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EGM Review: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

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February 23, 2012

Heeeeeeerrrreee’s Alan!

The original Alan Wake wowed audiences with a twisted and unique story that saw an unlikely protagonist rise to the unreal situation he found himself in. And when last we saw Alan, he had sacrificed himself to the Dark Dimension in order to save his beloved wife Alice, taking her place as its hostage.

Flash-forward now two years later. Alan has basically had to scrape together an existence, fighting for his life on a near daily basis in the Dark Dimension, his love for his wife the only thing that keeps him going as he continues to look for a way out. The Dark Dimension satiates itself by feasting on Alan’s creative writing talents, but in the process of being touched by this ethereal power, Alan has acquired some unique abilities all his own, including using his writing to help change the reality of the given situations he finds himself in to better suit his needs. And in this new adventure, where the Dark Dimension has inserted Alan into one of his early writing experiences, a script for the cult-TV show “Night Springs”, Alan must take on his dark side given physical form in the nefarious Mr. Scratch, who taunts Alan by being able to cross between dimensions freely where the barriers are at the weakest, like Cauldron Lake or in this case, the Arizona desert, and threaten everything that Alan has ever loved.

A major goal in developing this game for the guys at Remedy was to try to make American Nightmare accessible to both new and old audiences to the franchise. And I think that by trying to play both sides of the fence, they may have missed their mark a little on each side. Easier to find manuscript pages help fill in the back story to newcomers, while some also flesh out this newest adventure for the series loyalists, but unless you actually experience the first game, a small narrative piece, that many people may not even find all the parts for, doesn’t do the first game’s tremendously original story and adventure justice and newcomers may feel like they’re missing out on something.

Meanwhile, the game does have a lot more of a “pick-up and play” feel to it as the action comes hot and heavy from right after the opening cut scene. This is all well and good as newcomers and veterans alike will enjoy the smooth controls, still awesome “light washing away the dark” dynamic, and the satisfying feeling that comes from dispelling the huge variety of new Taken like the Giant or the Grenadier. The problem that hardcore fans will find though is that after the survival horror aspects of the first game had you hording your strongest light producing materials for more diffcult moments in the game and scrounging for ammo, batteries, and flares, the abundance of self-replenishing ammo boxes in American Nightmare will ruin any chance of building suspense as you never actually feel in danger anymore. Flares, flashbangs, and some new and more powerful weapons not in the first game at all make themselves very readily available right from the get-go (SMG for the win). The challenge that I loved from the first game is completely gone.

Even with these flaws though, there are enough aspects that fans on both sides of the fence will also tremendously enjoy that makes the game a worthwhile purchase considering its 1200 MSP ($15) price tag. Again, the action is very well done and the controls are still tight and responsive enough that each kill or nimble dodge of an axe swipe by Alan feels very satisfying. The new Arcade challenge mode, complete with 10 maps, adds to some of the replay-ability found in the collectible hunting of the main story as you try to work your way up the leaderboard and earn the high score as you refine your Taken bashing skills.

Another brilliant aspect of the game is the TV sets scattered about Night Springs, Arizona. The dynamic of a live-action Mr. Scratch, using the TVs that established “Night Springs” in the first game, to taunt Alan in that classic villain fashion, is almost comical as Scratch is that rare charismatic bad guy who a part of you deep down roots for. There is one where he talks about his “tools of the trade” that was absolutely spectacular. And the use of licensed music in proper moments, especially as a backdrop to these “episodes” is definitely another strong point for the game.  And at the end of the day, it is all part of what is really a very solid story, especially if you look at this as a day in the life of Alan now since he has become trapped in the Dark Dimension.

Although it doesn’t do much in terms of forwarding the overall plot of the franchise and how Alan will hopefully one day escape or destroy the Dark Dimension and its denizens, it gives us a peek into what Alan must endure to hopefully set himself up for the end game and makes us care about the characters even more so than before and gives the series a weird sense of realism considering how far out there it is concept-wise. But one thing that American Nightmare does do in terms of forwarding the franchise’s story is it helps give us the sense that the Dark Dimension is not just some primal entity, but it is conscious of what it does in many ways and is truly alive, giving us a sense of some epic struggle worthy of a Greek mythos as Alan must endure trials and tribulations thrown in his path by some dark and unyielding god before he can finally return home.

There are also some minor nuances I believe that will also be universally panned by both sides of the fence with this game. The voice acting and dialogue outside of the “Night Springs” narrator or the Mr. Scratch TV episodes is bad. Like Japanese-import bad. And there are moments where Alan is surrounded by light, but still has to take on Taken. There is one scene where you are surrounded by a burning oilrig. Last I checked, fire gave off a good amount of light. And there was a lot of fire, and a lot of Taken. Small little gaps in the continuity of the universe like that had me scratching my head some.

All in all though, I think that as a stand alone adventure and a spot check on seeing how Alan was doing, this game did a good job of giving us an idea of the struggles the character is going through and hopefully will serve as the launching point for a bigger and even better story down the road.

SUMMARY: In trying to please everyone, American Nightmare takes a small step back from what made the original Alan Wake an original and enthralling experience, but is still well worth the price of admission for old and new fans alike.

  • THE GOOD: Fluid action and smooth controls
  • THE BAD: Dumbed down, broader appeal approach will turn off hardcore fans
  • THE UGLY: Dialogue worthy of a Japanese import

SCORE: 8.5

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is an XBLA (Xbox 360) exclusive.

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EGM Review: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – PS VITA

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It’s déjà vu all over again

It was one of last year’s premiere fighting games and it is a franchise that arcade fighting fans absolutely can’t get enough of. So, much in the same vein of how the Nintendo 3DS had Super Street Fighter IV at their handheld system launch, Sony wanted to make sure they had a premiere fighting game to go along with their handheld on launch day as well.

That game, of course, is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. But with a game already heralded as a superior fighting product that gave fans everything they wanted and then some, what could they possibly do with their port to the PS Vita? Nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true, but relatively speaking Capcom did very little with this latest version of the game that makes it stand out from its console brethren.

And this can be a good thing because why mess with something if isn’t broken? The game still has stunning visuals due to Vita’s processing power and the full 48-character roster of fighters remains completely in tact. The arcade, training, mission, and versus modes all return as nothing content wise was cut to facilitate the small size of the Vita’s cartridge. The voice acting and original music is still all there, the story cut scenes done in a style similar to comic book panels, the hyper combos, Galactus as the final boss, and even personalizing your online card is still present. All of the patches and balancing tweaks that console players had to wait for are all packaged in the game and because of it you still get one of the premiere fighting experiences of 2011 available to you.

The problem is that now it is 2012. And most people who were going to buy this game already have. And the major negative of making little to no changes with the game is now evident. If the audience has already been tapped, who is going to buy the exact same game twice?

Sure, it’s portable now and you can link up with friends to get in some quick versus matches. That’s a cool feature, but again, most people won’t have need of it really if they already bought the game unless they are so hardcore that this game is the center of their entire gaming universe and must have it with them AT ALL TIMES. But for the rest of us, what might sell us on this? Will a new touch screen system make us want to pick this game up? No. Especially since the touch screen is mostly pointless as it is crucial to actually see the screen when playing a fighting game to learn hit boxes, range, patterns, and other critical elements to victory and so you can’t have your fingers constantly getting in the way of that.

And speaking of fingers, it does become a bit harder to pull off a lot of the moves you’re accustomed to with the smaller joystick and buttons of the Vita. And the one thing the Vita version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 does lack isn’t a shortcoming with the game itself, but with the hardware as you only have two shoulder buttons to try to pull off moves that were originally mapped to four. This can lead to some unnecessary button mashing that changes the game play for the worse.

But, aside from that, if you should pick this game up again, you’ll get everything you would expect from the console version. And if you missed it the first time around on a console, then picking it up for the Vita will definitely be money well-spent. There just isn’t enough of a positive difference though between the console and Vita versions to warrant owning both in most cases.

SUMMARY: Still a stellar fighting game, but if you already have it on a console, there’s no point in picking it up again.

  • THE GOOD: Basically the same game as on consoles
  • THE BAD: Pointless touch controls, lack of shoulder buttons sacrifices move list
  • THE UGLY: Tiny buttons and joysticks make button mashing more difficult

SCORE: 8.0

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PS VITA. This review was based on the PS VITA version of the game.

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Hands-On: Sleeping Dogs

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Waking Up to Sleeping Dogs

I was always a fan of the True Crime series and so, like many others out there, I was excited a couple of years ago when I heard that it was being brought back to life with a romp in Hong Kong. Then, unfortunately, after countless delays it had its plug pulled and was put on the shelf. But luckily, Square Enix saw the potential in this open world game and so their London Studios, with plenty of experience in the open world with Just Cause 2 and an assist on Batman: Arkham Asylum under their belt, felt they were ready to tackle this challenge with the game’s original developer, United Front Games. And boy, am I ever grateful for that after getting my first hands-on with the game this week.

Re-titled Sleeping Dogs, the game follows undercover cop Wei Shen who, after joining the Hong Kong police force after a stint in the United States, is tasked with infiltrating one of the most cut throat organizations underneath the Triad umbrella and taking them down from within. Inspired by Hong Kong movies like Infernal Affairs (which would later inspire Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning movie The Departed), the folks at United Front Games wanted to bring that realistic grit and grime into the a game world while keeping up a pace of action fit for a martial arts masterpiece.

And there looks to be a ton of action it looks like in Sleeping Dogs as we were able to go hands-on with a pair of levels. The first was a street race to let us know that even in the crowded and cramped streets and alleyways of Hong Kong, there is still plenty of driving to do in the game. After ramming several opponents off the road and taking first place in what was a satisfyingly smooth handling sports car, we got out from behind the wheel and were ready to really get our hands dirty though.

In this level, we were attempting to earn the trust of some of the Triad lieutenants and so had to shake down someone who had missed a payment of his protection money. Moving through a crowded marketplace, we quickly came upon our mark. When we explained to him who we were, he bolted and a free-running sequence fit for an Assassin’s Creed game began. Immediately the interactive environments were revealed to us as I kicked a crate of oranges out of the way and each one bounced independent of each other down a flight of stairs. As I kept the runner in my sights, our climbing skills were also put to test. Unlike in Assassin’s Creed, to help convey that sense of realism and interaction, instead of automatically overcoming objects in your path, you actually have to press the jump button at the right time to run up walls or vault dumpsters. Otherwise, you’ll still traverse your obstacle, but the animation will change and you’ll be slowed as your poor game reflexes will also directly affect how Wei handles this in game. If successful, you’ll maintain speed. If not, Wei will humorously flop for a moment before regaining his composure.

Once we caught up to the runner, a handful of his friends came out of the woodwork and we were going to finally put our combat skills to the test. With clear influence from the work Square Enix London did on Batman: Arkham Asylum, a similar two button combat system was in place here. One button was for attacks, the other for counters. What was new here though was that if you grabbed an opponent, the world lit up in a flash of red, pointing out what was interactive in the environment to instantly take out a thug if we could drag them over to it. From frying them in an electric panel, to tossing them into an open dumpster, the options were near endless and I replayed the level just to make sure I interacted with every possible item I could.

“You look at a lot of Hong Kong action movies and one of the hallmarks is that they never stop. The action never stops and its flowing, very fluid. You have a lot of people running around moving to fight or take action in the scene. And one of the key things is seeing how they bring the environment into play.  Picking up objects very quickly that they can use as weapons or just the environment in general is a weapon. So we wanted to extend that core philosophy to the game. The thing is almost that the more mundane the object, the cooler it becomes because you never stop to think about how deadly some of these everyday objects can be. So everyone has a car, but smashing someone’s head three times in the door before delivering a final kick, is really going to do some damage. So it’s all there really just to help keep the combat flowing and interesting,” said United Front Games Executive Producer Stephen Van Der Mescht in a brief interview with EGM, speaking about how important environment interaction was for them in this game.

Of course, if I didn’t want to use the environment, or was too far our of place to reach my desired target, the kung-fu Wei uses felt just as fluid as Batman did in the Arkham games as I strung together a brutal string of punches, kicks, and counters that left my foes broken, bruised, and battered. And without Batman’s moral compass, with me at Wei’s helm, I often left a scene behind that would require numerous body bags as I threw guys off high rises, turned their own lethal weapons against them, or smashed them face-first into rooftop fans that gave me just enough gore to feel more satisfied than disgusted.

Although our time with Sleeping Dogs was short, there was a lot there that had me very excited to see how the game would play out. Smooth flowing and rewarding action sequences worthy of the Hong Kong cinema that inspired them, high-speed car chases, and a deep, gritty, and compelling story that looks devoid of the fantastical that occasionally seeped into the original True Crime games has me feeling that Sleeping Dogs is not a game you should sleep on this summer.

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Tim Schafer Reveals First Details About Kickstarter Funded Game

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THE BUZZ: Tim Schafer let everyone know what some of the funds from his Kickstarter funded adventure game will be going to.

EGM’S TAKE: In an entertaining as always video, Tim Schafer let the universe know that aside from being available on Steam, the game will also be available on iOS and Android platforms. All the extra funds will also allow for English voice actors and for the text in the game to be translated into French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

As the project rapidly (it literally made another $1,000 in the time it took me to write this article) approaches the $1.9 million mark at the posting of this article, I for one cannot wait to see what Schafer and company can come up with considering that is near the same budget as Stacking.

What do you folks think? Are you amped for this game? How about that it will come to iOS and Android? Let us know what you think below!

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DICE Summit 2012 Wrap-Up

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The DICE Summit is an annual convention put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences that sees the gaming industry’s best and brightest come together to exchange ideas, celebrate the year that was, and look ahead to the future. There’s also some fun to be had as well as each Summit kicks off with an annual Poker tournament along with a golf and go-kart excursion before things really start to get underway.

Now, I admit I’m still recovering from my week in Vegas as the DICE Summit is unlike any other gaming convention we go to as games journalists and as a DICE rookie, I admit I was a bit taken aback at just seeing the tremendous talent that was often brought together in one room at any given panel or presentation. Nowhere else might you see Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney lecture an audience with Ted Price from Insomniac Games, Todd Howard from Bethesda, and David Jaffe from Eat Sleep Play in attendance on how graphics will never need to go past 72 frames a second. Speaking of Todd Howard though, he gave a wonderful opening keynote for this year’s event as well.

Such topics that were spearheaded this year were how the publishing model may evolve from here and what harm it may be doing to the creative side of the industry, the future of technology in games, console gaming vs. social media gaming, and how some people outside the gaming industry could speak to certain key elements that need not be forgotten when making games. Among these were legendary songwriter/producer Glen Ballard talking about the importance of collaboration and Issac Gilmore of SEAL Team 7 talking about leadership.

And, of course, there were some surprises as well including the endearing speech by Tomonobu Itagaki, co-founder of Valhalla Games, but many of you probably know him better for his work at Tecmo on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. His heart felt presentation on the depression he fell into after he felt Dead or Alive 2 was rushed to market and was initially incomplete shows how much of his heart he put into his games. Speaking of how he would drink days away during this dark moment in his life until hearing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and using that as inspiration to pull his life and company back together was a jaw-dropping moment for many.

But, of course, this all culminated in the Interactive Achievement Awards. Think of them as the video game Oscars (the SpikeTV VGAs are more like the Grammys, lots of show with very little substance). This year marked the 15th anniversary of the awards and was hosted for the 7th time by fellow Jersey-boy and comedian extraordinaire Jay Mohr. Although criticized by some, I thought Mohr did a superb job hosting the show once again and had my table and I in stitches during his entire opening monologue segment. In total, there were 26 categories this year as voted on by a panel of industry insiders and movers and shakers.

Here is the final breakdown:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Portal 2
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Battlefield 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Story: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Character Performance: Wheatley – Portal 2
  • Downloadable Game of the Year – Bastion
  • Casual Game of the Year – Fruit Ninja Kinect
  • Social Networking Game of the Year – The Sims Social
  • RPG/MMO of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Innovation in Gaming – Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure
  • Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 12
  • Racing Game of the Year – Forza Motorsport 4
  • Fighting Game of the Year – Mortal Kombat
  • Strategy/Sim Game of the Year – Orcs Must Die!
  • Family Game of the Year – LittleBigPlanet 2
  • Mobile Game of the Year – Infinity Blade II
  • Handheld Game of the Year – Super Mario 3D Land
  • Adventure Game of the Year – Batman: Arkham City
  • Outstanding Achievement in Online Play – Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity – Portal 2
  • Action Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Animation – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Game of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I agree with most of these choices, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t use this chance to mention a few gripes I had. I disagree wholeheartedly with Fruit Ninja Kinect as Casual Game of the Year because it’s just the iOS game expanded to use your whole body. I thought Jetpack Joyride was more deserving. And I just have to shake my head at Skylanders winning Outstanding Innovation because it’s big innovation is simply finding another source of income for gaming publishers. LA Noire’s facial recognition technology was more impressive in my book. In fact, that also could’ve taken Outstanding Achievements in Animation and Visual Engineering as well. I also have a problem with Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity. Portal 2’s co-op mode is superb, but it has no replay value. So it may connect to someone on a deep level, but then it is gone. I think Gears of War 3 or Saints Row: The Third, games not even nominated, would have been a better choice.

My final gripe comes with Skyrim taking Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering considering the bevy of glitches throughout that game, especially for PS3 users who are JUST NOW getting that fixed. A bigger world does not make a better working world. It should have gone to Arkham City for its combat and grappling hook and gliding mechanics or even Portal 2 for fun with portals and its amazing physics.

Now, that I’ve gotten that out of my system, the IAAs also saw Ed Logg, creator of Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet awarded the Gmaing Pioneer Award and Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. Big thumbs up to those guys.

The Summit concluded with the 3rd Annual Indie Game Challenge. Here, dreams are born in garages or parents’ basements and these individuals or small teams put their dream and engineering skills to the test. The 10 finalists all walked away with something even for being invited to DICE, but the big winner took home a whopping $100,000 and it went to a game called Closure submitted by Eyebrow Interactive. Closure felt a bit like Lost in Shadow, but with much stronger emphasis on the dynamic between light and shadow as you moved your character through a striking black and white world. My personal favorite though was The Bridge submitted by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda as you traversed a 2.5 D puzzle laden world that looked like a M.C. Escher drawing come to life.

So all in all, the 2012 DICE Summit did exactly what it was meant to do. It celebrated games on every level and brought up some amazing points of conversation for those of us in the industry for the future and hopefully will help bring some exciting new stuff to you folks, the player, in the future.

If you want to check out some of the panels that I mentioned above or see some other ones not mentioned, feel free to head over to http://www.interactive.org as everything was taped on put online after the weekend concluded.

All pictures courtesy of the AIAS.

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Darksiders II Pre-Order Deals Announced

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THE BUZZ: THQ has officially announced their pre-order deals for Darksiders II at Best Buy, Gamestop, and Amazon and they are all available from now until the game’s anticipated release date of June 26th.

EGM’S TAKE: The best deal of the bunch looks to be the one from Gamestop as a pre-order there nets you the “Death Rides” pack featuring multiple exclusive side-quests worth about an extra two hours of content and will allow you to explore more of two areas in the game: Maker’s Realm and Dead Plains. I’ve always preferred more content over anything else when it comes to my DLC.

The Best Buy offer is more for the player who cares about his Horseman’s looks though with the “Angel of Death” pack. A unique set of enhanced Angel armor, a pair of upgraded scythes, and a special visual trail for your companion crow Dust are featured in this pack.

The Amazon offer is for the “Deadly Despair” pack and only offers players a permanent speed boost to Death’s mighty steed Despair. If you’re all about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible though, and if this world is supposed to be as big as its being touted to be, then speed might make a big difference in your game play experience.

What do you folks think? Are you going to pre-order the game now for the extra content? Is there a particular store that you prefer regardless of deals? Or are you just going to wait and see and not bother with the pre-order? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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EGM Review: Uncharted: Golden Abyss

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February 14, 2012

The Return of Sony’s Golden Boy

Uncharted: Golden Abyss sees our favorite modern-day treasure hunter, Nathan Drake, in the jungles of Central America as he stumbles upon a 400-year old mystery involving a murdered Spanish expedition. Of course, no Drake adventure would be complete without some sort of meddling from interlopers, so Nathan will have to avoid the rivalry of an old friend, Jason Dante, and new leading lady Marisa Chase, a girl who’s searching for her missing archeologist grandfather—and who can hold her own in a firefight.

Now, Sony moving their crown-jewel franchises over to portable systems is an inevitability that’s paid off some decent dividends when you look at franchises like God of War and Resistance. But can Drake make the transition as easily as when he hops from ledge to ledge—especially with the pressure of being a PS Vita launch title—or will he stumble and fall into a portable-gaming chasm of doom?

For Uncharted fans, the answer isn’t quite so clear, unfortunately. The story unfolds just like one of Drake’s PS3 adventures we’ve all come to know and love. Sony Bend’s tale stays true to the character while also brings along new players seamlessly. Couple this with the great voice acting for which the series is known and console-quality visuals, and—at least on the surface—this game looks like a winner.

But if you were expecting to come into this experience and be able to pick up and play it just like one of its console brethren, then your frustration level will rise quickly. To start off with, the game features forced tutorials that showcase special Vita-style controls—and which constantly pop up throughout much of the early part of the game. Now, this is somewhat understandable, given that the Vita’s an entirely new paradigm, but after learning what it takes to execute even the simplest of moves, you’ll quickly realize that it’s just much easier to do what you’ve always done on the PS3 with button prompts. Why would I want to draw a path with my fat fingers for Drake to climb when I get a much more desired level of accuracy—and a more satisfying feeling of direct input to my character—by moving the analog stick and pressing buttons?

But whether you choose to avoid the Vita-style gameplay or not, Golden Abyss forces you into countless minigames that not only break up the pace of the action, but are also so simple that you’ll wonder why the developers are making you bother in the first place. These minigames include putting together a torn-apart map, taking pictures of interesting ruins, rubbing your finger over the screen to draw a charcoal etching, and, of course, balance games. Because nothing says Uncharted like running away from poachers with assault rifles, coming to a log bridge, and then being forced to stop in the middle to play with the Vita’s gyroscope so that Drake can miraculously balance himself and continue being chased. And these instances are constant—I must’ve taken a dozen charcoal drawings and balanced on half a dozen bridges (not always being chased) in the first five chapters alone. For a series whose pacing and storytelling is as celebrated as its visuals and voice actors, the former really falls apart when forced into these proof-of-concept minigames.

The other major problem is that even on the least-sensitive setting, the aiming crosshairs are still much too sensitive; the right analog stick is so small that each degree of movement is greatly magnified. This means that while your movement might work on the PS3, it’s completely thrown off by the shrunken-down scale of the Vita’s analog stick. This leads to constant misfiring and needless deaths as you attempt to work out where your enemies will be so as to save yourself the trouble of aiming. And though you can move the Vita around to help with this, you’ll find that it just throws too many moving parts into the machine, and you’ll still overcompensate as you move your arms and thumbs trying to line up a shot.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss may serve as a Vita proof-of-concept, but it also serves as proof of a lesson to be learned: Don’t mess with something that isn’t broken. All the new moving Vita parts and features end up watering down what should be celebrated as a really great Uncharted story, but the diluted pacing, unnecessary minigames, and hit-or-miss (literally) controls keep this from being anywhere near the level of a console Uncharted.

SUMMARY: A story worthy of the franchise, Uncharted: Golden Abyss falls short in terms of pacing and controls, as the touchscreen gimmick takes the experience down a big notch.

  • THE GOOD: The story’s worthy of an Uncharted adventure.
  • THE BAD: The gimmick-based play destroys the pacing and flow.
  • THE UGLY: My fat hands trying to use touchscreen controls.

SCORE: 7.0

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EGM Review: Gotham City Impostors

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I’m Batman…and so are you

Loosely based off DC Comics’ Detective Comics #867-870, Gotham City Impostors thrusts you into a Gotham gone mad where the majority of the populous has either taken up the mantle of Gotham’s Guardian, Batman, or the constant acid-dipped thorn in his side, the Joker, and you have decided to join in on the chaos. But, even if you’re not familiar with that story arc, you’re still likely to have a lot of fun as this online versus multiplayer shooter has had so much comic-book infused personality injected into it that it has the potential to become as addictive and as popular as games like Team Fortress.

Now many of you out there are probably wondering how guns and Batman would work, but Monolith brilliantly also inserted an “Initiation” mission that will allow you to not only get used to the smooth controls should you choose to play it (as well as it unlocks an achievement), but also explains why the Batz and Jokerz use the weapons that they do. Quite simply, Joe the Plumber doesn’t have the bank that Bruce Wayne has to use the moral high ground of non-lethal weapons. Whereas a PVC Pipe Rocket Launcher sounds a lot more pliable for Joe. And for those slow times when there may not be as many people online, the game also features a single-player Challenges mode that allows players to really hone their skills with their various weapons and tools before jumping right into the fray and for which they can earn extra experience to level up with.

The meat of the game though revolves around the online play. Much like any other online versus multiplayer out there, you gain experience for winning matches and performing a variety of kills out on the field and when you gain experience, you unlock new customization features, weapons, and accessories. Some of the best stuff can be a bit of a grind weapons-wise, but should you feel more inclined to drop some extra cash, you can perform some micro-transactions for different costume items should making your Batz or Jokerz look just the way you want be a priority as well. Same goes for your “Calling Card”, the custom image your foes see when you kill them along with a taunting one-liner. You can buy backgrounds inspired by the comic work of artists like Jim Lee or more cartoony versions of some already available backgrounds to truly bring your unique style to the game.

You can also customize a load out and this is where the game starts to differentiate itself really. You have an assortment of guns and pistols with Batman and Joker style ornaments, but the gadgets are unlike anything seen before in this genre. Glider kits allow you to hover after jumping off high points or ride up open ventilation shafts and then dive bomb onto unsuspecting foes and your grappling hook can have you racing across an entire level in no time if you get the right vantage point. Roller skates give you a huge speed boost and let you trick off ramps and spring boots give you twice as much jumping power.

All this flair and polish though can also be seen as a distraction from some of the game’s flaws. Although the levels are very well designed and offer some frantic action, there are only five of them and so it can get repetitive at times knowing you’ll end up at only one of five locations, even if they are some of Gotham’s most iconic in Ace Chemical, Amusement Mile, Crime Alley, Gotham Power, and The Docks.

There are also only three play modes once you go online. First, there is your standard Team Deathmatch with up to six people on a team. Then, there is a mode called Fumigation, which is basically like Capture the Point. You and your team must try to control three special gas emitters and the person who pollutes the atmosphere 100% with their special concoction first wins the match. The final mode is Psychological Warfare and is very much like Capture the Flag. You’re objective is to take a randomly spawned car battery and attached it to a bevy of speakers that will pump negative propaganda into the brains of your enemies. This will render them unable to use their weapons for 30 seconds and the team who can trigger the propaganda the most in a time-limit wins.

So, when you strip away the fancy gadgets and customization features, the game is your standard run-of-the-mill online versus multiplayer shooter, but it handles so well and looks good enough that if you are a fan of the genre then the Batman flair gives you just enough of a difference from the standard fare for these kinds of games to be enjoyable and worth going back to should Monolith continue to support it down the line with some new maps and modes.

SUMMARY: Gotham City Impostors looks and feels great and adds just enough personality to differentiate it from the crowd of similar online multiplayer games.

  • THE GOOD: Looks and feels great and is on par with most online versus shooter multiplayers out there
  • THE BAD: Lack of maps and modes can shorten the experience
  • THE UGLY: Fat guy in a little Joker-coat

SCORE: 8.0

Gotham City Impostors is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA) and PS3 (PSN). Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: UFC Undisputed 3

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Stepping into the Octagon

It is one of the fastest growing sports around the world and as it has begun to move solely from Pay-Per-View and into the primetime realm of various cable and standard channels, its move into the mainstream is all but guaranteed. Of course, the UFC knows to really grow a relatively new sport in this day and age, they’d have to have at least a small foray as well into the number one entertainment industry in the world: video games. But unlike anything else the UFC had done, they fell into a pattern similar to other sports where they tried to release a game on a yearly basis and after only two attempts they realized that was not the way to go. So they took their time on working on this new title in the hopes of silencing their critics.

Well, I’m happy to say that in many ways the extra time in the gym has really paid off for UFC Undisputed 3. This third chapter in the UFC series sees a bevy of new additions that both hardcore and casual fans have been clamoring for. The first new feature you’ll see as you soon start playing the game is the chance to pick one of two controls schemes. The first, Advanced, controls are the ones that the series used in its first two iterations, where a series of half and three-quarter right joystick turns were required in your ground game. The second, Amateur, controls though is what will make this game much easier to just pick up and play, and maybe help in the education of those more casual fans.

The Amateur controls replace a lot of the right joystick movement that turned the other two games into a waggle-fest for less experienced players and instead a simple flick up or down allows you to perform the transitions necessary for you to lock in some devastating holds. And speaking of the devastating holds, a new submission system mini-game has been put in place to help fans understand if they are winning or losing with their hold and how close they are to tapping or making their opponent tap out.

Unfortunately, even with the new Amateur control system, for people who aren’t as familiar to the sport and are looking to learn more about it, you will still likely have a difficult time as there are so many button and hold combinations, you might be intimidated quickly and feel like you might be better off with a keyboard in front of you than a controller just so you can quick assign your favorites instead of trying to memorize some three-button finger contortion just to pull off a feint. There is a tutorial system, but it is long and boring and will turn you off to the game in the first place if you should choose to suffer through it and so you are left really only with the trial by fire option again.

If you can get past this factor though, there is a great reward for the hard work you’ll put in learning the controls. The career mode is deeper than ever before with better pacing as now you only have to train once or twice between each of your fights and you can better see just how each exercise will benefit you. From speed punching body bags to tire flipping to sparring in the octagon at the gym, there is a plethora of new games just waiting for you to try out in between fights as you try to take your personal fighter, who you create through one of THQ’s celebrated customization modes, from WFA scrub up to UFC superstar. And along the way when you have key moments, you’ll see some never before seen interviews with some of the UFC’s best and brightest talking about how they bounced back from their first loss, how great it felt when they won their first title, or how nervous they were their first time in the octagon.

If you’re not a career mode kind of guy though, don’t worry as the online versus modes have also been fleshed out. For the first time in the series, mirror matches are allowed as well fighting tournament rules that equalize combatants stats to truly see who is the best of the best. There are also all seven UFC weight-classes available now including Bantam and Featherweight fighters. But the most exciting part, especially for old-school MMA fans, may be the new Pride Mode where you can take some of your favorite fighters from today and take them over back in their prime when they fought in Japan or even have fantasy match-ups like pitting Rampage Jackson when he was in Pride against Jon “Bones” Jones. And included in this mode are Pride’s rules meaning face stomping and punting are now allowed. Talk about a game changer.

All in all, this is easily the best UFC title yet and the new additions definitely make it more pick up and play friendly than any other in the series, but that’s not really saying much. And much like an actual fighter in the UFC, you’re still going to have to work relatively hard at the controls if you’re ever going be a force online, but at least now you should stand a chance. Plus, with the additions to career mode, the game at least offers a decent enough single player experience that should online be too much for you, especially as Advanced control schemes trump Amateur ones in lock-ups, you’ll at least get your money’s worth as it will take a decent amount of time to turn your custom fighter into a hall of famer and you’ll have a good time doing it.

SUMMARY: A new control scheme and deeper career mode should lure fans back that were turned off by the last game for one more go in the octagon.

  • THE GOOD: New amateur control scheme helps pick up and playability
  • THE BAD: Even with new controls, hard to shake that button masher feeling
  • THE UGLY: My opponent’s face after dropping a dozen haymakers in a row on them

SCORE: 8.5

UFC Undisputed 3 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: The Darkness II

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With Great Power Comes Great Executions

The first Darkness game introduced us to young Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman whose usefulness had run out on his 21st birthday. Just when all seemed lost, a dark legacy that had been passed down Jackie’s family for generations came to fruition as the two-headed snake, dark elemental force that is The Darkness took control, saving Jackie. Once word got back that Jackie had survived the hit though, his girlfriend Jenny unfortunately got caught in the crossfire of the target on Jackie’s back. Enraged, Jackie fully embraced the Darkness and its near omnipotent power and brought a bloody revenge upon all those in the mob.

Flash forward two years later to the start of The Darkness II. Jackie is now the Don of the mafia. With the help of estranged occultist Johnny Powell, Jackie has kept the Darkness under wraps for almost his entire time as Don. But there are people out there who know what Jackie hides and if he isn’t willing to satiate its murderous hunger, they’ll take it from him and do it themselves.

Much like the first game, The Darkness II does a brilliant job of storytelling, opening up with Jackie sitting by himself in a dark room, acting as narrator once again between chapters, recounting the adventure we are about to play through. And what an adventure. From the opening scene with Jackie sitting in an Italian restaurant (which you just know is going to go wrong because what self-respecting Don sits with his back to the door), the action is almost non-stop as Jackie uncovers a plot to steal the Darkness away from him while also fighting his guilt driven demons that haunt him from the death of Jenny in the first game. But terrific storytelling technique aside, there is so many new elements to The Darkness II that it’s almost impossible to compare this to its predecessor aside from how it pushes the story forward.

The first change you’ll notice comes visually. Using what they call “graphic noir”, 2K and Digital Extremes hand-painted all the environments you fight through and then laid the cel-shaded characters on top to really make the game seem as if the Top Cow comic book came to life. And there are no more telling moments for this than in combat as you rip your foes to shreds. And you literally rip your foes to shreds as the combat has gotten a complete overhaul too. I will say that it took more time than I’d prefer to get used to, but once you do, you’ll be tearing through your foes like a man possessed (pun intended, pun always intended).

The major new feature that was a tad difficult to adapt to at first is quad-wielding. Quad-wielding allows you to shoot guns in each hand as well as wield each demon arm at the same time. But once you get used to it, you can literally be attacking in four different ways at once with this. Include a new physics system that allows you to interact with the environment more and you can grab a car door and rip it off its hinges and use it as a shield with one demon arm, while picking up a parking meter and throwing it like a javelin with the other demon arm, all while you’re shooting through your door-shield’s broken window with a shotgun and an assault rifle.

I’ll give you a second to pull yourself back together after your head exploded from the awesomeness that was contained within that last sentence. And speaking of making your head explode, the new executions you can do with the demon arms are absolutely brutal. From the wishbone that tears guys apart right down the middle to more classic decapitations, Jackie knows no mercy.

Now, you’re probably thinking that this could get monotonous as time goes on. How many ways can you skin a cat and all that. But in that comes another new RPG-like feature where for every execution Jackie does you earn “dark essence”. Dark essence allows you to improve upon Jackie’s abilities and you can gain more essence by getting more creative with your kills and also eating enemies’ hearts (which also regenerates health in a pinch) or unlocking and then using a plethora of special moves.

As time goes on, you’ll definitely need to learn new and more harrowing moves to even the odds as your enemies start to get very creative very quickly in combating you. Yes, you are no longer just facing some mob grunt with spaghetti stains on his shirt as the A.I. has clearly been improved as well. The Brotherhood, the folks looking to take the Darkness from Jackie, is prepared. Along with having some nasty mumbo jumbo of their own up their sleeves, they are also armed with light cannons, grenades, and other weapons that can temporarily debilitate The Darkness and leave you wide open for feeling the pain.

But what kind of Don would Jackie be if he didn’t have a few friends? And one in particular just happens to be of the demonic kind. Unlike the first game where you could wield a small army of Darklings, now you are limited to but one little chaos-causing imp, but with it comes a bevy of new powers for him, too. From throwing him across the room as a distraction, to taking over control of him and gauging out the eyes of your enemies with his thumbs, this is no ordinary Darkling. But Jackie has some human friends, too, and there are going to be some tough choices for Jackie down the road that will really have an affect on things. But that’s all part of being a Don, right? Needing to make the tough choices? The bottom line is that all of the new and improved combat features fit very nicely into the game and offer enough variety that will keep you from being desensitized as you’re constantly splashed with enemy blood in a bevy of ways you didn’t think possible until playing this game.

There are a couple of small things that irked me the wrong way with The Darkness II though. For as good as all the combat is and as much as I wanted to really love the story itself and not just the way it is being told, Jackie himself gets on my nerves. He tries to be a pitiful character, but he is not a good guy. He killed people for a living before wielding the Darkness and now you expect me to believe he has a conscience and he’s depressed because his girlfriend is dead? The dichotomy of the character just doesn’t work for me and I often wanted to reach through the TV and smack him and be like “YOU HAVE AN OMNIPOTENT DEMON INSIDE YOUR HEAD AND ARE A MAFIA DON. STOP WHINING AND GO KILL MORE THINGS AND LIKE IT!”

Another minor negative is the demon itself. Mike Patton returns to voice The Darkness (Kirk Acevedo is no longer voicing Jackie, instead replaced by Brian Bloom) and the scratchy, almost gurgling voice of the demon is like nails on a chalkboard every time he screeches out a command. If you’re trying to tempt me into embracing you again, don’t try sounding like Krang from the late 80s-early 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I think they replaced the wrong voice actor there.

And speaking of replaced, the versus multiplayer from the first game is gone. Admittedly, it had its problems with lag and what not, but we’ve come a long way in four years and I would have liked to have seen what the versus multiplayer could’ve done now, especially with the quad-wielding and the fact that the game is a first-person shooter at its core. But, in its place at least we have the new co-op mode called “Vendettas”. And Vendettas is pretty sweet. Taking place at the same time as the single player campaign, Vendettas is its own standalone story where you can choose from one of four colorful characters who all wield a small piece of The Darkness and represent one of the powers that Jackie can wield himself. And if the single player campaign is an action drama, then Vendettas is a dark comedy and is a great change of pace from the main game. So much so, it feels like it could have been on a separate disk itself or as a DLC addition and it would have been worth it.

All in all, Darkness fans will likely have a field day with this game as the extra time between titles (four, almost five years at time of release) seem to have been well worth the wait considering the polish that this title exudes.

SUMMARY: Better A.I. and combat mechanics than the first Darkness, gorgeously painted environments, and the same ol’ omnipotent snake-headed dark force makes for one heck of a game play combination.

  • THE GOOD: The “graphic noir” backgrounds make the game feel like a comic come to life
  • THE BAD: Jackie isn’t the most lovable of protagonists and so it is hard to root for him
  • THE UGLY: The remnants of the poor cat your Darkling skinned to make a hat

SCORE: 9.0

The Darkness II is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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