Category: Written


A Shock to the System

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June 5, 2010

Originally Published: February 25, 2010, on Examiner.com and 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

I had stated in several articles that my anticipation for Bioshock 2 would bring me to tears and hysterics in the halls of 1050 when it finally hit store shelves. Unfortunately, when a game is surrounded by so much hype, there is always the possibility that the high you think you will have ends up falling short. That disappointment is part of the reason why I’m only getting to this article now. It’s not to say that Bioshock 2 is a bad game. It just wasn’t what I was expecting on my return to Rapture.

Bioshock 2 sees a brand new protagonist familiar to the confines of the intended utopia beneath the sea. Simply known as “Subject: Delta”, you play as an early prototype of the famed Big Daddies from the first Bioshock who is “killed” in the final days leading up to Rapture’s fall. Your carcass is left to rot in the middle of the streets of Rapture where you remain undisturbed for 10 years. Somehow, someway, you are brought back to life and are now forced to wander around Rapture searching not only for your lost memories, but also for the original Little Sister you were sworn to protect.

The first thing you will notice is that the graphics are still just as sharp as they were in the first Bioshock. There are moments where you will jump at your own shadow, literally, as the lighting effects cast eerie outlines of your own form against walls and floors. It sometimes takes you a second to remember, that Big Daddy shadow, a figure ingrained into your memory as an enemy, is actually your own, which only adds to the creepy atmosphere of the dilapidated Rapture.

In terms of sound, something the first Bioshock was lauded for, Bioshock 2 is just as strong. Heart pounding atmospheric instrumentals mixed in with classic 40s and 50s tunes provides a dichotomy that shocks your system more than any plasmid you may find in the game. Rounding out the great peripherals is the tremendous voice acting throughout. Whether a meaningless thug splicer’s grunts of rage and desperation to the pleas of your original Little Sister all grown up, the voice acting is some of the best in gaming.

The plot is brilliant, but there is one question that plagued me through the entire game. If in the original Bioshock, Rapture was falling apart as was and this game takes place about eight years after those original events, how has most of the structure remained standing and that there are still humans around, whose fate you decide, who haven’t succumbed completely to the temptations of Adam (the substance that grants you the ability to splice your DNA and give you powers)? I felt this little hole wasn’t explained as fully as it could have been and will just have to be chalked up to some of the mysteries and wonder of Rapture will just have to remain unsolved.

As you move away from the creative aspects of the game, you start to see the cracks in the proverbial Big Daddy’s armor. The gameplay is very good, but even on the hardest difficulty, which wasn’t that hard because of no real penalties if you die, I blew through the entire game in what felt like no time at all. Then consider that the game removed the ability to backtrack into previous areas you’ve explored as you move through Rapture. This sense of exploration and being able to go back to collect audio files or collect Little Sisters you may have missed was a critical part of the original Bioshock‘s gameplay. Rapture felt a lot smaller and more restrictive this time around, even with being able to go into the ocean for short intervals, than in the first game, and I refuse to believe it was a creative decision to draw a parallel to you being trapped in the Big Daddy suit. You also have to remember to quick save a lot more often because the game froze at several key moments and needed to be rebooted. That is a huge glitch.

There were some new positives to the gameplay though. Using Little Sisters to harvest Adam from all the corpses around Rapture was this game’s masterstroke and using new weapons like the Trap Rivet and the Mini-Turret to help protect them forced you to come up with new and inventive strategies continuously if you wanted to get the game’s best ending (there are six in total depending on the decisions you make over the course of your adventure).

And you needed to think up new strategies constantly because the enemy A.I. is impressive. You light an enemy on fire and they will seek out water. You hack a camera or turret and they will avoid it as best they can once they find it. And add in new varieties of enemies like the hybrid Big Sisters and the plasmid overloaded Brute Splicers and at least you can say there was an effort to amp up the difficulty.

One of the reasons why the gameplay was lacking could have been that the inclusion of the new multiplayer mode simply took up too much space on the disc. The only real knock on the original Bioshock was a lack of multiplayer, so 2K made it a point to include one with Bioshock 2. Unfortunately, I would just rather have had more of the single-player mode if this was the best multiplayer 2K could have come up with. Being able to have up to 10 player death matches, team death matches, capture-the-flag with Little Sisters, and territorial control matches, you have a very basic multiplayer system. The problem is that players cannot take a lot of damage before they die so many matches, although competitive, really don’t require a lot of strategy as it is simply more a race to see who can light who on fire first and hack the handful of turrets scattered about each level.

Bioshock 2, although it didn’t move me to tears like I had anticipated, is a very solid game. It does a wonderful job for the most part of adding to the history of Rapture and its collapse as it develops new characters while adding shades of depth to characters long gone from Rapture. The multiplayer seemed thrown together and more of a move to pacify critics of the first game than anything else, and I would rather have seen the space used for the multiplayer used to be able to backtrack in a larger single player mode. Even with a couple of knocks on the gameplay and multiplayer, Bioshock 2 would be a solid choice for a purchase, especially if you are as big of a fan of the first game as I was.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 10.0: The graphics push the Xbox 360 to its limits with shadow and lighting effects that you just do not see in enough games. The details of the deformed remaining inhabitants of Rapture are shockingly clear and the overall theme of this sunken paradise is as sharp as can be and is enough to earn a perfect score for looks.

Audio: 10.0: Voice acting is such an underrated part of games sometimes, but great voice acting helps to keep you within the immersive experience that many games strive for and Bioshock 2 succeeds on every level. Add in great SFX like the pitter-patter of a leak on your iron helmet and critical atmosphere-setting instrumentals mixed with classic songs from the post-war period and I predict Bioshock 2 as my front-runner for best sounding game of the year, no matter what else will come out in the next 10 months.

Plot/Plot Development: 9.0: Bioshock 2‘s plot is a worthy addition to the mythos that was established in the first game. Aside from a couple of plot holes that I’m still not quite sure about, Bioshock 2 helps to develop some of your favorite characters from the first game as well as introduce some great new characters.

Gameplay: 6.5: The enemy A.I. is spectacular in its complexity and how it reacts to your moves. Unfortunately, not being able to backtrack into previous explored areas, not being penalized for dying, not being nearly as long as the first game, and the freezing that takes place about once per level, really knocks this score down to a barely passing level.

Replay Value: 5.0: One playthrough of the story mode is really all you need, especially if you get the best ending the first time through (like yours truly). The inclusion of a multiplayer bumps it up a couple of points, but not many because the multiplayer seemed thrown together and clearly takes up too much space on the disk. I was very disappointed with this attempt at fixing the first Bioshock’s most obvious flaw.

Overall (not an average): 8.5: Even with the gameplay flaws and real lack of replay value, this is still a very solid game. The story is compelling and this is one of the most visually stunning games to come out in some time. I hope that the folks at 2K take a look at this game very closely and fix these new problems they’ve created in time for Bioshock 3.

Bioshock 2 is out now for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

-Ray Carsillo

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The Devil is in The Details

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Originally Published: February 15, 2010, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

In today’s fickle and over-stimulated world, it is hard sometimes to remember that literature was the preferred emotion evoking pastime for hundreds of years and that the Blu-ray movies we watch and video games we play all have to begin with a story, whether an original one like the one I am about to discuss or something inspired by a classical work. It is for these reasons I rarely review just a novel, so you know that this must be a book of the highest entertainment value. At least that’s how it was pitched to me.

Joe Hill, a relative newcomer to the suspense scene (you may know his dad, a guy by the name of Stephen King), is about to release his second novel called Horns on February 16, 2010, and was kind enough to send me an advanced copy to see if it could hold my video-game-addicted attention span.

Horns revolves around a young man from New Hampshire named Ignatius Perrish. Our sad and sorry protagonist has had a horrible streak of luck over the past year or so as he’s seen himself all but exiled from his community as he was accused of the murder of his lovely girlfriend, Merrin. Although cleared on all counts of the heinous act, Ignatius (Ig for short) has seen his life spiral out of control as the depression that consumes him over the loss of his one true love has left him a shell of his former self. That is until he wakes up one morning after drinking all night to find that he has two, small, black protuberances coming from his temples. After some haunting trial and error, Ig finds that he now has the ability to make people tell him their deepest, darkest secrets, have their entire lives of sin revealed to him with the slightest touch, and can bend their wills to his sinful suggestions.

Once Ig embraces his newfound abilities, he pledges to find out what really happened to Merrin on the night she was murdered and so begins a conquest for revenge that will put Ig through an emotional roller coaster the likes of which would break most men. Then again, you can’t really call Ig just a man now can you? When it comes to revenge, the devil is in the details…

I have to admit, like Ig is possessed by some awesome power in Horns, I was possessed to not put this book down. The book is about 360 pages, broken down into 50 short chapters, and by the time I was through the first five or six chapters, I couldn’t stop reading. I needed to find out more about what Ig would do with his powers and how they would evolve. The way Joe Hill describes the experiences Ig has when he reads people’s histories through touch is incredible, as if he was painting a vivid picture that cuts right to the core of human nature.

Also, the description of his main characters made me feel as if these were people from my own community, people who I could’ve grown up with. I felt like a silent witness within the tight-knit circle of characters with which all the action takes place in. I felt my heart strings tugged on with Ig’s unwavering devotion towards Merrin, even in her death, and felt an unquenchable rage boiling within my own gut at the betrayal and conspiracy against Ig that he must overcome.

There were a couple of drawbacks to this experience though. Joe Hill took 40% of the book just giving the back story on the characters to develop that connection between me, the reader, and his characters, mixing up action in present time with drawn out flashbacks over every 10 chapters. I felt that Hill could have condensed many of these flashback chapters and still gotten his point across and it would have given me a more pleasurable read.

These fodder chapters reminded me a little bit of his dad’s writing in how Hill became a little too detail oriented. Instead of letting the natural narratives of the story continue, the obsession on the details would shock you back out of the world Hill was trying to create and hurt the overall experience by creating lulls in the otherwise frantic action.

Of course, this could just be a suspense building tactic since Hill’s first 10 chapters are so brilliant that he more than likely will have you hooked for the rest of the ride (like myself) when you hit the first flashback in Chapter 11. Along with this, the ending seemed a little too anti-climatic. I won’t go into it any further because I refuse to give away any of the devilish details, but considering how much back story I was given, when I was finished with Horns, I felt like I needed something more.

However, I was happy to have read Horns and look forward to Hill’s next work. There were some very memorable passages in this original story that drew emotion from me and they easily overshadowed the lulls that popped up during the flashbacks. I would recommend Horns to anyone looking to read a very detail driven suspense story or maybe to kill some time on a cross-country trip. Horns hits bookstores February 16, 2010.

Horns by Joe Hill gets a 3.5 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

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A Greener Planet

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May 31, 2010

Originally Published: February 12, 2010, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

While growing up, I was never really fascinated with the Hulk because the character never had the depth to draw me to him. I loved the fact that the madder he got the stronger he got, and the cheesy catch phrases were great to imitate (“RAY SMASH!”; “RAY STRONGEST THERE IS!”), but beyond these, the Hulk was always a B-level character in the grand scheme of things.

My frustration only grew with Hulk as he was depicted the same way over and over again in horrible movies that were later remade with bigger names into better movies with the same basic story, and we can’t forget the horribly overpriced straight-to-DVD animated features.

But in 2006, there was hope. Over the course of a little more than a year in the Incredible Hulk’s third volume, came the Planet Hulk storyline, an arc that has been the Hulk’s shining moment in his nearly 50 years of comics (with a close second being the storyline that came out of the Planet Hulk story arc, World War Hulk). This was the first time, the Hulk, and not Bruce Banner (or a merging of the Hulk’s body and Banner’s personality), was the personality with layer upon layer of depth and development. The Hulk was thinking, strategizing, speaking in complete sentences. And after years of being limited, the Hulk had become not only the center of his own planet, but would soon become the center of the Marvel Universe.

These glorious storylines drew me to the superhero who liked purple stretchy pants like never before. Of course, Marvel would screw it all up and have a horribly anti-climatic end to World War Hulk and make him stupid again, but for a time, Hulk was the top dog.

Realizing that many casual comic readers had also been drawn to the Hulk across these story arcs, Marvel animation (who always seem to want to feature the Hulk in something, some way or another) decided that the Planet Hulk story arc would make a fantastic DVD movie. And so, I present to you Planet Hulk.

With the cover art done by Alex Ross to grab prospective buyers’ attention, and voice acting veterans like Liam O’Brien as Hiroim and Kevin Michael Richardson as Korg signing on board, this is easily the best animated feature starring the Hulk that Marvel has done. A full hour and 21 minutes also makes it one of the longer comic book based animated films to come out in a long time. Of course, I thought that with everything Marvel would have had to cram into the DVD to make it as true to the original series as possible, I thought they would have been pushing 100 minutes, but Marvel found a way to streamline the story and still keep in all the best parts of the Planet Hulk comics.

The basic premise is that the Illuminati back on Earth (comprised of Black Bolt, Namor, Iron Man, Professor X, Mr. Fantastic, and Doctor Strange) have come to the conclusion that the Hulk is simply too dangerous to remain on Earth and so they gas him and send him on a spaceship towards a desolate planet. Of course, Tony Stark sticking true to form, has to gloat in a recording explaining the situation to the Hulk when he wakes up, and in the Hulk’s fury, he knocks the navigation system out of whack and crash lands on a planet ruled through fear by a man simply known as “The Red King”. To keep his subjects in line and entertained, the Red King holds gladiatorial matches in a coliseum in his capital city between natives of the planet and those unfortunate enough to crash land on his barren world. Not taking too kind to being a slave, Hulk fights back. We then watch as our hero evolves and strategizes against the Red King as he fights for not only his freedom, but for an entire planet’s.

Although not perfectly true to the original comics (Silver Surfer was cut due to legal issues and was replaced by Beta Ray Bill), it did add little snippets that brought together some aspects of the Marvel universe very nicely (such as Thor’s origin story, although slightly perverted by Beta Ray Bill’s presence, leading to how Korg ended up as a gladiator). It also trimmed down Hulk’s “Warbound” party due to the fact that 81 minutes was simply not enough time to give everyone’s back story, have Hulk develop a relationship with all of them, and then have him kick lots of alien butt.

The animation was beautiful and flowed very smoothly, especially in some of the epic fight scenes that were re-created straight from the comics. The voice acting was top notch and the musical score set the mood perfectly from the action sequences to the more emotional moments.

At the end of the day, this was the best Hulk story ever done and that alone made this the best Hulk DVD ever made. Considering some great extra features like a full episode of Wolverine and the X-Men (the same old story of “Hulk vs. Wolverine vs. Wendigo” though, more of the same tired garbage I was mentioning before, but a full extra 22 minutes of animation isn’t something to scoff at either) and several behind the scenes mini-documentaries and motion comics and my only real problem with this was the fact that Marvel couldn’t get over the legal issues that constantly seem to be plaguing them nowadays and get the Silver Surfer into this.

Planet Hulk gets 4 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

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Alan Wake Delayed Again, Dead Rising 2 Release Date Confirmed

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Originally Published: February 11, 2010, on Examiner.com

Two of the year’s most anticipated titles have new release dates, and neither is as soon as were previously hoped.

At today’s X10, the Xbox 360 centered video game expo, being held in San Francisco, the folks from Remedy Entertainment announced that the industry wide speculated release date of April 13th for Alan Wake was false and that their anxiously awaited, episodic psychological thriller for the Xbox 360 and PC, would not see store shelves until May 18th.

Not really a surprise considering how many delays this game has seen since its original announcement, what is another month to those willing to shell out the $59.99 for it?

For those of you caught unawares, Alan Wake sees the title character, a horror writer, and his wife taking a vacation in a tranquil Pacific Northwestern city trying to help Alan overcome his writer’s block. Once in the town though, Alan starts having nightmares and wakes up one night to find his wife is missing and a story he can’t remember writing has come to life. As Alan scrounges about the wilderness collecting pages from his otherworldly novel, trying to find his wife and unravel the mystery of where the book came from, he must combat members of the community who have been consumed by a poltergeist-like darkness.

Done in a cinematic like style that sees each level of Alan’s exploration broken down into something like episodes out of the X-Files (even with a nice little narrator’s “On the last episode of…” montage between levels), Alan Wake is a story that can’t help but pull you in.

I had a chance to play a short demo of the first couple of levels where Alan must use any light source he can find to wane the darkness off of the townspeople he encounters before giving them a proper beating. From what I saw, the game could use an extra month of tweaking. It seemed as if the audio in some of the cinematic scenes was out of sync with the gameplay and the game glitches at the worst possible moments for the survival horror like action sequences. Maybe I had the displeasure of picking up an older demo, but with any luck this game will finally see the light of day come May 18th and with all the rough edges smoothed out.

In other release date news, Capcom removed the Q1 label from their next highly anticipated foray into survival horror, Dead Rising 2. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, Q1 was an optimistically unrealistic time period and so Capcom announced that Dead Rising 2 will hit North America on August 31st, 2010, with Japan getting it September 2nd and Europe September 3rd.

Not much else was revealed from Capcom besides screenshots and trailers that had already been released, but the fact that the game has a solid date now that actually lands in this calendar year is just another reason to this New Yorker that the summer months can’t get here soon enough.

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Fly Me to the Moon

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Originally Published: January 24, 2010, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Lundberg.me, and Examiner.com

When one mentions Sega, the first thing that comes to mind, for most people, is a spiky blue hedgehog. However, Sega has taken steps over the past couple years to let people know there is a lot more to them than our superfast friend. First came Jack in last year’s sleeper hit Madworld, with his chainsaw and the game’s Sin City style sending gamers into a frenzy. Now, with the help of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe director Hideki Kamiya, Sega unveils their latest creation: Bayonetta.

With guns in hand (and attached to each ankle), as well as swords, claws, and other weapons you acquire over the course of the game, Bayonetta, a 500 year old witch who escaped the witch hunts of the 15th century, rages her own personal war against the forces of heaven as she fights to not only restore the balance between light and dark, but also to restore the memories she lost when she was forced into a near five century hibernation by her fellow witches.

As soon as the game starts, Kamiya’s style oozes out of the game with over the top characters and situations, a pop version of Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” blasting in the background, and an ageless battle between heaven and hell unfolding as you’re immediately thrown into a face-off against several angel-like creatures.

The other thing you immediately notice is that the fighting system is exactly like Devil May Cry. It is to the point that you wonder how much work Kamiya actually did on this game or if he just redesigned his classic Dante as a female in a cat-suit. It’s not to say that the system is poor, but points off for lack of originality. Also, the PS3 version lags tremendously compared to the Xbox 360 version so the fighting system on that console lacks the smoothness necessary to pull off many of the elaborate combos that define this fighting style.

One of the nice nuances added to this fighting style, and for many of the game’s button prompt sequences, is that Bayonetta’s power comes from her hair and that she uses her hair to serve not only as most of the construct of her cat-suit, but to construct giant fists and feet to finish off some of her more devastating combos. She also uses her hair to summon hellish demons to her side to finish off all of the massive bosses you have to deal with over the course of the game in some tremendous cut scenes.

To counteract the lack of originality in the gameplay, the game is graphically beautiful. Of course, a good portion of that deals with the emphasis on some of Bayonetta’s…best assets…but even when not focusing on those select areas, the levels, the angel creatures, the demons, the bosses, everything looks like you really are invading a heavenly stronghold.

Throw in phenomenal voice acting (although it was weird that no voice actors were credited in the end credits), a great instrumental soundtrack and some great pop covers on a Frank Sinatra classic, and spot-on SFX and the peripherals for this game are top notch.

It is a shame that it looks like that the great music and graphics are mostly being used to try to cover up a plot with more holes in it than a Palm Beach golf course. As Bayonetta starts to uncover her memories, she comes across a small girl, who starts calling her “Mommy”, that ends up being a time-traveling version of herself, and she has to fight her father, who might also be her husband, who is also the right eye of their god, and Bayonetta may have died, and then come back because of a magical gem, and that is why she hibernated, and…I am confused just writing this. When you also consider that everyone seems to make these unbelievable escapes, whether they are magical or not, and the plot might just make your head hurt like a fourth-rate anime.

If you can look past the plot holes and the Devil May Cry gameplay mirroring and get into the game, there is actually a lot of replay value for this considering it only has a one-player mode. There are endless collectibles and secrets to find as you progress through the game and after beating the game the first time through, you unlock hard mode. Mind you, a full playthrough on normal should only take you 12-13 hours, so even with the replay value; this game will probably give you a total experience of only 25-30 hours if you beat every mode and collect every item.

Speaking of collectibles and lack of originality, the economy system for this game to buy items and maneuvers requires collecting…golden rings. Really Sega? You couldn’t just make some digital cash? Just because you call them “halos” in this game, doesn’t mean we don’t know what they really are. Such a setup is fitting for a game that is best described as “fun, but trite”.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 10.0: This game is gorgeous in every aspect. From the color schemes, to the facial expressions, to creature design, to water effects, this game delivers on the visual spectrum.

Audio: 9.0: I loved the cover of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” along with a tremendous original orchestral theme. I could’ve used a fuller soundtrack though besides those two songs and that knocks this down a point. The voice acting was top-notch, even if no one knows who the actors were, and the SFX were spot-on.

Plot/Plot Development: 5.0: The plot was more convoluted than most animes and even after beating the game, leaves you asking questions about a lot of the characters. The character development was clearly more focused on how Bayonetta physically developed instead of how her personality should develop. Add-in that the game had a very fast pace to it, which was probably intentional, and you can see the plot was not a primary concern for the development team.

Gameplay: 7.0: The Xbox 360 was very smooth. The PS3 version was anything but. Taking away the glitches, the gameplay was still a blatant rip off of Devil May Cry and left you looking for more.

Replay Value: 8.0: A very good score considering this is only a one-player game. There are a lot of collectibles, a lot of unlockables, and you have to play through the game fully once before you can unlock hard mode.

Overall (not an average): 7.0: A lack of originality really hurts this score. There are games that take elements from other games, and then there are blatant rip offs. Bayonetta is the latter. It is a beautiful looking game that hopes some make-up and bright lights will cover up its deeper flaws. The plot is poorly developed, but the action is good, if not repetitive. A surprisingly amount of replay value for a single player game helps to give this game a passable score, but at the end of the day, I recommend this as a rental, not a purchase, especially if you are eyeing up the badly optimized PS3 version.

Bayonetta is available now for Xbox 360 and PS3.

-Ray Carsillo

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Halo Wants to Help Haiti

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Originally Published: January 19, 2010, on Examiner.com

Video games for many of us are an escape, a means to pass the time, or for a lucky few, a profession. Bungie though is allowing those of us who may not be of the more fortunate variety to also give back to those in need and could probably use an escape right now instead of facing their harsh reality.

I’m more than sure many of you are aware of the earthquake that rocked Haiti and has killed thousands and left thousands more in desperate need of assistance. People all over the world are donating whatever they can, but unfortunately, not all of us can give as much as we would like.

In order to help out gamers who might not have the disposable income to donate, Bungie announced over the weekend that from 12:01 AM PT (3:01 AM EST) this coming Wednesday, January 20th, 2010, to 11:59 PM PT (2:59 AM EST Friday) on Thursday, January 21st, 2010, they are going to make a monetary donation in relation to the amount of people who they can get to play Halo 3’s multiplayer and Halo 3: ODST’s firefight mode. For every thousand gamers who play during the eligible time, Bungie will donate $100 with a maximum donation of $77,000 planned. With over 22 million people having Xbox Live accounts, Bungie hopes to easily reach their expected mark.

In order to be eligible to be counted as a gamer trying to get Bungie to shell out a few bucks, you have to make sure your character is wearing the “Red Heart” emblem while you play during the designated time. If you are unsure how to do this, here is a quick breakdown taken straight from Bungie’s site:

a. Press START
b. Select “SETTINGS” / “APPEARANCE”
c. Select “EMBLEM”
d. Select “Hearts” ICON, “Circle” BACKGROUND
e. Back out to the APPEARANCES menu and select “COLORS”
f. Set “EMBLEM PRIMARY” to RED (or MAROON / BRICK / ROSE depending on which game you’re playing!)
g. Set “EMBLEM SECONDARY” to WHITE

Along with this, from now until March 1, 2010, Bungie will donate all profits from the sale of their accessories, apparel, and merchandise at http://www.bungiestore.com/ straight to Haiti relief. Let’s show the world how much the gaming community can care!

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The Horseman Cometh

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Originally Published: January 13, 2010, on 1050espn.com (Now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

Often when something works, and works well, it will have imitators and copycats come out of the woodwork and try to capitalize on the splash made by the original. This is especially true in the media world and in video games. The hottest trend right now is an oldie but goodie: the portrayal of the possibility of a coming apocalypse, an Armageddon. There are different spins put on it from heaven vs. hell, man vs. the supernatural, or some seemingly omnipotent being needing to be stopped from wreaking havoc, but in the end it all comes down to the same basic concept. In the first quarter of 2010, we have three such games coming out with this basic theme: God of War 3, Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders with the original God of War series being the base concept.

Just because all these games may be similar in theme and execution, does not mean that they all can’t be good. In fact, sometimes the imitators will surpass the original and blow the concept out of the water. The first of these three games released, Darksiders, might do just that.

Darksiders begins with hell on Earth erupting as the balance between heaven, hell, and Earth has been disrupted and Armageddon has been triggered early. You play as War, one of the four mythical horsemen who mark the coming of the end of days, and immediately know something is awry as your fellow horsemen have not appeared. As you move through city streets, trying to find the source of the disruption as angels and demons alike fight overhead, you come upon Straga, one of the most powerful demons to emerge from hell and watch as one of the leaders of the angels, Abaddon, is swallowed up like an appetizer for the things to come. You fight the demon, but like Abaddon, fall to the unparalleled might of this hellish monstrosity.

A century then passes as hell has consumed the Earth and the human race has been wiped out. You have been imprisoned for all this time in the depths of hell by The Council, an ancient race of beings whose sole purpose is to maintain the balance that you have been blamed for disrupting. Finally, the Council relents to your pleas to send you back to clear your name. They concede, but they pair you with a high level demon called a Watcher (played brilliantly by Mark Hamill), to make sure you will do the Council’s bidding, and find out how, and more importantly, who caused the end of days before it was destined to.

Thus begins the story of Darksiders, a tale of redemption as you unravel a conspiracy that could invoke the wrath of a god.

Even with the overplayed theme, Darksiders is brilliantly executed. A combination of The Legend of Zelda and God of War series, the game is packed with both original characters, like Vulgrim the Soul Merchant, with whom you exchange the souls of your fallen foes for new weapons and fighting techniques, and those based in scripture like Azrael, the Angel of Death. Add in tons of actions sequences involving some epic boss battles and an ending that will leave you anticipating the impending sequel is more than enough for me to label this as the first must have game of 2010 (not that there is a lot competition right now).

The graphics are beautiful, from deserts where the sand is comprised of the ashes of six billion dead humans, to lush jungles that have reclaimed the cities that once dominated the landscape. Every creature has exquisite detail to them, from the scars on War’s face to the talons of the giant bats that litter the twisted remains of the world.

Along with great looks, the game sounds very good. The music, although rather generic, helps set the atmosphere beautifully and the voice acting is top notch, highlighted by Mark Hamill who seemed to channel shades of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series into the masochistic Watcher and Moon Bloodgood as Uriel, the angel who takes over heaven’s ranks after the fall of Abaddon.

I also liked the fact how, aside from the opening and closing movies, the game really focuses more on the action, the fighting, and the platforming and avoids unnecessarily long cut scenes to forward the plot. Possibly this was a move to avoid too many comparisons to the style of games this is clearly based off of since the gameplay easily can draw a lot of parallels to more well-established franchises.

The gore and fighting mechanics are very similar to that of God of War with only a handful of buttons really being needed to mash your way across your typical desert, water, jungle, and fire areas. This goes along nicely with the “me against the world” theme from that franchise.

More parallels can be seen in the items you acquire over the course of the game since almost all of them have appeared in The Legend of Zelda at some point or another. The abyssal chain is exactly like the hookshot, your horse Ruin is reminiscent of Epona, the Crossblade is just like the boomerang, etc. So, the gameplay isn’t anything you haven’t seen before and lacks any real originality. Along with this, there are a few glitches as the game progresses and can be very frustrating when you fall into a bottomless pit when the game glitches mid-jump.

Still though, there is a reason why people love The Legend of Zelda and it was nice to see a game with hard puzzles and tremendous temples. The outside world wasn’t as epic as I would have liked, considering the entire Earth was supposed to be wiped out. It doesn’t seem like you’re traveling more than through the five NYC boroughs.

The game should take you 15-20 hours to completely beat, but there isn’t much to bring you back for a second playthrough. If there were any collectibles or achievements you missed the first time through they could bring you back for a little while, but otherwise this is a one and done.

Even with the aforementioned lack of originality, this game is a lot of fun and does a great job drawing you into the post-apocalyptic world. I enjoyed the game so much that I stood up and clapped at the end of the final cinematic and with the amount of games I have to play; it takes a lot to elicit that kind of a response from me anymore. Kudos to Vigil Games and THQ. Simply put, this is a great game. Darksiders is available now for Xbox 360 and PS3 and is the first must have game of the New Year.

Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.

Graphics: 9.0: From the detail of the world you fight through to the skulls carved on your Chaoseater sword, the graphics are top notch. A point gets deducted only for the generic looking blood effects. There could have been a little more splatter that lasted longer on screen for my tastes.

Audio: 9.0: The voice acting for this game spearheads this score as Mark Hamill and Moon Bloodgood highlight a cast of awesome performances. Include spot-on SFX and the only point that gets docked from this is for the generic, forgettable background music that at least was able to set a nice mood as you progressed through the game.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.5: The general plot has been done before so it loses points for lack of originality, but at least the game progressed at a good pace and set things up well as the conspiracy against War unfolds and then comes together at the end in a great final cinema scene.

Gameplay: 7.0: Glitches and lack of originality again hurts this score, but when you are basing your game off of sure-fire hits like God of War and The Legend of Zelda, you can forgive them a little.

Replay Value: 3.0: There isn’t a lot to bring you back to this game after the initial playthrough besides looking for more power-ups or any achievements you may have missed along the way.

Overall (not an average): 9.5: Even though I penalized the individual category scores for lack of originality, I can’t do it for the overall game because, the time-tested, proven formula that Darksiders uses works and is a lot of fun to play. Any game that gets me to stand up and applaud while the credits roll is a winner in my book and I cannot deny the fun I had playing this game. I looked forward to coming home and playing this game every day after work. So what if it wasn’t the most original game? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery after all.

-Ray Carsillo

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Xbox 360 makes splash at CES 2010

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May 12, 2010

Originally Published: January 12, 2010 on Examiner.com

The Consumer Electronics Show is always a great way for tech companies of all kinds to make a big splash in the beginning of the New Year. Due to the plethora of gaming conventions that happen across the year though, it isn’t necessarily the biggest draw for gamers. Microsoft and Xbox 360 though felt that some of the announcements they had couldn’t wait for a convention dedicated solely to gaming.

Robert “Robbie” Bach, President for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division came to Las Vegas for CES 2010 with some late holiday presents for the 37 million plus Xbox 360 users out there.

The biggest news to come down at CES 2010 is the announcement that Project NATAL, last E3’s biggest bombshell, that was speculated by many in the media (myself included) at still being a couple of years before it could be released for retail, will be coming out in time for the holiday rush in 2010. Although still no details as to how many games will be compatible with Xbox 360’s newest peripheral or even how much it will cost at time of release, if it can do even half the things it did at E3 2009, Xbox 360 could be looking at its best holiday season since it’s initial release.

Another big announcement involved Xbox Live and it’s arcade with the hopeful introduction of the Xbox Game Room, an old school gamers paradise where 8-bits will reign supreme. Hoping to dial up the nostalgia-obsessed demographic, Xbox Arcade Game Room will have all the arcade classics from the 80s, as well as original games done specifically in the 8-bit style, a la Mega Man 9 and 10, that will now be trophy based to go along with classic gameplay.

Other big announcements that came down at CES 2010 included that the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach will start in Q2 of 2010 on Xbox Live and the confirmation that Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction will be available first exclusively for Xbox 360 as Xbox 360 moves more towards the idea of a “mature gaming platform”.

With these announcements, it looks like 2010 will be another strong year for Xbox 360, or as Robbie Bach put it at CES 2010, “When I said 2010 was going to be a big year for Xbox 360, I was lying. 2010 is going to be the biggest year of Xbox history.”

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Ten Games to Look Forward to in 2010

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Originally Published: December 31, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

As the year comes to an end, I think this is an opportune time to take a look forward at the year ahead in gaming. Last year we did this and the nine games we previewed were either awesome as expected (Ghostbusters, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Madworld, and Brutal Legend), pretty good (Punch-Out and Resident Evil 5), or delayed until early 2010 (Bioshock 2, God of War 3, and Dante’s Inferno). The three games delayed until early 2010 are basically shoe-ins for this year’s list as well because all the delays have done is make us salivate more as details leaked out to us. So with no further ado, here are the top 10 games to look forward to in 2010.

1. Bioshock 2: I said it last year and I’ll say it again this year: I will go screaming through the halls here at ESPN the day this comes out from sheer, overwhelming joy. With a lot more revealed in terms of the plot and gameplay, this easily tops my list as my most anticipated game as you return to Rapture and assume the role of a Big Daddy 10 years after the events of the first Bioshock. Along with this new twist from the first Bioshock, there is also a confirmed multiplayer mode and the ability to use your Big Daddy suit to explore the ocean immediately surrounding Rapture, which should allow for all kinds of new and creative ways to explore the once great cultural haven beneath the waves. Barring any last minute setbacks, expect Bioshock 2 to hit store shelves February 9, 2010, for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

2. God of War 3: There are few trilogies in video games that are more celebrated than God of War and this is before the third one has even hit store shelves. Inspired by many classic stories from Greek mythology, you play as Kratos once more as you attempt to work out your anger issues with the gods for the last time. I had a chance to play an advanced demo of this (which I will post a special PS3 Q1 Preview video next week where I got to talk with some of the developers of God of War 3) and you will flip just like Kratos’ point of view seamlessly does in several epic boss battles as you should expect to start wrapping up this classic trilogy on your PS3 towards the end of March 2010.

3. Dante’s Inferno: Many are calling this a God of War rip-off, but I’m a firm believer that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and this might be even better because it isn’t limited to just the PS3. Inspired by the part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy of the same name, if Kratos has anger management issues, Dante is the ultimate obsessive, smothering boyfriend as he is willing to fight through the nine layers of hell to save his girlfriend’s soul while having a tapestry depicting the holy cross stitched to his chest. Just like God of War, Dante’s Inferno mixes classic plot with tremendous, bloody action (and a little bit of nudity) and amazing, original monsters based on this classic work of literature to get any action/adventure fan’s blood pumping. Just like Bioshock 2, Dante’s Inferno hits store shelves on February 9, 2010, for Xbox 360, PS3, and PSP.

4. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Travis Touchdown returns with his beam katana (it’s a lightsaber, but that whole copyright thing can be such a pain sometimes) as he has gotten lazy and let his number one world assassin ranking drop all the way down to 51 (possibly in honor of game creator Suda 51?). When things get personal though, Travis once again hones his wrestling inspired moves and attempts to move back up the ladder to the number one spot with even more crazy, over the top boss battles that are even better than those from the first game. The sandbox system is gone to help save on time while you hunt down your quarry and travel from location to location by just going to a map menu now and since that was one of the major complaints from the first game, it looks like No More Heroes 2 could be another sleeper hit from the deranged mind of Suda 51 and his Grasshopper Studios. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a Wii exclusive and should hit store shelves January 28, 2010.

5. Dead Rising 2: The first Dead Rising broke new ground in zombie bashing by having an unheard of (for the time) amount of NPCs on screen at one time with no lag. And it was set in a mall allowing you to have a variety of weapons from food court table umbrellas to golf clubs to nerf guns. Dead Rising 2 takes several of the great elements from the first game (regular guy dropped into a zombie invasion) and puts a whole new twist on it that has me chomping at the bit as I count the days until this hits store shelves. Dead Rising 2 assumes you failed to completely contain the zombie virus at Willamette from the first Dead Rising and now there are zombie outbreaks all over the country. These zombie zones have been cordoned off by the government, but with times being tough, leave it to reality TV to step in to offer the masses a chance to risk life and limb for amazing prizes. “Terror is Reality” is one of these reality TV shows that asks people to help control the zombie population in new and inventive ways for the chance at huge piles of cash. Of course, you’re being dropped into these living nightmares with nothing but the clothes on your back, but it wouldn’t be a zombie game if you were given a gatling gun from the get go. Add in what could be the best online multiplayer of the year as Dead Rising 2 pits you against three other players in an American Gladiators meets Resident Evil scenario and sends you all on your merry competitive ways. Zombie bashing will never be the same again on your Xbox 360, PS3, and PC come the end of Q1.

6. DC Universe Online: It is hyped as what could be the greatest MMORPG of all-time as it allows you to interact with the best of the best of the DC Comics Universe with your own original character and with a member of current comic book royalty in Jim Lee serving as the Executive Creative Director, you know you are in good hands. Unfortunately, it has been delayed countless times and is a game on life support to say the least. DCU Online was supposed to come out last summer, but now we are still waiting to rub elbows with the Dark Knight and Man of Steel and take down the likes of Lex Luthor, Mr. Freeze, the Joker, Bizarro, and many, many, many more as a loose Q3 2010 date has been set for this possible PS3 and PC powerhouse. If DCU Online doesn’t come out this year, I think the game will be completely scrapped because it has been in production for far too long for us to wait much longer for it.

7. Mafia 2: Another strong title on the horizon from the folks at 2K (why do they even bother with sports anymore when their shooters and action/adventure games are so awesome?) is Mafia 2. Set in a fictitious mob family in the late 1940s-early 1950s, Mafia 2 combines a GTA-style sandbox experience with a Hollywood-inspired cinematic driven plot as you play as Vito, a small-time hood trying his best to get his piece of the American dream in some less than savory ways. Add in some awesome action sequences and Martin Scorsese couldn’t have done a better job with this. Mafia 2 looks to be the strongest release due out in Q2 when it lands on store shelves May 3, 2010, for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

8. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Every major attempt to bring the fabled history of Castlevania into the 3D realm has fallen flat on its face and the only thing keeping the series alive has been a successful run with the classic side scrolling action on handheld systems. Things may change come the next holiday season. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has you cast as the mysterious figure Gabriel as you fight through a massive world in the third person. Mix in some puzzles and some holy (or unholy) artifacts to help power up Gabriel and you have the base for a nice action/adventure game. There aren’t a lot of details out on this one yet in terms of how Gabriel fits in with the Belmont clan or if Dracula is even the main force of darkness here (although I’m sure he is because it wouldn’t be Castlevania if he wasn’t), but from what I’ve seen so far, this could be the best chance to FINALLY bring Castlevania successfully onto modern consoles especially with Hideo Kojima (of the Metal Gear Series) consulting on this project, Patrick Stewart serving as the narrator, and some God of War and Assassin’s Creed style gameplay mechanics shown in the early trailer. Expect Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to emerge from the darkness next holiday season for Xbox 360 and PS3.

9. Super Mario Galaxy 2: Everyone loves Mario, plain and simple. Another game expected to be released in time for the next holiday season, Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be the first direct sequel to another Mario game in a decade (since Super Mario World 2 back for the SNES). Add in that you are definitely going to be riding Yoshi around and I’m sure you’ll see the return of some other classic powers and this is another sure fire hit for Nintendo. Plus, don’t forget that you are sure to see a lot of classic Mario themes, enemies, and puzzles mixed in with the tremendous planetary exploration aspect introduced in the first Super Mario Galaxy and this will be another platforming gem from Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy 2 should be out in time for next holiday season and is, of course, a Nintendo exclusive.

10. Metroid: Other M: Nintendo has the strongest first party franchises out there and another one confirmed for next holiday season is Metroid: Other M. A lot like seeing Hideo Kojima’s production studio helping out with Castlevania, Team Ninja, best known for the Ninja Gaiden games, has stepped up to help give a bit of an anime style and storytelling flair to this newest Samus Aran adventure. Mixing some classic side-scrolling action and some 3D arena battles as you progress through the game and interchange between the two seamlessly should keep you on your toes and keep you from getting bored. Add in that at least Ridley has been confirmed as one of the boss battles and it should be interesting to see what Team Ninja can do with this beloved Nintendo franchise. Metroid: Other M is another Wii exclusive and should be out in time for the next holiday season.

So there is my top 10 for the coming year and it is one heck of a list. On top of these games, there are also lots of other games that I just could not take the time to go into right now, plus I did not feel they were worthy of the top 10. MAG, Heavy Rain, Bayonetta, Darksiders, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands (adding a 4th chapter to one of the better trilogies for the last generation of consoles was not necessary and is thus a major reason that Prince of Persia stayed off the list), Mass Effect 2, Just Cause 2, Epic Mickey, Red Steel 2, Mega Man 10, Gran Turismo 5, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and an unnamed Legend of Zelda title for the Wii (not enough info for me to be confident that this will make it in time for a 2010 release, but Nintendo is the best at keeping secrets) all deserve honorable mentions and should be awesome games in 2010, but these are my top 10 and I stand by them. It is going to be another great year for games and I cannot wait. Until then, have a great New Year and my resolution is that I will be sure to try my best to keep you informed over the course of 2010 just as I did over the course of 2009.

-Ray Carsillo

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It’s Elementary My Dear Reader

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Originally Published: December 28, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

It is the quintessential detective story. A consulting detective from 221B Baker St. in London whose keen intellect has no match as he solves the unsolvable to try to keep streets of Victorian era London safe while having his own unique brand of fun along the way. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is a character that resonates with people even now over 100 years since his creation. After all, he was the original CSI and we all know how popular those TV shows are. In fact, several of Holmes’ techniques concocted by Conan Doyle influenced modern crime solving techniques like finger printing and bullet printing.

In terms of popularity though, Holmes as an iconic character had quietly faded into the background noise of the modern media frenzy and passing fads. With a shortage of good ideas out in there in Hollywood, director Guy Ritchie pulled Holmes and the gang off the shelf to reintroduce them to the world with a more modern filmmaking flare and an original plot not directly based off of any of Conan Doyle’s stories.

With a little more base in the occult and the macabre than anything the original Sherlock Holmes ever had to deal with, this modern rendition starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson see the original Dynamic Duo deal with an ominous figure in a man known as Lord Blackwell, played by Mark Strong. The movie opens up with the duo breaking in and disrupting the sacrifice of a young maiden by Blackwell who is promptly arrested, thrown in jail, and then hung for his crimes. Not much of a movie if the antagonist is jailed and hung in the first ten minutes, but miraculously, Lord Blackwell rises from the grave and begins to haunt the streets of London once again, striking fear and terror into all who believe. Luckily for all of London, there is Sherlock Holmes.

As a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, this is a fantastic modern rendition of the timeless tales. There were a few extra explosions and fight scenes to help keep the viewers attention than were in the original stories, but more importantly, the movie flowed well for the entire 2 hours and 14 minutes. The character depictions were more true to the original stories than most media portrayals have been over the years, such as Watson being a very competent companion and not the bumbling sidekick as in several depictions, or not leaving out the details of Holmes’ persona that he was an avid boxer who got bored very easily, to the point that he would shoot the queen’s initials into his wall to help occupy his time.

Aside from the accurate character depictions (with a lot of credit going to Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.), the story was something worthy of the originals. Although a tad much with the occult theme for the villain, the way Holmes unraveled all the clues and came to his conclusions with his deductive thinking, all the while skirting just on the edge of the law, were done in ways that would’ve made Conan Doyle proud.

My only critique with the movie was that it was done in a third person perspective. The original stories were all from the perspective of Dr. Watson and therefore told from his perspective as Watson was being trained all the while in detective work by Holmes. I think it would have been nice to see Guy Ritchie try something a little different and tell the story through the eyes of Watson instead of from the movie-standard third person.

Aside from that minor complaint though, this was a fantastic movie with superb acting from everyone involved, tremendous action, some nice light-hearted comedic moments, and an enthralling plot. The dynamic between Law and Downey Jr. was a joy to watch and the movie held your attention the whole way through and, of course, the movie’s ending left it open for a sequel. If you plan on going to the movies only once this holiday season, Sherlock Holmes should be your pick.

Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law gets 4.5 out of 5.

-Ray Carsillo

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