Okay, okay! You get the picture: I love this game! I've loved it since the moment I first popped the disc into my Wii and played it straight through. I've discussed this one plenty, but I feel there is still much left to say. The amount of detail in this game is staggering and the Team Ninja signature is there, all the while somehow managing to keep a fantastic Metroid feel overall. The battling itself is spectacular with a brilliant dodging system that leaves me wondering why no one else ever thought of it before. More or less, you dodge simply by pressing the D-Pad in a direction away from where the attack is coming, and the real challenge to it comes from your timing more than anything else. Time your dodge right with another quick button press and the game rewards you with a full charge for your cannon that you can fire right away for devastating effect against even larger enemies. It all works beautifully and seamlessly, and it makes dodging systems like the one in God of War and its many clones seem more clunky than they already are.
There's more to it than that though: the ability to switch between third and first person mode is a smooth as the move between CGI and in-game scenes (I honestly could not tell the difference most of the time). The moves you earn are also important and incredibly useful, with a special nod going to the space jump for allowing me to literally blast through corridors at insane speeds. Samus feels faster than ever in this installment, which is brutal and swift in the way it deals you challenges and the way it lets you handle each and every one of them. The enemy A.I. is excellent and the bosses are all spectacular, with the Ridley, the Metroid Queen, and Phantoon being the three biggest standouts. Adding to the fun is the fact that the game does not, in any way, take it easy on the player. The enemy A.I. is not only really well made, it's downright vicious. Even the smallest enemies have the capacity to PWN you if you're not both careful and blazing fast with your reaction times.. Expanding on the difference between perspective is how well the game controls and how it does the 2.5D setting. You would think that using the Wiimote sideways and moving Samus with a D-Pad in a semi-3D space would be difficult or annoying to get used it, but no. Everything here is intuitive and soon you'll even forget that the Wiimote seems to be made for people with hooves when held horizontally.
If all you've heard about this game are bad things then you're probably only getting opinions on it from people eating sour grapes over the story. It's true that the story is not exactly brilliantly written or executed, but it is also not as offensive as reviewers and a lot of gamers would like you to believe. At the very least it manages to be entertaining and it makes Samus human; a quality she has been lacking for a very long time. But even the unfocused story can't keep this game down: it's really easy to forgive the problems with the plot when the gameplay mechanics are some of the best in any action game ever made.
Team Ninja just knows their shit and they know how to make excellent, fluid, and difficult games. Metroid Other M is all of those things and more. It's amazing to me that this game ended up besting Mass Effect 2 as my favorite release of 2010 almost effortlessly. Buy it right now! We need less Primes and more Other Ms and that will only happen if we talk to Nintendo with our money. Do it! I promise you won't be disappointed!
Where do I start with this one? I know it isn't exactly popular but I found it to be incredible in every way. I didn't originally intend to buy it, however, I was lucky enough to play the demo at a friend's house and I quickly fell in love. There is something so fresh and interesting about Mirror's Edge; it sort of takes the opposite route of the popular games being released today. For starters, DICE tried something entirely new with the gameplay mechanics, and despite having some great flaws the overall package delivers. Sure, once in a while you'll curse as you watch Faith plummet to her death because you can't actually measure distance below you; first person perspective will do that when you mix it with platforming. But most of the time you'll be enjoying really great flow at neck breaking speeds and heart pounding moments throughout. That's another thing I really love about this game: there are moments in it that tend to get the player's heart racing (all I'll say is: "subway!"). Even the art design is atypical; you won't find any of the gritty, brown, overly-bloomed art of other futuristic games (*Cough*GearsofWar*Cough*). Everything here is pristine, composed of primary colors that both soothe the eyes and make it clear for the player where Faith should be moving to next. Faith too falls under this category. I've already mentioned it in my top female characters post, but she doesn't fit any of the typical video game tropes you see for females in this day and age. She's a normal girl, with real problems and no super powers; all which is reflected in her artistic design and the choices the developers made about the clothes she wears.
Above all else, however, there is an undeniable layer of depth hidden beneath the gloss of this game ("between the gloss and the reality"), one that rewards the player fairly for learning the ropes and intricacies of the game's mechanics. If you keep a keen eye out for opportunities and keep in mind everything you have learned, Faith can pretty much do anything. Anybody who tells you that the game's flow is too broken up isn't playing it right: I can blaze through levels without taking damage, falling, or even having to stop and slow down (not counting the elevator sequences, of course). I've played the game enough to a point where I can keep the flow going, and I think a lot people who dismiss Mirror's Edge never really got to plunder its depths in order to understand just how good it is. Close combat and weapon use are not exactly what you might expect which is another problem people seem to have with Mirror's Edge, but the fact is that the focus in the game is less on head to head combat and more on disarming (because, really, as a runner, you wouldn't want to spend time just standing there, would you?). But ultimately it works well and I feel that if Faith could handle a gun like Master Chief the game would be less because of it. Extra cool points because of how much fun disarming actually is; nothing is cooler than doing a wall run kick to an enemy's face and watching him stagger sideways before you disarm him from behind and take him out with the butt of his own shotgun.
The bottom line for Mirror's Edge is this: you probably haven't played anything like it before and that's reason enough to give it a try. In an industry where a lot of games get more samey as the cash flows, it's neat to have such a unique experience available to us as gamers. But the game actually merits more than just a try for being different, it merits at least a few playthroughs for being excellent overall.
This one has gotten several mentions from both myself and the lovely Miss Sak, but I think that it deserves each and every one of them. I know there is a lot of anti-Rare sentiment since they were bought out by Microsoft and I can't help but agree. It's kind of depressing that one of the greatest developers of all time just might end up being permanently stuck making shit games on the Kinect, all because Microsoft doesn't know how to properly handle Rare's developer teams. But enough QQ'ing about the state of Rareware.
This game, regardless of who is behind it, is nothing short of spectacular. It's innovative in every way, it's quirky in its design, and it really, really works. I picked this one up, unsure if it would be a hit or miss considering how much contempt I grew to have for Perfect Dark Zero, but I ended up being blown away. Before I knew it, it was kind of consuming all of my gaming time, making me care about these inanimate objects getting sick, being attacked by the dastardly Professor Pester, etc. I can't begin to count the amount of times I would scream some obscenity or another when Pester would destroy one of my favorite piñatas.
What really, really gets me about this game is that its overall presentation hides the fact that it's full of immense depth. There are so many complexities for Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise that I wonder if kids are even capable of playing it at all without having their little heads explode. Seriously, have you tried collecting every pinata in this game? I have, and after over 80+ hours of gameplay, I'm still missing one! It's all so intricately beautiful and so engaging that it's sort of impossible to dislike this game.
I kind of wish that if Rare was relegated to just making games for the Kinect (a tragedy) that at least they would be allowed to give Viva Piñata another chance. Believe it or not, I actually think VP would work really well with the Kinect motion controls. But that's unlikely to happen considering how badly Microsoft has treated Rareware; so many of their games got canned by MS already (Kameo 2, Conker 2, Urchin, and several others proven to have been in development). Basically, Microsoft is to Rare what Professor Pester is to a piñata garden.
I can't stress this enough: give this game a try if you haven't already. It's one of the best gaming experiences you will ever have.
I know a lot of Dragon Age: Origins fans were disappointed with this sequel and I can completely understand why: the characters were not quite as great and the gameplay was a bit lacking in depth by comparison. But, for all those issues, Dragon Age II makes up for it by including a deeply personal, more engaging story that dances circles around the one of Origins. Sure, Origins had its highlights, but the story was pretty standard epic fantasy with one major "evil" trying to destroy the world. Dragon Age II takes a much different approach, enveloping the player in political intrigue where enemies come from many, many sides. It's all brilliantly put together and brilliantly paced, which is the crux of what makes Dragon Age II, for me at least, better than the first Dragon Age.
Sure, there are no Alistairs or Morrigans this time around, but there are still some pretty amazing characters (I'm looking at you, Aveline!), and the banter between them tends to be a lot more interesting/funny than that of your party members in Origins (just try keeping Aveline and Isabella together in your party; you'll see what I mean). You also get to develop much closer relationships with the new characters, and the game is full of all kinds of moments that tug at your emotions. I clearly remember moments of anger (not frustrated anger at the game failing on me; legitimate anger directed at certain characters), moments of laughter, and moments where I definitely got teary eyed. There is something magical about how Dragon Age II weaves its plot, setting, and characters, something that I don't think Bioware has done quite as well since the original Mass Effect.
The romances are all amazing as well, and I know many players don't even remotely care about the romantic options, but for me and a few others it actually makes the game better. It sort of brings a level of closeness between your Champion on his party members that you wouldn't get otherwise, and I think that the Dragon Age II team did with the romances what the Mass Effect team never could: push boundaries and push them hard. Not only does your Hawke have a same sex romantic option, he or she also has the power of choice. There are many characters Hawke can be involved with and what really gets me is how natural it's all treated in the game's world. Nobody bats an eyelash at the idea that your Hawke just might be bi or homosexual. In fact, the most comments I ever got from other people in the world had less to do with the fact that my male Hawke was dating another male character and more to do with the fact that they were worried Hawke was dating someone that was too problematic. It had nothing to do with sexual orientation, it had to do with Hawke's boyfriend having a difficult personality.
The game is really well executed, the battle system is not as deep as in Origins but it's a lot more fun, the story is excellent, and the companions are all endearing in their own way.
I'll just leave this here (WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS IN THE VIDEO BELOW):
This one holds a special place in my heart. Not since Shenmue had I played anything that pushed the gaming industry forward the way Mass Effect did. I picked it up blindly, entirely sure that Bioware wouldn't disappoint, and not only did they meet my expectations, they far surpassed them. There is something about Mass Effect that brings it forward from being just a video game to actual art, and I'm not exactly sure of what it is. It might be the impeccably written and executed story, it might be the wonderful dialogue, it might be the incredibly deep characters, it might be the setting, it might be the incredible amount of choices that actually matter to the overall game, or it might just be the sums of its part. The thing about Mass Effect is that it represents exactly what makes a game good. Often, developers are bogged down on presentation while forgetting that as gamers we play games for the gameplay.
Let's compare and contrast here for a moment: both Mass Effect and Uncharted are massively popular, critically acclaimed games with millions of copies sold. I don't mean to bag on Uncharted because I legitimately enjoyed playing it (well, the sequel at least), but there is a massive chasm between these two games, and that chasm is innovation. Uncharted, for all its beautiful, downright flawless presentation, isn't nearly as innovative or fresh or engaging as Mass Effect is. This also extends a bit further to Mass Effect 2, which although much more polished than the original, isn't quite as good. Mass Effect offers choice and control over the narrative, making the player feel as if his or her actions are actually important to the bigger picture, and it does it so seamlessly that it's perfectly possible to have two people play the game and experience completely different things.
In a day and age where developers are less and less likely to take risks in order to avoid busting their bank accounts, Mass Effect is a bold, daringly fascinating piece of video game software. Playing it makes me a lot harsher of a critic on other titles and I know it may not seem entirely fair, but that's what a really good game does. When you play something so brilliant, so spectacularly on point as the first Mass Effect, it's hard not to play other games and see where they fall short of the new standard Bioware has set.
My only true gripe with Mass Effect is that I wish that the Mass Effect team had given the first game (and series overall) a male/male romance for Shepard. I know that may not seem like much to certain players, but it's a bit disheartening at times to remember that one of most avant-garde games of today didn't really go the entire way and really pushed until it could push no more. But it's something I'm willing to forgive, because the game is just that good!
Oh, look! Another honorable mention! What a cheater!
*Cough, cough*
Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I seem to be choking on my inability to give a flying fuck!
Okay, okay! I promise this is the last "honorable mention" you'll be seeing in my posts for a while, but I just couldn't let this one slip by me. I know this is going to get me roasted alive, but I legitimately enjoyed this one much more than the original. You might think that's a jab at the first Bioshock, but I actually adore that game, so when I picked up this sequel I wasn't really expecting it to be better. Sure, I was expecting quality because the game has a very solid foundation, but that was about where the speculation ended for me. I had also heard from several of my friends that the sequel shouldn't even have existed and, all things considered about how the first one ended, they were right in a sense. I got my hands on it at last and was blown away: Bioshock 2 is better than its predecessor in almost every conceivable way, starting with the gameplay tweaks that fixed things I didn't even realize the original had done poorly.
The first and most obvious change is the ability to double wield, allowing you to use your regular firearms and combine them with plasmids without any delay. It actually improves the formula a lot because it allows for rapid decision making that can alter the gameplay, and considering that you will often be defending Little Sisters against hordes of Splicers, you're going to need that speed. Oh, did I forget to mention that part? Yeah, you protect Little Sisters because you play as a Big Daddy. More times than not you will adopt Little Sisters in order to collect ADAM, which is crucial to your ability to purchase Plasmids (i.e. powers). The problem? ADAM can only be collected from dead bodies in a long, hair raising process that requires you to protect the Little Sister from Splicers looking to kill her and take all the ADAM for themselves. You have to defend her endlessly and if you're not fast enough, well...good luck with that! But those are certainly not the only times you will need to move and move fast...
*Shudders at his memories of Big Sisters*
But that's one of the key differences between the first and second game; the sequel has a stronger emphasis on fast, up close, and brutal battling. Even the QTEs of the original have been edited, allowing you to hack things faster, such as helpful turrets or cameras that will set off alarms against enemies. There is seldom a moment in Bioshock 2 where you're not being put through your paces, and its all propelled forward as equally by the story as by those aforementioned tweaks to the gameplay mechanics. Sure, the story is neither as cohesive nor as well developed as the story of the original, but it's wonderful and for what it's worth, a lot more personal. I'm man enough to admit that I cried when I finished the game and got the perfect ending. For all the complaints that the story has cracks and fissures like the collapsing tunnels of Rapture, I found myself being very protective of my Little Sisters and taking my job surprisingly seriously.
But that's yet another thing a good game does: it sucks you right into its world and doesn't let you go until you're done...and when you're done? You want more. I know I certainly did!
- Kharlo -
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