unlike the recent Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, it doesn’t have a clever comic book like story to explain the crossover, instead it says ‘here are fifty odd characters, beat the shit out of each other with missiles, machine guns, hadoukens, and the living dead’.

You won’t play MvC2 for the intense phyche outs you experience in Street Fighter, nor will you see combacks with a crowd reaction of a Diago full parry, instead you’ll play a game that has depth but masks it under a barrage of newcomer friendly controls and regular moments that will cause whooping and hollering along with sharp intakes of breath, MvC2 is the Table Tennis to Street Fighter’s Wimbledon, if the paddles shot missiles every once in a while.

None of this should sound damning however as while it is a silly game, it’s also a very good one. After the initial surprise at the simple button layout, two punches, two kicks, and two ‘assist’ commands, and once you get over the orgy of effects that will populate your screen half the time you begin to learn the game’s nuances, when to launch your hyper combo, how to activate and follow a launcher, what assists you can use to pressure your opponent, as I said previously it’s not the deep phychological fisticuffs of the Street Fighter series but that won’t matter as you learn to call Megaman in to launch a mega buster whilst you advance on your opponent.

As a Summer of Arcade release, it’s another winner for Microsoft and another game that after seeing moderate success at retail, has finally found that sweet price point at ten English pounds. It doesn’t break your wallet, and six of you can enjoy the action at a time online… Seriously Street Fighter 4, your paltry two player online is constantly being shown up, sort it out!

Summer of Arcade starts with a bang: Splosion Man

Just yesterday I was chatting to the owner of my local indie store and what came up in conversation? Sonic the Hedgehog and its one button. Run and jump is all it took for a classic to be made in 1990 but since then platformers seem to need gimmick after gimmick after ‘let’s put guns in cos the kids like guns’, with a few shining examples such as the fantastic Donkey Kong Jungle Beat or, erm, nope! Nothing else comes to mind.

And this is where Splosion Man comes in, the start of Microsoft’s summer of arcade and an honest to god simplistic, thrilling platformer. The game has echoes of Sonic’s speed, Donkey Kong’s level traversing spectacle, Prince of Persia/Jungle Beat’s acrobatic fluidity, and outrageous 90’s mascot stupidity. Using just the left stick and any face button you run and ’splode’, which is just a flamboyant method of triple jumping, and using the splode technique you can wall jump, blast off barrels, and murderise scientists.

One of the game’s high points is the animation on the character himself, as long as you don’t mind silly chattering noises and baby like garbling. As you move around he has a variety of running, standing, and sploding animations that keep the humour up and give him a unique sense of character.

The levels themselves, whilst unfortunately samey looking, have a nice array of simple puzzles and fiendish platforming with hidden cake in most levels giving the incentive to replay levels and nom them all for a delicious achievement, bosses are spread thinly through the missions as well and whilst they are easy to dispatch, the spectacle they offer is welcomed.

Now if that sounds good then it lasts for fifty levels and a further ‘hardcore’ challenge is unlocked after but to go alongside this is a fantastic co-op for up to four players that can be played over Live! Many people I know were annoyed that N+’s co-op was without an online option and this was a real sour point for me, considering it was amazing, so the fact that everyone will be able to experience Splosion Man’s equally fantastic co-op is a real incentive to buy it now. In many ways it’s more tricky than the single player in that it asks players to really co-operate to solve puzzles and give each other a leg up to places, the experience tailors itself to the amount of players in the game, from two to four, and it’s another fifty levels that are arguably even better than the single player game.

Splosion Man is a great platformer with some delicious modern touches masking a truly old school experience, it’s challenging but you have unlimited lives to make it accessible to everyone, the single button controls could be explained to a toddler but knowing the way the ’splode really works and getting through a level without stopping is a giddying experience last felt in the Gamecube’s Jungle Beat, the levels are bite sized but finding all the cakes and beating hardcore will last you a long time, probably ten hours or more.

All this and my only complaint is that perhaps the areas are a little too samey, but I’m not really far enough in to tell for sure, but hopefully this won’t be the last time we get to splode our way through labs, turning scientists into chunks.

A perfect re-imagining of a classic – Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

It’s easy to worry when you hear a classic is getting a remake, for many movie fans the word brings up horrendous images of The Thomas Crown Affair, The Day the Earth Stood Still, or perhaps Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, depending on your position on Tim ‘Gothic exaggeration’ Burton but whatever feelings it arises in movie goers, it’s not normally good…

And it’s not like video games have escaped the increasingly annoying trend of remakes either, Bionic Commando and Alone in the Dark are two recent tragedies of this growing trend.

However video games can get away with something that video games can’t, re-imaginings. A splash of HD polish here, an updated audio track there and a game is ready for an XBLA release, whilst sometimes an exercise in polishing turds there are some games that come out looking and playing like they were made just yesterday.

The new art style takes a little adjusting but new details, such as the ships in the background here, give more life to classic scenes.

And I’m happy to say that Monkey Island is one such game. Whilst the facelift may take some getting used to the additional details and sleek character models are an obvious improvement but second to this is the new slick as grease animation. Several other HD re-makes such as Street Fighter have kept their old frame rates, making the gorgeous HD art simple window dressing on the sprites of old, of course in a fighter it’s acceptable but Monkey Island benefits now from sleek art and polished animation.

More importantly however is the addition of voice over’s, and this is no phone in job. The most important voice in Monkey Island(tm), Dominic Armato returns to reprise his role as Guybrush Threepwood and proves once again that he is the man for the job but it’s the supporting cast that truly shines, each voice actor fits their character and what more, they give a real sense of feeling and life to their performances, even small insignificant characters ooze personality as they animate lines left unspoken for nineteen years.

And that’s all there is to say really, Lucas Arts have done the job and delivered a version of Monkey Island for the 360 generation, visually slick and with voice talent far beyond the usual quality delivered for a video game, the graphic adventure is back in style. For those lingering on a purchase, the new hint system will ensure newcomers don’t get too stuck however don’t lean on it too heavily, as it could turn what could be an absorbing eight to ten hour epic into a swift jaunt, just sit back, enjoy the ride, and live the adventure of Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate.

The Music and sound have been improved as well, this bar now buzzes with the chatter of drunk pirates whilst the clock ticks in the town square.

Sam and Max Hit the Road next please.

More streamlining than dumbing down – Battlefield 1943.

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about last week’s XBLA release, Battlefield 1943, for a good week now and whilst the comments were initially ‘best spinning arrow game ever’ or ‘I can’t believe I paid 1200 points for a game I can’t even play’ DICE sorted out their unforgivable short sightedness fairly swiftly and now that everyone can play the game a lot of people, mainly PC playing Battlefield elitists, have been calling the game an intense dumbing down of the classic title.

Dumbing down is a comment used most frequently when talking about the effect of Skins on the quality of British Television, or the influence of Jaqueline Wilson on female literature; it is most definitely not a comment that can be aimed at DICE’s recreation of their first Battlefield title.

Even with 24 players the action gets intense

So you can’t go prone? You can crouch and, let’s be honest, going prone just makes being a sniper incredibly cheeky. Also, next time you’re playing, count how many times you need to go prone, as long as you play cleverly and not in an attempt to spite me. You can crouch behind fences in sniper towers, aim over the apex of hills, run around hills, it’s just a new style of play. Furthermore, going prone wouldn’t help as much now anyway thanks to the arrows of doom…

But they aren’t game breaking, little arrows that just help you notice an enemy on high if you spot them, I’ve surprisingly not seen that addition come under fire. Infinite ammo and regenerating health (and the removal of the medic as a result) have done however but let’s think of this reasonably, there’s nothing worse than being abandoned in the field with no ammo, especially in a little arcade game you boot up for some fun, and likewise it’s not cool to be wandering around on critical health. The lower player counts also mean less people would be around to go medic, so that would be irritating as well.

Tanks win in a lot of situations, until a bomb hits them

These are the main points I’ve seen come under fire in what I’d call an essential game, save for a few balancing issues – the SMG is rubbish – and some rare graphical glitches the game will give back a lot of entertainment for a little price and will probably make you question just how much full price retail games will need to do to justify their price after just a few hours of playing as planes whip over head, a tank annihilates the building you’re cowering in and you nail a sniper on the hill under all the pressure.

So ignore the naysayers and just enjoy a fantastic re-imagining of one of the best online games ever that, for an arcade game, is making a large impact on the main Xbox live games.

Two years later and the parts match the model: Worms 2 Armageddon (XBLA)

About two years ago I, along with thousands of other punters downloaded Worms on XBLA, and what a cheeky release it was. Like buying a new Ferrari only to find it drives like the 1995 model Worms XBLA was a visually slick remake of the PC original. No Holy Hand Grenade, one voice set (since rectified in DLC), only a few terrain types, the whole experience was enjoyable but left fans of later Worms games, myself included, a little empty and so the game has spent many a month untouched in the annals of my hard drive.

Enter Worms 2 Armageddon; so named because it is the sequel to the first XBLA Worms title and because the weapon selection is based on the Armageddon chapter of franchise, chanting artillery, air born lambs, and heavy donkey effigies included. This is the Worms that the Download era needs, fully featured thanks to a longer more challenging single player, bolstered with a few extra game types and with that added degree of insanity that Worms acquired in 1997.

You can even add hats to Worms! Here's hoping for a beer hat for the redneck voice.

The game shows its improved feature set from the off with a far more comprehensive team creation which includes an array of voice sets that makes my brain boggle just scrolling through them, setting colour, a hat, victory dance, the only thing missing is a personal super weapon but, I guess that was removed to help with game balance.

And then there are the new game changing weapons, the new sentry gun and magnet items add a new layer of strategy to controlling the field whilst the bunker buster will be the bane of any fans of the darkside award, such as myself.

Fire is also a major area of improvement, no longer does it burn for three seconds and magically dissipate, fire continues to burn through the landscape during the subsequent turns, again making tunnels and hiding under the level a far less appealing prospect not that a napalm strike can cut down over several turns and fry you.

Avatars make an appearance in the 360 version to emote about how the game is going.

Worms 2 Armageddon feels like the true sequel to Worms Armageddon, and a Worms that is genuinely ready for the modern gamer, with more options in combat both for defensive and offensive players the only disappointment for this player is that you can only have four players in a match, even more would have been even better.

Anyone who felt short changed by their flashy looking but outdated model two years ago shouldn’t feel anxious going in this time, the 2009 version has been fitted with the most up to date technology, and could very well be the best iteration in the franchise to date.

P.S. The achievements aremore time consuming this time, so you won’t be maxing it out in a weekend. Should ensure it stays around long enough for you to just want to enjoy playing it, unlike last time.

Very late to the party: City of Heroes/Villains.

I’m currently trying out City of Heroes/Villains and I’ve made the following characters:

Hero, The Purple Pylon:

Specialises in shooting pure energy blasts and looking very purple and menacing.

Villain, The Argumentative Midget:

Creates machines to do his dirty work and surprises his opponents with traps.

I know I’m a little (very) late to the game but so far so good, the combat is very satisfying as I take on multiple targets, sending ragdoll’s flying with my various attacks and whilst missions are standard ‘go here, do this’ MMO fare, stopping random crimes and just bringing evil doers to justice (or the opposite when playing my villain) just makes me feel powerful and heroic. The fact that it is my own hero rather than me playing as some Marvel or DC stalwart gives the game a fantastic feel that no other super hero game has ever done.

If nothing else it gets me hyped for Champions online.