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Hands-On: Assassin’s Creed III & Liberation

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October 2, 2012

They may be two of the most anticipated games of the year, but getting information or extended playing time with Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has been like trying to get blood from a stone. Until now. Last week, I had a chance to get some quality hands-on time with AC III’s single player campaign and new multiplayer modes as well as AC:L’s campaign as Ubisoft transported me back to colonial Boston to help immerse us in this revolutionary experience.

AC III Single Player

We started with AC III’s single player campaign and were immediately thrown into a never before seen area of Connor’s world: the Homestead. Similar in many ways to Ezio and Monteriggioni from AC II and AC: Brotherhood, Homestead is Connor’s home base out in the wilderness. Acting as a bastion for Connor between missions where he can gather his thoughts, learn more about the Assassins, and also do favors for others in the wilderness, Homestead is a much deeper experience though than Monteriggioni ever was.

By doing side missions for friendly faces, NPCs will set up shop in and around the Homestead so Connor can trade goods, upgrade items, and perform many of the same functions that you did in Monteriggioni. Giving a little bit of back story to these side missions though allows you to build a deeper connection to these extra characters in AC III and even after just chasing some poachers out of the forest or collecting trinkets for a retired pirate, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the idea of directly influencing the start of a new community with Connor as the lead.

After making a few new friends in my little slice of the wilderness, I wanted to test out Connor’s ship skills and finally take a whack at the naval battles. Not only were there battles that could forward that aspect of the story, but it had its own set of side missions, or could just be used as a quick travel between port cities. But I wanted to blow some ships up and so I just jumped right on into the next mission in the naval story.

In the mission, I was tasked with escorting some merchant ships to port, and after disposing of some small British warships in my way and completing the primary objective of the mission, I found I had stumbled upon a larger Templar plot when a previously abandoned fort in Martha’s Vineyard was suddenly alive and bustling…and targeting my ship! As I switched from half mast to full, this after easily disposing of British mines in the churning waters of the cape, I began circling the fort, pummeling it with cannon fire until its three towers stopped trying to rain mortars and death onto my ship. The best part of this mission was just piloting the ship though as it didn’t feel like I was fighting the ship to maneuver it where I wanted and the cannon aiming mechanics were simple enough to quickly understand.

After docking my ship, I wanted to get into the main plot of the story. Walking around Boston, I was to meet with Samuel Adams and other Sons of Liberty. But I wanted to push Connor to his limits in a fight first. And the British weren’t exactly fans of me killing their soldiers in the middle of the street.

With my new favorite weapons, the rope dart and the tomahawk, I had the Boston streets running red with British blood by the time I was done. I began by pulling a sentry off a roof with the rope dart, and his death  alerted countless other red coats who then swarmed the town square. With the tomahawk, which is the first time in an Assassin’s Creed game that I preferred using a weapon that wasn’t the traditional hidden blade, I began hacking away at red coat faces, kneecaps, and anything that was within range of my righteous rage. I started by countering two guys at once and had them run each other through with bayonets before throwing my rope dart at a heavy’s feet to trip him up and then strike the killing blow in his neck with the tomahawk. Then, I would spin and roll over the back of another red coat, only to quickly whip around while he was off-balance and stab him in the back, grab him as he was dying, and use him as a meat shield as two other soldiers were now lining up rifle shots. Next, with the dead soldier’s rifle, I would take aim at the folks who just perforated their buddy, and take one out with a rifle, toss it away, and then take the other out with my pistol.

This is quite simply the most fluid combat system we’ve seen from this franchise and the bevy of options available to you in any given combat situation will blow your mind into itty, bitty pieces. I could not get enough of it and even after several hours play time, I was still seeing new animations, take downs, and maneuvers from Connor.

After taking part in my own little Boston Massacre, I knew it was time to actually see a little of the story and so I met up with Sam Adams at a bar, a fitting setting if there was one, and found out that my mission was to assist in the infamous Boston Tea Party. But first, I had to help an ornery French-Canadian chef named Stephane who was ready to wreak a little havoc on his own.

After protecting our friend from the north as he set out on his own personal crusade, I was pleasantly surprised that another feature from previous AC games was returning in that Connor gets recruits, and Stephane was the first. What has changed now is that each recruit has a much larger and detailed back story, much like the folks around Homestead, and so in order to help these characters feel more personal to Connor, there are only six recruits.

Another change is that Arrow Storm has been removed in order to help keep the game situations a bit more balanced once you begin unlocking your recruits. In its place, each of the six recruits has a special move besides assassinate. Stephane for example has ‘Riot’, which does exactly as it says and can incite a riot in order to help Connor move more easily through large open spaces. Another recruit has ‘Guard Post’, where the recruit can dress up as a red coat and help escort/sneak you through heavily guarded forts. Unfortunately, we’ll likely have to wait till launch to see what the other four recruits may have up their sleeves.

After I destroyed a lot of tea and killed a lot of red coats, the Ubisoft folks told me my time with single player was done and I needed to move onto multiplayer. Reluctantly (they had to pry the controller from my hands as I kicked and screamed, it took four guys), I left single player and moved into the multiplayer aspects of AC III.

AC III Multiplayer

So, many of the modes in AC III’s multiplayer are returning favorites in how to get your personal stab on, and so this section of the hands-on preview will focus only on the two new modes we saw and played: Domination in Versus and Wolf Pack Co-op.

Now, Domination is pretty much like Domination in every other game out there. You have three markers scattered about a map with the objective being to control these markers for the majority of the match and you score points every few seconds based on how many markers are in control by your faction.  The difference is its done with an Assassin’s Creed flair in that a capturing team cannot kill players who control the section, they can only stun them, and it takes longer to capture a point then it does for someone to recover from stun. This presents the interesting dilemma of knowing when to expose oneself, if at all.

The big draw for multiplayer this go around though was the Wolf Pack Co-op. In this mode, you and three friends attempt to perform as many assassinations as possible and each assassination is scored. By hitting certain point thresholds, the assassinations start to get harder and harder as you move through 25 point thresholds.

The most interesting twist here though is that by coordinating your assassinations with teammates, you can earn larger and larger point bonuses so balancing both quality and quantity is the only effective way to progress through the higher levels. Not to mention communication becomes critical. There are also special side missions that can add to the score and your experience if you can accomplish them with the most impressive being the multi-sync kill. This is where all four members of the team must lock onto their targets and execute them at the same time, triggering an impressive cinematic and massive score bonuses.

After several multi-sync kills and floundering a few times around level 19, it was time for me to move on to the bane of my sausage fingers’ existence: the PS Vita in order to play Assassin’s Creed: Liberation.

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation

Admittedly, my experiences with the Vita have been less than stellar as gimmicks have polluted my favorite franchises left and right when they try adding chapters to their story via this handheld. But I was pleasantly surprised with my first time with Aveline. From assassinating Spanish lieutenants after scaling a massive ancient fort, to making costume changes faster than a Broadway lead, Liberation feels much like other beloved Assassin’s Creed adventures without forcing gimmicky controls on you. They are there, but they are options, not required, to advance through Aveline’s Louisiana.

Aveline’s combat and abilities also were a pleasant surprise as they rivaled that of Connor’s as she fluidly used her meat cleaver and various other tools to bring the pain to the Spanish who occupy and enslave much of her home. But the little bit of what we saw of Aveline’s story may have impressed me the most as she has an array of unusual allies and is torn between her sense of duty to the people, her own morals, and the Assassin’s order, which leads to a wide variety of missions for Aveline to perform. And watching how these all conflict with each other in the story is very intriguing.

There were some concerns though with certain aspects of Liberation. Possibly being spoiled from playing AC III first, I felt the AI of enemy troops was a little lacking in terms of reacting to Aveline and her actions, and her blow dart made her feel almost omnipotent as she could stealthily eliminate foes from a distance. She carries only a limited number of darts, of course, but when you only need one or two to carve a path through Spanish sentries, there was a lot less challenge it felt like.

I suppose part of the challenge as playing with Aveline though comes with her notoriety and the requiring of costume changes. Aveline’s Assassin garb has guards constantly on the lookout for her, whereas her slave garb has varying levels much like the other Assassin’s Creed games, and then her aristocratic garb has her always inconspicuous because no one suspects the lady in the flower dress. These costumes have their own unique positives and negatives, but if you’re like me, you welcome the challenge of constantly being under scrutiny from guards because the combat is so superb and so the Assassin garb was my primary choice.

When all was said and done after our trip up to Boston, the entire slate of everything we saw involving Assassin’s Creed blew me away. Liberation seems like it’ll be the first game for the PS Vita that I’ll thoroughly enjoy and AC III is quite simply a game changer for the franchise and possibly action/adventure games as a whole due to the most immersive and detailed story yet, plethora of side quests, and fluid combat system. After getting my first taste of these two games, I know I for one cannot wait to embody the spirit of revolution come October 30th and play as both Connor and Aveline in what are shaping up to possibly be the best AC games yet.

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EGM Review: NHL 13

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All it’s missing is the Zamboni

With another NHL lockout looming over the 2012-2013 season, folks who prefer frozen ponds to pitches and gridiron are itching to get their fix. That means that there may be added pressure this year for EA Canada’s NHL franchise to step up and deliver a lifelike experience, since this game might have to tide hockey fans over for the entire winter. Fortunately, in most regards, NHL 13 does indeed rise to this challenge.

The most notable addition to this year’s game is the True Performance Skating physics system. More so than ever before, momentum and contact with other players will affect your skaters in the most realistic ways ever seen in a hockey videogame. As soon as you start a game—whether in Exhibition, Be a GM, Be a Pro, or any other of the classic returning game modes—tactics that you’ve used in the past need to be thrown out the window. In fact, you’ll have to think more like an actual NHL player now if you hope to succeed in this game.

Once you get used to accidentally slamming yourself into the boards over and over again, you’ll probably notice the improved positioning and difficultly in getting around your opponents—and that’s because of an overhauled AI system. Opposing skaters, more than ever before, move exactly as they would in real life; you’ll feel like you need to pull out a dry-erase board before too long and start drawing up plays to get around it.

But even if you should find a way by the AI players, there’s always the goaltender waiting at the end. He’s the most important part of any team—and the best teams are always built from the netminder outward. And since a lot of flaws from last year’s version are now fixed—the wraparound glitch foremost among them—goalies now have dozens of new animations that allow them to react and play the puck better than ever before. If you’re not smart, you could end up making some scrubs like look brick walls, but no matter what, you’re going to have to work for your goals.

So, the gameplay’s seen a facelift for the better, but as far forward as NHL 13 may go in terms of the on-ice action, in other areas, it seems like EA Canada’s taken a step back. The new, broader rating system is one of these areas. I personally liked having players rated by their roles in a system, and I liked knowing if my winger was a tough guy or a sniper—it helped me lay out my four lines accordingly. Instead, players are simply broken down into forwards, defensemen, and goalies, and I have to look more closely than before at everyone’s individual stats to decide if this is the guy I want on the ice to send a physical message, or if he’s going to be taking faceoffs for me on the power play.

Another knock against NHL 13 is that even though the opposing GM AI is touted as “improved,” I think it looks more like it’s been lobotomized. I appreciate that the game highlights players who are more likely to be traded than others by an organization. But if you try to acquire a player who isn’t highlighted, the computer seems adamant on preventing you from getting him. Even when I tried to do the real-life trade the Rangers did with the Blue Jackets for Rick Nash, the computer refused! (Obviously, I played before roster patches went live, so I was trying to make the league as accurate as possible). I even tried sweetening the deal so it was better than the real-life one with extra first-round draft picks. And still, the computer refused me!

Despite a handful of infuriating moments like these, NHL 13 is still probably the best hockey experience yet once you actually take the ice. Plus, a lot of the other modes have a few new goodies sprinkled in to liven up those experiences. Be a Legend has all-new faces, including a pair of female Olympians, and the game also offers a new playoff format for Hockey Ultimate Team. Finally, the Be a Pro mode features the ability to demand a trade once you become a big enough star. All in all, this is a step in the right direction for the NHL franchise, and it gives me a lot of hope for future iterations.

SUMMARY: The actual gameplay is leaps and bounds ahead of NHL 13’s predecessors, but the GM AI has taken a couple steps backward in noticeable—and discouraging—ways.

  • THE GOOD: New physics system adds previously unseen levels of gameplay nuances.
  • THE BAD: Presentation and GM AI is worse than in prior years.
  • THE UGLY: Having my New York Rangers stand by and watch as the Los Angeles Kings raise their Stanley Cup banner to start the season! Argh!

SCORE: 8.0

NHL 13 is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on the Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: Darksiders II

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August 28, 2012

Darksiders gets a heaping helping of Death

It’s not easy for new franchises to break through in today’s videogame market, but the first Darksiders was able to find an audience by incorporating mature themes with familiar gameplay that hearkened back to classics like Metroid or The Legend of Zelda. So, with such a promising start, you wouldn’t expect a sequel to completely overhaul many major features. Darksiders II does just that, though.

In fact, if you were to put Darksiders and Darksiders II side by side in front of a player, they’d be hard pressed to say they come from the same universe. Yet not only does Darksiders II take place in the same universe, but it expands upon it in numerous ways, along with adding in features and gameplay mechanics from dungeon-crawling RPGs.

Darksiders II takes place at the same time as the original game; while War attempts to figure out who’s set him up for the crime that triggered the Earth’s early demise, Death figures the only way to absolve his brother of his punishment is to rectify the crime and try to restore humanity back to what it once was. To do this, Death travels to strange and foreign lands and meets creatures so fantastic and monstrosities so twisted that his own ghastly visage may have a run for its money.

From the second the story starts, in fact, the art design demands your attention, whether it’s Gothic architecture contorted into mountainous landscapes or massive rivers of lava weaving their way through hollowed-out gorges. And when you combine this with the epic scale—the open world’s four times larger than in the first Darksiders—you can easily get lost in the beauty of this distinct universe.

But Darksiders II isn’t just pretty on the surface. The hack-n-slash combat flows smoothly as you string combos together, the tight free-running controls make it feel like nothing’s unobtainable if you really pay attention to your surroundings, and the new RPG elements mean that your weapons and armor are constantly changing and upgrading due to the thousands of pieces of loot (which also directly affect how Death looks). No two players should have the same Death by the time they finish the game, as you can buff him up to the point where he resembles a traditional tank, make him more of a field general as he taps into his Necromancy abilities and calls forth his own undead army, or find a balance between the two.

My favorite part of being able to collect all the items is that you can actually dispose of trinkets you no longer need in an interesting fashion—massive piles of loot usually lead to inventory problems for many of us natural hoarders, after all! By finding possessed weapons, you can actually feed your junk items to these special treasures to power them up and cause untold levels of havoc. It’s definitely a lot more efficient out in the field than waiting to find a store, that’s for sure.

While many problems from the first game have been fixed—like imparting a more clear-cut feeling of character progression this time around due to the leveling system and a less-linear world outside of the dungeons—several new flaws have replaced the old ones.

The most glaring issue is the low level cap, which was instituted in order to prevent the idea that you might need to grind out levels to advance through certain dungeons—or that, by grinding early on, you’d have an easier time working through the game as a whole. Instead, if you naturally progress through the game, you’ll always be right about the same level as the enemies. But in Darksiders II, many sidequests require constant backtracking, so the low level cap means that the game doesn’t reward you any XP for vanquishing enemies several levels below you.

Despite minor annoyances with the level system and the occasional free-running glitch, Darksiders II is superior to its predecessor in every way. It’s got a larger, deeper world with a wide breadth of characters, a thrilling story that sucks you in and doesn’t let go, and some insane over-the-top combat. All those elements make this a must-have for fans of action-RPGs.

SUMMARY: Darksiders II trumps the first entry in almost every important way, even if a few new minor annoyances crop up in the process.

  • THE GOOD: Massive, beautifully designed open world.
  • THE BAD: RPG system creates a couple of new problems.
  • THE UGLY: Well, the dude’s called “Death” for a reason.

SCORE: 9.0

Darksiders II is available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, and will be available for Wii U. Primary version reviewed was for Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: Wreckateer

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July 27, 2012

What a wreck

Continuing on with the Xbox’s Summer of Arcade promotion is the one required Kinect title of the group: Wreckateer. Best described probably as a 3D Angry Birds clone, Wreckateer sees you play as an up and coming trainee in the lucrative world of…well…wrecking. 60 Goblin infested castles await you and your Scottish-accented trainers as you have been tasked by your king to clear the land of these green, smelly little hellspawns. And, of course, the only way to do that is to destroy the castles they now call home and send them packing.

The controls for the game are simple, and as proven with many Kinect titles in the past, the more simple the controls for the sensor to pick up, the better. All you have to do with Wreckateer is walk a step forward to grab your ballista launcher, step backwards to ready it, turn to aim, and spread your arms out to let go and let buck shot fly, hopefully demolishing all in the shot’s path. And so yes, the controls for Wreckateer actually work and don’t require constant recalibration like some other motion control games, and their simple appeal make them perfect for gamers of all ages.

The only other motion you have to worry about is raising your arms above your head to activate the special abilities of some of the shots you can use. With six special shots in all ranging from the lift shot, which you can boost in mid-air up to three times, to the split shot, which breaks up into four smaller pieces and scatters its chaos across the screen, the game has a bit of strategy to it in that looking ahead and saving certain shots for certain targets is critical to reaching the best score possible. And only by medaling with at least a bronze high score, can you advance to the next castle.

Unfortunately, even with the controls of the game being as solid and as responsive as they are (for a Kinect game anyway), the game play itself loses its appeal rather quickly. I love blowing stuff to kingdom come as much as the next guy, but 60 castles was a bit much to be standing in front of my TV for and most of them really just seemed like excuses to try to bloat the game into a slightly longer experience.

My other major problem with the game is the hit detection. Often I would smash these massive, sprawling towers at their base, and when they came crashing down onto other parts of the castle, as I stood by proudly, like a mighty lumberjack after felling a redwood, much of the still standing castle wouldn’t see nary a brick crack after being pummeled by the concrete I brought raining down upon it. This proved frustrating as I longed to see towers and castle walls topple like dominos. And this is when the towers actually decided to fall. There were several instances where it looked like a single brick was holding towers up that should have fallen, again adding to my frustration as I fell just short of the computer generated high score due to the game blatantly ignoring several laws of science.

When all was said and done though, I reminded myself that at $10 (800 MSP) Wreckateer is the cheapest of the Summer of Arcade titles and even if it became dull or frustrating after a while, there was indeed some fun had, at least early on, and I could see this easily winning over a pre-teen audience.. And should it’s arcade-like game play, high score targets, and online leaderboards be your cup of tea, then this might prove worthwhile to a larger audience. The rest of us know however that it’s probably just a lot simpler to download Angry Birds for an even cheaper price tag and we won’t need to move around as much either.

SUMMARY: Entertaining at first, the repetitive grind of 60 cookie-cutter levels wears on you quickly in this Angry Birds clone.

  • THE GOOD: Simple controls that respond relatively well to the Kinect
  • THE BAD: Dull, repetitive game play becomes boring after short amount of time
  • THE UGLY: Having to listen to Scottish narrators for 60 levels

SCORE: 5.0

Wreckateer is a XBLA exclusive (Kinect required).

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EGM Review: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

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April 16, 2012

Back to the Beginning

If there is one thing the Resident Evil series is good at, it’s embracing its past and squeezing every possible scenario out of it to continue fleshing out the back-story for this beloved series. With that idea in mind, Capcom gives us Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Taking place at the same time as Resident Evil 2, you play as one of six members of Umbrella’s elite hit squad called the U.S.S. (Umbrella Security Service) whose sole task is to ensure that any illegal incidents that could shine a bad light onto Umbrella never come to surface. And Raccoon City is as bad as it gets. So you’ve been covertly inserted into the city to make sure the B.O.W.s do their job and no survivors or information get out before things in Raccoon are cleaned up.

For as much good as RE: ORC does at times, it does just as much bad unfortunately. There are seven campaign missions that you can play with up to three friends online, but the fact there is no option for a local split-screen campaign or versus modes is a big fault in my book. The story mode lacks a lot of the character development and overall depth that we’re used to seeing, but it still feels really fun to progress through this special mission as this badass unit and take down all these zombies and creatures that we’ve seen in previous titles, like Lickers or Hunters, with controls that are more suited to the action game this is clearly trying to be. Of course, some hardcore fans may not enjoy the fact this game distances the series from its survival-horror roots, but I had a lot of fun with it and so was able to forgive them for going off the reservation this time around.

The game also has six very different main characters or classes, which gives you a nice bit of variety if you want to try them all out. Unfortunately, the game only supports four players at a time in campaign and four-on-four matches in versus though. And having more people allowed to play would definitely be the way to go because if you see how often the friendly A.I. suicides itself in the campaign, you’ll want as many of your friends around as possible.

The controls are also hit or miss. While the gunplay is very good, with dozens of weapon and power unlockables and upgrades, the cover system is flawed due to it not being button prompted, but is just initiated whenever you press up against a flat surface. The melee combat is also solid as you perform character specific combos, and if you have enough energy, a character specific execution move that can instantly take out your opponents. There is also a running tackle though that makes no sense because it really does no damage and if you miss your target, it takes so long for your character to get back up that you’re nothing but a sitting duck.

The clear saving grace for this game though is the multiplayer. Four different modes that pit you not only against another team, but also random B.O.W.s and zombies in each level. Think of them as the ultimate level hazards. The four modes include your standard team deathmatch, a ‘Heroes’ mode where you pick a classic character from the series up to this point and you can keep respawning until all four heroes have been killed once, a ‘Biohazard’ mode which is your basic capture the flag, and a ‘Survival’ mode where you have to beat back the enemy team and various creatures as you wait for a helicopter to extract you. What’s most fun about ‘Survival’ is there is only one helicopter and only four seats available so half the players will lose and often there will be a mix and match of teams that make it out as once that helicopter lands, it is every man for himself.

When all is said and done, I think a lot of third-person shooter fans and Resident Evil fans will enjoy what Operation Raccoon City is trying to do with a really fun multiplayer and a decent campaign that is worth a couple of quick playthroughs. The game looks and sounds great, although I still can’t believe Capcom didn’t come up with more than a handful of zombie skins, and most importantly is fun more often than not. Some more polish on the controls, ally A.I., and a local multiplayer option would have definitely kicked this game up a notch, but as is, it is worth a look to fans of shooter multiplayer modes and Resident Evil.

SUMMARY: Another unique look at the events of the original Resident Evil outbreak combined with a fun and inventive multiplayer should help Resident Evil fans look past the sometimes clunky controls and poor ally A.I.

  • THE GOOD: Fun multiplayer modes and a unique take on the classic Resident Evil story
  • THE BAD: Poor ally A.I., no local multiplayer options, and clunky controls
  • THE UGLY: That Capcom is still using the same five zombie skins since the series launched 16 years ago

SCORE: 7.0

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on the Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: Kinect Star Wars

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IT’S A TRAP!!

We can tell you the serial number on the trash compactor Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie fall into on the first Death Star. We can give you weapon specs comparison between an A-Wing and an X-Wing. We know Han shot first. We are the diehard fans of Star Wars and many of us have been waiting for the ultimate gaming experience that will give us the level of immersion we desire into our favorite sci-fi universe. Unfortunately, this is not the Kinect game we are looking for.

Kinect Star Wars is best described as a series of party atmosphere mini-games with a Star Wars theme. The main Jedi Destiny campaign does offer a bit more length and a deeper story than the other modes at least, where you play as a Jedi Padawan to a long forgotten about Jedi Master between Episodes I and II. You can wield force powers, handle a lightsaber, ride speeder bikes, and serve as a gunner in space battles.

The idea of all these things are phenomenal, and had a full game been developed around them I could see this actually being a memorable Star Wars game. Instead, you succumb to a bevy of gimmicks that make you feel less like a Jedi and more like Bantha Poodoo. Slow, deliberate movements are required to use your lightsaber, instead of the fast frantic action we’re used to seeing, and there is almost no need to use the force aside for a handful of moments that feel like button prompt events except you’re waving your arms. The story for the main campaign was solid, but aside for the first-person on-rails space missions that might give you flashbacks to games like X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, you could never really get into a rhythm with the motion controls.

The other modes in Kinect Star Wars don’t fare much better though for the most part. The Podracing campaign only has six races in it, and although it features many familiar faces that Episode I fans will immediately recognize, the motion controls are overly sensitive. I understand that Podracing is supposed to be difficult, but you try holding your arms straight out for a 12-minute race on Coruscant or for ten minutes in Cloud City and then see how well you can steer.

The Duel of the Fates mode is even more bare bones than the Podracing though. The entire mode is only five battles with only two of which actually being worth mentioning where you can face off against Count Dooku and Darth Vader himself in Cloud City. And this may be the most gimmicky of all as the entire time all you’re doing is blocking easily telegraphed moves and waiting for an opening to strike yourself. Flailing around has never felt so crummy.

There were a couple of fun modes that I’m sure could liven up a party if given the chance and should everyone love Star Wars. The Rancor Rampage mode is basically like playing old-school Rampage in full 3D and as a Rancor. You can bulrush buildings, eat Stormtroopers, throw droids across the map, and more. This mode was also relatively responsive due to the simple movements necessary really to wreak havoc across the four maps and two modes you could play this in.

The final game mode that seemed to work was Galactic Dance-Off. Yes, now you too can be a slave girl in Jabba’s palace or see who would win the epic dance-off in the Carbonite Freezing Chamber between Lando and Han to such classics as “I’m a Princess in a Battle” (set to Christina Aguilera’s ‘Genie in a Bottle’) or “I’m Han Solo” (set to Jason Derulo’s ‘Ridin’ Solo’). It’s really just Dance Central set to a dozen or so Star Wars song spoofs, but it actually worked well and had me and my friends laughing hysterically as we proceeded to make complete nerfherders of ourselves.

At the end of the day though, this is not what Star Wars fans want. It may appeal to small children on some level with the couple of modes that work, but there is really no depth or long-lasting appeal to anyone over the age of ten. Some of the modes can be entertaining and the main Jedi Destiny campaign story has some potential, but gimmicks and poor game play hold this back. Not to mention, I think a lot of us are sick of stories that are told during or before the prequels. For many of us, the original expanded universe took place after Return of the Jedi. Grand Admiral Thrawn anyone? At the end of the day, I think we’d all be better off just retreating to Dagobah than devoting any serious time to this game.

SUMMARY:  This is not the Kinect game you’ve been looking for. A cute array of mini-games and a decent length main campaign could make this a fun party game with a Star Wars theme, but if you were looking to finally feel like a Jedi, you might want to stick to the bathrobe and flashlight a little while longer.

  • THE GOOD: Some modes provide a party game atmosphere with a Star Wars theme
  • THE BAD: Not the hardcore experience most Star Wars fans really wanted
  • THE UGLY: The very existence of spoofed pop songs with a Star Wars skew

SCORE: 5.0

Kinect Star Wars is a Xbox 360 exclusive. 

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EGM Review: Blades of Time

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If I Could Turn Back Time

The idea of the treasure hunter is nothing new and has been around probably for as long as there has been treasure to hunt. But Blades of Time, looks to put an interesting spin on this age old premise by mixing equal parts attractive looking protagonist with some sweet elemental time powers and seeing if it can’t make something that is worth playing.

You play as Ayumi, a girl whose good looks are only outmatched by her greed and so when she hears word of an alternate dimension with countless riches, she storms into the sanctum where the portal to this world is held with her mentor, a man named Zero, and takes no prisoners. Once in this alternate dimension, a place that you find out is called ‘Dragonland’, Ayumi gets more than she bargained for though and falls katana-first into an ageless war between chaos and order and only by tapping into the powers of both can she hope to survive.

And, of course, Ayumi will be expected to fight through this new world in order to save her hide and has more ways to do so than you’d expect to find in even the most polished of hack ‘n’ slash adventures. She’ll wield a pair of patented katanas, a plentiful amount of rifles, and various elemental powers, including time, which is obviously referred to in the title and thus takes center stage with your magical abilities, and creates many of the more interesting combat dynamics.

Many of the foes you’ll face, especially the larger ones, outgun Ayumi in a lot of ways. Thus, the only way for her to make any progress is to use the time rewind powers bestowed upon her when she first entered Dragonland to her advantage. By doing this, Ayumi can create duplicates of herself that will mimic the actions she performed in the last few seconds. You can literally create a small army of rifle firing Ayumis to immediately shatter a foe’s shield or hack away with a hundred katanas. And it is quite the sight to see all these echoes of the curvaceous blonde running around a battlefield, causing carnage in their wake.

Of course, the downfall of this mechanic is the fact that many of the enemies require this technique to be used on them later in the game. Therefore, the game starts to become a bit of a grind as you move through various vibrant and colorful sections of this war-torn dimension you find yourself in with really only one or two combat options later on as opposed to early in the game and that in and of itself just seem counter-intuitive.

With all these weapons and powers at her disposal, the thing that I was most impressed with though was the ease with which I was able to switch from swords to guns and to magic. This helped with the pace of many battles and with a dozen Ayumi’s running around, helped keep things feeling frantic and exciting in terms of action, even if I really had the situation well in hand the whole time as my combat options became more and more limited as the game went on.

Unfortunately, the game really falls apart when it comes to the plot and character development of Ayumi, Zero, and the other characters you come across in the game. Ayumi is left as a plain, one-dimensional character until the very end of the dozen-hour experience where you maybe start to see a crack of personality form. By then though, you’ve become bored of her and the miserable voice acting that litters the game in both mid-level banter and poorly animated cut scenes, all of which is, of course, just a vain attempt to forward what was a very weak plot to begin with. This lack of a fleshed out story makes the grinding in the later levels even more painful as you are denied the proper motivation to really see this character through to the end of her journey because you never care about her or her cohorts and therefore are denied your just rewards with a satisfying conclusion.

The game does offer some replay-value in that once you beat the game you can play it again on Hard Mode and it has various collectibles scattered about Dragonland that are supposed to help fill in the back story, but are just as vague and lifeless as the voice acting in the cut scenes. There is also a multiplayer mode called Outbreak, which is the game’s twist on Capture the Point and can be played against or in co-op with several friends, but isn’t anything particularly special.

When all is said and done, Blades of Time surprised me with its tight controls and interesting time manipulation dynamic that offered a nice change of pace to your typical hack ‘n’ slash experience. But with a lack of plot and character development throughout my entire time playing the campaign, I just could never bring myself to really care about this game as much as I wanted to.

SUMMARY: Some solid combat dynamics can’t make up for the fact that the plot and character development, or lack thereof, falls flat in every way.

  • THE GOOD: Great combat dynamic between the guns, swords, and time powers
  • THE BAD: An overall lack of plot and character development
  • THE UGLY: Don’t you just love it when lips don’t sync up with words in EVERY cut scene?

SCORE: 6.5

Blades of Time is available on Xbox 360 and PS3. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Preview: The Amazing Spider-Man

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Catchin’ Thieves Just Like Flies

Since developer Beenox took over the Spider-Man franchise for Activision, they’ve put out a couple of great Spidey titles that gave fans of the wall-crawler hope for his future in video games. But now that they’re going to do a game based off of a movie instead of an original story, many are wondering if the developer will have enough wiggle room to produce the top-tier title fans have started to expect from them with the web-head.

After seeing a brief demo of The Amazing Spider-Man, I have hope renewed. Although the game will be released about a week before the movie actually hits theaters, the game takes place after the events of the movie and will feature Dr. Curt Connors (no word on if he’ll turn into the Lizard in the game), Gwen Stacy (basically confirming she won’t get killed off in the first movie), and our dear Peter Parker. Aside from them, exclusive to the game we also saw a very bestial looking Rhino (although we’re not allowed to go into much more detail than that).

Beyond the characters though, the thing that really jumped out at me was the look. Crisp, clean, and very cinematic, Beenox has taken their time to craft what is shaping up to be their most life-life Spidey yet in a fully realized Manhattan. And part of this was the camera angle, especially when web-slinging.

“The camera is more of an over-the-shoulder shot than a traditional third-person view and is much closer than in any previous Spider-Man game ever when web-swinging. It gives you this incredible connection to the character. This is extremely different from anything anyone has tried before in a Spider-Man game and, for me, this provides the most outstanding web-swinging experience ever because of that familiarity you quickly develop with Spidey from it,” said Dee Brown, Studio Head at Beenox when talking about the new cameras while swinging around Manhattan.

And speaking of getting around Manhattan, the movement was definitely one of the key aspects of the demo shown to us. One of my favorite sequences involved Spidey trying to get to the front of a high-speed car chase, using both his normal webs, and a new move called “Web Rush” where Spidey can stop in a moment and pick a specific point he wants to throw his web. The game engine then performs real-time computation to get Spidey to that point in the fastest, most acrobatic way possible. When Spidey got to the front of the chase, we were rewarded with him spinning a massive web that caught the entire getaway vehicle and left the robbers high and dry for the cops to clean up with a very distinct Spider-Man calling card.

The web rush ability was very cool to see, and it showed off how powerful Beenox’s new engine is, but my only concern is that there were a lot of yellow Spidey silhouettes showing where he could go and I hope that they will only be active during the mode or that those silhouettes were still early build markers as I could see that getting distracting very quickly in game.

Aside from the movement, we also saw some of Spidey’s new combat. Incorporating some of the stealth maneuvers Beenox had played around with in Shattered Dimensions with Spider-Man Noir, Beenox has it now so that in the indoor areas Spidey will traverse, he can either go in with web-shooters blazing or take the sneaky route and really strike some fear into the foes he will face.

Although the game is still a few months from release, again, what I saw gave me a lot of hope. Beenox knows they’ve set a pretty high bar to hit and know that being tied to a movie can both help and hurt them. But from what I saw, I think everyone is just going to really enjoy being Spider-Man again and I, for one, can’t wait to see the finished product.

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EGM Review:Mass Effect 3

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March 16, 2012

Don’t fear the Reapers

Part of what’s made Mass Effect so amazing as a series is how much the direct choices you make as a player not only affect you in game, but beyond. And the concluding chapter in this tremendous trilogy doesn’t let up at all in that regard, as choices made in the first two games come back to reward or haunt you in unforeseen ways as you continue to fight against the Reapers.

Whereas the first Mass Effect was all about introducing us to the major players and ME2 was about building up relationships and your own personal task force, ME3 is all about cultivating the relationships from the first two games in order to best prepare the galaxy into forming a united front against the Reapers, who now even pester you in the galaxy map, which adds a new layer of danger to the previously mundane process of probing planets. Every task you complete and planet you successfully probe will affect how much military strength you can muster, and by crossing the wrong person or making the wrong choice on how to allocate available resources, you can strengthen or weaken the armada you’re trying to create.

The story’s also a bit more engrossing this time around, as there are a lot more cinematic, big-movie moments—and they all look amazing, as the visuals are probably the most impressive in the series to date. This more fluid story telling really helps the game flow, and fans of the series will appreciate a lot of throwback references that sometimes come from nowhere and will instantly put a smile on your face.

The weapons, armor, and RPG leveling-up system have also been streamlined so that players who want a more action-packed experience are doing less item hunting and navigating menus. Plus, there’s also a “narrative” difficulty option that really fleshes out conversations and the customization for those players who’d prefer the more traditional RPG experience.

The combat controls feel tighter and field tactics are also smoother this time around, but the cover mechanics introduced in Mass Effect 2 are still very delicate, and movement’s much more deliberate than you’d want in any type of a shooter. And that isn’t what you need in the heat of battle, as you’ll often accidentally roll away from cover when you’re trying to stick to it. Coupled with a flawed damage feedback mechanic that doesn’t properly inform players how much damage they are taking, and combat can still be irksome at times.

But Mass Effect 3’s greatest problem is its new multiplayer system. And it’s not the fact that it’s an amalgamation of Battlefield 3’s class system with Gears of War’s Horde mode, as I love both of those games’ multiplayer options. No, my problem lies in the fact that you’re pretty much forced into playing the multiplayer in order to unlock the best possible ending in the single-player mode. This aspect, called “Galaxy at War,” starts where the galaxy’s 50 percent ready to take on the Reaper threat as soon as you begin your single-player game. But instead of collecting more assets in single-player or completing side quests to improve on this number, you need to win multiplayer matches, which correlates to your armada readiness in single-player mode—this means players will be forced to play a mode they might not necessarily want to get into right away. Plus, there is no local split-screen options and a lot of times the best co-op multiplayers all allow you to have your buddy sitting right next to you while you play.

Mass Effect 3 is still an awesome game overall, of course, as the few negatives just happen to stand out against what is an otherwise mostly blemish free experience. Even the Kinect options are a lot more enjoyable than I had anticipated, although I found myself falling back into old game play patterns a few hours in as I’m just not used to screaming at my TV (when not watching a sporting event, anyway). The conclusion to the story is phenomenal, the action’s great with legions of new and old enemies alike, and the multiplayer’s fun and addictive, even if I don’t like how it affects your single-player campaign. Not to mention Mass Effect 3 has one of the more moving scores I’ve heard from a game in a while and fantastic voice acting for all our returning favorite characters, and a nice job by some new folks like Freddie Prinze Jr. as James Vega. Fans who invested in the first two games will know the wait for this third game was well worth it, and BioWare shows why they’re some of the best storytellers in the industry.

SUMMARY: Mass Effect’s brilliant story remains intact, and if you played the previous two games, the payoff’s more than satisfying. Some cover and combat issues remain unsolved, though, and the idea of participation in a completely separate multiplayer mode potentially influencing your single-player ending is mind-boggling.

  • THE GOOD: Brilliantly concludes one of the most epic trilogies of this console generation
  • THE BAD: Multiplayer tie-in to single player, combat and control nitpicks
  • THE UGLY: Joker wanting to get it on with a robot

SCORE: 9.0

Mass Effect 3 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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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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