Gaming Addict

So there isn’t a lot of videogame news today, or at least nothing ground breaking.  So let’s go back to my love for Dragon Age: Origins now that the game released and I’ve been completely addicted since last Tuesday.  Dragon Age is spectacularly difficult in a way that so many RPG’s have seemed to shy away from.  All the big battles will test your strategies to the limits, and your ability to manage your supporter characters, as well as your main to get the job done.

The best part of Dragon Age: Origins, and really any BioWare RPG is the uniqueness of the characters.  There are always a few that will have you interested beyond belief.  Like the way Morrigan and Alistair banter during your journey, any time both are present in your party.  Literally the funniest conversations you’ll hear from any character combination.  

But nothing touches how amazing it is to have Shale in your party.  Shale is of course the stone golem only available through The Stone Prisoner DLC.  But more than that Shale is a living battering ram that you’ll want with you in any combat scenario.  But where Shale really shines is his dialogue.  

Anybody that has played Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic will feel that Shale is somewhat familiar.  I’m always reminded of the interactions with HK-47 his lack of understanding, and complete disdain for humans.  Shale is the same. A logical mind that can’t understand the attitudes of other living things, so naturally responds in the only way possible, sarcasm.

Shale is brilliant, and one of my favorite parts of the game.  The Stone Prisoner DLC is not to be missed, so if you bought a used copy of the game, buy the DLC online.  Sure it’s kind of on the expensive side, and the quest to get Shale himself is only about an hour long.  But you’re not paying the money for the quest, you’re paying to have Shale as a companion.  That’s worth $15 easy.  

Borderlands isn’t without it’s share of problems.  Actually, Borderlands has many games share of problems.  Seems there are more than a few bugs that Gearbox Software hadn’t fully worked out before the game shipped, leaving many gamers to suffer their wrath.  These bugs range anywhere from minor glitches, like ammo clip shortages.  To much more devastating bugs that cause your save files to be corrupted, and your skill points to be reset.  

Of course most of these are tied to multiplayer.  Many players have reported disappearing loot, experience, and many other glitches upon entering and exiting a multiplayer session.  Considering one of Borderlands big selling points is the awesome drop in-drop out co-op, this is a pretty severe problem.

Gearbox maintains that they are hard at work on fixing all the bugs, and you can keep up on the details via their forums a:

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=77748

For now Gearbox’s list of  known issues is as follows:

Both Consoles

Issue: (360, PS3) Save file is corrupted
Frequency: Very Low
Status: A fix is being investigated

360 only

Issue: (360) Aim-assist does not toggle on and off properly
Frequency: Very Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

PS3 only

Issue: (PS3) The console freezes during play
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: (PS3) Error codes displayed when attempting to sign into multiplayer
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: (PS3) Frame rate drops in a game with 3+ players
Frequency: Moderate
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

PC

Issue: PC users experience a “General protection fault” error
Frequency: Low
Status: This issue is being investigated

Issue: PC version locks up in server browser
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this issue has been identified and a solution is being investigated

All Platforms

Issue: Lilith’s Phase Strike not functioning as intended
Frequency: n/a, all users
Status: A fix is being investigated

Issue: Skill points or items disappear, or skill points are gained, usually after a multiplayer game
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: Weapon proficiency progress is lost upon leaving a multiplayer game
Frequency: Moderate
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

So I just played Wolfenstein for Xbox 360, and wow was that a bad game.  Normally I try to be more professional in my assessments of a game, but I just can’t muster anything beyond saying that Wolfenstein was severely disappointing.  The whole campaign just felt very unimaginative, given the power of the current generation of consoles, and everything else that is available on PC.  You’ve got an FPS here that feels like a port of an older game…but it isn’t. 

Everything from the textures to the fights with the bigger enemies just feels so hack.  When compared with games like Modern Warfare which is pushing the boundaries of FPS brilliance, Wolfenstein isn’t even worthy of an afterthought.  The textures look original Xbox quality at best, the AI seems right out of an older Xbox game as well.  The gameplay all feels like something you’ve done before in F.E.A.R., only with a worse presentation.

All in all, this is a rental if you must, but you’d be better served playing CoD 4 again while you wait for MW 2. 

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play! is ridiculously entertaining, but probably only if you’re a South Park fan.  Which I have been for the show’s entire run, and the unflinching brilliance that is Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s writing throughout the series.  South Park LGTDP captures this humor perfectly, which is just what this paint by the numbers tower defense game needed.  Featuring a story by the South Park scribes, and their custom awful and hilarious voice over work, LGTDP is a full South Park experience.

While many will be painfully reminded of the horrendous South Park gaming forays in the past, LGTDP is not among those.  I still remember the South Park FPS game that I had on Playstation, and how everything seemed like a good idea at the time.  But the gameplay got repetitive and severely boring almost immediately.  LGTDP suffers no such fate.  Rather LGTDP stays fairly fresh and always hilarious as you control Stan, Cartman, Kenny and Kyle throughout the games campaign.  Creatively sprinkling show references throughout dialogue, and enemy types like ginger kids, and hippies.  

LGTDP really shines when played with a friend, as the game can be fairly annoying when played alone.  But as long as you can find a buddy that’s also interested in South Park, you’ve got yourself a decent experience.  South Park combines traditional tower defense tactics, such as building your own defenses and then upgrading as levels progress, with the ability to take the reins of any character and unleash your own snowball based attacks.  Each character also comes with their own special powers that can be triggered during a level.  All of which offering their own level of uniqueness, usefulness, and hilarity.  

All in all worth the 800 MS points in my book.  While semi short, South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play provides endless replay ability.  As long as you’re a South Park fan, you can’t go wrong.  

 Resistance is a series that Sony could have handled much, much better.  I’m overall disappointed with the way the series has progressed, and that’s not to say that the games aren’t fantastic as far as FPS fests are concerned.  Just that Sony had the real makings of a classic franchise with Resistance’s premise, but I feel as though they haven’t made as much out of the games as could have been done.  The first two Resistance games squandered their overall appeal with a story that had a fantastic premise, and little beyond that in terms of real plot value.

And then in a confusing move we get the game with the most fantastic story, in PSP’s Resistance: Retribution, which has a personal well evolved and fantastic plotline, but the horrible clunky shooter gameplay that only a PSP could offer.  Which just begs the question from me, why didn’t the best elements get combined for Resistance 2??? 

I seriously don’t understand why the first two games just couldn’t fully get the involved and entertaining story correct, and yet Retribution gets the series best storyline, and worst PSP lame gameplay.  I’m baffled.  

And I’m also led to believe that Resistance 3 needs to really up the series quality in the story area to cement itself as a true reason to play shooters on PS3, because I’m just not convinced that we’ve gotten the best out of Insomniac.  I’m growing a little weary of spending anymore money on the series until some things shape up, seriously.  

So I’m playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas again the other day, and I realize that this PS2 game is far superior to it’s ‘next-gen’ counterpart in practically every way.  At least for the reasons that make me a fan of the GTA series anyway.  First off, San Andreas has what I love, and what IV didn’t include, which is unrealistic wacky fun driving control, in which you can be a much better driver in game than ever possible in real life.  Whereas GTA IV went for a much more realistic approach, and well that’s all good and fun too, I like to feel like a crazy good driver, without having to take the effort of getting used to and then making the most out of a game’s physics engine.

Another thing San Andreas has that GTA IV doesn’t, skill progression.  As CJ it was badass to build up your gun or flying skills to make yourself into a super gangster capable of taking down the military after chocking up six wanted stars.  And you have more clothing options in San Andreas, you can change your character’s body type, hairstyle, tattoos, etc.  Not to mention the biggest thing of all, more playing area in San Andreas. 

All of which very important features to me, and things that were missing from IV that made the game feel more like an advertisement for what can be done in the future of the GTA series on ‘next-gen’ consoles.

This was supposed to be GTA like you’ve never seen it, but instead I’m still wondering what could have been.  

Guitar Hero has randomly released a demo of the upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica, via Xbox Live.  And well this should be basically the same as every other Guitar Hero game you’ve played, as the series doesn’t really change much with each edition, no doubt GH: Metallica is still completely worth the play.  The demo offers four playable songs, Metallica’s “Sad But True”, and “Seek and Destroy” , in addition to Alice in Chains’ “No Excuses and Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy”.

I will absolutely be downloading the demo, probably as soon as I finish writing this.  As an avid Metallica fan, I’m all about more Metallica songs to play on Guitar Hero before GH: Metallica finally ships this May.

Amidst all Sony’s bragging about their successes with Killzone 2, and Sony’s hopes that they just might finally crawl their way back to the top of the home console gaming world, it looks as though they hadn’t heard that Grand Theft Auto IV’s Xbox exclusive DLC outsold Killzone 2.  But then I guess Sony spent so much time bragging about Killzone’s success over the Halo RTS, that they forgot about all the other Xbox exclusives that are still completely conquering the PS3 in practically every way.

If you ask me Sony is still trying too hard at making Killzone into their Halo killer, because the series never will be.  While Killzone 2 is awesome in it’s own right, there just isn’t enough content there to offer the same sort of religious fan experience that the Halo series offers.

I played Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard this weekend, and it could have been fantastic, and should have been for a variety of reasons.  First off, the number one thing that Eat Lead attempts and succeeds at is being a genuinely funny videogame experience, something you don’t often get as most games attempt to be funny through an overuse of crude terminology or an overabundance of profanity.  Eat Lead doesn’t resort to either very much, instead opting for the humour we’ve all experienced throughout the videogame industry’s history.

Through the fictional character Matt Hazard, Eat Lead pokes fun at companies like Nintendo for their basically whoring out of popular characters, such as Mario, into entities that don’t really make sense when you consider the source material.  A plumber that defeats enemies like goombas by jumping on their heads to squash them, in order to save a princess, is ideally suited to a kart racer?

The little nuances like these that checker Matt Hazard’s past is what amounts to some of the funniest moments you’ll see playing a videogame, and I mean really funny, not the sort of funny a reviewer remarks about only for you to play the game and completely disagree.

The comedy kicks in as you take control of Matt Hazard, a washed up action star of the videogame world who had a string of hits in the 80’s/early 90’s market, and who has become a cliché himself through a series of misguided spin-off games.  One of which a kart racer, and other such cutesy for the kids type games. 

Eat Lead really kicks off as Matt Hazard is given another chance at videogame glory, after his previous developer Marathon Games is purchased and turned into Marathon Megasoft.  Hazard gets to kick off the ‘next-gen’ world of gaming through a few hilarious gaming inside-jokes, great one-liners, and by shooting everything that comes his way.  Until of course his virtual assistant QA informs Hazard that he doesn’t appear in the game’s programming code after the first level.

Which of course introduces the entire premise of Eat Lead, Marathon Megasoft are trying to kill Hazard, and Matt doesn’t exactly want to be killed, so he takes the fight to them.  The levels constantly change as you play them, to reflect a zillion gaming clichés through boss battles and the terrain you’ll encounter.  But after that first few moments, Eat Lead becomes too repetitive and cliché ridden for you to remain entirely invested in the game.  Which is about the point where I pondered Eat Lead’s premise as being either genius, or just an excuse for developer Vicious Cycle to release a game with no new ideas, and be able to offer up the reasoning that Eat Lead is a parody.

This is where I mention the fact that I didn’t finish Eat Lead, because I’d grown incredibly tired of shoddy shooter controls.   Not to mention the enemies that either bolt out into the open in front of you making them unrealistically easy targets, or the bad guys that fail to take any sort of real cover at all.  Essentially making Eat Lead into an exercise in target practice.  The gameplay is less than remarkable, and incredibly unimaginative, but then what did I expect from a game that does nothing but poke fun at incredibly unimaginative games that have come before.

Eat Lead is worth the rental for a few laughs, but I’d be wary of making a purchase.

Resistance 2 is getting a patch on Monday to fix a few of those issues that you may not have necessarily known were issues, but you’ll nonetheless be glad to see them fixed. The patch will fix multiplayer matchmaking, as well as better balancing multiplayer matches as well as clans, lowering the possibility you’ll be paired with someone too good or too bad.

The patch will also fix a few issues with weapons and overall gameplay to make your whole Resistance 2 experience flow better and look as good as possible.

Have you seen the new DC Universe Online trailer? You know, that MMO that’s supposed to be really awesome, coming soon for PS3 and PC. Well the trailer does not leave me very convinced as to the game’s quality. I just question how good a game could possibly be, when the trailer, the thing that’s supposed to hype you up most for a game, looks jittery and shows melee combat that looks horrible, I just don’t have very much faith in the game.

I’m not a huge fan of DC comics to begin with, but I really don’t see anything from DCUO that’s going to convince me to play the game anyway. Although admittedly I would much rather play a licensed game with real superheroes, opposed to City Of Heroes what with all the generic tight wearing wannabes contained therein.

Did I mention that the flight animations look laughably bad?  I don’t think I did, well, the flight animations look laughably bad.

Continuing the trend of talking about 2008’s greatest accomplishments in the gaming world, Deadspace needs to be mentioned on the list. While Deadspace didn’t offer a survival horror experience like never before, the game was scary as hell, and that’s what really matters in a survival horror game isn’t it? The controls can be a bit spotty, but the introduction of dismemberment as your greatest weapon against the Necromorphs.

But like I said, the aforementioned spotty controls sometimes lead to you slicing off the wrong body part, inadvertently unleashing a hellish swarm of little bat-like Necromorphs from another’s pregnant belly, that can mean a quick and annoying death. But thankfully Deadspace packs enough interesting scary points that you forget about the shortcomings of the combat.

And seriously, what survival horror game has combat that isn’t disappointing in any way. I know Resident Evil 4 is usually the best example of how to present horror combat correctly, but suffers the same problem as Deadspace’s RE4 borrowed over-the-shoulder camera in that the aiming could be better. It’s always frustrating in more than one scenario.

Though I’m sort of complaining about a few aspects of Deadspace, and am about to complain about another factor in a moment, don’t be deterred if you’re a survival horror fan, Deadspace is still an excellent scare fest. I’m just saddened that the only real truly original facet of gameplay in Deadspace, isn’t used to the fullest.

I’m of course referencing the zero gravity levels. While awesome on their own, and a fantastic concept, it’s the only place you’re safe because you’re never attacked by Necromorphs there. Which really softens the impact of a new experience that could have been equally as terrifying as the other portions of gameplay.

Hopefully however, EA will learn from that mistake and include zero gravity combat in the next Deadspace.