Saturday, March 30, 2013
Tomb Raider: The best game so far this year
What I expected: Due to pretty good marketing I was expecting a pretty solid adventure game that reboots the franchise with the desire to make Lara a person and not a sex object.
What I got: All I expected and more. Definitely my favorite action adventure game so far. Solid adventuring (hey that's a word!), fantastic writing, fantastic everything really. I found myself wanting to take screen shots of nearly every environment. Only Bioshock Infinite makes me want to take more screenshots (B:I review tomorrow!).
What I liked: The entire single player campaign.
* I was especially pleased with the writing. Lara really does go from being a frail little girl who gets her ass kicked to a predator who is out to save her friends. My thoughts towards her evolved as her character did. This is some impeccable pacing and writing. All the dialog felt like real things people would say. I never rolled my eyes.
* Art Direction: Everything has a sense of mystery to it. The environments are all stellar. I really don't get how they actually made half of these environments on the PS3. There are some areas you come back to, and they manage to change them to make them interesting again. Lara especially is incredibly beautiful. Her texture work, animations, and voice acting is perfect. I literally can't wait to see what the team comes up with next.
* Puzzle design: Similar to the Lara Croft xbla game, they do an excellent job of designing puzzles. Finding out WHAT to do is the challenge not HOW to do it. They have some great visual ques, white paint basically means you can climb me. This actually doesn't pop out of the environment and does a great job of providing information.
What I didn't like: Multiplayer. It's not bad per se, it is just incredibly mediocre. It doesn't help that the mp crowd on PC was basically dead on day 1. I was never able to join a ranked game of any kind. Nor was I able to find a game (ranked or not) in one of the game modes. Rescue? I can't help but think if they wouldn't have spent any money on MP would they have broke even?
Final thoughts: Amazing game, and if it wasn't for Bioshock Infinite, being so good, I would say Tomb Raider is easily the best game I've played this year. I can't wait for the sequel, but I do have concerns about how they'll evolve Lara as a character. Character development doesn't tend to happen much in non-RPGs, and it was a very enjoyable point to me.
How much did I pay: $45
How many hours did I play: 21
Dollar per Hour: $2.14
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $60
Why? Simply put I have no problems paying $60 for a game that engages me for 12 hours. I think I put about 10 hours into MP. Heavily recommend.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
What I expected: A generic puzzle game cashing in on Lara Croft's boobs.
What I got: An incredibly amazing game. A game that every level and game designer should play.
What I liked: The game is incredibly well thought out. They have a great interactive tutorial level (first level naturally), which does a good job of introducing the very basic tools in your tool box. It slowly introduces advanced movies, but literally everything in the game is basically explained in the first level. THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE TUTORIALS.
They have side objectives for each level, and when the time comes for you to achieve that objective they do a simple pop up reminding you, and informing you, that this is the area to do it. This is beyond fantastic. This puts a focus on solving the objectives and off of second guessing yourself (Did I just miss my opportunity?). Every non boss level has an objective for exploration, collect 10 red skulls.
The puzzles are all very unique and fun. The objective is almost always on the screen (when it's not it makes sense for it not to be). They hardly repeat the same puzzle, and create some unique timing puzzles too.
The timing was perfect. I beat the game in 7 hours (probably close to 8), and I have alternative objectives still to do (in the interest of time I am moving onto the next game). The time felt right, the pace of the game was great.
The art direction is solid, but nothing crazy unique. They do hit the feeling of a Mayan Temple on the head though. The last boss fight does a great example of marrying game design and vfx. The effect for the spike traps is perfect. It's simple, informs you of exactly when the spikes will pop.
What I didn't like: I honestly can't think of anything to say here.
Final thoughts: Great little game that needs to be played by every designer.
How much did I pay: $0.00 I got it for preordering the new Tomb Raider game.
How many hours did I play: 7
Dollar per Hour: $0
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $20.
Why? Great well thought out game that deserves a lot more money than zero. I'm not quite sure how they could have fixed that though. If they make another one, it will be a day one purchase for me.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Cortex Command
Quick post, because I spent so little time with this game. I'm forgoing my usual format to just explain why I only spent 20 minutes with this game.
Why did I only spend 20 minutes? Simply, no effort was done to introduce the player into the game. The tutorial is incredibly simplistic, and only teaches you controls, not themes of the game. I started the single player game, and I literally couldn't figure out how to do a single thing other than end the turn. I clicked everything. The tutorial doesn't cover this screen in the slightest. I know other people like this game, but I just don't have time to put up with games that don't have time to teach its players the first screen. Really annoying. Moving on to a game that is exactly the opposite.
Money Wasted: $1.00
Monday, February 18, 2013
Machinarium
What I expected: A simple little adventure game with a killer art style.
What I got: A annoyingly difficult adventure game with a mind blowing art style.
What I liked: Art style, Art style, art style, art style, art style, art style. I could go on. I love the art style so much. It has so much heart and character. Everything is mechanical, but everything is alive. The hand-drawn style really gives it a personal touch, but never feels campy or unfocused. The game is also short and sweet. Pretty great length at around 5 hours.
What I didn't like: My main gripe is a distinct lack of focus in most areas. It was hard to know what to do. I felt like I had to click randomly just to figure out my goal. Some of the areas are really hard to piece together, which I find annoying.
Final thoughts: Overly difficult game, but the art style makes up for it. I enjoyed myself.
How much did I pay: $1
How many hours did I play: 5
Dollar per Hour: $0.20
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why? Sweet little game, that I enjoyed. I view it much like Limbo, an interactive art piece. While I do like interactive art pieces, I don't like paying more than $5 for them.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Aliens: Colonial Marines (DRAMA RAMA BOMBA)
So most (all?) of you reading this will obviously know I worked on this game. I personally don't think I'm biased at all, but judge my comments accordingly. Also a disclaimer for anyone reading this that possibly made the game. I know you worked hard; hell, I know I did. Working hard is great, and you should be thanked for working hard. However, working hard doesn't (nor should it) protect you from getting criticized. Not everyone did a bad job on Aliens, but *clearly* some did. I have no interest in calling people out. I do however have extreme interest in pointing out where Aliens went wrong in hopes that we can all learn from ACM's mistakes.
What I expected: A pretty big mess. I expected a campaign that had the quality of being made in 9 months. I expected a versus mode that was buggy and never quite feels right, but ultimately was decently fun.
What I got: Considering what I expected from the game is based off the state of the game when I left Timegate, I had a pretty accurate view. The game is a pretty big mess, but versus mode is definitely the better of the two game modes.
What I liked: The art is by far the best part of the game. Specifically, the environments. Super specifically, Hadley's Hope, and *inside* the Derelict. The art in those two areas is nigh perfect. The nailed the art style. Not only did they make you feel like you were in the Aliens universe, they added what I personally feel is the natural extension to the universe. The things they added that weren't shown in the movies, didn't feel out of place. Some of the voice acting is extremely good. Specifically, Bishop's and Bella's. Versus can be really fun, when things click. The Raven level is also probably the best level in the game.
What I didn't like: O boy. Let's try and go down the list....
Challenges: These are really dumb. They are like achievements, but not quite. I have to do them in order, which is beyond stupid. One of the single player challenges is "kill 5 face huggers". I got EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that I got that challenge seconds before I entered one of TWO face hugger areas in the game. If I didn't get this challenge at exactly the right time, I'd have to quite the campaign and start over, or just wait potentially many levels to get to the on I was at. I don't even understand why this was put in the game. It makes so little sense. Why aren't they just achievements? I find it hard to believe that game designers had nothing else to do but design these. Pure waste of time.
Call of Duty: The game direction is largely wrong. What I mean by that is from the very core, the game isn't what it should be. Specifically, this is a Call of Duty Wanna Be. An Aliens game has no business trying to do that. This game should have been a mix of what made the Alien and Aliens movies so great. Survival Horror and a small squad of marines against impossible odds. This game is purely run and gun. 4 player coop should have been sacrificed for a solid single-player campaign mode, instead the opposite happened. It is obvious to literally everyone that there should be a horde mode where you just have to bunker down and defend a location against a horde of xenos. Undoubtedly Sega will be selling this as DLC. I personally think they could have saved the game if they just would have included this (and did a good job on it). I think this section could be an entire essay by itself, so I'll just end it with saying, when you kill something over 500 times in a game (where the hell did the Xenos find so many humans to infect?) the enemy loses all threat and meaning. Even in Aliens, which has the highest xeno body count of any Alien movie, not that many xenos die. For a good example of what this game should have been, look at the two demos they made. Both of those nail the survival horror mixed with action theme.
Art: While Hadley's Hope and inside the Derelict look beyond fantastic, the Sulaco and outside the Derelict look terrible. The Sulaco doesn't look like a marine ship, doesn't feel like one, and it doesn't look like it even belongs in the Aliens universe. There are flat panel monitors throughout the entire game, despite there not being a single one in the entire Aliens movie. I don't care that we didn't really have LCDs back in the 80s, that isn't an excuse to change things. You're supposed to fit the Aliens style; not change it. The outdoor areas are so entirely bland. This is mainly due to the lighting. Because of how their lighting engine works, outdoor areas are insanely expensive to light well, so what ends up happening is they have one giant directional light. I don't understand how this happened. I know for a fact they had someone tell them they can't do outdoor areas. I also know for a fact they were told to not include levels that highlight your weaknesses. (Full disclosure, this person was me; big surprise) This shouldn't be something you tell a company that has made multiple games before, yet here we are......where a good fourth of the levels are outdoors.
Xeno controls: It feels like things got worse since I was there. I constantly found myself pressing left to go right while running on walls. I was constantly getting stuck on ledges. I don't know why things are so bad, it seems like such a simple thing to get right considering AVP2 got it right back in 2001. Not to mention they had multiple people pointing out the problems all the time.
Versus: Jesus where to start on this one. Escape is the most rewarding mode...when teams are balanced. It's painfully obvious to many people that escape should have been the main (only?) game mode with a strong focus on it. Right now it just feels like they said "O hey you know we could kind of make a L4D like game mode...but we don't want to actually put forth effort." TDM is ok, but any well coordinated marine team will just turn TDM into survivor mode. Survivor isn't terrible, but it just alludes to the glaring omission of a horde mode, which is all anyone really wants. This brings us to the over all problem with this game...
Final thoughts: The people in charge do not understand what people want from an Aliens game. I know the higher ups at all companies claimed to love the Aliens franchise, but the direction they took the game clearly shows they don't love the franchise. There are so many things wrong with the game that I can't even address them. The sad part is this game could have been the best Aliens game ever, but it ended up being one of the worst.
How much did I pay: $0.00 (I got the game on my steam account while I worked at TG)
How many hours did I play: 16 (all of the single player and as much of versus as I could stomach)
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why?: Single player is incredibly forgettable, despite be supposedly the focus of the game. Versus was entertaining for the couple nights I played. In fact wondering around inside Hadley's Hope and the Derelict (especially infested Derelict) is probably worth $5 alone.
What I expected: A pretty big mess. I expected a campaign that had the quality of being made in 9 months. I expected a versus mode that was buggy and never quite feels right, but ultimately was decently fun.
What I got: Considering what I expected from the game is based off the state of the game when I left Timegate, I had a pretty accurate view. The game is a pretty big mess, but versus mode is definitely the better of the two game modes.
What I liked: The art is by far the best part of the game. Specifically, the environments. Super specifically, Hadley's Hope, and *inside* the Derelict. The art in those two areas is nigh perfect. The nailed the art style. Not only did they make you feel like you were in the Aliens universe, they added what I personally feel is the natural extension to the universe. The things they added that weren't shown in the movies, didn't feel out of place. Some of the voice acting is extremely good. Specifically, Bishop's and Bella's. Versus can be really fun, when things click. The Raven level is also probably the best level in the game.
What I didn't like: O boy. Let's try and go down the list....
Challenges: These are really dumb. They are like achievements, but not quite. I have to do them in order, which is beyond stupid. One of the single player challenges is "kill 5 face huggers". I got EXTREMELY lucky in the fact that I got that challenge seconds before I entered one of TWO face hugger areas in the game. If I didn't get this challenge at exactly the right time, I'd have to quite the campaign and start over, or just wait potentially many levels to get to the on I was at. I don't even understand why this was put in the game. It makes so little sense. Why aren't they just achievements? I find it hard to believe that game designers had nothing else to do but design these. Pure waste of time.
Call of Duty: The game direction is largely wrong. What I mean by that is from the very core, the game isn't what it should be. Specifically, this is a Call of Duty Wanna Be. An Aliens game has no business trying to do that. This game should have been a mix of what made the Alien and Aliens movies so great. Survival Horror and a small squad of marines against impossible odds. This game is purely run and gun. 4 player coop should have been sacrificed for a solid single-player campaign mode, instead the opposite happened. It is obvious to literally everyone that there should be a horde mode where you just have to bunker down and defend a location against a horde of xenos. Undoubtedly Sega will be selling this as DLC. I personally think they could have saved the game if they just would have included this (and did a good job on it). I think this section could be an entire essay by itself, so I'll just end it with saying, when you kill something over 500 times in a game (where the hell did the Xenos find so many humans to infect?) the enemy loses all threat and meaning. Even in Aliens, which has the highest xeno body count of any Alien movie, not that many xenos die. For a good example of what this game should have been, look at the two demos they made. Both of those nail the survival horror mixed with action theme.
Art: While Hadley's Hope and inside the Derelict look beyond fantastic, the Sulaco and outside the Derelict look terrible. The Sulaco doesn't look like a marine ship, doesn't feel like one, and it doesn't look like it even belongs in the Aliens universe. There are flat panel monitors throughout the entire game, despite there not being a single one in the entire Aliens movie. I don't care that we didn't really have LCDs back in the 80s, that isn't an excuse to change things. You're supposed to fit the Aliens style; not change it. The outdoor areas are so entirely bland. This is mainly due to the lighting. Because of how their lighting engine works, outdoor areas are insanely expensive to light well, so what ends up happening is they have one giant directional light. I don't understand how this happened. I know for a fact they had someone tell them they can't do outdoor areas. I also know for a fact they were told to not include levels that highlight your weaknesses. (Full disclosure, this person was me; big surprise) This shouldn't be something you tell a company that has made multiple games before, yet here we are......where a good fourth of the levels are outdoors.
Xeno controls: It feels like things got worse since I was there. I constantly found myself pressing left to go right while running on walls. I was constantly getting stuck on ledges. I don't know why things are so bad, it seems like such a simple thing to get right considering AVP2 got it right back in 2001. Not to mention they had multiple people pointing out the problems all the time.
Versus: Jesus where to start on this one. Escape is the most rewarding mode...when teams are balanced. It's painfully obvious to many people that escape should have been the main (only?) game mode with a strong focus on it. Right now it just feels like they said "O hey you know we could kind of make a L4D like game mode...but we don't want to actually put forth effort." TDM is ok, but any well coordinated marine team will just turn TDM into survivor mode. Survivor isn't terrible, but it just alludes to the glaring omission of a horde mode, which is all anyone really wants. This brings us to the over all problem with this game...
Final thoughts: The people in charge do not understand what people want from an Aliens game. I know the higher ups at all companies claimed to love the Aliens franchise, but the direction they took the game clearly shows they don't love the franchise. There are so many things wrong with the game that I can't even address them. The sad part is this game could have been the best Aliens game ever, but it ended up being one of the worst.
How much did I pay: $0.00 (I got the game on my steam account while I worked at TG)
How many hours did I play: 16 (all of the single player and as much of versus as I could stomach)
Dollar per Hour: $0.00
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $5
Why?: Single player is incredibly forgettable, despite be supposedly the focus of the game. Versus was entertaining for the couple nights I played. In fact wondering around inside Hadley's Hope and the Derelict (especially infested Derelict) is probably worth $5 alone.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
L.A. Noire (Part 2)
This is written directly after I finished the story of the game. I'm going to skip most of the normal format.
The continues to be great. Everything I mentioned from Part 1 still holds valid. The story in Vice is pretty amazing, and it leads directly into the Arson cases. The second half of the story is so much better than the first half. Their goal of creating a great cop drama game was fully realized, and I really hope they get the chance to make a sequel. Sadly, it looks like Rockstar won't give the sequel to Bondi again.
Final thoughts: A fantastic game in a relatively untapped genre. I honestly would have never bet on it being so incredibly successful (critically) given that this is really the first game in the genre. I desperately hope Team Bondi gets to make new ones. They'll be first day purchases for me.
How much did I pay: $8
How many hours did I play: 29
Dollar per Hour: $0.28
How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight: $40
Why?: Unique, and well done. A little long, but that's ok. There is plenty to do in this game, and they nail what I expect 1940s LA to be.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
L.A. Noire (Part 1)
So L.A. Noire is a very large game that I didn't expect to be so involved in. I've decided to write a mini-review at the 50% mark.
What I expected: Phoenix Wright with an amazing animation system, and a graphical style that I don't absolutely hate (ugh anime).
What I got: Phoenix Wright with a breath taking animation system, but with a few key differences. There are no court battles in L.A. Noire, which I consider a great thing. The court battles were precisely the reason I stopped playing the original phoenix wright (the only one I've played). The other major difference is the fact that LA Noire is a Rockstar game, which I suppose means it has to be open world. You can drive around and do other open world things.
Some thoughts on the game so far: The open world aspect feels completely unnecessary. You can't randomly kill people like you can in GTA (a very good thing as you are a good cop). There are little side missions, "Street Crimes", that you can do, but they have an order which makes the open world aspect, again, unnecessary. Personally, I think you could cut the street crime and all the outdoor chase scenes (car and foot), and you'd still keep the core of the game for a whole lot less money. I originally heard this game didn't sell well, and that the company was gone. After investigating it a bit more, it turns out the game sold amazingly well (5m copies well), and the studio is indeed defunct. It wasn't sales that screwed them, but rather rumors that they were "hard to work with." Probably not all that untrue, but who knows? ANYWAYS, I had ideas that you could just cut the open world bit to save a ton of money, but it seems that is completely unnecessary.
Things I like so far: The animation system is so damn good. I really can look into a character's eyes and tell if they are lying. If I have the proof or not is a different story. I love running around looking for clues. It maybe a really simple system of run around until the controller vibrates, but once you decide to let yourself get absorbed into the world, it's really fun. I love the interview process, listening to people's stories and responding is just so engaging.
Something they do that I like a lot, is the game isn't punishing....at....all. If you fail an action sequence (a chase or a gun fight) 3 times, you will be given the offer to skip it at no penalty. Personally, I'm ok with this, but I wish they would have given you an option in the beginning to play it without action scenes, but that's really minor for me as I like them. Another non-punishing thing about this is, as long as you just go through the motions you will finish the case. You may only have 1 star, you may have missed A TON OF INTERESTING STORY, but you will finish it.
Things I don't like so far: Car collecting. I hate this. It's there, and I want to collect them all, but its really hard to tell what cars you have, what cars you don't, and how to get them. Additionally, once you collect them there doesn't appear to be a way to quickly spawn one, or even drive one at will. I have no actual garage to go to to pick up the car I want to drive. It's really frustrating.
I don't like that sometimes the proof for lying isn't quite "proof". Sometimes it will count as proof sometimes it will count as doubt. So for instance I have a clue that is a testimony from a guy. This isn't "proof". There are other examples, but it's really just about learning how this game works.
The only other thing I don't like is the fact that this game doesn't really get interesting until Homicide, which you have to deal with traffic, which is....a bit boring. Homicide is amazing though, and so far Vice is just as good. I really can't overstate how excited I am for the arson cases.
More to follow.
What I expected: Phoenix Wright with an amazing animation system, and a graphical style that I don't absolutely hate (ugh anime).
What I got: Phoenix Wright with a breath taking animation system, but with a few key differences. There are no court battles in L.A. Noire, which I consider a great thing. The court battles were precisely the reason I stopped playing the original phoenix wright (the only one I've played). The other major difference is the fact that LA Noire is a Rockstar game, which I suppose means it has to be open world. You can drive around and do other open world things.
Some thoughts on the game so far: The open world aspect feels completely unnecessary. You can't randomly kill people like you can in GTA (a very good thing as you are a good cop). There are little side missions, "Street Crimes", that you can do, but they have an order which makes the open world aspect, again, unnecessary. Personally, I think you could cut the street crime and all the outdoor chase scenes (car and foot), and you'd still keep the core of the game for a whole lot less money. I originally heard this game didn't sell well, and that the company was gone. After investigating it a bit more, it turns out the game sold amazingly well (5m copies well), and the studio is indeed defunct. It wasn't sales that screwed them, but rather rumors that they were "hard to work with." Probably not all that untrue, but who knows? ANYWAYS, I had ideas that you could just cut the open world bit to save a ton of money, but it seems that is completely unnecessary.
Things I like so far: The animation system is so damn good. I really can look into a character's eyes and tell if they are lying. If I have the proof or not is a different story. I love running around looking for clues. It maybe a really simple system of run around until the controller vibrates, but once you decide to let yourself get absorbed into the world, it's really fun. I love the interview process, listening to people's stories and responding is just so engaging.
Something they do that I like a lot, is the game isn't punishing....at....all. If you fail an action sequence (a chase or a gun fight) 3 times, you will be given the offer to skip it at no penalty. Personally, I'm ok with this, but I wish they would have given you an option in the beginning to play it without action scenes, but that's really minor for me as I like them. Another non-punishing thing about this is, as long as you just go through the motions you will finish the case. You may only have 1 star, you may have missed A TON OF INTERESTING STORY, but you will finish it.
Things I don't like so far: Car collecting. I hate this. It's there, and I want to collect them all, but its really hard to tell what cars you have, what cars you don't, and how to get them. Additionally, once you collect them there doesn't appear to be a way to quickly spawn one, or even drive one at will. I have no actual garage to go to to pick up the car I want to drive. It's really frustrating.
I don't like that sometimes the proof for lying isn't quite "proof". Sometimes it will count as proof sometimes it will count as doubt. So for instance I have a clue that is a testimony from a guy. This isn't "proof". There are other examples, but it's really just about learning how this game works.
The only other thing I don't like is the fact that this game doesn't really get interesting until Homicide, which you have to deal with traffic, which is....a bit boring. Homicide is amazing though, and so far Vice is just as good. I really can't overstate how excited I am for the arson cases.
More to follow.
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