The Marvelous Misadventures of Prophet and Hatty Hattington

Posted by rangerdave23 on May 16, 2013

I recently invested in two relatively new games: Crysis 3 and Battleblock Theater. Crysis 3 was a purchase out of necessity; having recently gotten back into Halo 4 multiplayer the trouncing I received reminded me that I had not played first person shooters in too long. What better game to rekindle my love for the genre than Crysis 3? It functions much the same as any decent FPS: guns make the right noise, things you shoot go splat and it rewards a good aim. The thing that sets it apart is of course the “nano suit” which allows you to stealth or smash your way through the game. With the addition of the predator bow, choosing a stealthy approach has become rather entertaining and hunting AIs hasn’t been this cathartic since Metal Gear Solid. Oh, and it is shiny as hell. This shouldn’t really be a factor when buying a game, but when a game looks this good you simply have to give it credit. Otherwise you feel that it has tarted itself up to look ravishing in your adoring eyes, and you just look past that in order to receive the services it provides, indifferent to its seductive efforts. Prostitution metaphors aside, Crysis 3 is a decent game and you should definitely give it a shot if you fancy spending top dollar for a few nights of fun (couldn’t leave the metaphor alone).

Now, Battleblock Theater. I can best summarise this game with a series of words, rather than actual prose: whimsical, witty, hilarious, crude, simple and FUN. A fun 2D platformer?! Surely I’ve lost the last little scraps of sanity I’d kept locked away for so long! Nope. This game is the most fun I’ve had playing a game since the early days of Halo 2 multiplayer in my lounge with friends. This isn’t just due to the hilarious multiplayer game types (yes, 4 player local multiplayer exists in this day and age) but even the single player is a fantastic mix of challenging puzzles, clever/simple level design and the funniest writing I’ve ever heard in a game. I all honesty, it’s actually quite difficult to describe what makes this game so fun, or what it even really is…. so I’m not going to bother. I shall simply say this: if you find a game in which a man with a constant screaming expression and a cat clawing his head, can play a game of capture the flag (with cubist horses instead of flags) with an explosive paper aeroplane as his weapon whilst also being able to perform a “suicide fart” – I’d say that there’s some serious intellectual property rights being infringed. Anyway, just watch the trailer below and see for yourself:

The PC Gaming Master Race Rises Again

Posted by rangerdave23 on April 22, 2013

I’m a console gamer. I have been a console gamer since the Sega Megadrive. I played “The Lion King” at a friends house for hours at a time, getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t make a jump on the very first level. I realise now that my stubbornness ruined platform games for me as I could never accept that I was doing things the wrong way and simply tried again and again to make a jump that’s physically impossible (I do the same now but have friend that points out my stupidity rather than reveling in it).

As I grew up, my gaming taste diversified; Goldeneye on the N64 was the equivalent of crack cocaine for 8 year old me. I also was the proud owner of a Playstation with more pirated chinese imports than you could shake a stick at (as well as my fair share of legitimate purchases). Hogs of War, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, Bomberman, Army Men, Crash Bandikoot and many many more took up countless hours of my childhood. This was also the time that computer-based gaming reared its ugly head in my life. No longer content with seeing his son playing unheard of games such as Freddie’s Folly on an Acorn computer (look it up), my dad bought a PC with Windows ’95 installed and a copy of C&C: Red Alert. This was the beginning of a PC gaming era for me. Nothing could tear me away from RTS games for the next few years and I became a complete social recluse existing solely to exert my dominance over whatever universe I happened to be inhabiting at the time. It’s truly amazing how pale and skinny you get when all of your free time is spent in a cellar with a few 2 L bottles of coke for sustenance.

The Playstation 2 slowly reversed this trend by bringing graphical prowess as well as diverse genres to the table. Although RTS would remain my favourite genre of game for many years to come (http://sirmime.com/2011/12/15/the-downfall-of-rts/) it was taking hits in terms of play time as it simply does not translate to console and PC-gaming was on the way out.

After rediscovering my console roots with the epic franchises of GTA and Burnout, the launches of the Xbox 360 and PS3 were the final 2 nails in the coffin of PC-gaming for me. It had nothing to offer. RTS had stagnated as a genre (with the possible exception of StarCraft) and in order to play games on PC which had the same visual stopping power of the current console games you had to spend a fortune updating your computer. Even if I had done this, I had gone off to university, and there was no way I was going to be known as the guy with a high-end gaming PC in his room (I had enough problems with girls having a PS3 in my room).

So that was it. PC-gaming was dead and buried for me and if I’m honest, I really don’t miss it much even now. This console generation has been good to me, providing an unfathomable number of hours of entertainment at the minor cost of my social skills. Even once I grew up (properly this time), the fact that console gaming was easy to jump in and out of meant that I could have a great social and work life, whilst always finding a little time in my week to sit down and have a game of Halo.

So what is the point in all this? Was this all just a nostalgia trip to be embarked on for my own sake to remember better times? Actually, partly yes, but that’s not the intended point. The point I was actually going to make was that I believe that this golden era of console gaming is going to come to an end soon, and if it doesn’t, it won’t be the same.

The thing that always set console gaming apart for me was accessibility. You didn’t need a state of the art machine in order to enjoy games at their absolute best, the specifications are always going to be as required. This is in contrast to PC-gaming which requires substantial investment and therefore brings along a certain level of snobbishness over us “console-tards”. There has been a change in the wind though and the next generation of consoles has been announced, and I am not particularly excited, if anything I’m dreading it. The news that the new Xbox is “always online” was a shock to me and countless other gamers. I don’t need to ramble on about the reasons why I think this is a bad idea, IGN has done this far more eloquently than I ever could (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/04/18/the-pros-and-cons-of-an-always-online-xbox-720), but I can summarise by saying that if your internet drops off, you can’t play your games. End of story. The game you paid money for is not entirely in your control anymore. I personally find this horrendous, not only because the internet is still a fickle mistress but it also represents a loss of control over what should really be yours to use when / if you please. The PS4 is not looking any much better either with zero backwards compatibility, meaning that older games have to be repurchased (http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/120396-xbox-720-no-backwards-compatibility). You only need to look at how the Wii-U has done to know that the console industry is in trouble and I personally don’t see the new releases from Microsoft and Sony bucking this trend. If you don’t believe me, even Goldman Sachs see this as an inevitable downward spiral (http://bgr.com/2013/02/21/sony-playstation-4-analysis-downward-spiral-339662/).

Why then does this mean that the PC master race will rise again? Well it doesn’t. But I do do feel that the world of PC-gaming is a lot healthier in terms of both future prospects and gaming ethics. Although I myself have not gone back to the realms of PC-gaming, opting to instead cling to the rickety vessel of the Xbox 360 as it threatens to sink below the sea of extinct entertainment, I do look over to the fantastical world of Steam and can’t help but marvel at how it has managed to bring glory back to the PC.

Regardless of your standpoint on all of this, I think we should all be grateful for what we have in the current gaming era, and that we’re not mac users of course.

Head in the Clouds: How Bioshock Infinite took me to Columbia, the most Beautiful Hell on Earth

Posted by rangerdave23 on April 18, 2013

It’s been a long time again since I wrote something here. During my period of absence Bioshock: Infinite descended from the heavens and woo’d game reviewers worldwide. I’ll make no secret of my Bioshock fanboydom, it should have been pretty obvious by now anyway with previous posts about art in games and even Bioshock-specific drooling, but I do still feel some small measure of guilt in wanting to contribute to the already obscene amounts of praise for the game. I’m also under no illusion as to how valuable my opinion is in comparison to 99.99% of the games writing community (yes I do consider myself superior to 0.01% and they can suck it). I do however want to share my thoughts on the game that hit me harder than any other piece of entertainment / art in a long time. I should probably say at this stage that there are spoilers here if some of you haven’t yet played the game, so you have been warned.

I’ll admit that I entered the world of Bioshock Infinite with some skepticism, having fallen in love with Rapture it felt like a betrayal going to another city. I also had the issue that I actually found the ideas put forward by Andrew Ryan interesting (although not technically “his”) whereas Comstock didn’t sit too well with me as an idealist. So climbing the steps of that lighthouse with some trepidation I prepared myself to be launched into Columbia. The “Hallelujah” that sounded when I broke the clouds and caught my first glimpse of the city summed up my emotions rather well.

columbia-bioshock-infinite-2k-games-rapture

Aesthetically, Columbia is glorious despite the stark contrast to the art deco wet dream (no pun intended) that is Rapture. Colonial style architecture mixed neo classical columns and of course the incredibly symbolic and egotistical statues that adorn the main squares: these make for a stunning city to look at. Even the flying death fortress of Comstock House had me swooning.

Once you move on from simply gawping at every stunning vista you begin to see the city for what it really is, the most beautiful hell there is, and it all starts off by winning a raffle. Now, I’ve heard a lot of opinions regarding what is indisputably one of the defining characteristics of the game (the other being the many universe theory), but I haven’t seen mine out there yet. Racism in combination with religion has to be one of the most difficult subjects touched by a game in a long time, and with it has come a lot of ire. There have been complaints that it’s anti-white propaganda (http://w ww.stormfront.org/forum/t956372/) , that it’s deeply blasphemous (http://kotaku.com/some-dont-like-bioshocks-forced-baptism-enough-to-as-473178476) , that it’s offensive to the non-religious of us (see previous link) and even that it’s anti-American (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/29/bioshock-infinite-the-video-game-that-lets-you-sh oot-robo-george-washington-should-you-be-worried/). I found these points rather interesting; as a white, non-relgious, non-American, I’m not the most likely to be offended by such themes. Although everyone is free to voice their opinions, freedom of expression is what created the games industry after all, there is a level of irony that these complaints were made about Bioshock Infinite, and this is also what makes the game so great.

My argument in all of this is that I found it an insightful look into not only what is wrong with America, but also what it does well. It seems to be forgotten in all discussions about the game that the reason Columbia seceded from the U.S. is because the extremist leader disagreed with its liberal policies. The aspects of Columbia that offend are generally the ones that are seen as a breakaway from traditional American values, the aspects that appeal are the ones that are the righteously upheld values that most respect about the country. I must admit that religion gets bashed a little in all of this, and I know better than to step into that minefield of discussion, but it is still approached in an interesting way with a fundamental question posed by the game being: does baptism truly absolve you of sin? Whether you love or hate the approach by which they held a mirror to modern society, you cannot dispute that it was effective (you know it was by observing the extremes of praise and hate). If you truly believe that this was anti-American, observe the manner in which the Vox Populi (the distinct reversal of traditional American values) are potrayed: they are brutal, crude and have no moral compass to speak of. The potrayal of communists in this game could not be more negative. This is something we’ve seen before though; no matter how critical Bioshock was of Ayn Rand’s ideals, sympathy was still created Andrew Ryan, as opposed the solely negative reflection of the strong socialist ideals of the antagonist Sofia Lamb.

I’m sorry that this turned rather serious rather quickly but this game made me believe again in the power of interactive story telling to put across a message and I felt as my first post in a long time I should write about something meaningful. I promise that I’ll get back to humour and moderately witty insights in my next post.

D2D8EBBC281E465499F881AFC60A4DA2

Nintendo Direct – Straight to my Heart

Posted by sirmime on April 18, 2013

Over the last few Months I’ve been enjoying the spectacle of Nintendo Direct broadcasts. These (roughly) half an hour presentations have been showing off Nintendo’s wares to the World. Most of the time you can start watching one with a good idea of what they’ll be talking about. This is partly due to the fact that most of the presentations are themed usually on the WiiU or 3DS, but sometimes they slip in announcements for the other systems anyway.

Yesterday’s broadcast was quite an interesting one to say the least (understatement of the year). I started watching it thinking ‘the last broadcast (in the EU) was all about the 3DS, what else could they possibly announce now?’. Looking back on such thoughts I feel quite the fool now as Nintendo seemed to pull out some pretty big surprises for all their fans.

Yoshi is about to unleash the giant egg throw

The first big surprise came from the showing of a brand new Yoshi’s Island game. A short video shows off the little green dino carrying baby Mario around a lush world of greenery, fluffy clouds and bright red Shyguys. Yoshi was shown to perform all his usual tricks such as the flutter jump, ground pound and egg throw. There seemed to be mention of new abilities to keep the gaming mechanic fresh and during this point of the video Yoshi is seen to throw a screen sized egg that seemingly destroys most of the obstacles on the level in front of him. I’m not really sure that increasing the size of the egg thrown really counts towards new game mechanics, but the game certainly looks a fun return to the Island setting. I think the main reason I was so surprised by this announcement though was the previously revealed Yoshi’s epic yarn on the WiiU a few months back. They certainly look different enough games to stand out from each other and can you really ever have enough Yoshi fun?

Mario Party seemed to leap out from a well-timed visual gag (involving an on screen Luigi throwing dice and it then swapping over to Mario Party game footage of said dice landing). The game looks like the familiar party setting although the boards shown did look very diverse. One board housed giant Bullet Bills that would shoot across the board if a player rolled the character during their dice roll. The risk-reward strategy really comes into play as you decide whether to push forward and remain in the open/in danger or cut your movement down to hide in safety. Other boards offered their own unique challenges and gimmicks making this new Mario Party seem quite a diverse package. The only problem I have with it is that I feel it would work better as a WiiU title as opposed to the 3DS release it is getting. Unless there’s online play settings available for it (and you don’t know anyone nearby with the game and/or system) you are only going to be playing with computer opponents. The whole fun of a party game is sitting around with people you know and trying you best to hinder them all in the guise of good fun.

More news and release dates were announced for previously revealed titles such as Mario & Luigi: Dream team brothers, Mario Golf: World tour and interestingly Pikmin 3. Strangely the release date for Pikmin 3 wasn’t stated during the Nintendo Direct broadcast, but various sites seemed to confirm it will be hitting stores (in North America at least) in August (hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer afterwards). What was excited about Pikmin 3’s time slot in the broadcast was the official confirmation/reveal of the brand new Pikmin type, the winged Pikmin. These pink minions can fly and even carry items off the ground. When I saw them in action I was so thankful there was finally another Pikmin type that could travel over water. I can only assume they have some horrible weakness as every scene of the video showed them in quite an over powered light. They were carrying items to the same weight ratio as other Pikmin types even across water. They also seemed to take on some of more annoying flying enemies will relative ease. Normally scrapes with such creatures would involve having to find the right angle to throw your ‘Min at them and hope for the best, but these winged Pikmin just seemed to circle the thing and destroy it. There probably will be another video released shortly showing how easily hundreds of these Pikmin can die now that I’ve said this and the weight of their deaths will be on my conscious forever more.

The new Winged Pikmin carrying goods across the water

Grim Pikmin murder aside, let us move onto some WiiU system update news. The promised (and much needed) WiiU system update will be hitting consoles next Wednesday (24/4/13) and will provide a number of improvements. For starters exiting a game and heading back to the main menu will happen in a fraction of the time (see the comparison video). Updates for games can now be downloaded without needing to start up the game first and whilst the console is turned off. Also installation of downloaded games/updates can now take place in the background and while the console is turned off meaning you will never need to sit through an install bar again, unless that’s your thing. The day after the system update (25/4/13) the Virtual Console range will be launched meaning that you can purchase and play a number of classic games without having to wait each month for the current ’30 days for 30 pence’ promotion. The line-up of VC titles shown wasn’t particularly large and around half of them are titles that will appear on the ’30 for 30’ promotion. Hopefully there are some of the promised GBA titles included in the initial line-up as well to spice things up a bit. Speaking of Spicing up the Virtual Console EarthBound (Mother 2) is finally coming to EU shores! This was a Titanic surprise yesterday as Japan had already received it as part of their ’30 for 30’ promotion. Luckily a large number of fans (myself included) took to Miiverse and showed their interest in bringing out over here. Nintendo listened and now we’re finally going to be able to play a game released on the SNES for the first time ever in the EU. There was no mention of a release date or price, but hopefully there will be more news soon.

When the broadcast moved over to the EU specific section there was recap reminders about Fire Emblem Awakening including the discounted price of DLC pack 1 for the first month (from Friday 19/4/13). Then (something I actually guessed beforehand) the reveal of the Animal Crossing special edition 3DSXL for EU. The system decals look wonderful and as I’m eagerly waiting to get Animal Crossing anyway I may purchase this bundle for RevealBEARY so I can look at it every day. Other Animal Crossing news showed the feature to visit other player’s towns without disrupting any of their hard work and then, being able to use designs from these towns in your own for anything you

I was so excited when this was confirmed for EU release

want. There were some beautiful designs in the town (from the Direct footage) that I really hope I can ‘borrow’ at some point.

Other great news for the EU market included confirmation of Bravely Default Flying Fairy and Shin Megami Tensei 4 are coming to Western markets later on in the year. Both look absolutely amazing RPGs and I can’t wait to add them to already insanely good 3DS collection. Now you’d mistaken for thinking how could Nintendo top all these announcements? They always do save the best surprise till the end of the broadcast and yesterday’s was no exception.

Link using his new 2D ability to cross walls and get through the bars

Just as things are wrapping up the familiar tune from the Legend of Zelda series silences everyone watching. Without warning images of a new game set in the ‘A Link to the past’ game world fill our screens and (as I suspect) everyone agrees there’s a new must have title for the 3DS on its way for the end of the year. This new title (a sequel to A Link to the past) plays in the familiar classic LoZ top down style and with the 3DS’s magic gives warrant to a whole host of scenes of Link seemingly jumping out of the screen. The new game specific power for Link in this game seems to be the ability to turn into a 2D wall drawing. This in turn gives him the power to move along walls for a short period of time (I think the bar at the bottom left of the screen is the duration time). Being able to do this allows Link to bypass barred windows and move to platforms that would otherwise be inaccessible. There is a 3D video available now on the 3DS eshop and I thoroughly advice you watch it if only to get the full effect of the display. Hopefully we’ll be treated to move news and screenshots soon enough. With this, the HD remake of Wind Waker and countless other games releasing and still to be announced I sense it will be a very good year for Nintendo gamers everywhere. I just hope the next Nintendo Direct leaves me as excited as a five year on a sugar rush wearing a jet-pack made out of fizzy drinks like this one did. Have you watched the broadcast yet? What was the most exciting announcement for you?

New Smash Bros – Hopes and predictions

Posted by sirmime on April 13, 2013

As you’ve probably guessed from many of our previous posts here at SirMime we’re all big Smash Bros fans. The hours of beating each other senseless throughout the series have only wet our appetites for what is in store in the next instalments. There’s been no real information from Nintendo yet. They say that there’ll be some screenshots and information during this year’s E3, but for now let me share with you my hopes for the 3DS/WiiU version.

Characters

Rumours have been circulating that brawl’s character list was about as large as they’re planning to go with the series. This suggests that there won’t be many new characters or even that they may replace certain members of the roster. Obviously (for me) I hope Wolf doesn’t get taken out of the mix as I loved his Fox/Falco move set with the added power/weight to take on virtually anyone. Every member of the team has their own favourite that they wouldn’t want taken out either, so hopefully (for all our sakes) there won’t be too many previous character gutted for the list.

Mewtwo was always my favourite of the playable Pokemon

The mighty Wolf Squaring off against his rival Fox

From previous changes to characters in the series I would like to see a return of Mewtwo over Lucario. I don’t really have anything against Lucario, I just preferred Mewtwo weight/movement and his ‘evil laugh’ taunt. He had more character about him, although Lucario did have the amazing power increase to current damage taken ratio.

The Fire Emblem characters seem to change around in each title. From Melee to Brawl there was Marth and Roy to Marth and Ike. Marth plays pretty much the same in both versions and Roy/Ike both fill a heavy/powerful character although they handle slightly differently (Ike is much more sluggish). I would love for the next title to see Lady Lyndis or Eirika from one of the GBA games. Lyndis did appear as an assist trophy character in Brawl so it would be nice to see her become a fully-fledged character. I’d imagine her (them) to a lighter, faster fire emblem character than Marth making using your counter move a very risky strategy (with big rewards for pulling it off).

Lyndis was an assist trophy last time, now it is her chance to become a character

As for Lucas and Ness I would like to see Lucas taken out if they needed to remove characters from the bill. I think they are too similar to both be in the new games especially if they are going to make cut backs. Maybe a more unique character from the Mother series would a nice change with a different move set to Ness (also it’d be nice to have a Mother game released over here on the virtual console so us Europeans can actually experience one).

For me first entirely new character prediction I’m going to go with (drum roll) Miis. Miis have featured as characters in quite a number of games now. They had only been introduced at the Wii’s launch so there probably wasn’t the opportunity to incorporate them into the previous game, but now it’s their time to shine. There’s quite a wealth of games to choose their moves list from now including Mario kart/Tennis, Wii sports/sports resort, Pilot wings and streetpass quest. I can easily imagine you will be able to select your own Mii to fight in game and use moves like sword swings, magic, tennis racket beatings and maybe even boxing glove punches. With the amount of multiplayer games they’ve appeared in now and the fact WiiU and 3DS both use Miis I would be very surprised if they didn’t appear as characters.

I think I’ve got it… Layton as a character!!

Another character that seems highly likely to join the cast is the gentleman detective himself Layton. The sheer popularity of his series and the fans’ love for him as character puts him firmly in line for a new comer (plus again Layton games had only really started appearing in the west at the time of the last game). I’m unsure as to how Layton would attack his enemies. Maybe he could throw hint coins for a mild projectile as well as maybe using Luke in a similar way to Peach using Toad (as a counter).

At any rate I’m sure he would have quite an interested move set to fit in with his puzzle solving ways.

Well these are some of my character predictions. I would love to know if you like the sound of any of them as well as who you’d like to see appear/return for the next game.

Uniqueness for uniqueness sake – Porting to the feature filled devices

Posted by sirmime on April 13, 2013

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about the selection of games available for some of the newer devices on the market. New handhelds such as the 3DS and Vita as well as Nintendo’s latest home console the WiiU are all very feature heavy. The principle behind each device to enable ‘new ways to play’ bit it via touch screen, motion control or the added display of an extra screen. Many games designed for exclusively for these devices showcase such features excellently, but does the availability of extra features scare off some developers from bringing their games to the systems?

Let us look at the Vita first of all. Now the Vita has had a good selection of exclusive games that fully take into account the use of touch/motion control. Games such as Frobisher says excel at showcasing the use of every feature the handheld has to offer and others like Gravity Rush allow the game to be played via motion control (if you want to). The trouble really is thinking that every game for the Vita needs to fully integrate such control methods. As I mentioned just Gravity Rush does allow you to use motion controls, but most of the time I would end up using the trusty old analogue sticks to guide Kat on her adventure. Sometimes (especially with a handheld) it’s very difficult to attempt playing a game that requires either constant moving of the system or (in Uncharted’s case) perfect balance of the device (there’s nothing more annoying than trying to cross a tree over a giant chasm while you (the player) are being jolted around on the train).

The Vita is also quite an interesting handheld as it serves as a mobile device for playing a good number of PSN titles. I think this has been quite a good move for SONY after the Vita’s quite hefty dry spell of exclusive titles. A good number of PSN titles are much more suited to the handheld’s ‘journey to work’ or ‘break-time’ time allowances allowing the player to have quick bursts of play time without the constant worry of ‘will I be able to make it to a check point in time’ hanging over them. Clever Beans’ excellent When Vikings Attack has seen me through many lunch hours. It is simple, fun and extremely addictive all whist only requiring the use of one analogue stick and three face buttons. The games don’t need complicated controls for the sake of using the handheld’s features. The game just needs to be a fun game.

When Vikings Attack: A few buttons bring a whole lot of fun

I’m not saying that all games for the 3DS/Vita shouldn’t make use of touch screen/motion controls, but they should be used sparingly. A great game with touch/motion control is absolutely magical, but you always know when you are playing a game where it feels forced into the development process.

Moving on from the handhelds now and onto the WiiU. Being the owner of a WiiU (as well as the other consoles) I’ve hand to sit through quite a draught of games up until recently. Nintendo’s titles are coming up on the horizon (which is a very exciting prospect), but I must say th

e third party support has been hmmmm let’s say lacklustre.

Time and time again over the past few months I’ve seen the same headlines of games ‘skipping’ the console. This is usually either followed by the development team saying they ‘had the game running on the WiiU and were forced to pull out by the publishers’ or the better line of ‘we’d release it for the WiiU if you knew how we could use the Gamepad uniquely for our game’. The first line I can understand (although it doesn’t mean it’s not annoying still). Publishers see the numbers and don’t feel they’d make a return on the release. The second line however eludes me. I can’t understand how you can turn down releasing a quality title because you can’t think of a novelty to add into it. Sure the WiiU’s Gamepad screen is a major part of the console, but at the same time many people who own it might not also own a PS3/Xbox360. I’m pretty sure they’d gladly leap at the chance to play the game with or without some means of a Gamepad feature.

The WiiU is crying out for more games from third party developers while the big Nintendo games loom on the horizon

I’ve heard this line being used for the lack of a Borderlands 2 and a Tomb Raider WiiU release and the only thing I could think of whilst reading them was ‘surely just a map would do, if you really had to have something?’

I understand the demands of releasing some many different games on so many different formats these days. The PS3 and the Xbox 360 also have their wider markets of consumers already set up and waiting, but at the end of the day chances have to be taken to move games onto other systems at some point. I imagine/hope the new Xbox and PS4 will probably have a much smaller uncertainty period for cross release or where does the games industry go from here?

Judging Judgment: My Gears review

Posted by sirmime on April 13, 2013

As a long serving fan of the Gears of War series I naturally jumped at the chance to get a hold of Judgment on release date. I’d tried Overrun mode months ago during the Eurogamer expo and absolutely loved the collision of Horde vs. Beast mode. Surely anything on top of this mode would be a bonus right? Well let me run you through my thoughts on the complete package.

The Campaign:

Probably the easiest place to start my review is to look at the campaign. As a devoted follower of the series (and reader of all the novels/comics) I was eager to enjoy a good story mode set shortly after E day (Emergence day, when the Locust first attacked the surface). The campaign delivers a great merge of old and new ideas, but doesn’t exactly hit the mark on delivering a solid story.

Basically (as you may have already seen) Baird and his team are on trial and you play the game out as ‘testimony’ from the four character’s viewpoints. The problem I find here though is that when the game starts at its first chronological moment the four members of the team are already together with no explanation as to why they’re working together. Baird and Cole are members of the same squad. Paduk might have been a part of that squad for some time (they mention why he now fights for the COG, but never really say how long he’s been fighting for them), but Sofia is a mystery to me. She’s a cadet at the Onyx training academy who (I can only assume) is cut off from the rest of the Onyx guards/cadets and joins the team. Gears doesn’t usually explain much during the game’s story. It is part of the genius of the series, it gives you enough information (usually) to form your own ideas as to what’s happening/happened in the world around. That said though the other Gears titles do generally offer actual introductions to the characters within the game as opposed to just diving in ‘here’s your characters, just go and play’.

Meet the new squad of fearless Gears

This is slight nit picking really though as the campaign mode is set out to be more like the arcade mode from Gears 3. For those who don’t know the arcade mode was a score based run through of the campaign mode. Although some of Gears 3’s campaign sections were fairly lengthy, Judgment’s campaign is designed with smaller sections (or missions) in mind concentrating on the ‘earn a high score’ style of play. Four players can jump in from the start of the game and work towards earning the elusive three star rankings within each mission. Stars are earned through killing enemies. Performing headshot/execution kills earns a higher yield towards the stars and the ‘Declassified missions’ help fill the star meter up even faster.

‘Declassified missions’ are probably the most interesting new addition to the campaign. Basically near the start of every mission you’ll find a big glowing omen on the wall. Activating these will display the criteria for the ‘Declassified mission’ and begin the additional boost to the star meter. The missions offer a wide range of game changing objectives from lowering your ammo, adding more enemies or even making you use certain weapons. The one I enjoyed the most came up almost at the end of the campaign and forces you to use Boom shields and sawed-off shotguns. The thrill of having to get ‘up close and personal’ to some very high powered enemies certainly made that section feel very different to any other encounters I’d had with Boomers and such throughout the rest of the campaign.

In all the campaign is excellent fun especially if you tag along with some friends and aim to take on the ‘Declassified missions’ on a higher up difficulty. The story is rather lacking, but the more arcade style action element seems to make up for character relations (there’s a very weird bit at the end of the Aftermath campaign where a completely unmentioned character relation moment is dropped on you and my thought was ‘what?! When was that ever implied?’ Hopefully you know what I mean). Once you earn enough stars you get the Aftermath campaign that (although) adds play time doesn’t actually feel as good the regular story. This is partly due to the lack of the ‘Declassified’ type missions and the fact that (at least in my mind) it feels more like a DLC that should have been included in Gear 3 (as it does fill in some gaps in Gears 3’s story). The Judgment and Aftermath campaigns both feel very different from others Gears titles to the faster missions, two weapon systems and (obviously) the new weapons. The campaigns do hold onto some of the features of the series that I can’t understand why they were taken out though i.e. ‘Down but not out’ states and active reloads (neither of these features appear in the other modes, but I’ll write more in the other sections).

Look out for Omens like this throughout the campaign

Survival Mode:

Now this mode really confuses me. It is essentially Overrun mode stripped down and made to look like Horde mode. Whereas in Overrun you have human players controlling the Locust, Survival mode pits you against computer controlled beasts. The computers are absolutely ruthless. They come at you in greater numbers than you ever have to deal with in Overrun with a larger pool of beasts to choose from (i.e. Boomers and Bloodmounts make their appearance). You (as the COG) still have to defend the same three objective points, but with the added number/power of the Locust Horde the COG classes seem greatly underpowered. Going against a Mauler or two in Overrun in bearable with a Medic (or two), but massive groups of them (along with Corpsers etc.) smash through your fortifications in sections. Being able to build new fortifications or even pick up better weapons would make this mode so much more balanced, but then again perhaps the name ‘Survival’ is an apt name for such a punishing mode.

If you don’t mind constantly seeing the Locust crush your defences or are tired of defending against player controlled beasts you might enjoy Overrun, but in all honesty I think it is a poor co-op (horde wanna-be) conversion of Overrun. It lacks the co-op preparations and fun of Horde mode, but also seems too similar to Overrun although without the competitive action.

Verses:

I won’t really go on about Overrun (partly because I’ve already spent so long comparing survival mode to it), but rest assured it is a brilliant multiplayer mode. Working with friends (or strangers) and picking out the right combination of COG/Locust classes to defend/attack the objectives is an absolute joy to play. The only real downside at the moment is the number of maps on offer. With only four maps currently available you may get tired of playing the same level over and over again. Hopefully there’ll be a decent DLC pack out soon with some more maps to choose from and add so more variety, but otherwise Overrun is the best thing Judgment has to offer.

The other verses modes are rather different. As I mentioned earlier Judgment does away with series staple features such as ‘Down but not outs’ and active reloads and it really shows what a difference it makes in the verses modes. In Gears 3 defending an area with your team was fairly easy. If for some reason you took too much damage you would be downed and able to crawl around waiting for a team mate to revive. Judgment does away with this completely and kills you off as soon as your on screen omen completely fills. I see there are advantages to this approach in that its now impossible for anyone to ‘steal’ your kills by shooting at someone you’ve downed, but at the same time removes a strong feeling of team work being there to help your friend back on their feet. You may die easier, but you can now get back into the action faster using the respawn now button during your death cam. It certainly cuts down the waiting time between deaths, but leads to a few new annoying problems.

Library offers a deadly, but fair run to a power weapon spawn for both teams.

One absolutely major problem is that the maps (again only four to start off with) aren’t designed to be nice and symmetrical like those in previous Gears titles. This added with no set spawn points for entire teams to appear on (and switch) means you can spawn in faster after death, but there’s no guarantee you won’t be spawning away from the enemy team. I can understand this happening in the new all vs. all mode, but on TDM and domination it just seems strange there aren’t set spawns for the teams. Another problem with unsymmetrical maps in that one team generally spawns closer to a power than the other team giving one side a massive early advantage on the map. The map Gondola sees one team spawning on a side of the map with over three different weapon spawns, while the other team gets the Breechshot. As trusty/annoying as this new sniper rifle is, it doesn’t really compare to the combined fire power of a Torque bow, Longshot and a Booshka (a new bouncy grenade launcher). Even the Scorcher is difficult to obtain and that seems to be set in the middle of the map. I just don’t think verses was really tested out for fairness of weapon spawn placements or even amount of power weapon spawns on each map. Other Gears game have roughly three weapon spawns on a regular map (maybe five on a large map) making the fight to get to and then control the spawn worth the effort. A player with one of these weapons could feel like a god, but now there’s more than just a wealth of weapon spawns to deflate that feeling.

You’ll need to watch your back out there at all times

It has been building up over the past few titles now what you can choose to start off with going into a match. What rifle you’d use from a choice of three and what shotgun you’d rain death with. Now Judgment messes things up a bit and says ‘rifle or shotgun?’ and ‘what grenade would you like to go with that?’. Now I’m a massive fan of the Hammerburst. I loved using the Hammerburst in every Gears game (with 3 being my absolute favourite), but the one in Judgment has far too much kickback for me to get used to (seriously more than the Retro Lancer) and what is more stopping power has been removed from all assault rifles. Yes the stopping power they put into Gears 3 to help overcome the endless waves of Gnasher users just got completely thrown out the window for Judgment. This means that the whole choice of weapon system is a bit redundant since the only way you will stand a chance of surviving is fighting fire with fire (or more Gnasher with Gnasher). You will notice every game is filled with Gnasher users that have absolutely no personal space issues. They throw themselves at you constantly meaning there is virtually no time to try out the new or altered guns unless you want to spend most of the match looking at the death cam. The only thing you have in your defence wielding other weapons (not including Lancer/Retro Lancer) is the ridiculous melee. Mashing the B button when someone comes running at you will help you get out of some scrapes. This is mainly due to the fact melee hits are often faster than shooting at someone and two hits will kill an enemy player. Again it makes me feel that verses modes weren’t really that well tested as that and virtually every weapon in the game seem to have really unbalanced firepowers (the Scorcher is insanely powerful). They do seem to be fixing these issues throw patches though, so hopefully soon they’ll find the right balance for everything.

Now I mentioned grenades earlier. You get to choose which grenade you start off with now. Yep, no more fighting for the one precious frag spawn on the map anymore. Everyone gets a piece of the action from the moment they spawn in. Every encounter you make with an enemy seems to start off with frags being hauled at you and if they don’t stick to you (they no longer need to be melee stuck to a player, they just have to make contact whilst thrown), they’ll generally weaken you that much that the group of attackers can kill with a single sprayed pellet from their shotgun from an absurd distance. Players not opting for frag grenades can choose from a few other deadly options (strangely the flame grenades aren’t available for load outs, I have no idea why they aren’t and frags are) ranging from Inks to Stim-gas. Most give you a distraction, but the Stim-gas is a complete game changer to one-on-one situations. Basically most players using Stims will throw them ahead at the player they are going to engage. When they draw closer to the enemy the Stim-gas will instantly keep bringing them back up to full health every time they take damage. This means that essentially unless the enemy makes and instant kill shoot on you, you are almost invincible during the grenade’s effect period. It was always going to be a strange device to throw into the regular verses modes and many have shown their annoyance to it on the EPIC forums already. The only modes it works for are campaign, Survival and Overrun. Giving verses players brief invincibility is madness.

Summary:

Gears of War Judment offers a wide array of different game modes with styles to suit most types of players. The campaigns will keep you (and possibly some friends) busy for a good while especially if you want to earn all the stars on each mission. Overrun will (if you’re like me) keep you playing for a long time even with the current lack of maps available. The sheer tactical fun and the joys and blowing up the best player on the COG team as a ticker will keep you coming back for more night after night. Survival mode is something that I feel needs to be altered. It needs to be made into more of a Horde style mode, because as it stands at the moment it is basically just playing Overrun with a punishingly difficult computer controlled Locust team (that breaks the rules by using Boomers).

I do have very mixed feelings about the verses modes mostly because I love playing Gears of War games online and Judgment’s verses modes don’t really feel like Gears anymore. The faster paced action is really the problem I have with, it is just a lack of staple features I’ve come to know the series for over the years are completely missing now. There’s barely any maps to play on and the ones there don’t really seem like they’ve been created with the tactical/symmetrical placements of weapon spawns that are at fair distances to both teams. I really hope that the DLC maps are more finely crafted and I can put this nagging feeling of the game being rushed to be Xbox’s first exclusive of the year to rest.

As it stands at the moment I would still recommend Judgment. I would just warn fans of the series that it is quite a different animal to the previous titles and not all of it for the better. Here’s hoping that VIP season pass pays for itself in the next few months.

Score: 3/5