Angry Birds Space Review

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

Angry-Birds-Space-Wallpaper-21

With a success like Angry Birds, it’s hard to believe that whatever new installment of the franchise Rovio is churning out is anything other than just a simple cash-in. With the exception of Angry Birds Rio, this has yet to be the case.

Angry Birds Space still maintains a lot of the simplicity of the original, but offers some very fresh ideas. Not only are you anticipating where your bird will land by launching them into the sky to wreak havoc on the pigs below, but now you will have to deal with gravity on a whole new level. Instead of having the simple fort to destroy, you will be launching your team of flustered avian compadres through entire gravity fields. Now you have to anticipate how gravity will work in your favor.

One of the more interesting elements you will have to take into account, is how to get some pigs back into orbit as they float mid-space. Sometimes the best route to take is to avoid gravity completely. Some of the birds maintain the same gameplay properties, but the lack of gravity changes some birds’ dynamics in new and interesting ways.

Angry Birds Space is not without its flaws though. While Space has a lot of new and fresh ideas, it falls victim to the things that were wrong with the Angry Bird games before it. Even though there is even more emphasis on strategy and how gravity affects the outcome, there is still no sure fire way to beat a level. The same tactic and maneuver may not yield the same results, lacking a sense of consistency. It is also incredibly short and unlike most Rovio games these days, there seems to be no future expansions in the works. I’d like to see more levels made for the game, but that is just the self-entitled gamer inside me talking.

Angry Birds Space is the newer iteration of the series and possibly one of the most innovative. It’ll hold you over until the next Angry Birds game comes out, if you are one to play in spurts, but it does fall short on the number of levels to previous Angry Bird titles. Even though it falls victim to the same flaws of previous games, Space offers up a lot of new ideas that make this an Angry Birds experience you won’t want to miss.

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Journey Review

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

Barrems1

It’s hard to review a game like Journey because it does so many things that are just difficult to convey into words. Journey is the latest game from ThatGameCompany, responsible for previous games Flower and Flow. In Journey, you are a person or creature in cloth that has the simple goal of reaching the top of a mountain. It’s as simple as that, but in the hour and a half it takes to beat Journey, it becomes one of the most meaningful and emotionally driven goals I’ve ever experienced in a game. You will explore vast landscapes, dark temples, and push your way through a terrible snowstorm.

More than likely, you won’t be traveling alone. Journey doesn’t let you just call a buddy to play cooperatively with, it will be with a complete stranger, with no knowledge of who they even are. There is also no way to communicate in a traditional multiplayer setting. You are limited to the simple act of emitting bursts of energy through a simple press of the circle button. This burst of energy’s primary use is to activate certain events as you progress through the world, as well as enable the other player to fly. When you both communicate with this simple method, it is no longer just flying through the air, it becomes a beautiful dance in the sky. Communication with the other player was something magical when traversing through Journey’s world. There were moments where I was genuinely scared that I lost the other player, but then they would emit energy to signal their location, I felt like I had found a long lost friend.

While Journey provides you with the simple goal of reaching the top of a mountain. The world tells you stories of how the world came to be, and where previous attempts to reach the top of the mountain have failed. There is also, of course, the story of the experience your partner and you share along the way.

Journey’s gameplay is also complimented by a powerful score that really sets the tone of your adventure. It is very rare in games to have such a strong connection to what is happening on screen while evoking emotions that sync so harmoniously to the story telling.

There is something to be said about Journey’s design and what makes it so successful. From the depth of the worlds history to its vast vistas. Journey has a heart and soul, it relies on very simple mechanics that express so much. As much as I’d love to share my experience, I would be doing a great injustice to you and your experience. Journey is a classic and a game that needs to played by all people who would consider themselves gamers. It is a masterpiece in art, music, story telling, and has the most unique brand of multiplayer. Stop reading this, go play Journey for yourself, and experience one of the most beautiful games ever created.

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Update: “I’m Getting Better!”

Posted on December 11, 2012 by

I’m still sick, but I whipped up my FarCry 3 review. I have a bunch of topics I want to post, but I need my rest. Not sure when I’ll be back up and going again, but it’s bugging me that I’ve gone so long without posting anything. I should be back later in the week or Monday next week.

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FarCry 3 Review

Posted on December 11, 2012 by

Far-Cry-3

Feel like you’ve been overworked? Have no time to relax? No time to stop and smell the fresh air? Need to just get away? FarCry 3 just might be the vacation you’ve been waiting for. On this tropical paradise, we have leopards, tigers, bears, and oh my do we have some gorgeous views. Need to let off a little steam? Go hunting! Need to just let loose? Go hang gliding or ride an ATV across one of our many beautiful coastal beaches! Take in all the beauty and shear wonder the world of FarCry 3 has to offer.

The FarCry franchise isn’t one of consistent story telling. It’s more or less a name that is thrown onto a game with shiny graphics and a gun on the screen. FarCry 3 goes back to it’s origin on a tropical island littered with mercenaries  but this time, many of the elements introduced in FarCry 2, are brought to the scene. FarCry 3 is back in its natural habitat.

You play as Jason Brody, the average trust-fund kid who just got his pilot license and went out to celebrate with his best friends. They let loose, but get careless and fall into the middle of a civil war. You wake up caged next to your brother and are introduced to Vaas, a very mentally disturbed madman with a lot of power. As you and your brother go to make a daring escape, and your sibling is caught in the crossfire. Vaas lets you live and as you escape, you are then found by some rebels that want to bring the fight back to Vaas and take back the island.

It’s very rare that a game offers the kind of animated characters that FarCry 3 does. From  Vaas’ psychopathic behavior, to Dr. Earnhardt’s doped out analysis situations, each character holds their own. While the crew you went on vacation with aren’t anything special, it’s the people you meet along the way that make FarCry 3′s characters something different. Vaas is the star of the show here, his performance is one of the most well done characters in video game history. There is always a feeling of discomfort around him, and just his presence brings an insecurity I haven’t felt since Heath Ledger’s Joker. There is also an attempt to humanize Jason Brody, promoting the idea he isn’t a natural-born killer. As much as they tried, he is just a really modest Rambo.

When I say “a lot has changed about FarCry,” I mean A LOT. Many of the issues people had with FarCry 2 have been addressed, fixed, and even eliminated. No longer are you constantly checking your weapon’s condition, and no longer are you having to kill the same enemies at the same checkpoint you cleared out 20 minutes earlier. FarCry 3 has taken a lot of the more conventional approaches to their open world formula, side-missions, mini-games, etc, but there is also an underlying depth to the gameplay that you wouldn’t expect from a first-person shooter.

If compared to other open-world games, FarCry 3 feels a lot like Skyrim. While traversing the tropics of FarCry, it was rare that I was going in the direction the game was telling me to go. There were so many things that could be, or had to be done (in my mind) before I wanted to progress. I almost genuinely thought I had ADHD. There aren’t dragons flying overhead of course, but the amount of content in this game is overwhelming. From clearing outposts to hunting sharks for another weapon holster, boredom is almost impossible.

Unlike previous installments, FarCry 3 has a skill point system. You earn experience points to earn skill points, to then spend on different stat boosts and abilities. This is a really interesting approach and keeps the gameplay fresh and interesting. Any inconveniences you have with the game is fixed somewhere down the road. Tired of waiting for that enemy to leave the dock so you can climb up and sneak up on him? Well now you can grab him while he’s standing by the ledge. What’s also nice about this system, is that you don’t focus on one skill tree, in fact, it forces you to branch out (no pun intended) and try a little of everything. Now, not all skills are blocked off because you aren’t far enough in the game. Some need you to perform certain tasks, like punch a shark, or kill a certain number of enemies a certain way. So there is always something to work towards.

The way the game’s economy works is a little confusing at first, but is really interesting. It’s not hard to understand, it’s just not very upfront about how it works. One of the more crucial things that isn’t explained, is how you unlock weapons. You can unlock weapons one of two ways, buying with cash or by clearing enemy outposts and activating radio towers. So, even if you don’t have the wallet to pay for that sniper rifle, you can take out 3 more enemy outposts and get it completely free. It’s a nice system that allows you to pay ahead of time to get what you want, but it would have saved me a lot of money knowing I could have work towards it instead.

In FarCry 2, you had to really go out of your way to get diamonds to buy new weapons around the world. Same remains in FarCry 3, but now we’re using cash. Typically, when you find a crate or box with money in it, there is usually an item or two attached. You can then sell in the store for more money. The fun thing about these caches, is that some of them require a bit of exploring. I’m not big on going out of my way to collect things, but FarCry 3 made me feel like Indiana Jones when I found a hidden ruin and it was littered with crates and the occasional relic.

Probably one of the bigger things that you will have to do in FarCry 3 is hunt. Sure, you can get by with a single gun and whatever you start out with for a while, but you’ll soon get that itch to improve your weapon, ammo, and wallet capacities. To do so, you’re going to need to retrieve animal hides and other parts to upgrade. On your map, there are labelled areas of where certain animals inhabit the most. Sometimes I would find myself unable to find these animals. If you come back later or hang out for a while, they’ll show up. The fun part is that these areas are not exclusive to each species, sometimes there is a pack of wild dogs, or a tiger in the mix. You may want to go in for the kill, but if a leopard is nearby, you’re better off letting nature take its course. This also applies when taking out some enemy outposts in certain instances. Patience is key.

Despite these interesting and new ideas, there are some “less creative” ones. With every vehicle used, character met, item used, there is a journal entry with snarky descriptions of who is who, what each item does, and what guns you’ve used. This could have been cut out completely and it wouldn’t have been missed. This detail is something most players will either overlook, view to get rid of the exclamation marks in the start menu, or straight up ignore.

Multiplayer is a thing in FarCry 3 that is a tad tacked on. The competitive mode could have just been eliminated. It offers very little, and does very little to differentiate itself to be a real competitor in the online multiplayer market. Co-op however, clearly had more attention and focus put into it. This is where future downloadable content will play its largest role. Up to four players can team up and compete with each other as the fight alongside one another. Players earn experience points and a winner is chosen at the end of each level by how much they earned. These points contribute to a leveling system that unlocks new weapons, perks, and abilities like most other multiplayer modes in modern games. Overall, multiplayer could have been left out, and the game would have been strong enough on its own, but of course, that just isn’t how the industry does things today.

FarCry 3 knows how to keep players constantly motivated and how to keep them engaged. I have yet to feel like I have nothing to work towards or accomplish. Everything about singleplayer comes together so well, it’s impossible not to recommend. FarCry 3 is one of the best AAA singleplayer experiences to come out this year and you’d be crazy not to pick it up.

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Sick & Away

Posted on December 7, 2012 by

I haven’t posted anything all week due to being ill. Expecting to be back to normal by Monday. :)

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Straight-Up Nostalgia: PlayStation

Posted on December 3, 2012 by

final-fantasy-7-cast

In 2005, Xbox 360 was right around the corner and the “next generation” was here. Everyone was excited, who wouldn’t be, but I knew I wouldn’t have one until next Christmas. As the year went on, I got this bizarre itch to play what I never got to play when I was younger. GameStop then announced that they would stop trading and selling old PlayStation 1 games as of June 2006. Out with the old, in with the “not-new?” I began to fear that these games would be lost forever and that I had a very short amount of time to play them. There was also some serious depression issues going on with me too, worrying about the end of the world and what-not.

I bought every game I could think of, everything from Final Fantasy VII-IX, Syphon Filter, and even the original Medal of Honor games. Time was of the essence, it became an obsession, a need. Looking back on it, it’s safe to say I was possessed by a demon that loved games (makes a lot of sense now). Just getting the game alone was not enough either, the case had to be in the best condition possible. I spent a good 30 minutes comparing which copy of Final Fantasy VII I would buy. Even if I got a crappy copy because it was the only one, I took new CD cases from albums I had around and replaced them so they would look new. I even went so far as to filling in white spots on the edges with a Sharpie marker. I even bought a PSOne with the little screen so I could play in my dad’s minivan on the way to school. It was bad.

So after hunting down these games, it was finally time to commit to each one. The first, was Final Fantasy VII. Bare in mind, this was late 2005, and it was just as hard to ignore how low res everything was as it is today. I was able to overlook it though, it never fazed me, almost as if I had gotten the game on day one. No voice overs, low poly character models, pre-rendered backgrounds and cutscenes, none of it mattered. Age was but a number, and time had no impact on the experience. Everything resonated just as powerfully as it would have, had I played it originally in 1997. Even though I saw the (spoiler) death of Aerith coming (end spoiler) it still hit me just as hard. Unfortunately, discs 2 and 3 were broken so I had to borrow a friends 2nd disc to continue and then disc 3 wouldn’t let me fight Sepheroth. That sucked the most, so I had to go on YouTube, watch some stranger fight him to watch the last cutscene. So yeah, it was exactly like 1997, joking of course.

ADHD Side Note: Something that motivated me most when it came to playing the Final Fantasy games wasn’t so much the story, but being able to watch the next CG cutscene. Those things were beautiful and getting to watch one was almost rewarding. Not sure if I’m alone on this one though…

Next was the original Metal Gear Solid. I got it for Easter a couple of years ago because instead of eggs, our bunny crapped out presents (awesome presents). While Final Fantasy VII showed me how characters could be fully realized entities in games, Metal Gear Solid was able to make me feel like I was going insane. The creativity and full use of every part of the PlayStation was something I never would have expected from an almost 10-year-old game. Everyone talks about Psychomantis reading your memory card and seeing that you played another Konami game, but I was more impressed with the boss fight itself (makes the boss fight in MGS4 even more hilarious). While there were a ton of limitations to the point that the gameplay felt very binary, it showed me that games are more capable of things other mediums can’t do.

Another moment that has stuck with me until this day, was a moment that actually caused me to give up the first time. I would always hit this one part, and had not a single clue what to do. I had to call Meryl. The colonel kept telling me that I could find her codec number on the back of the CD case, “What the hell was he talking about?” One day, I decided to just look at my games. I remember the moment so clearly of me seeing that number on the back of the case and running to my PlayStation to finish what I started. Needless to say, it was 10 hours of one of the most memorable, and amazing games I’ve ever played.

It was after playing these games that I felt like if I had just kept on going with the latest releases, I could have never known these things were possible. So then my paranoia only grew. What if that game is no longer so easily available to me?! I have to buy it now, while it’s still in my hands! I sure many have had the similar mindset at one time or another. The feeling of time fleeting away and not wanting to regret not taking advantage of the opportunity later. For me, I wasn’t collecting to relive old memories, but to gain the perspective of other people’s memories. It’s something that most game enthusiasts should consider doing if they have the means. It was a very educational experience that gave me a greater appreciation for the games of that time. Sure, PlayStation isn’t exactly “old school,” but it was a time when 3D games were able to exist in a more realized way. Those games, to most people, didn’t age well. They do, however, take you back to a different time, much like other systems.

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Review Scores Don’t Mean Jack!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by

One of my favorite YouTube users, Stephen Bray (AKA, AntiSocialFatman), passed away a year ago. He was probably one of the most influential people in my writing to what a review can be. Even if you didn’t agree with him, he was honest, and made his case so clear, that you would question your own opinion. Everyone has opinions, who doesn’t? Just simply reviewing a game based on graphics, sound, gameplay, design is fine and all, but doesn’t do anything to readers. Reviewers get disagreements, and may get thrashed for having different opinions. A successful review, in my mind, is one that paints a complete picture of how they interpreted their experiences with a game. Stephen Bray challenged people’s views and really made them try to fill in the blank spots in their views.

If there was anything that I’d change about Stephen Bray’s reviews, it would be the 100 point scoring system  at the end of his reviews. After so brilliantly articulating his thoughts and ideas of a game, he put it all into a number. There is nothing wrong with rating a game with a number, letter, pizza, but it doesn’t do any part of the review justice. Scores can’t explain why they couldn’t be higher or lower, that’s the job of the writer. What is the point of putting a score at the end of something you’ve already explained to death?

For Stephen, the scoring was a stranger choice, because his reviews were video reviews. After 5 minutes of making his case, the score became irrelevant. So why do we do it? Our whole lives are almost based entirely around scoring systems. It is the simplest way to comprehend our performance. Our teachers put a few marks here and there on questions we got wrong, but it wasn’t what they said that mattered, it was the grade that did. So we already have ingrained in our nature that the score is all that matters. So by using a score system, you might as well have erased the entire review. There are only a handful of times I wanted to see what I got wrong, but 9/10 times I just want to see if I passed.

So why should games differ? A review is “grading” a game, whether we like it or not. Should we cut the score system? The score system doesn’t tell us much. Sure, writing about what’s right and what’s wrong is the point, but simply putting a game into a class of either good or bad, doesn’t do enough. Everyone is different in their tastes in music, movies, TV shows, political views, and the same is true for video games. Something that I consider a “9/10″ will most likely not be your standard for a “9/10.” We both have different interests in different genres and play games for different reasons.

Number scores in reviews are trying to turn something subjective into something objective. This is where people get upset when they see a game they bought get a lower score than they wanted. By placing that score there, people see it as a truth, no exceptions, the only answer, much like how we see test scores. This is unfortunate, considering that the job of the reviewer is to guide readers to making the right decision when buying a game and not to form opinions for people. We don’t see scores in other shopping guides. They tell us what certain people may like to get, so that others don’t accidentally give someone something they don’t want. That is the purpose of reviews all-around. Seeing that number, forms people perception of the game right away, with no explanation, no reasoning, just the games associated with that number.

Very few of my most enjoyed experiences have been games that didn’t get amazing scores. To name a couple, The Saboteur and Toy Soldiers. These games resonate with me on a level that not many games can. There is a certain charm they have on me. The world design, the nature of the gameplay, set pieces, these fall into the right places for me. I acknowledge they aren’t perfect, but they have enough of what I want in a game to overlook the flaws. If I had simply looked at the scores they were given, I may have overlooked them or even frowned upon them for not being good enough. I could have read those reviews and found out these games were right up my alley (Which I did).

The score system has its place and wont be going anytime soon. As much as some of us would like to see it go away, there are people who just want the scores to decide their purchases. It was people like Stephen Bray that made me look into games I otherwise wouldn’t have, or reflect on my prejudices. The industry could be seen as one of maturity, but humans understand scores. We go 13+ years of educating fighting to pass with a certain percentage, and presenting a score establishes what they can expect from it. Teachers grade differently, and so do we, when it comes to the things we judge. In trying to simplify, scores create a lot more dissatisfaction and confusion than they do clarity. These numbers, letters, and pizza slices aren’t going anywhere, but we need to encourage more emphasis on the words that critique a game and lower the volume of the numbers.

In Memory of Stephen Bray
June 16, 1984 – October 25, 2011

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