Insanely Awe-dical

Guitar Hero Comes to DS

Harmonix is the brilliant company that created music games like Frequency, Amplitude, and the ever-popular Guitar Hero. Activision bought out the Guitar Hero franchise after GH2:80s came out, and it's clear they're moving the franchise to a new level. GH3 was brilliantly done, and of course, GH:Aerosmith is coming out later in the summer. But before that comes out, is this oddity for the DS.

Hit the link above and check out the promotional video - there is a pair of kids jamming to their hand-attached DS machines, scraping that pick-designed stylus (or stylus-designed pick - you choose!) across the touch screen mimicing the actual strumming of a guitar.

I will give Activision this - you milk this franchise for all it's got. Most importantly, kudos to the developers, who didn't just map the buttons to colored frets and made players strum - you actually used the GBA slot of the DS to accept input! And not only accept input, but totally different input leaving the face & shoulder buttons untouched! Amazingly well done, and actually brilliant.

I will also say that having a hand strap and a place to keep the stylus is also great design. however, I believe I will be uncomfortable fretting and strumming so close to each other. I'm glad there are only 4 buttons because sliding and managing 5 buttons while strapped into the hand strap will be a problem.

I'm sort of torn. They got the concept right though - guitar gaming on the go, with no periphs, and a semi-realistic hand fretting position. It really sounds interesting.

Call of Duty has already won a handful of GOTY awards, and I haven't heard anything short of incredible-ness this game has achieved.  To be perfectly honest, I have grown tired of the FPS genre tauting awards and dominating the gaming scene, with it's Halos, Gears of War, Quakes, Unreals, Far Crys, and Call of Dutys.  I would say that I'm relatively jaded when it comes to FPS games, and I'm not seeing much new anymore (save for the brilliant FPS puzzler, Portal).

Enter Call of Duty 4: <strong>Modern Warfare</strong>.  No sci-fi or outer space theme, and no historical war theme - this already sets itself apart from Halo, Gears, Quake, Unreal, Call of Duty 1-3, Medal of Honor, and so many other FPS games that I don't really care about any more. 

My FPS experience is fairly limited - I've played my handful of Quake, Unreal, and Halo (single player only).  The <strong>only</strong> FPS single-player campaign I have ever finished is Call of Duty 1.  I didn't realize it but I had a natural attraction to it's presentation - theatrical, intense, and the visceral feeling of the battlegrounds that I feel is missing from run-and-gun action-styled Halo or slower-paced Half-life.  The bombs, the grenades, the helicopter support, the myriad of weapons per scenario, the mission introductions and ever-changing mission objectives - it's an intensity that keeps me on my toes.  The missions swapped between different fronts of the battle, and all of a sudden, my commanding officer had a different accent and a different taste of the battle - it was all-encompassing, and I expected no less from CoD4. 

I picked up CoD4, and was instantly impressed.  The opening video expanded the game to the current world and really pumped me up.  CoD1 used the soldier's diary to open the mission, but this one uses a nice mission briefing and on-screen maps complete with intel pictures to really set up the scene of the mission.  The loading screen is actually a full-time video of these sort of briefings and screens, and I couldn't be more occupied while the game was loading. 

The opening mission holds you by the hand, as you are the newest member of the troop.  The team is very vocal, and really gives you an authentically-led British SMS group as they attack a ship on a stormy night.  The gameplay and controls handle extremely gracefully and you're given a nice easy level to introduce you to all the controls.  The first level ends rather cinematically, with a daring escape from a capsizing ship.  As you escape, the ship begins to tilt and your point-of-view tilts as well, The hull bursts and waters gushes, and you are forced to run for your life to escape, culminating in a dramatic jump for the helicopter.  God of War 2 did this same sort of idea - where the first level is one of the most enthralling and scene-setting levels in the whole game.  After that, I knew I was in for a treat. 

CoD4 has some tactical (covering fire, cover-shoot-moveup) and some non-stop action - it's cinematic flair is unmatched, and I could hardly breathe normally during some levels.  The types of level shift fairly often, one gives you gunship access, another is a sniping mission, another has you shooting a gun from a running jeep.  You never feel the staleness that can come from levels and levels of duck, hide, shoot, move forward, etc.  The story is full of intense moments, and I thoroughly enjoyed how each level began and ended.  There are 2-3 Great Moments of the Year in this game (I already know which one I'll choose when I make that post), and that speaks volumes of the quality of the game and it's presentation.  I'll agree with most critics that the single-player campaign is short, but it's plenty for me.  I feel like I've been playing Halo 1 for hours on end, and I'm barely at the halfway mark. 

Labels: games

The Orange Box

This game is full-featured game combining 5-games for the price of one (mine was actually further discounted thanks to a Gamestop coupon I found on CAG). It includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

To be honest, I've played Half-Life 2 on the computer a couple of years ago and enjoyed the first couple of hours, but computer lag forced me to abandon the game. I picked it up again for a short time on Xbox, but didn't spend a significant time playing it. Now I'm back on it, and enjoying it.

I will say the primary reason I purchased the game was for Portal, which was critically acclaimed as the funnies and most unique game released this year.

Breaking the mold of classic FPS games, Portal doesn't require what I call "twitch reflexes." It isn't like Halo, Call of Duty or any other game where people can pop out from around a column and you need to react and kill. This is a puzzle game and everything is already set in place. Fans of this sort of fast-paced dynamic action shouldn't be expecting it in Portal.

The game starts with the player waking up in a test room, having a robotic voice guide you through a series of simple tests before you retrieve the portal gun.

The portal gun creates an excellent game mechanic which allows users a unique way to travel through some areas. Need to get across a gap? Shoot a portal on the other side and shoot one on your side, and walk through -- boom you're on the other side of the gap. It's these sort of locational logic that creates the puzzles. Additionally, you can use the portals to increase your momentum, creating puzzles that stretch that throw the player across wide gaps and huge ceilings. Soon you're using portals to catapult yourself across huge gaps, firing portals in mid air before crashing into a wall in order to zip over to another room.

The icing on the cake is the wonderfully written dry dialogue written for the robotic voice. It's an experience that is difficult to describe, but playing the game in silence is a drastic difference when the accompanying voice isn't there to provide cold and sometimes jeering comments.

Now from what I've read, Portal is not a full-fledged game. However, it is incredibly well-written, and the game pace puts the character in a myriad of tests, as well as a sort of supplemental survival test. A skilled player can beat the game in a couple of hours, and I'd hardly call that a full 50 dollar game value. Hopefully the game will be so well-received that Portal 2 or a full fledged game based on the concept will become a reality.

This is one of the games I've beaten in recent memory (last two I can recall are God of War 1 and 2), and it was clearly gripping enough for me to complete it. I am currently looking to play through it with the developer commentary, something I am never ever interested in, but it seems fascinating to me in this instance.

For a more budget-friendly/mouse-friendly 2d version of the game, check out this Flash version of Portal. It's a great place to try your hand at the portal puzzle concept. The flash version obviously is much more technically simple, but the concepts are there, and if you enjoy the puzzle aspect (albiet cartoony), the 3d Portal game for xbox 360 will be like a theatrical release.

Labels: games reviews