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I’m Going Down to South Park…

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April 24, 2010

Originally Published: October 7, 2009, to 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Lundberg.me, and Examiner.com

It is one of the funniest and longest running programs on television and has permeated the pop culture like few shows do, especially ones that reside primarily on basic cable. But the four foul-mouthed youths from South Park on Comedy Central are still going strong and are once again attempting to invade the digital realm.

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play takes this hugely popular franchise and sticks it in a tower defense game (hence the title). What is amazing is that South Park’s cast of characters makes this straightforward, lackluster genre somewhat fun.

The basic plot is that a mysterious force is sending some of the boys’ most nefarious foes from the past towards the heart of South Park in order to destroy the town once and for all! Homeless people, terrorists, ginger kids, demons, and old people just scratch the surface of the mindless hordes bent on destroying South Park as the boys must set up specially designed towers ranging from fast pitch baseball machines to magnifying glass powered lasers to cherry bomb launchers and fireworks to repel the invading forces over 11 levels from all over South Park and the surrounding area.

Cut scenes between each level help forward the plot (done in the style from the forever classic episode “Good Times With Weapons”) as the boys desperately try to unravel the mystery of who has brought together all of these clearly evil forces (I’m focusing in on you old people!) bent on destroying their peaceful little town and the end revelation will shock you into hysterics.

The best part of the game though is the scrapbook (inspired by the “Cartman Sucks” episode) in which you not only collect images of the foes you defeat along the way, but unlock over 80 original clips from the show highlighting the first appearances of these infamous villains ranging all the way back to Season 1.

Being downloadable content, don’t expect the graphics to be crystal clear, but considering the animation style of South Park, it is more than forgivable. The audio though is top notch with the entire voice cast coming on to do voices and record thousands of original lines for this game.

The game is not perfect though, as the gameplay is a little glitchy. I found it difficult for my characters to run around a lot of times without freezing a little and it was difficult to select which specific tower I wanted to build many times. Add in that it would have been so much easier to set the boys to the four directions of the d-pad instead of constantly having to rotate through them with the right bumper.

The bottom line is that if you are a fan of South Park, you are going to want this game because it is hysterical, but I don’t see it appealing to people otherwise. There are four difficulties to the game and they threw in five challenge maps for when you beat the 8-10 hour campaign, but aside from that there isn’t a lot to bring you back to this except for a couple of classic laughs you might want to replay.

South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play is an Xbox Live exclusive, available tonight (which just so happens to coincide with the new season premiere) for 800 Microsoft Points (roughly $10) and considering the content you get, the price is well worth it if you are a South Park fan.

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

Graphics: 8.0: You might download this and gawk at the high graphics score I gave it, but you have to take into consideration the style of animation that South Park is done in, so the game’s actual graphics are close to watching the actual cartoon and the cut scenes, although done in the old school comic book panel by panel style, look awesome.

Audio: 9.0: The game opens with the theme song and the entire cast came on board to voice over thousands of lines of dialogue so I can’t give the audio a poor score. Generic SFX and background music in the levels though docks the overall score a point.

Plot/Plot Development: 9.0: Fans of the show will already be familiar with the surroundings and characters so since this is clearly marketed to the already established fan base (myself included) there wasn’t a need to go into background details. The game starts off like an episode of the sitcom and continues over the course of the day. The mystery is developed well through the cut scenes and the surprise ending fit perfectly into what South Park is all about.

Gameplay: 6.0: Passable, but barely. The gameplay is a bit glitchy and I thought the switching between characters and selecting towers tool was difficult to use at best. The whole game, even with the challenge maps, is probably about 12 hours overall and doesn’t get more straightforward than build towers, delay and kill enemies, don’t die yourself.

Replay Value: 5.0: It is nice that you can do online co-op and play with lots of characters like Jimmy or Pip if you get tired of the boys, but there just isn’t enough here that appeals to me to play through the campaign mode repeatedly on different difficulties to try to unlock all the various clips of episodes I’ve already seen countless times.

Overall (not an average): 8.0: If you love South Park, you will love this game because there is just enough polish to make you try to work through the entire campaign. If you don’t like South Park, then you are going to want to avoid this game, but who doesn’t like South Park? This game is sweeeeeeet.

-Ray Carsillo

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When Heroes Collide

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Originally Published: October 5, 2009, to 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Lundberg.me, and Comicvine.com

Marvel, a while ago, had put out a series of action RPGs involving four-person teams of some of your favorite heroes. Two X-men games, a couple of Fantastic Four titles, and the crème de le crème that culminated in the title that was Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, a joining of many of the heroes from the Marvel Universe, that did extraordinarily well with an original plot line and the game allowed you to mix and match your favorite heroes in any way you saw fit.

The best part of MUA was that it left itself wide open for a sequel involving Galactus, maybe the Silver Surfer, and an even larger array of heroes that encompassed the whole of the Marvel Universe.

But when MUA 2 came out, instead, it looked like the folks at Activision and Vicarious Visions who took over this series of games got lazy and didn’t feel like coming up with an entirely new script again. They took two of the biggest Marvel story arcs in recent history with Nick Fury’s Secret War and the Superhero Civil War and changed the ending so that if they ever decide to be original again, then they can.

Incase you are unfamiliar with these plots I will give you a quick summary: basically Fury’s War was a private attack on Dr. Doom’s Latveria (in this case after the events of MUA 1) as the new governess was also a weapons trafficker and designer. The Civil War pitted hero against hero as the government tried to make superheroes reveal their secret identities by registering with the government to make them liable for collateral damage after the New Warriors underestimated a group of villains in Stamford, CT, and 612 people were killed in the ensuing battle.

I’ll give credit where it is due in that Activision and Vicarious Visions stayed as true to the original comic arcs as they could before trying to get cute in bringing everyone together, but considering they had a plot for a sequel already lined up, it boggles my mind that they would put it on the backburner for something that die-hards spent far too long reading about to begin with.

Aside from my frustrations over the lack of a truly original plot though, this game is just as good as the first MUA in every other aspect. The cut scenes look beautiful and the voice acting is top-notch although I could’ve had a few more lines recorded for each character during the actual gameplay (how many times can you hear “HULK SMASH ALL THERE IS!” before it becomes tiresome?).

The gameplay is everything you would expect from an action RPG with some characters being much better than others and the new Fusion feature makes for some awesome team up moves like the classic “Fastball Special”. Since Colossus isn’t a playable character though, the Hulk, Thing, or Juggernaut (GameStop pre-orders only) stand-in for Wolverine’s X-men tin can teammate. There are a few minor glitches with your characters or enemies sometimes becoming trapped in corners and force you to switch characters to get them out, but aside from that, the game is relatively smooth.

The replay value is also very strong for the game because the only way to unlock everything would be to play through at least twice, once pro-registration and once anti-registration. Of course, the course you choose also affects the characters you can play with. Anyone familiar with the story arcs shouldn’t be surprised that only by choosing anti-registration can they get Luke Cage, Captain America, and Iron Fist and that only by choosing pro-registration can they get Iron Man, Songbird, and Mr. Fantastic.

Of course, once you beat the game one time through, you can play the second time through with any of the 25 playable characters as well as unlock the hardest difficulty. The best team to do that in the least amount of time would be Wolverine, Deadpool, Hulk, and Iron Fist. I don’t know why Iron Fist is as strong as he is, but he’s one of the best characters in the game because he can heal your entire team and Wolverine and Deadpool have healing factors, which makes the trio nearly impossible to kill. And then there is the Hulk (only available at the beginning if you get the game from Best Buy) and like I said before: HULK SMASH ALL THERE IS. Enough said.

In the end, anyone who is a comics fan and followed these story arcs should get this game because it is awesome to see the comics come to life and to see the various personalities of the Marvel Universe mix and mingle on your TV. I’m looking forward to MUA 3 even more now because I still want to see Galactus!

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

Graphics: 8.0: This gets a slightly better than average score because the cut scenes are awesome, but the regular gameplay graphics are okay at best because of having so many enemies on screen at one time to prevent lag. Typical of these games, but I still have to call them on it.

Audio: 9.0: Great voice acting mixed in with great sound effects make this a strong score, but the music was generic for the most part. The MUA 2 theme for the game was really good though so the audio gets a great score overall.

Plot/Plot Development: 6.5: MUA 2 gets a barely passing score on plot because two-thirds of the game isn’t original whatsoever. They then made up an ending that was so far from the comics it is ridiculous, just to bring everyone together so that they can make a third game with a plot they hinted at in the first game should the opportunity present itself. It passes though because at least they stayed relatively true to the parts they did steal straight from the comics.

Gameplay: 7.0: This game is a button masher, plain and simple. You press the same couple of buttons to attack and occasionally team up with your pals to do it, but overall there isn’t a lot of depth to the gameplay. Add in a couple of glitches and it is okay at best.

Replay Value: 10.0: Needing to play through the game twice to unlock everyone and everything, along with 4 play online co-op and more collectibles than I can remember and there is a lot to bring you back to this game. It will take you probably 25-30 hours to find everything in the game if you play through it twice.

Overall (not an average): 7.5: Even though it isn’t the prettiest game, or the most original, the game is still good. Not great and definitely not ground-breaking, but if you are a fan of the Marvel universe, you will definitely enjoy this game. Add in some great surprises at the end and you will walk away with a smile on your face.

-Ray Carsillo

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Not a WET Blanket

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Originally Published: October 1, 2009, on Examiner.com, 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), and Lundberg.me

Coming into 2009, there were three highly anticipated titles that were up in the air because their original developers dropped them suddenly and their fates were left to the winds. Luckily for us, those three games were too hot to be left there for long. The first was Ghostbusters, which came out in June and was dropped originally by Sierra before being picked up by Atari. The last one is Brutal Legend, coming out October 13th, and was originally a Vivendi Games title before being rescued by Electronic Arts. And then there is this little title called WET that just came out on September 15th, originally an Activision Blizzard game that was saved from the scrap heap by Bethesda Softworks.

WET follows around the most brutal Fixer to have ever stepped into cowboy boots, Rubi Malone. A Fixer is a nice description of what Rubi does in between whiskey shots and heavy weapons training. Rubi cleans up some of life’s most screwed up situations, usually in the crime underworld, with a trail of death, destruction, and misery in her wake. “Wet” is also a nice way to describe the blood on her hands.

We open up finding Rubi tasked with procuring a heart on the black market for an emergency transplant of a drug crime lord, but some small time hood has beaten her to her quarry. We are immediately immersed in Rubi’s world as she dives, slides, and runs up walls, all the while firing her patented dual pistols in the always awesome bullet time. The bullet time is critical because it allows us to aim Rubi’s pistols independently of each other, one automatically locking onto her nearest threat’s gut, the other free to wander around to other threats, or possibly the primary threat’s cranium for a quicker kill. Not to mention it’s just damn cool.

Some situations don’t always call for pistols though, especially in cramped quarters. With a quick tap of the X button, Rubi can hop out of bullet time and turn into a close-quarter she-devil as she slices limbs off with unbridled prejudice with her katana. This fighting flexibility is the staple of the gameplay and only by mastering it and recognizing what weapons work best where can Rubi progress through the game’s 12 stages.

As the game progresses, Rubi also unlocks a shotgun, SMG, and crossbow with explosive bolts, adding to the controlled mayhem that Rubi finds herself in throughout the game.

The action is there and is addictive and diverse enough with Rubi randomly being thrown into a rage when she gets splashed with blood like she was Carrie, or having to mow down hordes of enemies in an arena setting, to keep you glued to the game. That isn’t to say this game is without fault. In terms of gameplay, there are a lot of glitches. Walking through walls or falling through floors at certain points are old-school glitches that you just shouldn’t see anymore. Not to mention the game freezing during load-screens, making you restart the game, and probably the most anti-climatic final boss battle in all of gaming with a push-button prompt sequence (X flashes on screen, you press X; Y flashes on screen, you press Y, etc.) against the final two foes.

This said the plot is also a little thin. Although left open for a sequel in that cheesy, 1960s drive-thru, B-movie way (complete with commercials to remind you to buy food from the lobby; hysterical) that seemed to be the theme of the game, there was no real establishment of the characters, especially Rubi and her crew, and the plot itself just seemed to progress too quickly for my taste. There may have been 12 levels, but some of them were completely done in the rail-shooter style, which is a nice changeup from the regular gameplay, but that meant there were only nine levels of Rubi’s patented “monkey business” (a running gag for the game is Rubi’s acrobatics have her compared to a chimp on many occasions by some of the more unsavory characters and it also leads to toy monkey collectibles on each level).

In terms of graphics, the game is probably slightly above average. The blood effects weren’t the best and the grainy film effect added to the game to help cover this up was nice, but I would have rather of had a perfectly crisp, clean experience instead of gimmicks to cover it up.

The audio is something this game really shines in. Easily the best original soundtrack I’ve heard in a long time with original music from some up and coming bands on MySpace and some great voice acting from Eliza Dushku as Rubi, Malcolm McDowell as Rupert Pelham, and Alan Cumming as Sorrell and “Ze Kollector”.

At the end of the day, this is a really solid game. I’m on the fence about saying if it is a straight up buy due to the glitchy gameplay and thin plot, but when you add in collectibles throughout the levels, a high score mode, instant kill mode, and challenges galore unlocked after you beat the game for the first time, and I would say this is probably a solid investment if you play it to its max considering one play through will take you 10-15 hours by itself.

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

Graphics: 8.0: The grainy film effect was nice, but a clear attempt to cover up the generic looking backgrounds and average blood effects. Rubi looked very nice though.

Audio: 10.0: An awesome, blood pumping, original soundtrack that fit the game perfectly mixed with awesome sound effects and great voice acting from big stars like Eliza Dushku, Malcolm McDowell, and Alan Cumming and this is a wonderful listening experience.

Plot/Plot Development: 6.0: The plot felt a little thin and a little rushed, but the basics were there. I would’ve liked a little more character development though, especially with our heroine.

Gameplay: 7.0: The bullet time was flawless and it needed to be considering 80% of the game takes place in slow-mo as you try to pour bullets into various lowlifes. There were still a few very basic glitches with the environment though and freezing during load screens later in the game was beyond frustrating.

Replay Value: 9.0: I don’t know how they could have worked a multiplayer into this game, but there isn’t one. Aside from that, there is a lot to bring you back to the story mode including several new modes of play after the first play through and the toy monkey collectibles.

Overall (not an average): 7.5: The glitchy gameplay takes away from the great action concept that is WET. A lot to bring you back to this title, awesome bullet time effects, funny dialogue, and awesome music makes this a solid, but not spectacular gaming experience. Probably worth a buy though.

WET is available now.

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Just Call Me J. Jonah Jameson

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Originally Published: October 1, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Lundberg.me, and Comicvine.com

There are a bevy of articles that I owe the geek community right now. I should be writing about Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 or Batman/Superman: Public Enemies (both are on their way, I promise!), but this last Wednesday, like every Wednesday, I headed to my local comic retailer (Time Warp Comics and Games, 555 Pompton Ave. in Cedar Grove, NJ, 07009. Give a shout out to everyone there) and saw something that needed to be addressed. As I thumbed through the regulars from my pull list, I saw something on the shelf that renewed a fire in my belly I had long since let die down.

After the One More Day Spider-Man story arc, my frustration with Marvel and their treatment of the web head had reached an all-time high. One of the sloppiest re-launches in history had just occurred with Spidey (more like a lobotomy) and almost everything my generation had known and loved about Spider-Man was flushed down the drain along with the fact that Marvel had painted themselves into a corner…again.

Instead of letting the old crone that is Aunt May just die, especially after a séance with Madame Web confirming that Aunt May was at peace, and having Spider-Man take Mary Jane into hiding just like Luke Cage did with Jessica Jones, they have Spidey sell his marriage to Mephisto in order to push the reset button. Every “mistake” that Peter Parker ever made was changed and about 400 issues of continuity were erased.

It was at this instance that I boycotted everything having to do with Spider-Man (except New Avengers, but if Jessica Jones mentions one more time she had a crush on Peter Parker in high school, that is being added to my boycott list as well). I wouldn’t even play as him in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 except in the beginning when you have to. I accepted that my favorite Marvel character was dead to me and that maybe it was time I grew up a little and cut down my weekly comics list.

Now, since I’ve boycotted everything past the first couple of issues of the re-launch (they made Mary Jane a superhero for cryin’ out loud!) I don’t know if anything has been resolved because I haven’t read anything, but a small part of me died, much like the small part of Peter Parker that forever knows his greatest mistake was giving up his love for MJ.

My two favorite super-heroes during my early years, like many people in my generation, were Batman and Spider-Man. I believe many people love these characters because of their humanity. Batman in more literal terms, Spider-Man in more figurative terms because even though he had super powers, the gamut of emotions and struggles he had to deal with hit close to home for many of us.

I like to believe they also gave us the most hope. Batman helped us believe there was always a way out of every bad situation as long as you properly prepared yourself. Spider-Man gave us hope because even through all his pain and torment, he still found true love and also found ways to persevere.

This re-launch destroyed Spider-Man in such a way that I can’t look at him anymore without feeling hate in my heart because I can’t relate to a reset button no matter how hard I try.

With that rant out of the way, I go back to why this seething anger and hatred resurfaced months after the initial offense and ensuing boycott. While at the comic store, I noticed on the shelf the first issue of a six issue miniseries. It was the start of how Spider-Man’s infamous Clone Saga SHOULD have played out and it opened with a one page, heartfelt apology from the folks behind it.

I nearly ripped the issue to shreds on the spot, but, for once, a cooler head prevailed and I placed it back on the shelf with no incident.

In my life, the Clone Saga was the first destruction of Spider-Man. At the time though, it was a more forgivable sin for me because I was a small lad and my knowledge of Spider-Man comics was limited to what had inspired me to read Spidey’s comics, the Maximum Carnage arc (which is still the best Spider-Man arc I ever read).

The thing that fueled the anger was the fact that 20 years after the disastrously drawn out plotline, Marvel admitted, in print, to one of their greatest mistakes. As a fan, it was like a slap in the face. An apology will not fix the two years of wasted paper and ink that the Clone Saga caused nor will it bring back any of the characters who were bumped off after the fan base started warming up to them (unless this most recent re-launch decides to do it all over again so this way Marvel can really stomp on our hearts).

I don’t understand why Marvel feels it necessary to try to vindicate their mistakes by pressing the panic button whenever there is some negative backlash for their risk taking. I REALLY don’t understand why they keep bringing these mistakes back up years after they have been forgiven in the collective consciousness only to re-open long since healed scars. All I know is I miss Spider-Man. I miss the REAL Spider-Man. The Spider-Man that I grew up with, that was married to Mary Jane, had to team-up with Venom every now and then to take on Carnage, and could still make some sweet wise-cracks. Get me Tom DeFalco RIGHT NOW!

-Ray Carsillo

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Geek Movie Icon

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Originally Published: September 29, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

Since he exploded into the limelight as Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I, Ray Park has been a staple in geek movies. Also being cast as Toad in X-Men and Snake-Eyes in G.I. Joe, this martial arts master and admitted comic book geek is living the dream playing some of the more iconic roles in geek lore.

He has now increased his geek repetoire by being cast on NBC’s Heroes as Edgar, a speedster with a dark side (no Star Wars pun intended).

Robin Lundberg and I had a chance to catch up with the geek icon to talk about his role on Heroes, his past roles, and if he could confirm some rumors for us about the progress of a possible Iron Fist movie.


CLICK HERE – to listen to Robin Lundberg and I interview one of the great geek movie icons of our time, Ray Park.

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Heroes in a Half-Shell

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Originally Published: September 25, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), and Lundberg.me

With this being the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mirage Studios and Ubisoft, who hold the video game licenses to the franchise, have been going all out with the shell-ebration. This includes a reissuing of some of the old 1980s action figures (which they were very kind to send me a Master Splinter figure; sweet!), a remake of Turtles in Time for the current generation of consoles, and the highly anticipated TMNT: Smash Up for the Nintendo Wii.

Now that TMNT: Smash Up is officially available; I want to take this time to analyze the first original TMNT game for this current generation of consoles. The basic plot of the game is that Master Splinter wants to hold a special ninjitsu tournament to see how far the turtles have progressed in their training. The prize would be any of the items of Splinter’s trophy room. Of course, there is a catch. Splinter, Casey Jones, and April O’ Neill are all going to be participating as well.

As the tournament progresses and a winner is about to crowned, the Turtles receive an emergency call from their old friend the Fugitoid saying he has been captured by Shredder. This is where you take over and progress through various fights before facing down Shredder and some Foot Soldiers.

The plot is simple, as it should be for a fighting game. No one besides Shredder should be the final boss and the fighting mechanics are great. Ubisoft took the same fighting engine that was used in the Super Smash Bros. series so you can have four-player grudge matches and the game flows very smoothly. The game looks beautiful with some awesome settings and great interactivity in the levels.

There are still a few things nagging at me though being a die-hard TMNT fan. First, the generic background music irritates me to no end. Can we PLEASE bring back the 80s theme? There wasn’t even the new cartoon theme. I’ll even take the “Go Ninja Go” rap from Vanilla Ice at this point.

That isn’t my biggest gripe though. My biggest gripe is that after being promised tons of characters, the list was suddenly shortened just before the release and instead of having hidden TMNT characters Ubisoft thought it would be a good idea to have three Raving Rabbids based on TMNT as hidden playable characters. WHAT?!

No Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang (although they might try to pull off the Utrominator as an upgraded Krang without calling him that), Leatherhead, Baxter Stockman, Rat King, General Kragg, Wingnut, Ace Duck, Usagi Yojimbo, Tokka, Rahzar, Slash, OR ANY OTHER BIG CHARACTERS WE CARE ABOUT! Instead, we got the Turtles, Shredder, Splinter, Karai, April, Casey and…that’s pretty much it. There were more stages than there were playable characters.

The most important thing about a fighting game after the fighting system itself is the roster of characters and TMNT: Smash Up sorely disappoints on this front. The majority of TMNT fans are still those of us who grew up on it and not catering to us is always a bad idea. I was really surprised with this considering the great job Ubisoft did when revamping Turtles in Time, but this really depressed me as a hardcore fan. Instead of trying to use this game to promote another franchise, Ubisoft should have concentrated on making this as good a game as possible.

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

Graphics: 8.5: For the most part the game did look beautiful. Some of the settings were a little darker than I liked and when some of the large maps zoomed out to show all the characters on screen, it was hard to tell where everyone was, but for the graphics were mostly crisp.

Audio: 5.0: The generic background music irritated me and made me long for the good old days with the 80s theme song. The SFX were average and the voice acting was solid using the newest cartoon’s voice actors, but they didn’t record a lot of lines so they repeat themselves frequently.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.0: The plot is not usually the strongest point for a fighting game. All you need is a reason to bring a lot of people together to duke it out and this game does that.

Gameplay: 8.0: The fighting mechanics are very good and all the characters have unique combos and special moves to fit their styles. Add in special Ninpo items like daggers, smoke bombs, and some mystical items that randomly appear on screen and you’ll have a solid fighting game experience.

Replay Value: 5.0: An arcade mode, survival mode, and mission mode all make the game worthy of playing, including a nice amount of unlockables, but with none of those unlockables being characters from the TMNT universe, I have to dock this score a lot.

Overall (not an average): 4.0: This game reminds me of the original Smash Bros. for N64 and if this was two generations ago, this would be a great game. Unfortunately, it’s not, so this game is not nearly as good as what we’ve come to expect from fighting games. A lackluster roster takes a lot away from the game and severely hurts the game’s replay value because there are only a few characters to go through the game with. The engine is great and that is the number one aspect for a fighting game, but everything after that falls flat on its face and any TMNT fan will be disappointed at the very least, if not furious, over this game. A more casual fan might want to rent this just to take a look, but probably not.

TMNT: Smash-Up is available now for the Nintendo Wii.

-Ray Carsillo

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Separation Anxiety

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Originally Published: September 22, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Lundberg.me, and Examiner.com

With hundreds of possible stories and battlefronts out there, it wasn’t hard for Bungie to continue to expand the already infamous Halo canon. With that, I give you Halo 3: ODST.

With the exploits of Master Chief well documented in the intergalactic struggle against the Covenant, many people forget that this war is fought on many different fronts and has been ongoing for decades.

One of the newest battlefronts is Earth, the last great human stronghold, and recently discovered by the Covenant. So while Master Chief is on the other side of the universe, the war is still going on and has finally hit home.

This is where the ODSTs come in. Labeled for their preferred form of being dropped into battle from their space cruisers, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers are the best of the best (aside from Master Chief, of course).

Taking place during the time between Halo 2 and Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (labeled such due to the game using the Halo 3 engine and the inclusion of the Halo 3 multiplayer as well) follows the story of a squad of ODSTs as they race against the Covenant for an artifact in the city of New Mombasa in the East African province (Kenya in real world terms, I believe).

Your main character is simply know as “The Rookie” as you are introduced to the rest of your squad in the opening cinema before you drop into battle. When you arrive the Covenant assault is well under way. After launching from your cruiser to counterattack, a Covenant drop ship warps in and the ensuing shockwave scatters your squad throughout the region. After waking up about 6 hours after crash landing in New Mombasa, how you view Halo is forever changed.

There is still your typical run and gun first-person shooter mayhem and plenty of opportunities for it, but there is also a tremendous new detective and suspense element added to the game. As the Rookie, you befriend an A.I. program called “The Superintendent”. Simpler than Cortana for you Halo vets, the Superintendent still is critical in your mission as he helps tell you the story of how New Mombasa fell and point you in the right direction as he uses street signs, car alarms, ATMs, and other civic devices it can control to steer your path.

After befriending the Superintendent, you put your detective skills (and some sweet night vision goggles) to use as you search New Mombasa for clues to the whereabouts of your squad mates. As you find more items belonging to your mates, from your Captain’s helmet to your sniper’s rifle, you begin to piece together what happened when you got knocked out, all the while exploring Bungie’s largest sandbox environment to date.

The most exciting new aspect of this game comes when you find each item because you actually get to see through the eyes of your other squad mates to see how the items came to be in the condition they’re in and to see the battle unfold. This ensures that you will play as every member of your squad at some point to experience how it feels to be a sniper, a demolitions expert, a heavy gunner, etc. and to see how the full story of the New Mombasa post-invasion unfolds.

With that said, there is also plenty of your old favorite activities returning like hijacking Covenant Banshee or Ghost ships or hopping onto the turret of a UNSC Warthog. There are also randomly generated fights against the whole spectrum of Covenant foes as well as all your favorite weapons being available again from sticky grenades to swiping a downed foe’s Needler.

I will admit to not being obsessed about the Halo series as much as many other people, but I could not put this game down. It only took me about 10 hours to beat the campaign mode, but the time flew by and I was left wanting more.

The graphics are beyond beautiful and the music helps set up an almost film noir, classic detective story kind of feel that you just don’t see nowadays, especially in a futuristic game like Halo.

There isn’t a lot to bring you back to the campaign aside from the Superintendent audio logs, but the new Firefight mode, similar to the Gears of War Horde mode, with endless waves of enemies as you try to improve your score and the included Halo 3 multiplayer will keep most Halo fans happy for a long time to come.

In the end, my only complaint about this game was that it ended too soon for me. Although 10 hours of gameplay is about the norm for most games nowadays, I just didn’t want it to end. I wish I had 20 ODSTs in my squad and that I was still searching for more of their items. This is a must have for any Halo or first-person shooter fan.

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

Graphics: 10.0: I don’t know how they could make this game look more gorgeous. The graphics really helped stress the mystery the game was trying to go for and were spectacular.

Audio: 10.0: The music might set the mood even better than the look of post-invasion New Mombasa. When music can help draw emotion from the player, it has succeeded and this soundtrack does that. Add in the typically strong SFX and great voice acting from all those involved and I can’t dock any points for this.

Plot/Plot Development: 10.0: The plot fits in perfectly with the Halo canon and the way the game leads you along through the different areas of New Mombasa as you search for your squad mates and try to unravel the sub-plots of the New Mombasa invasion makes this one of the more engrossing games I’ve played in a while.

Gameplay: 9.0: The game is glitchless. The controls are relatively natural, but I had some difficulty driving several of the vehicles you get to control at separate points throughout the levels and they felt a lot less natural than when you are on foot.

Replay Value: 7.5: Not wanting to take away from the Halo 3 community, ODST doesn’t support its own original multiplayer and the Firefight mode is really just Horde mode from Gears with a Halo twist. Add in a minimum of collectibles for campaign mode and you have to figure that Halo fans will still be thrilled about this, but more casual fans will probably see this as a one and done.

Overall (not an average): 9.5: Minor complaints aside, this is one of the best games I’ve played in recent memory. I’m starting to form my game of the year predictions and this has to be in the conversation. The story was brilliantly done and the peripherals are perfect. I wanted a little more in terms of replay value, but overall this game is top of the line.

Halo 3: ODST is available now for Xbox 360.

-Ray Carsillo

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Right Around the Corner

Filed under: Video — Leave a comment

Originally Published: September 18, 2009 on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Examiner.com, and Lundberg.me

Back in July, I had promised a second preview of Forza Motorsport 3, coming out October 27th for Xbox 360. With only a few more weeks before it hits store shelves, I figured now would be a good time to remind you why you are going to want to pick this game up.

Here is my interview with Amrtiz Lay, Global Product Manager for Xbox 360, and an exclusive look at one of the year’s hottest racing games.

Forza Motorsport 3 Preview with Ray Carsilllo
Video by Jared Bodden

Be sure to stay tuned for my full review of Forza Motorsport 3 next month.

-Ray Carsillo

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Mentally Unstable

Filed under: Written — Leave a comment

Originally Published: September 16, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com) and Lundberg.me

In military terms, when a soldier is listed as “Section 8” it means he has been discharged for being mentally unfit for duty. It is also the title of the new first-person shooter from TimeGate Studios and SouthPeak Games.

The reason why the game is called Section 8 is because you play as a special brand of marines several hundred years in the future. These super soldiers are the first ones in and the last ones out of any situation (like modern marines), but the squad is known as “Section 8” due to their disregard for their own well being. Oh, one other minor detail: they are rocketed out of ships hovering several miles above planets at the speed of sound and usually crash land into the terrain without pulling their parachutes. “Section 8” makes a little more sense now, eh?

Of course, several hundreds years in the future, their body armor protects them from such punishing collisions, but these guys wouldn’t be deployed if there weren’t some dangerous situations to deal with once they get planet-side and the armor and personal shields can’t stop every bullet or energy blast.

Along with the awesome effect of starting out every level and multiplayer spawn with being shot like a bullet into the battle, you can choose up to six different weapon configurations or customize your own if the six provided don’t float your boat.

The interesting thing with this game is that it focuses on the multiplayer aspects and the campaign mode was more a secondary feature. If you’re looking for a single player campaign along the lines of Halo or Gears of War, you will be sorely disappointed. This game is all about the interaction with other people and changing strategies on the fly in between spawns, whether playing alone or in multiplayer.

The campaign mode does give you a little depth to the situation that the “Section 8” squad finds themselves in and who you are fighting against, but it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours to blow through the campaign as it is really nothing more than a warm-up or glorified practice mode before you get into the multiplayer.

With up to 32 players on the battlefield at once, the multiplayer impresses without a hint of lag as you work to hack enemy consoles, assassinate enemy generals, and set up mobile bases and call in tanks for support against all possible foes. With a constantly changing battlefield and missions for bonus points popping up at random, the multiplayer will keep you entertained for a long while as no situation is ever the same twice.

Of course, supporting such a large multiplayer means that a lot of disk space is occupied and that means the peripherals suffer some. The graphics and sound effects are average at best. It’s difficult to tell enemies apart from terrain at times and the music and SFX are generic. The voice acting in the single-player campaign is alright, nothing special though.

The selling point for this game is definitely the multiplayer and so if you are a fan of first-person shooters with huge arenas and settings and devote hours of time towards the multiplayer function on most of your games, then this game is for you. If you are looking for an immersive single player campaign experience with a huge background story, then you will want to steer clear of Section 8.

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

Graphics: 7.5: There is nothing spectacular about the visuals for Section 8. The players themselves are nice looking, but a lot of simple backgrounds and terrains to keep the strain on the 32-player multiplayer to a minimum keeps this at an average score.

Audio: 7.0: Generic SFX and lackluster music is definitely not the highlight of this gaming experience. The voice acting is decent in the single player campaign, but not good enough to boost this average display.

Plot/Plot Development: 4.0: There isn’t much to the plot. You’re a suicidal soldier in the “Section 8” squad and you are trying to quell some rebel forces. The plot flew by as the campaign only takes up a couple hours of your time, but again, this game focused solely on the multiplayer and the campaign was more of an after-thought.

Gameplay: 8.0: The game flows smoothly and is especially impressive when in full 32-player mayhem. The lock-on and targeting systems can be a little frustrating at times so I have to dock a couple of points, but overall this is an enjoyable experience.

Replay Value: 8.0: If you love multiplayer, this is the game for you. Constantly changing scenarios and being allowed to update your strategies on the fly between spawns makes this a multiplayer dream. I have to take a couple points off for there really being nothing in the campaign to bring you back after the first play through.

Overall (not an average): 6.5: If you are not a multiplayer fanatic, it is hard to recommend this game as the single player campaign isn’t very appeasing at all. This is not Gears of War or Halo. However, if you love the thought of ever-changing multiplayer scenarios, love interacting with people online, and have an Xbox Live gold account or a sweet modem, then this game is going to be worth a look, but I would rent it before buying it to make sure.

Section 8 is available now for Xbox 360 and PC.

-Ray Carsillo

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Revolutionary Ravens

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Originally Published: September 13, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com), Examiner.com, and Lundberg.me

I always love to see a game company take a risk and try new things, especially in a recession when you see most developers avoid risks and just develop more proven franchises in the hopes of maximizing profits.

Of course, they are called risks for a reason. Sometimes people may not be receptive to the idea or the execution isn’t as tight as it needs to be and sometimes the idea sounds great until you actually see it implemented. I think Raven Squad for the Xbox 360 and PC falls into that latter category.

The setting is the jungles of Brazil a couple of years from now and you play as a group of six mercenaries who are broken into two groups of three for assault and infiltrating purposes.

You are on what is advertised as a standard mission to take down some local drug runners. It is only later you find out you have been dropped into the middle of a Brazilian Civil War. Now, you have to try and navigate the lush Amazon Rainforest as you dodge bullets and maybe restore a little peace along the way, as you and your squad mates try to find an escape route that doesn’t involve your heads on stakes.

The plot may not be the most original, but when executed properly, everyone loves mercenary first-person shooters. The twist with Raven Squad is that it is also a real-time strategy game.

What? A FPS and RTS all in one game? I know, I did a double take myself when I heard that since I can’t remember it being tried on this scale before.

The good news is that the transition between these modes is flawless and makes for interesting strategy development as you control one of your three man squads from the bird’s eye view of a RTS and move your other squad along the ground from the eyes of Paladin, the squad’s leader.

The problem with the RTS mode is that you can see the entire layout of the land and therefore make your FPS strategy according to that. Since you see where all the enemies are, there is almost no point to the FPS mode since it is so much easier to take out your enemies from RTS view while the enemy A.I. stays in a FPS state the entire time. This additional mode also consumes so much disk space that the graphics in FPS mode are poor at best and the music and voice acting is abysmal.

The defense for this is that the developers say they were aiming to play off the cheesiness of the 1980s movies this was based off, but I have a hard time buying that because cheesy would be a compliment to the poor acting performances given in this game.

Another poor aspect of the game is that there is a nice co-op mode with each person being able handle one of the three man groups, but there is no versus mode where this game needed a 12 player total team vs. team versus mode to really make it worth more than a once playthrough.

So an unoriginal plot mixed with bad peripherals, no versus mode, and an interesting concept usually isn’t enough to garner a buy for a game, but if you were as curious as I was when I heard they were mixing RTS and FPS elements, Raven Squad would probably be a very solid rental for you.

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

Graphics: 6.0: The graphics are sub-par for a FPS, but pretty solid for an RTS. Since this combines many of both, but the cut scenes look very poor, I can only give a below average score.

Audio: 4.0: The worst voice acting I have ever heard, hands down. The music is alright and the SFX work, but the voice acting is a constant reminder of nails on a chalkboard.

Plot/Plot Development: 7.5: It is hard sometimes to look at the plot objectively since the dialogue drives most of it and the dialogue isn’t bad, just the people delivering it. So when I finally look at the actual plot, I don’t feel bad about giving it an average score. Nothing original about it, but it makes sense and flows well.

Gameplay: 7.0: A few obvious glitches are annoying, but not enough to take away from the overall experience. The smooth transition from RTS to FPS mode and back are nice, but the execution, especially in FPS mode, is average at best.

Replay Value: 4.0: Aside from a co-op multiplayer mode, there really isn’t a lot to bring you back for this game. A versus mode would have been fantastic and no collectibles to speak of really means this game doesn’t offer a lot to bring you back for.

Overall (not an average): 6.0: Like I said at the beginning of the article, I love it when game developers take risks on games with different ideas. Unfortunately not all of them pan out the way they were originally imagined. The concept of a RTS/FPS game is great, but once executed, you see that the game is just too simple as you can use it to basically cheat as the A.I. operates in a FPS mode the entire way through. When you can see the enemy and they can’t see you, it is very easy to win.

Raven Squad is available now for Xbox 360 and PC.

-Ray Carsillo

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