Review: Dead Space 2 (360)

Genre: Action, Survival Horror, Third-Person Shooter
Designers: Steve Papoutsis (executive producer)
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts (EA Games)
Console: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Jan. 25, 2011 (NA), Jan. 27, 2011 (AU), Jan. 28, 2011 (AU)
ESRB Rating: M for Mature

Following Isaac Clarke’s horrific journey during his time on the planet-cracking ship, the USG Ishimura, Dead Space 2 is a sequel that introduces new elements to the series while disbanding with some previous ideals. Some of the newly introduced concepts have their uses and are relatively fun and easy, yet not all of them fall under this category.

The story takes place three years after Isaac Clarke escaped the nightmare aboard the USG Ishimura. He has been kept in stasis this whole time and doesn’t seem to remember a thing. Brought back to help during a new Necromorph outbreak aboard the space city known as "the Sprawl," he must fight his way through Unitologists, government workers, and both old and new Necromorphs, his main goal being to destroy a newly-created Marker which is being protected at all costs by members of EarthGov. While the story sounds fascinating on paper, it is delivered rather poorly throughout the game. Dead Space 2 falls back on the previous game’s downfall: that Isaac is merely moving from place to place because someone else told him to do so.

This problem is even worse, however, in that the people talking to you don’t clarify what it is you’re supposed to be doing. You can travel through nearly three of four areas, not knowing where you are, before discovering what purpose you have in being there. It is confusing, disorienting, and oftentimes frustrating. I had to replay the game’s first several chapters just to understand what the point of it was, and such a thing should not be a problem.

While the storyline itself comes off as being somewhat poor, the elements that bring the story to life are very well executed. Isaac now speaks throughout the game, and his dialogue fits him quite nicely. He is obviously a man who is perturbed by his past, and his experience with the Necromorphs comes through in his dialogue. He is a survivor with nothing to lose, and he reveals this through his conversations with the remaining survivors on the Sprawl. His messages and video logs are oftentimes hard to hear, however, even with the volume turned up, and subtitles are almost necessary to catch everything Isaac and the other people are discussing. Sound effects during the course of the game are both well produced and well timed, somewhat making up for lost words.

The first Dead Space was known for its horrific images and gruesome, nightmarish areas. While Dead Space 2 delivers on its horrific images and enemies, the game isn’t as scary as its predecessor due to an increased amount of action sequences. There were only a few places where I jumped in fear, and never once did I hesitate to enter a room. It could be because Dead Space fans know what to expect, but it also comes from Isaac’s attitude mentioned earlier. He has experience and a lack of care towards survival; he is going to get the job done, and to hell with whatever comes his way. Another reason for this is the game’s increased difficulty. Even after mastering Dead Space 1, I found Dead Space 2 to be quite the challenge, and given that there are now up to five difficulty options available, it is easy to assume that the producers were specifically aiming for an action-type game. Guns and armor (which are now specialized, individual suits rather than upgrades to a single suit) can be purchased at the store, and newer weapons have some nicely added effects. Melee is also much more impressive this time around, as Isaac’s swings and kicks are fluid and effective. In conclusion, all this combined means that enemies are less scary but tougher to deal with.

The environments in Dead Space 2 are gorgeous. Instead of crowded, packed-in hallways and gray, metallic facilities, the Sprawl is filled with facilities, such as a train station, a daycare center, and a shopping mall. Areas are much more open, and the amount of detail placed into the different objects adds a unique touch to the game’s overall quality. Lighting is particularly effective, as Isaac’s shadow and flashlight are very well defined, and the images located on the various televisions, monitors, advertisements, and stores all hint towards a much more peaceful time. Players can easily picture people living in such an environment, and to see it now overrun with Necromorphs and covered in blood is tragic. When navigating these areas, an upgraded locator module becomes extremely useful. Instead of just pointing Isaac in the right direction, the new locator shows objectives, stores, benches, and save stations, making it easy to navigate when one gets lost in the often-twisting hallways of the Sprawl. Another upgrade used for traveling is the capability for 360-degree movement in zero-gravity zones. Instead of jumping from one wall to the next, Isaac can now fly in any direction he wishes, using his boots to travel quickly.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game is Isaac’s dementia, which plays a huge role in the story. Nicole appears in the form of a ghoulish corpse from time to time, talking to Isaac over her death and his guilt, and the images he sees due to his dementia are perhaps the most horrifying elements to the game. It is clear that Isaac is haunted by his dead girlfriend, and her appearances reveal a darker side to Isaac’s thinking. His conversations with Nicole, as well as the terrifying visions that accompany her appearances, add an element to the story that will stick with gamers.

Overall, Dead Space 2 is an enjoyable game. While the plot doesn’t go very in-depth this time around, the gameplay itself is smooth, fun, and a bloody mess. Players watch the return of Isaac Clarke and his haunted visions, and with five difficulties to master, there are plenty of opportunities to get all weapons, suits, logs, and achievements. And hey, if the single player mode sounds boring, why not play with friends online? The game also has a multiplayer aspect, where online gamers can either carry out a mission as a human or attempt to stop all humans as a Necromorph.

[Recommended]

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This review is based on a retail version purchased by the reviewer.

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Review: Dead Space (360)

Genre: Survival Horror, Third-Person Shooter
Designers: Glen Schofield (executive producer/creator), Bret Robbins (creative director)
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Console: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Release Date: Oct. 14, 2008 (360/PS3), Oct. 20/24, 2008 (PC, NA/EU)
Rating: M for Mature

Set in a bleak, spacebound future, Dead Space begins with a silent engineer named Isaac Clarke traveling on a rescue mission to the USG Ishimura, Earth’s largest and most efficient "planet cracker." He receives a strange message from his girlfriend Nicole and decides to travel as the leading engineer of the rescue group, hoping to discover what the message means. He is accompanied by Kendra Daniels, a technologist, and Zach Hammond, the senior security officer of the crew on a small rescue ship called the Kellion, which crashes immediately into the Ishimura when the gravity booster breaks away from the ship. Isaac and crew enter the Ishimura and begin starting up systems, hoping to discover why no one is around, when they are ambushed by enemies labeled "Necromorphs." After escaping the ambush, you (Isaac) receive your first and arguably best weapon, the Plasma Cutter, before beginning your long journey through the Ishimura.

Isaac's main goal is to discover what happened to his girlfriend, but the majority of your missions revolve around restoring the Ishimura back to normal. You are sent to do a variety of tasks in different areas throughout the ship, all while ascertaining what really happened onboard. Much of the back-story is detailed through audio, text, and video logs, which are displayed on Isaac’s holographic menu, although some logs are tricky to find. The missions do get a bit tiresome after awhile, mainly because the game makes you feel as though you are doing all the work while your allies sit in a safe haven and hack a computer. It feels unfair, and for the most part, it is.

The gameplay itself is immersive, as there is no heads-up display (HUD) in Dead Space. Instead, Isaac’s items, maps, health, and ammo are displayed via holographic menus that do not stop time, meaning that enemies can still be attacking you when you decide to check your inventory. The game is much scarier in this sense, as there is nothing along the border of the screen to distract gamers from the sights and sounds within the Ishimura. Added to this is the concept of 3D exploration, in which you can jump from wall to wall in zero-gravity areas. This means that you can travel from room to room (only in designated areas) by jumping from wall to wall, but it also means that enemies can come from nearly any angle.

Dead Space's combat is rather well done, as it sticks to both the story and its horror roots. The battle system is termed “strategic dismemberment,” which is the process of shooting off a Necromorph’s limbs until he is dead. If you shoot off an arm, it runs towards you. Shoot off a leg, it crawls until it catches up to you. Shoot off the head, and it flings its arms around in a frenzy. Players have to be careful to conserve ammo during runs, so it is important to shoot where it hurts most, which changes for each enemy. All of the weapons fit the storyline, amazingly enough, as it is easy to see that the weapons used were tools made available to the miners when they worked. The Pulse Rifle goes a little against this, but weapons such as the Flamethrower or the Cutter could have just as easily been used to cut and mine rock as they are to kill Necromorphs.

The graphics and sounds of the game are quite impressive; lighting and shadows in particular make for a pretty creepy atmosphere, and the sheer amount of blood and gore found in the corridors, along the walls, and in the rooms of the Ishimura is enough to make your skin crawl. One room specifically comes to mind: the one in which you find your first weapon. In blood above a dead body is written the words “Cut off their limbs.” Images such as these are everywhere and never seem to become any less scary.

Music and sound effects are also extremely well executed. The former intensifies as players get closer and closer to either an enemy or an objective (in most cases, both), and rather than dying off when a player decides to back away, it merely softens, keeping its edge while not ruining the moment. You can also hear the Necromorphs crawling and breaking through vents and air ducts in a majority of the rooms, yet finding them can often be difficult. I have encountered more than a few rooms in which I was afraid to enter due to the sound of an enemy’s presence on the other side.

A rather interesting aspect of the game is the treatment of outer space. Isaac goes outside into space on several occasions, and the producers do a fantastic job in creating a completely different environment. When Isaac enters space, his suit switches modes in order to accommodate his intake of oxygen. Graphics become a mixture of blues and grays, and all sound is practically wiped out. Instead of hearing enemies or bullets, players will hear the sound of Isaac’s heart beating and breathing. It is creepy, particularly when you begin running low on oxygen, as Isaac’s breathing becomes labored, indicating it is time to use an oxygen tank.

Dead Space is a fantastic mixture of science fiction and horror, plain and simple. While your allies could have played a bigger role in the storyline, the plot is a detailed and ultimately satisfying one with some nice twists involved. Enemies and gameplay remain scary throughout the entire game thanks to well done graphics and sound designs, and the fighting style is both immersive and brutal. Players obtain some pretty nice items after beating the game and can run through a second time with all the items and weapons obtained through the first run, making it fun to play through several times. Those intensely involved in the series have other avenues to explore, including the animated movie Dead Space: Downfall (2008) and the Wii game Dead Space: Extraction (2009). Dead Space 2, the official sequel to Dead Space, is set to be released January 25, 2011.

[Highly Recommended]

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This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version purchased by the reviewer.

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Brutal Legend DLC is coming, and quick

So just a few weeks after release, EA is already scrambling the jets to help out the multiplayer aspect of Brütal Legend.

According to EA's site, a new mulitplayer map pack is due out November 3, 2009 for Xbox 360 owners and will cost 400 Microsoft Points. PS3 owners get theirs on November 5, when it will be available for free download for about 2 weeks before it is officially sold for $4.99 on PSN. Named "Tears of the Hextadon," this map pack will feature two new maps – “Circle of Tears” and “Death's Fjord” – and a new axe for players to battle with. Sounds pretty good, right...?

Well, let's look at the facts. This does increase the number of multiplayer maps available in game. However, the map count only increases from six to eight. The new axe might be an improvement, but the teams are what really need work, not the weapons.

I don't plan on getting this expansion. Like I said in my review, there is not much replay value in the game and all of the maps are really similar. My loathing of these maps is made even stronger by the knowledge that most map packs for games give so much more than just two maps and a modified weapon. The fact that this is also going for dirt cheap probably means that the multiplayer engagement in Brutal Legend is falling fast. Don't expect to see much more out of Brütal Legend unless EA and Double Fine put their heads together and really try to fix the game's major shortcomings with this game.

[via G4's The Feed]

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Review: Brütal Legend (360)

Medium: Console Video Game
Genres: Action, Hack and Slash, RTS
Designer: Tim Schafer
Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Version Reviewed: Xbox 360 (also available on PS3)
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Rated: M for Mature

Well, here it is. Brütal Legend, possibly the most hyped game of the year, has finally fallen into my lap to be judged. So, the question is up in the air: does it live up to the hype? Let's find out.

We start of the game with a cut scene of protagonist Eddie Riggs (voiced by Jack Black) helping out a “New Metal” band that has no respect for Eddie or “Metal” itself. To make a long story short, Eddie gets crushed by the set and is then saved by the Fire God of Metal, who ends up taking Eddie to an alternate version of the past (sounds like another story I know...hmm...) in which metal is worshiped and demons have all but enslaved humanity (okay, now I know I've heard this story before...). So, after grabbing a giant axe and finding out his guitar can cast magic with naught but a few chords, Eddie joins up with the other “Ironheades” and gets ready to take on the evil emperor Doviculus.

As I started to play the game, I was excited to get into a good, old-fashioned hack-and-slash, overworld type of game. I knew about the RTS/Freedom Fighters-esque mission involved with the game and looked upon it with some interest, in the hopes that it would break up the gameplay. However, I didn't realize how incredibly often these missions would pop up. The multiplayer (which is highly lacking in expandability, as the only match type is skirmish) is also unfortunately based around this gameplay style.

The world of Brütal Legend is beautifully executed – almost enough to make you forget about the gameplay style...almost. With superb, cell-shaded art, a well-developed background mythos, and gory deaths, the developers at Double Fine definitely know how to immerse a player in a world. Add your car's ability to play songs that you unlock both in game and during the campaign and players will find that some of the best times during the game are cruising across the landscape listening to metal while running over some demented deer. Even so, this is a definite one-and done game (unless you're going for achievements).

One of the major problems I have with Brütal Legend is the amount of repeated dialogue. For a game that boasts some of the best writing and voice acting talent around, I fail to see why I'm stuck with characters saying the same four or less lines during both overworld and stage missions. It only gets worse when Eddie begins to talk, because all that seems to come out of Jack Black's mouth are dumb jokes and random puns.

Also of note is the badly-designed leveling system. In order to level up, players will need to do two different things. First, they will gain fire tributes to upgrade Eddie's car, weapons, and special attack combos. Second, players will have to free (no joke) ball-gagged dragon statues to upgrade their attributes. And when the dragons are freed, players will not even get to choose their upgrades. The game does it automatically, really taking some of the minimal customization that is in the game away from the player. The worst part of this system, though, is that it breaks up the gameplay by demanding that players move away from the Campaign for about 20 minutes at a time to go and find more fire tributes and gagged dragons.

All-in-all, my gripes with this game are small shots compared to the overall picture. Double Fine wanted to make a game for “Metal Heads,” by “Metal Heads,” and they succeeded completely, despite some gameplay slip-ups and limited replayability. So, did it live up to the hype?

Well...sort of.

fair.

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Review: The Beatles - Rock Band (360)

Medium: Console Video Game
Genre: Rhythm/Music
Designers: Chris Foster (Lead Designer), Sylvain Dubrofsky, Casey Malone
Developers: Harmonix
Publishers: MTV Games/Electronic Arts
Version Reviewed: Xbox 360 (also available on PS3, Wii)
Release Date: September 9, 2009 (intl)
Rated: T for Teen

The quintessential question that comes to mind concerning The Beatles: Rock Band is “can a rhythm game attempting to build on what was formerly a successful intra-franchise integration with such a diverse song selection survive being stapled to one particular band and isolated from its historic song cache?” It’s a long question, and to fully understand why the answer is “yes,” we need to look at a few things. Things that matter. Things that would generally cause brand loyalists to throw down their cheap plastic axes in disgust and turn them in for a cheap plastic turntable. Things that inspire.

Things that matter, seeing as we’re in essay territory, can be the music itself. There are many people out there who don’t know Beatles songs, much less own Beatles albums or, God forbid, know the history behind the band. The Beatles: Rock Band is here to help with all of these things. Firstly, it will introduce virgin ears to Beatles songs while simultaneously letting those of generations past relive their rock-and-roll youth without digging out the dusty LPs. After playing along and learning the songs included on the game disc, Beatlemania might just find its way into local record shops again, thus solving things that matter number two. And thirdly, the game manages to tie in history without making it a lesson. Videos and photos for rewards as opposed to new clothing/fake money are all well and good, but the captions and brief stories attached to each edify the unfamiliar gamer in a very personal way.

Brand loyalty is a tough thing. The original Rock Band was revolutionary for rhythm games because it brought a band together to play...together. Rock Band 2 took it a step further with online connections for those of us with not enough dexterously inclined friends who could/would want to accompany such a faux jam. And then, for a great while, DLC was all that seemed necessary. The Beatles: Rock Band starts from scratch by alienating itself from all former DLC and being limited to just one band and its songs (which have historically had broad licensing issues). So why is the game still worth the investment? Well, The Beatles’ White Album had nearly 40 songs alone! So there’s a treasure trove of DLC just waiting to be exploited. Not to mention that the game disc itself comes with a very decent selection of 40+ songs that span the band’s career.

But what’s so inspiring about following one band? First off, it’s The Beatles – a band that changed their own concept of what their music was to themselves as much as they changed rock music for the rest of the listening world. So variety is in there. Also, the loving care that went into the crafting of this game – from the opening movie, to the meticulous and artistic reproductions of visages and venues, to the imaginative (if not acid-induced) dreamscape backgrounds – is so evident in every step of the way that it’s hard not to be swept up in all the moments the game provides. Honestly, the dreamscapes, which are so beautifully crafted that they border on hypnotic, are my favorite, although I’ve yet to see most of what they have to offer because my friends won’t let me sit out and watch them play (that's what YouTube is for). Also oddly inspiring is the difficulty. I’ve heard people complain both ways, but I’ll tell you, as someone who normally tackles songs on Expert difficulty in Rock Band 2 and ranks around 95%, that the constant chords are a challenge and a half! There is no thrashing, but there are tons of chord progressions that the programmers seemed to have mapped out simply to test the limits of inducing repetitive stress injuries.

Overall, this is a solid four-star effort for something as simplistic as a rhythm game, but the (as of now) limited song list leaves me weary. So I’ll give it a three and a half stars, with another 1/2 star to be post-postedly-posted when/if DLC becomes as regular as that for Rock Band 2.* Honestly though, even if they don’t post any DLC other than "All You Need is Love," so long as you’re in the mood to be any one of The Beatles, you’ll enjoy hearing and seeing everything that has been created for this game to allow you to do so.

*In the days after this review was written, it has been announced that 3 full albums will be made available (one each per consecutive month), which amounts to, if not exceeds, Rock Band 2's schedule.

excellent.

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E3 2009: EA Press Conference Highlights

EA is more than just a game publisher. Their recent forays into revolutionary kinds of game experiences have elevated them to near-equals with the console manufacturers in terms of significance in the industry. Their E3 press conference was no exception.

The most important part of the conference was definitely BioWare's segment, where they showed off Mass Effect 2 (trailer) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (trailer), the MMORPG based on the popular Knights of the Old Republic single-player RPG series. The third game, which was displayed, like the others, in trailer form only, was Dragon Age: Origins, the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

Peter Moore and Pete Sampras came on stage to represent EA Sports, and announced a very interesting new mode in Madden 2010 called "Online Franchise." It will allow players to customize their own teams and take them online, then maintain control over their teams from anywhere via Internet accessible devices like the iPhone. Moore also announced an EA mixed martial arts game (probably in response to the recent critical acclaim achieved by UFC Undisputed), titled, with all of the branding genius of a five-year-old, EA Sports MMA.

On the first-person shooter side of things, low-end PC owners will no longer have to worry about their computers being "too wimpy" to run the hyper-realistic Crysis. That's because Crytek announced in a teaser trailer that they would be releasing Crysis 2 (running on the new CryEngine 3) on both PC and consoles (360 and PS3). It is not clear if this will result in a downgrade in visual quality, though I would think that Crytek might have to downscale some pieces of the game for it to run lag-free on a console. (Then again, I'm not a PC gamer, so I'm not familiar with the tech specs required.)

Other than that, EA also showed some trailers for some of their previously announced games: Dante's Inferno (and its second trailer), Sabateur, Brutal Legend, and Need For Speed: Shift.

It seems like EA has cobbled together a nice bunch of IPs both new and old after their low holiday sales numbers frightened many into thinking that they would abandon unique and/or experimental games like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. The lineup is still strong, so hopefully they will be able to ultimately see success with their unique titles.

[via MTV Multiplayer]

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Will Wright leaves EA to focus on Stupid Fun Club

Over ten years ago, Electronic Arts bought out developer Maxis, and with that acquisition, brought into their ranks a man who is often cited as the biggest genius working in game development today: Will Wright. After working with EA for years to bring out triple-A franchises such as The Sims and Spore, Wright announced yesterday that he will no longer be working with the massive publisher.

In a press release, Wright also announced his new job, which is already set and ready to go as of yesterday's surprise announcement. In his new position, Wright will be working full-time at the Stupid Fun Club (which has the, well, stupidest name ever), a think tank organization that he founded in 2001 as a joint project with EA. Through the Club, Wright will work on some pet interests – notably robots – and "create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms." Whether that means that the Club will be making games is currently unconfirmed, though Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw wouldn't rule out Wright's involvement in game development through the organization.

On that front, Electronic Arts, which shares ownership of the Stupid Fun Club about equally with Wright, has signed an agreement that gives them exclusive access to publishing rights on any games that might potentially come out of the Club. When speaking to MTV Multiplayer, Bradshaw was somewhat vague on the specifics of the agreement, however, explaining that EA gets the first look at all Stupid Fun Club games, but that the agreement would break down if "[Wright] was not the primary owner there." It sounds to me like EA could decide not to publish a game from the Club, and another publisher, say Activision, could pick it up from there, but Bradshaw seems to suggest that such a possibility wouldn't arise. Regardless, it's hard to think that EA would give up the lucrative chance to publish any of Wrights ideas – however stupid they may be.

[via MTV Multiplayer and USA Today Game Hunters]

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Interview: Brian Wheeler (Designer, Warhammer Online)

At the New York Comic Con earlier this month, I took some time to stop by the Electronic Arts booth, where I sat down for a conversation with Brian Wheeler, Senior Designer on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. He had a lot of insights into the development of the massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game inspired by the Warhammer tabletop game franchise. Check out the full interview transcript below.

Warhammer Online is based on a tabletop game. How was that transition from tabletop to video game made, particularly from the small-group format of a tabletop to the massively-multiplayer format?

A lot of the lore, the look, and the feel of the game we pulled right out of Games Workshop. We actually worked very closely with Games Workshop over the 3 or 4 years of game development, so all of the characters have all gone through Games Workshop confirmation. They said, "yes that looks good, no that doesn't look good, of course you can't have a dragon look like that, yes you can have a dragon look like that, no the Gates of Ekrund can't look like that." So we stuck very true to the lore and the look of all the characters. We did a lot of iconic character classes. Some of the classes we're getting ready to come out with soon are the Choppa and Slayer [...] Everyone sees the red mohawk and they say "Oh, Warhammer!"

What is the current support for guilds and large battles?

The largest battle we can do right now is in the fortress zone where we have the population capped out so that around 300 people can be fighting each other in a fortress zone. We're trying to increase that as much as possible because open-world Realm vs. Realm is what our game's all about. So we're trying to always streamline our code and make the server handle more players. We're always trying to help that number. Right now you though you can look to around 200 to 300 people hammering on each other in a fortress zone. It's crazy how many people we can pack in there.

How does Warhammer differentiate itself from its competitors - quite simply, why should people be playing Warhammer instead of World of Warcraft?

The biggest difference with our game is Advanced Player Quests (or Public Quests we call them), and the Realm vs. Realm combat. Those are the two major, major key differences. Besides, our lore is... better. The public quests are very different from any other MMO we've had out there. So normally when you get a quest from an NPC he says go kill ten dues, come back to me and then go kill twenty of some of his friends, and then come back to me and go kill this general. So those quests are still in the game - but we also did a Public Quest thing where if you go to an area and there're squigs running all over the place, there's probably a Public Quest that says kill thirty of those things. And you don't have to group up with anybody for this, you just have to be there and and I can be there and some other friends and others who aren't even in a group with us could all be doing this together.

After we kill thirty of these squigs or 100 or whatever the first stage is, it goes through another stage, and instead of having to go to an NPC to step into the next stage, it just goes right to it. So you do the next stage of that, and then you do the last stage which is some end boss. Then at the end of that, there's a loot drop that's a big glowing treasure chest. And then this scoreboard comes up that says how well you did in this Public Quest so you know exactly where you're going to place. Depending on how well you do you get items depending on how much damage you did or how much healing you did – your total contribution toward beating that Public Quest. That's one big thing and that's where you get a lot of items in PVE system – the Public Quest system.

In RvR, that is the open-world fighting, and our scenarios, which are the instance fighting, the major difference between us and... them is that they have 5 battlegrounds, we have 30 instances, and you can start RvR-ing right from the start. At level 1, if you hit the "scenario join" button right when you join, you can go right into a scenario immediately upon logging in if you want. You can level up your characters from PvP, we give you experience [and] items. You also get RvR Influence, back to the Public Quest system. Besides the item you get from DOING the Public Quest, you acquire "Influence." Around this hub of NPCs or "Chapters" we call them, there's 3 Public Quests associated with each one, and as you're doing this Public Quest, you build influence, which is like another way of leveling up your character just for that Chapter.

Sort of like Renown from Fable?

Yeah, sort of like Renown, or kind of like Faction, but not. As you level up your influence with those people, you can select items from that as well, so there's the items from Public Quests, there's items from regular quests, there's items from influence, and there's rewards and items from RvR. Again the big thing about RvR is as you're progressing your character through RvR you're unlocking really really good items. And our endgame content is based around how high of a renown rank you are. That's what our Player vs. Player level is – experience for that.

So you're gaining your PvP levels and you're gaining your RvR levels, all en route to fighting the King, and the King drops the ultimate gear. Nobody's beaten the King – yet. He's a tough cookie to crack, but that guy drops the ultimate gear. If you're walking around with King gear, you'll also see somebody walking around [with the gear] and you'll go "Oh my God, they beat the King," because that gear is entirely unique looking. It's like the difference between walking around in greens and walking around in purples and golds. You say, "Oh my God, he did some work to get that." So it's very rewarding in our game to do, whether you want to do [Player vs. Environment] or whether you want to do Player vs. Player. You get rewarded no matter what you do in our game, and actually if you do a mix of both, you tend to enjoy the game a lot more than just focusing purely on one thing. So we have a lot to offer depending on what kind of a player you are.

So in terms of Public Quests, they reset after someone does them, correct?

Yeah, there's three stages to every Public Quest - you can go through stage one and then you might not pass stage two. And then in a couple minutes it'll go back to stage one so you can try it again. If you get all the way through it, it takes about three to five minutes for the Public Quest to reset, and then it goes back to stage one. So if you really like the Public Quest or you just missed it, you can hang around and then do it again. A lot of times when I'm playing I'll use the Open Party system, which is a button you can click to see what groups are in your area. In that window, you can just hit the "join" button, and you can go right into somebody's group, and go run over to the PQ and join them. Sometimes when that happens you run in the tail end of a Public Quest. They're just on stage three, the last boss is at 50%, and you're like, "Ah, I just missed it." But then it resets in a couple of minutes, so you can start from scratch and go at it again.

Are there any plans to add quests that are one-of-a-kind, where if somebody kills a guy, he's gone forever?

We thought about doing "permadeath" quests I guess, but we would rather invest time in the repeatable content than the one-offs. The other thing about the one-offs is that you feel like you might have missed something. We do have our events that occur almost monthly now. We have the "Night of Murder" going on right now, which is in respect to the American holiday of Valentine's Day. We did "Keg's End" which was sort of like the New Year's Eve/Christmas Party thing, and we did our Halloween event, "Hallow's End." But we do events all the time, which are sort of like the one-shots, every year they come up. So those are sort of like the temporary you-can-do-those-for-a-little-bit quests.

And of course, Vigil Games is developing an MMO based on Warhammer 40K, which leads many gamers to question what the differences are between Warhammer Online and the Warhammer 40K Online franchises. So, first off, what is the reason for that difference, where one half of the Warhammer franchise belongs to a different company?

It's just licensing. We made an agreement with Games Workshop four years ago to do the fantasy side, which is just straight, regular old Warhammer. but other companies already had the rights to the 40K, so if you don't have the rights for it, you simply can't publish it. It's like somebody else trying to draw Spiderman, and Marvel going no no no, you can't draw that. It's kind of the same thing in video games. That's why you see that EA has The Lord of the Rings, and nobody else can do a single-player Lord of the Rings, but Turbine has The Lord of the Rings multiplayer license.

Do you see 40K as a direct competitor? How do you hope to differentiate your game?

It's gonna be a different type of game. I don't know, we haven't seen much from them yet, so we're not exactly sure. Obviously it's gonna be sci-fi, and we're fantasy. I'm hoping that we'll actually feed off of each other to a degree. People will wanna play our fantasy game and then they will probably wanna play the sci-fi 40K game, so I'm hoping, you know, everybody hopes that they subscribe to both of them. We wish everybody the best of luck on both sides.

Finally, what kinds of updates lie in Warhammer Online's future? Are there any particular areas that you'd like to improve upon?

We're always looking at improving performance. Me personally, I'm in charge of making RvR and open field more enjoyable. We're looking at adding more depth to our keeps and battlefield objectives systems. We just announced our Tomb Kings expansion, which is sort of like a free expansion. It's gonna be a huge dungeon that gonna be sort of reminiscent of Darkness Falls if you ever played [Dark Age of] Camelot. So the way it'll work is that there will be something that one Realm does to get access to the dungeon and something another realm does to get access to the dungeon taken away from them. So it'll be what we call "the purge" to a degree, if the Order had the dungeon for a while and they're all in there doing their quest and killing the monsters and doing all that stuff in there, Destruction can go ahead and do the trigger to let them get in. Then Destruction floods into the dungeon and wipes out all of the Order players and is like, "Get out of here, we own it now." So it was really cool and we're trying to redo that spirit of Darkness Falls from Dark Age, in that same vein. When you get to the dungeon you're like, "sweet let's rush in and kill everybody!" You don't think, "let's go do the monsters and let's go do the quest." It's like, "anybody that's in there, I wanna kill em to get em out." It's really really cool that we're gonna try to reproduce that. And that's what some of the players have been asking for. We read the forums, we give feedback all the time, so we're always doing improvements to the game.

The other big thing coming up are the Slayer and the Choppa. They are two new classes that are coming out that are melee DPS guys. if you're familiar with the lore at all, they're pretty much like Berserkers to a degree - they just run up and wail on people with axes. They are gonna be coming out in a couple of months, and they're shaping up to be pretty badass.

Well that's all I've got. Nice meeting you, thanks for the interview.

Nice meeting you too. You're welcome.

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Review: Left 4 Dead (360)

Genre: Action, First-person shooter, Survival horror
Designer: Mike Booth
Developer: Valve Corporation
Publisher: Valve Corporation/Electronic Arts
Console: PC, Xbox 360
Rated: M for Mature

You've got a Zombie Survival Plan, right? If not, why don't you? Humans live in constant fear of the brain-consuming living dead because the very idea of a reanimated corpse is terrifying. Luckily, whether you've got a plan or not, Valve's Left 4 Dead is as good as it gets to further educate yourself on the potential dangers of the impending apocalypse – or to see if your plan holds up.

But the gruesome first-person shooter has a couple quirks that rock the foundation of everything we thought we knew about the undead menace.

Firstly, they don't brainlessly lumber around waiting for you to put a bullet in their brain – they run, scratch, kick and violently try to rip you a new one. And they aren't alone. They'll come in bloodthirsty packs if you give them the opportunity (which you'll be forced to do numerous times). Multiple variations of special "Infected" include the pouncing "Hunter," vomiting "Boomer," and the gargantuan "Tank." Their deadly super-attacks are a constant threat, especially when making an exciting vehicular escape during the finale of each "movie's" fifth act.

Because Left 4 Dead is so centrally focused on four-player co-op, you'll need to coordinate to get the best of the ever-changing AI. Far from just another mindless shooter, L4D encourages you to stick close to your team, patch each other up when wounded, and cover all of the angles when someone mistakenly sets off a car alarm, thus summoning a stunning amount of enemies. Ideally, each play-through is completely different from the last, but you'll start to notice familiar patterns as you continue to complete the nearly story-free missions. For example, upgraded weapons appear in spot A or spot B, and the Tank spikes intensify once you cross a certain threshold. Nevertheless, there's enough variety to add longevity to the experience with the mixing up of enemy spawn points, grenade locations and med-pack cabinets.

If you find yourself exhausted from surviving as the four endearing characters – Bill the grumpy war-vet, Louis the nervous nerd, Zoey the fearless college kid, and Francis the vitriolic biker – you can switch gears to competitive multiplayer in Versus. With two teams of four, your squad alternates between Survivors and Infected, giving you control over the aforementioned special zombies as you try to foil your opponents' escape. The Infected team requires precision cooperation, perhaps more so than the rifle/shotgun/machine-gun toting humans, as you're quite vulnerable as a zombie. Lengthy respawn times might turn some away from the mode, and impatient people will find themselves staring at that countdown a lot if they're not willing to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. Acting alone will earn you a shotgun blast to the face, so cooperation is crucial.

Sadly, only two of the four possible campaigns are available in Versus. The multiplayer mode adds excellent legs to a shooter that you might otherwise tire of after a couple completions, but after extended play you'll certainly start to become bored of looping the same stages. Even so, it is without a doubt addictive and fun to blast your way to the next safe house as you flee from the horde, protect your friends, avoid the lethal one-hit-kill "Witch," and make smart use of multiple tactics. L4D slowly becomes more formulaic than frenetic, which doesn't play well in to the themes of the game. Moments that previously haunted you, such as rooms filled with shredded corpses, eerily silent sewers, and the trumpeting crescendo that signals an incoming swarm become routine rather than emotionally evocative.

Still, it's impossible to resist the urge to fight off the attacking mass of bloodthirsty Infected in a desperate struggle to survive. More campaigns would definitely have been appreciated, because you'll breeze through the entire game in six to eight hours. Because the AI is constantly changing, if only slightly, every match does manage to feel different. With a breadth of witty character dialogue exchanges to listen to, the dread of death can briefly be alleviated with a whimsical comment or ironic joke, too. And with the addition of Versus multiplayer, you'll have plenty of horror to experience as you strangle, shred and smack human players around. So, it's not for a lack of things to see and do that Left 4 Dead feels slightly limited; it's the limited places to experience these moments that hurts.

Left 4 Dead is a fantastic twist on an established (and played out) theme. With very little story to speak of beyond scribbles on walls, there isn't very much depth to anything but the combat, which is endlessly entertaining regardless of how long you play. It's just a shame that many players will become bored once they've finished the campaigns, especially if they're not into the competitive mode.

For the rest of us, there is no end. Only survival. And we'll contentedly shoot our way to whatever boat, chopper or plane wants to take us to our next terrifying co-op adventure.

great.

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Review: Mirror's Edge (360)

Genres: Action, Platformer, Puzzle
Designers: Owen O'Brien (Producer) and Ben Cousins (Creative Director)
Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Console: Playstation 3, Xbox 360
Rated: T for Teen

This review uses only a four-star overall rating, rather than our traditional scale. The change will be explained in an upcoming post.

This holiday season is fraught with sequels. With all of the twos and threes being thrown around, you might think that originality in video games is dead. Not so. And most surprisingly, this call to arms for cutting-edge game designers comes not from a small, independent studio, but from Electronic Arts, once giants of the industry known for their own sequel-touting ways. Mirror's Edge, published by EA and developed by DICE, is one of the most ground-breaking triple-A titles in years, and is worthy of competition even with 2007's award-winning Portal.

Faith is a "Runner," a courier who transports goods and information in a city where government controls all communication. Runners' clients include criminals, rebels, and anybody else who the totalitarian government finds to be objectionable. When her "good cop" sister Kate is framed for murder, Faith finds herself knee-deep in a city-wide conspiracy that weaves in friends and foes alike. To escape armed police and S.W.A.T. teams after her very life, Faith (who is played entirely in first-person) must jump and run from rooftop to rooftop, using special parkour moves like vaulting, sliding, and wall-running to reach her targets.

Mirror's Edge doesn't fool around when it comes to the primary gameplay mechanic. This game knows full well that it is about running, and as such, it provides a smooth, phenomenally entertaining mechanic to simulate that running. The longer that Faith moves in a generally straight line, the more momentum, and hence speed, she builds up. Momentum is like a realistic version of a "special move" bar, as having more of it allows for bigger jumps, higher wall-climbs, and quicker movements. For example, when climbing a fence, there are around a half-dozen different ways of climbing it, based on when you react and how much momentum you have.

How you react to a fence (or similar obstacle) is actually the most important part of the game. Instead of the hold-the-"do stuff"-button strategy of similar games like Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge uses context sensitive buttons, mapped to the Right Trigger and Right Bumper, to create movements. When Faith reaches an obstacle, she can either press the "up" button (RB) to jump, vault, or climb, or the "down" button (RT) to slide under it. Combining these button presses allows her to do things like jump, curl over a barbed wire fence, and hit the ground in an action roll. Faith can also use a special ability if enough momentum is built up, allowing her to slow time temporarily and increase accuracy in jumps and combat.

Like most games of its caliber, Mirror's Edge needs to be played to be believed. Thanks to great animations and a camera placed in Faith's eyes (rather than her chest), the game turns everything into a natural, smooth movement. This effect is so great that players will punish themselves for losing momentum or missing a big jump, creating a very self-motivated atmosphere. The style of the game rewards players for great moves like action rolls, but it is rarely frustrating because the game never actively punishes you for things done wrong.

It might not look like it at first glance, but Mirror's Edge actually runs on the Unreal Engine, just like Bioshock and Gears of War. The game is beautifully rendered, and made all the more amazing by the stark, whitewashed landscape of the city. There are splashes of color here and there, but in general the game manages to make stunning, realistic landscapes using a simple, effective palette. And for further immersion, DICE has not included a HUD of any kind in the single-player campaign. Damage is shown by tunnel-vision and screen desaturation, and even the blue reticule in the center of the screen can be turned off in the options.

Despite its daring disregard for traditional gameplay, Mirror's Edge runs into problems when it tries to go back to normal gameplay conventions. Terrible animated cinematic sequences are littered throughout the game, so that when the final level's cutscenes are delivered entirely in-engine (to great effect), it leaves one asking, "Why didn't they do that the whole time?"

More problematic, however, is the combat. Enemies always have their guns aimed at you (no joke! I tested it), and shoot without hesitation or reloading as soon as they see you. Once you get close enough, you can fight them by pressing the Right Trigger for punches, and combining this with jumps and slides. When their gun turns red, pressing Y will cause you to grab the enemy's weapon and knock them out, but most of the time the window of opportunity is so small that you will need to use Faith's slow time ability. The best thing for players to do is to avoid combat at all costs, relying on the game's fantastic parkour mechanics to get them through hard times. Since the game is made to be played without shooting, this actually makes it far more fun.

Sometimes Mirror's Edge might feel like a bad purchase for its somewhat steep $60 price point. Regardless, players who complete the game with the right free-flowing, pacifistic mindset will find that it is an incredibly rewarding experience. Not only that, but there are Time Trials and Speed Runs (connected to EA's leaderboards) that will provide endless entertainment for the perfectionists and competitive spirits out there.

Playing Mirror's Edge like a first-person shooter is simply not fun, but investing yourself in the experience, running forward with all of your heart, and having a little Faith in the people at DICE makes this one of the most fascinating (and fun) games of the year. Mirror's Edge reflects how we tend to play games, and challenges us to try a new approach. A good mirror can do that.

good.

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The Everygamer: History of a Rock Revolution

Every month, Evan Minto writes "The Everygamer," a column about video games for the casual audience. The article has been posted with permission from its original source, The Alternative Press.

Forget about Halo. Forget about Grand Theft Auto. If you’re looking for the games that all of the kids (and the adults) are really playing this year, look no further than Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Still, one might wonder: Are these games the same thing? Who makes each one? Which one is better?

The story of Guitar Hero begins with Red Octane, a company primarily dealing with peripherals for games like the hyper-popular Dance Dance Revolution. The company moved away from dance mats in 2005 when they decided to develop a plastic guitar controller with five colored buttons. They wanted a great guitar game to go with their new peripheral, so they approached a relatively new game developer called Harmonix, and asked them to create a "great guitar game."

Harmonix gratefully accepted, and got to work on what they believed was simply a fun little pet project. (The game only cost $1 million, a small sum for a video game) Little did they know that they were putting together the pieces that would soon make Guitar Hero an international sensation: eye-catching colored notes, a bonus-point-inducing "Star Power" mode, a distinctive visual style, and, of course, the guitar peripherals.

Finally, on November 8, 2005, the world witnessed the birth of Guitar Hero, and it skyrocketed into popularity as one of the most well-known, accessible video games of its time. Harmonix quickly got to work on its sequel, which enjoyed equally high sales.

However, in June of 2006, massive publisher Activision bought Red Octane, and Activision’s rivals at Electronic Arts (EA) bought Harmonix in September. Of course, Activision and EA were not willing to work together on a third Guitar Hero game, so the Guitar Hero series continued under the development of Activision’s studio Neversoft. When Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released, it enjoyed high sales but suffered much critique from reviewers.

Meanwhile, a new competitor was emerging: the new game Rock Band, created by none other than Harmonix, original creators of Guitar Hero. In the agreement between EA and Activision, Red Octane (now under Activision) was allowed to keep the Guitar Hero name, but Harmonix (now under EA) was allowed to continue to create Guitar Hero-style rhythm games. Hence, Rock Band used guitar, bass, drums, and a microphone to simulate a full band experience, and received huge praise from the gaming community when it was released late in 2007.

This year, Red Octane has followed suit with a new game, Guitar Hero: World Tour, that uses the four-player mentality of Rock Band. World Tour and Rock Band 2 (the sequel), released mere weeks from each other this Fall, and their striking similarities in gameplay, have many people confused as to which one is a better buy. Reviewers have been praising Rock Band and its sequel for a whole year, but how can they explain the high sales and popularity of Guitar Hero, even after Harmonix’s separation from the franchise?

For those of you who remain confused, there are some simple comparisons that can be made between the two games. First, there is a distinct difference in their aesthetics: Rock Band uses a sleek, polished menu style, while Guitar Hero prefers a more over-the-top, glam rock style.

The songs included on the discs are also a big question. Where Guitar Hero has been known for relying heavily on metal and glam rock, Rock Band has a reputation for erring towards more soft rock tunes. Though these reputations still remain somewhat accurate, both games have been attempting to alleviate these criticisms by offering a greater variety of music. One way they have done this is by using a DLC (downloadable content) system wherein users pay a small amount of money (usually $2) per song to download and play the song on their console. Rock Band has been providing downloadable songs in great numbers since 2007, but Guitar Hero’s service has just started, meaning that Rock Band has many more songs to choose from at the moment. Still, World Tour boasts a fun, but admittedly cumbersome, song creation mode to increase variety.

Finally, it is very important to note that the people who developed Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II (the two most successful games in the franchise) are the same people who made Rock Band. Guitar Hero: World Tour is actually created by different developers, even though the name remains the same. In the video game industry, it is developers (Harmonix), not publishers (Red Octane), who truly shape a game’s design and style.

So, which game is better for you to buy this holiday? That is a question that I leave up to each individual person. If you get a chance, play one or both of the games before buying them, to get an idea of which one you like more.

If you have kids, they might not appreciate the more mature sensibilities of Rock Band, but they’re sure to have fun with Guitar Hero. If you’re an adult, you might want to hold out for a little bit until Harmonix releases their Beatles game (which runs on the Rock Band engine) next holiday season.

Regardless of the game that you choose, there is no evidence that the rhythm game fad will be wearing off anytime soon.

Evan Minto is a New Providence resident and freelance writer. When he's not melting his brain away watching Japanese cartoons and playing video games, he's writing about them on his web site, Ani-Gamers. You can reach him at Evan.Minto@TheAlternativePress.com.

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MTV Games and Apple Corp. present: The Beatles

On October 30th, MTV Games made quite an historic announcement, and this time, it's not about a Rock Band game. No, this time they have announced their first non-Rock Band title, an untitled rhythm game project featuring none other than the most important name in rock and roll: The Beatles.

According to Joystiq's coverage of the conference call, here are the details:

• Developed by Harmonix, published by MTV and EA, just like Rock Band
• NOT a Rock Band-branded title, but it runs on the Rock Band engine and is compatible with Rock Band's controllers. In other words, it's a Rock Band title.
• Will feature "samples" from The Beatles' entire catalog
• "Visual imagery" is apparently very important, perhaps implying Beatles-based character designs, settings, and effects. (Yellow Submarine anybody?)
• Hardware platform wasn't discussed, though 360 and PS3 are probable, while the Wii's baby-boomer appeal might make it a good choice as well.
• Tracks are based on UK releases
• It is unknown whether you will be able to transfer tracks to Rock Band games a la Rock Band 2.
• Releases holiday season 2009

If there is anything I could have wanted from a Rock Band game (let's face it, that's what it is), it was The Beatles, who have never appeared in a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game due to licensing negotiations. Also, before anybody asks why Steve Jobs would be involved with The Beatles, Apple Corp. is the company that owns the rights to all of The Beatles' music, and it is, in fact, very different from Apple, Inc. of computer-building and iPod-selling fame. Check back here at Ani-Gamers for ongoing coverage of this upcoming Beatles game.

[via Joystiq]

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The Everygamer: Spore Faces Controversies of Evolutionary Proportions

Evan Minto writes The Everygamer, a monthly column about games from a casual perspective. This article was originally published on The Alternative Press in September.

Earlier this month, casual gamers were hit over the head with Electronic Arts'' biggest title in years, the long-awaited Spore for PC and Macintosh. Like The Sims (also created by world-reknowned designer Will Wright), Spore allows players to create characters and control their actions in a huge simulated world. Unlike The Sims, though, Spore is what some might call an "evolutionary simulator." Players will create creatures in all different shapes and sizes, guiding them through evolutionary stages like "Cell," "Creature," "Tribal," "Civilization," and eventually, "Space," in which the beings will travel the galaxy in search of new planets and rival creatures to colonize.

If that sounds amazing to you, then you understand why Spore has been such a hot topic in the minds of everyone from the gaming community to the mainstream press since its announcement three years ago. You also might understand why the game has met with some high levels of controversy surrounding its early September release.

First, let's get the strangest argument out of the way. Some orthodox religious groups have called developer Maxis and publisher Electronic Arts out on their purported goals of teaching Evolution to children through Spore. While I fully respect people''s opinions on the Evolution-Intelligent Design debate, I think most people who actually play Spore will agree: the game is more of an Intelligent Design Simulator than an Evolution Simulator. After all, the game shows that animals and plants cannot be created without an intelligent hand guiding them along the way. I don't quite see why there is even an argument here.

Second is a debate that most casual gamers planning on buying the game are unlikely to hear about. Every Spore disc has been programmed with a Sony DRM (Digital Rights Management) software called SecuROM. DRM is one of the most hotly-debated topics in computer software at the moment. Apple is the greatest champion of DRM, with their iTunes service restricting song use to up to five computers.

In similar fashion, SecuROM allows only three installs for Spore. That all sounds good if you are only using one computer, right? However, how about when that computer dies and you lose your data, or when you want to install the game on a second computer in the house? Now you've used up your other installs, and your Spore disc is, for all intents and purposes, useless.

By now, you have probably figured out why so many people have raised objections to EA's DRM "solution." Angry gamers wrote scores of negative reviews of Spore on Amazon.com, most without actually buying the game, and the saddest part is that Spore will likely sell extremely well regardless. The game''s disappointing (but still fairly lofty) review scores aside, buying into this (frankly) screwed up plan will simply convince EA that they can continue to encode their games with SecuROM, and gamers both hardcore and casual will have to deal with the repercussions of a highly-restrictive DRM plan for many games to come.

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Former Metroid devs form Armature Studio, EA partnership

When Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Jack Matthews - three of the top guys at Retro Studios (Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3) - left the second-party Nintendo developer last April, no one really knew what they would be doing. Now we have confirmation from a press release that Pacini, Keller, and Matthews have founded a new independent development group called "Armature Studio." Their new strategy "leverages a small core creative team and partners them with strategic external developers." What that means in tl;dr is that Armature needs a larger publisher or developer to bring their wonderful little ideas to life.

To achieve their goals of making totally awesome independent games, Armature has signed a "long term, exclusive" publishing agreement with Electronic Arts. Yes, you heard that right. The once-dominant publisher known for quashing small developers under its iron boot of CAPITALISM is embracing small development. If anything is to convince you that EA is turning around their image, this should be it.

Finally, Nintendo fanboys should keep in mind that these guys are not, in fact, Retro Studios, so there's no Nintendo console exclusivity. Mark Pacini points it out nicely: "What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limits. That is just something we didn't have the ability to do before." Are you ready Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers? You're about to get your socks knocked off by the developers of one of the best console franchises ever.

Keep your browsers locked at Ani-Gamers for Armature's first game title announcement.

[via Joystiq]

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Review: Boom Blox (Wii)

Genre(s): Puzzle
Designer: Steven Spielberg
Developer: EA Los Angeles
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Console(s): Wii
Rated: E for Everyone

Boom Blox is everything that a third party title for the Wii should be. Instead of a poorly thrown together collection of minigames, or another port with motion control grafted on, this title shows a rare level of polish and craftsmanship that you normally don’t see outside of Nintendo’s first party titles. It’s a game that completely embraces the family-friendly idea the Wii is centered around and is something that gamers of all skill levels can enjoy.

The concept of building up blocks only to knock them down again is one I’m sure we’ve all explored as a child. The beauty here is that, while also being less messy, Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg have managed to take this most basic idea and expand upon it in a variety of both interesting and challenging ways. Who would have thought there were so many ways to knock down a tower of blocks?

You'll start out by simply throwing a ball and seeing how many points you can score, but the game does so much to mix up this formula. In some cases you’ll have special types of blocks, including ones that vanish when you hit them and others that explode. Other times you’ll be carefully sliding out blocks while trying not to damage the overall structure, a la Jenga. Once you get a handle on the basics you’ll find yourself setting up and setting off chain reactions of exploding blocks, or sniping blocks out of midair once the tower beings to fall.

All of these game types, and several others, are introduced gradually though the game’s story and challenge modes. The bronze, silver, and gold medals that you can earn for each challenge allow for a large margin of error and help to ensure that you’ll never find yourself stuck on one level for too long. And when you complete a challenge, the game usually has a reward for you in the form of an item or character to use in the game’s level editor mode.

All together, Boom Blox simply encapsulates the Wii’s gaming philosophy to a tee. It is able to appeal to as wide a demographic as the console reaches, it utilizes the motion controls in such a way that actually enhance the gaming experience, and the rewards and varying degrees of success provide a constant incentive to keep playing. Who would have thought that all of this would come from the odd game-making couple of EA and Spielberg?

The game’s one big drawback steams from its lack of a true online component. The level editor, being as accessible as it is, will surely produce some interesting levels from the community - but you’ll never know that unless you’ve got a team of Boom Blox specialist on your friends list. Not having an overarching data base where you can go to rate and download other people’s levels is just wasted potential that would have easily extended this game’s life even further. Online issues aside, Boom Blox is a delightful and engaging game that definitely warrants your attention.

Gameplay:		4.0		Average: (3.7 stars)
Graphics/Sound:		3.0
Design/Story:		3.5
Lasting Appeal:		4.0
Overall:		4.0

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EA shows the secret of Tiger's "Jesus Shot"

When EA Sports got word of a glitch in their golf title Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, in which the messiah of golf makes like the messiah of Christianity and walks on water, they responded as quickly as possible. Instead of fixing the glitch with a new patch, though, EA decided to prove that the glitch... isn't a glitch?

I'm not sure, but does this actually count as "retconning" if EA is retroactively changing... reality itself?

[via Joystiq]

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Electronic Arts and Grasshopper Manufacture team up

Yesterday, Electronic Arts announced plans to partner up with Grasshopper Manufacture (Killer7, No More Heroes) to release an unnamed horror game for the PC, PS3, 360, and Wii. In addition, the title will be produced by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, directed by Goichi "Suda51" Suda, and will involve Q Entertainment (Lumines, Meteos) in some capacity. Details are still scarce at the moment but, as IGN points out, this title could be “Kurayami,” a horror game that Grasshopper Manufacture announced for the PS3 two years ago.

In the press release, representatives from EA and Grasshopper Manufacture expressed their excitement at the chance to work with the other. In particular Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label, states that: "It is an honor for EA to sign Grasshopper Manufacture and help bring their new franchise to gamers worldwide…Grasshopper Manufacture is a world-class studio and, within the EA partner program, they stand alongside some of the world's most revered independent studios." So now, as noted by Joystiq, we’re talking about a franchise...

[via Wii Fanboy]

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KotOR Back With BioWare [EDIT 1]

BioWare, acclaimed developers behind such games as Mass Effect and the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, are returning to their career-defining franchise after KotOR II: The Sith Lords was handed over to Obsidian Entertainment (much to the chagrin of fans).

According to an EA investor report (remember, they bought BioWare), "KOTOR" is listed as one of BioWare's ongoing projects. As many hoped, EA and LucasArts are kissing and making up just fine after EA's controversial BioWare-Pandemic purchase. And why not, with a massive cash cow in a galaxy far far away just WAITING to be milked?

EDIT 1: EA responded to Joystiq, claiming that they never actually confirmed that BioWare was working on a new KotOR game, but simply listed the game in their portfolio of past titles. However, seeing as there is a confirmed LucasArts/BioWare collaborative game as well as a confirmed new BioWare MMO, it's safe to say that Knights of the Online Republic has a pretty good rating on the rumorometer.
[via Joystiq]

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EA Buys BioWare, Gamers Cry

Massive game publisher Electronic Arts announced on October 11th plans to purchase VG Holding Corp., the company that owns both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This assimilates BioWare, which is currently working on the highly-anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive RPG/Action game Mass Effect, and Pandemic, which is currently working on Mercenaries 2, into the EA developer's structure.

According to EA and Microsoft, Microsoft Game Studios will still publish Mass Effect exclusively on the 360, but the franchise, which was previously owned by BioWare, will now be owned by EA. This means that EA can conceivably publish any possible sequels to Mass Effect on multiple consoles, though the publisher has stated that they have no current plans to take Mass Effect beyond the Xbox 360. In addition, both BioWare and Pandemic will now publish under EA's "EA Games" label. Finally. EA plans to publish BioWare's mysterious MMO project within a general 2011 time window.

Electronic Arts held a conference call on Thursday discussing the acquisition, claiming that the move was "mutually beneficial" for all parties. EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA can "reach places where [BioWare and Pandemic] don't get to so we can build their properties bigger," also admitting that action and RPG games are not EA's specialty, so these new developers would broaden their focus.

The gaming community (myself among it) was shocked and angered by this news. EA is notorious among gamers for caring more about making money than making good games. While the acquisition of BioWare could theoretically help improve EA's reputation, the most likely effect of this change will be for BioWare's talent to leave, giving EA just the BioWare name and the Mass Effect IP. Ironically, this saddening news comes just days after Bungie announced their independence from Microsoft.

Enjoy Mass Effect, gamers, because that will be BioWare's last hurrah in their current independent form.
[via Joystiq]

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