Category Archives: Xbox 360

Jul 11 0 comments
DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360

What I’ve been playing this summer (part II)

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer

Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend

Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

Alan Wake finally came out and for me, it was well worth the wait. Top of the line storytelling all through, with unparalleled pacing and cinematic conventions. Great setting, great writing, great characters and good gameplay. It could have used a bit more variety in the combat mechanics towards the end, but aside from that, this is one of the best adventures I’ve been on in years. One of the setpieces is an instant classic (the farm fields), and the other scenes don’t fare much worse. They have clearly cut all the fat and only kept the very best parts. Remedy are really the masters in what they do. Must play, if you have a 360.

I’ve recently been replaying Max Payne 2, and everything that’s great about Wake is evident there. It may be hard to recall what an ambitious step in storytelling the sequel to Max Payne was, despite a short development time. If you’re thinking about a revisit, for a seven-year old game, on the PC it has stood up graphically amazingly well.

Dead Or Alive 4 (Xbox 360)

I initially disliked (whoah, four years already!) DOA4 because the computer is super hard. But this time I stuck to my guns and learned how to play it. It’s easily the best title in the series, in every way an evolution. I’ve been playing single player and grown to not be frustrated with the CPU. My wife has become rather proficient in it, as well, usually soundly beating me. (I think I’m thinking too much.)

I’ve also played some online, but that’s just harsh. The guys still online are way too hardcore for me.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer (Nintendo DS)

All the way from 1995, this DS port of a 15-year old SNES game just sucks me in. It’s a graphical, less complex roguelike, which does not make it the slightest bit forgiving. A really hardcore experience, you’re supposed to perish dozens if not hundreds of times before making it to the end. Every time you die, you start from the beginning, although if you’re clever, you can carry over some of the stuff you’ve accumulated in your previous adventures. The narrow scope with lots of depth makes it very compulsive to play.

Soul Calibur Broken Destiny (PSP)

Still a great game. Both the fighting and the character building are fun and really at home on the PSP. If you have a PSP and like fighters at all, I’d say it’s a must have, even if you don’t have anyone to play it with locally.

Brütal Legend (PS3)

Tim Schafer’s heavy metal tribute is built for guys of my age (born in late 70s). I can’t help but smile! Right from the start menu, you’re in a world of metal, and it feels good. The writing is very good, often laugh out loud funny, and very well acted. The gameplay works, although it isn’t anything really special. If you’re into metal, you need this game.

Jun 20 0 comments
DS, PS3, Xbox 360

E3 2010

E3 2010

I went to my first Electronic Entertainment Expo this year. Los Angeles was loud, slow and relatively cold, with only the rioting Lakers fans generating some excitement outside of the show. I don’t much care for the city. We stayed in Santa Monica, which is a lot nicer, but the over one-hour transits on the freeway to pretty much anywhere begin to grate in no time at all.

As for the show proper, there were definite highlights and definite disappointments.

Bad: Front Mission Evolved

I am a sucker for mecha and I’m sad to say that it looks like there’s no way I’ll be picking up Front Mission Evolved, not unless it comes with Front Mission 3. Everything from the handling to the setting to the mech designs and animation was seriously lacklustre. It’s a shame.

Bad: Twisted Metal

The new Twisted Metal looked like it was from the previous generation. Barebones arenas with little effects or satisfying destruction going on, it feels like it’s trying to ride on its bygone charms alone.

Bad: MotorStorm Apocalypse

MotorStorm Apocalypse in 3D should have been a wild ride, but turned out to be a poor framerate show of questionable worth. Some of the rollercoaster pacing was spot on, but overall I wasn’t impressed at all. The story mode does sound intriguing, though, and I’ve been expecting them to deliver on the initial promise of the franchise for three games now. Still one to watch.

Bad: 3D | Good: Nintendo 3DS

Speaking of 3D, I am not impressed. Some of the games are nice enough, but they really need to be 60 FPS to work. Super Stardust HD and Gran Turismo 5 are probably the best examples so far. But you won’t see me wearing a pair of glasses.

Which is one of the main reasons that the Nintendo 3DS was so impressive. No glasses required, great 3D effect, some great demos. Pilotwings was the best one. I am likely going to finally upgrade my DS Phat. Sony and Apple have some catch-up to do!

Bad: movement

Both Microsoft Kinect and Sony Move failed to generate much buzz. Not very surprising as there were no proper games on show. Out of Kinect only Ubisoft’s yoga exercise program and Harmonix’s Dance Central seemed to interest people. Somebody did mention Kinectimals in a positive manner, but that’s about it. I didn’t see anything I would’ve been interested in on Move.

Bad: Epic Mickey

Epic Mickey was featured in a major way, with a huge booth, plenty of demo pods and live performances. Too bad the actual gameplay failed to interest at all. It doesn’t help that it’s on the Wii – the lack of HD is beginning to really hurt Wii. (Some of the Nintendo booths did have very high quality visuals, though, I can’t figure out how they did that.) When it looks and feels like a barebones platformer, it’s hard to get that much into it. But then it might be a game which just needs more time than what you get at an expo.

Good: Dance Central

Kinect was going to play host to a good dance game and I’m super glad that it’s Harmonix doing it. I am a Rock Band fanboy and in my eyes Harmonix can do no wrong. There was a very nice buzz to the title. It feels like a title I might have to get and it’s the only Kinect game which felt like a potential system seller to me. But that’s mainly due to Harmonix’s pedigree, too early to say how it’s going to properly work. But four friends dancing together and Harmonix’s taste in music – it probably can’t go wrong.

Good: Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2

Need For Speed has been on the wane for years now, the golden days of Underground and the original Hot Pursuit a fading memory. EA has now put Criterion on lifeguard duty and what do you know – returning to Hot Pursuit, the game the fans have been crying out for for years now, seems to work. The game mechanics aren’t quite there yet, but it sure looks and feels nice. The handling isn’t as twitchy as Burnout, but a huge improvement over the previous NFS titles nevertheless (Shift excluded). The simple cops versus racers scenario just works.

Super good: Vanquish

Game of the show for me was Platinum Games’ Vanquish. Whereas Tecmo Koei’s Quantum Theory looks like a poorly deconstructed rip-off of Gears Of War, Shinji Mikami’s new title is Gears on amphetamine. It’s a sci-fi third person shooter, but this kind of speed and spectacle is not on offer anywhere else. Apparently the section on display was the first level of the game and I find it very hard to imagine the action becoming even more intense later on. Everything in the game is a sci-fi off-white, and yet it looks more spectacular than anything else on show. Certainly the days of Japanese developers not being able to wring power out of the current-gen consoles are over.

Jan 01 0 comments
DS, PC, PS3, PSP, XBLA, Xbox 360, blog, culture, miniatures, tabletop games

The best of 2009

My 10 best games of 2009

My 10 best games of 2009

For the most of 2009 I spent my gaming time playing games from 2008 – Far Cry 2, Fable II, Rock Band 2, lots of cheap PSP & DS titles, Company Of Heroes, Dawn Of War (the first one) – but I thought it could be fun to put together a list of what was the best 2009 had to offer. For future reference, see.

I have not played many of the big hitters of 2009 so there’s bound to be holes, but these days, gaming is too big a pastime for one man to wholly take in with his free time (and income). Major omissions include Halo: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Resident Evil 5 and Dragon Age: Origins, to name a few.

My ten best games of 2009:

  1. Space Hulk (board game)
  2. Batman: Arkham Asylum. I haven’t written about Rocksteady’s phenomenal take on Batman (because I’ve been too busy playing it), but it ranks as one of my all-time favorite games. Play it.
  3. Demon’s Souls
  4. GTA Chinatown Wars (DS)
  5. Shadow Complex
  6. Torchlight. I’ve been playing this for most of the holidays, it’s crazy good. Too bad about the lack of variety and the still missing multiplayer.
  7. Killzone 2
  8. Plants Vs Zombies. This Popcap title stole a ridiculous amount of time this year. Probably the best value for money all year.
  9. Street Fighter IV
  10. Rock Band Unplugged

I’m surprised by how many “small” games there are – mobile games and cheap PC games. Remarkably, the only one I was looking forward to before it hit was Killzone 2, the rest of these have been more or less very happy surprises.

Sep 25 0 comments
XBLA, Xbox 360

Toy Soldiers

World War I has not been used too much in videogames and tower defence games have been seen too much of lately. Combining the two with a cool concept of it all being just toys in a vintage mechanical arcade cabinet type of thing seems like a great fit. Another downloadable title with seemingly more creativity behind it than most retail titles these days.

Sep 06 0 comments
PS2, Xbox 360

Armored Core For Answer

Armored Core For Answer (co-op mode)

Armored Core For Answer (co-op mode)

It is a well-known fact (at least by my wife) that I dig giant robots. Armored Core has always been a series tailored for me, but as it should happen, I’ve only played the PlayStation (one) original before this latest version, released a year ago. I always meant to get the PS2 versions, but I never happened upon them. For Answer (yes, that is the game’s name) feels like a smoother, but essentially identical game. I don’t know if this is a bad thing.

For Answer is definitely not for everyone. I don’t mean that in an elitist stance. It’s just that it’s pretty hard to approach. The controls, while tuned more for humans from the original’s convoluted scheme, are needlessly hard to master. The robots themselves look mouth-watering kind of cool, but the environments and I’m sad to say, effects (smoke and explosions), are really… bad. Like previous console generation standards, and not too convincing even at that level. The 2004 PS2 Transformers does a better job with the visuals, all told. The world setting and the plot are gibberish. I don’t mind, really, but I can see it could be off-putting to some.

Armored Core is a mecha mercenary simulator. You’re given a basic frame and some components to work with and then off you go, trying to make more money out of a mission than you need for ammunition and repairs. Quite often you want to re-do missions to make more money. Between missions, you spend a lot of time changing parts and planning new load-outs depending on your success in the previous mission. The building is rather involved – you need to consider the number of hard points where you can install components, energy consumption, weight and balance, in addition to how good the various components are in what they do. There are a lot of options.

The missions are varied enough to keep you interested, but not very much fun on their own. Rather, you’re always thinking about your machine’s performance and how you should modify it. The combat always feels like a test-run for your new build, as rarely you’re happy with what you have.

So if tinkering with you own giant robot and taking it out for a spin appeals to you, this is your game. If you’re more interested in accessible mecha mayhem, I’m sure there are better games out there.

Aug 30 0 comments
Xbox 360

Wet

Wet

Wet

I liked Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad a lot more than what I can rationally justify. Wet feels a lot like a higher budget version of that game, portrayed as a 70s exploitation flick, much in the same vein as Kill Bill.

Eliza Dushku is a perfect fit for Rubi, the assassin heroine, mostly for her previous role as Faith. The sound design stands out with bold music.

The gameplay feels like Max Payne, which is a good thing. Once you learn the system’s wall runs, knee slides and jumps, going into slow motion whenever you’re doing one of the stunts, it’s easy to look good. I particularly like the way the scoring is always prompting you to chain and vary your killing sprees.

There are several cool mechanics. Firing two guns at two separate targets works well – Rubi automatically aims at the closest bad guy, but it’s up to you to draw a bead at another bad guy. Rubi only fires when you’re pulling the trigger and your aim on the second guy determines how well she handles the first target.

Another well done section is the car chase, where Rubi leaps from car to car, slicing off arms and firing at the pursued vehicles. The acrobatics are all quick time events – hit A to jump in time, hit X to slice off an arm – but they always work the same way and when you’re not pressing a button, you’re taking aim and firing your guns, which works normally. This way you always feel like you’re in control, yet you’re doing very cool acrobatics at the same time. In a way it feels like they could’ve pushed it a little bit further and made it fully interactive, but I gotta say this is enough for me.

I am looking forward to the full title and will likely buy it. Stranglehold did many of the same things, but never grabbed the same way, perhaps because it takes itself a little too seriously.

Aug 23 1 comments
XBLA, Xbox 360, blog, culture

It’s complex

Shadow Complex

Shadow Complex

I liked Orson Scott Card’s original short story of “Ender’s Game”. I was looking forward to checking out some of the author’s other work at some point. When Epic’s 2D Super Metroid homage Shadow Complex was announced, I was mildly interested due to it being based on Card’s novels. The game came out, reviewed very well and I decided to buy it. Then I learned of the many people boycotting the game. I considered this for a day and bought the game for 15 USD.

I am strongly against Card’s world view. This wouldn’t be so much of an issue for me unless he was also an outspoken advocate of these beliefs. It looks like the developer of the game, Chair, and the game’s writer, Peter David, have made an effort to steer clear of Card’s controversial themes while making a kick-ass game. I’ve played the game for most of tonight and it is really, really good. Nothing in the content has jarred with me in any way.

So what we have here is an author I want nothing to do with, lending his name to an entertainment product I enjoy a lot. It helps that as far as I can tell, the author has not collaborated in a very meaningful way with Chair, but rather Chair has taken the fictional world and name from the author to get some PR.

This last bit is what really bothers me, beyond giving some small amount of money to Card through buying the game. According to an article in Gamasutra, Chair’s people are not homophobes to any degree. Maybe they didn’t know about the whole issue when they were working on the game – I know I didn’t. If they did, it bothers me a lot that they would give this publicity to Card, arguably more valuable than anything Card has published, as it’s reaching a new audience for him.

What I decided to do is enjoy the game for what it is (an excellent action adventure I would’ve loved to work on) and talk about my misgivings here. And no, I won’t be buying any books by Card.

Gaygamer’s take on the topic here.

Aug 16 1 comments
XBLA, Xbox 360

Trials HD

Trials HD

Trials HD

RedLynx is a fellow Finnish developer, based close to our offices in Helsinki. I would support them by buying their products in most cases. With Trials HD, released on Xbox Live Arcade this month, I didn’t need the support your local developer incentive: Trials is a great game.

I’ve been trying to explain why I never got on with the equally well received PC version, out last year, titled Trials 2: Second Edition. It’s probably just my general aversion to PC gaming. Trials is the kind of game I want to play on my sofa, preferably passing the controller around while laughing with friends. (Come to think of it, I only play strategy titles on the PC. And the odd FPS.)

The controls fit the Xbox controller very well and it looks great on the TV. Scratch that – it looks great period, a very cool balance between worn-down garage grit and feel-good late afternoon summer bloom.

The gameplay is built around trying to get to the end of a tricky track without falling over. You are on a motocross bike and in addition to throttle and brakes, you only control the rider’s position on the bike. It’s a balancing act of traction, mass and control, often requiring you to bounce the bike by rocking it quickly back and forth to get over an obstacle.

I’ve only made it to the first “extreme” difficulty tracks and cannot figure out how to get over the first obstacle. It’s not too frustrating, although I guess it might be a bit much for obsessive-compulsive types. There’s always your friends’ times to beat and very often you know you could do a track without failing once, if you would only put some more thought into it. Played with friends, it can get hilarious. The physics are very entertaining.

RedLynx has gone overboard with the minigames for a downloadable title. There are many and delightfully many of them require a good degree of skill to dominate. The more simple ones are a little throwaway, but the best ones are just genius, like the one where you’re dragging a cart with two airbombs in it, trying to get them as far as you can within a minute… only the bombs are physical objects and don’t take kindly to being thrown around in the cart.

Great game, great fun, absolutely at home on the XBLA.

Jul 09 0 comments
PC, Xbox 360

MechWarrior

MechWarrior is set to come back and based on this trailer, I’m excited. BattleTech was never my favorite mecha franchise, but great things could be done with it. It sounds like the developer is going to stick to making it feel like an approachable, personal experience, focusing on the feeling of being there in the cockpit of a huge machine. It’s a reboot of the franchise to commemorate 25 years of autocannon history – they’re hoping to make it seem less like a chore to get in by essentially starting at the beginning.

Lots of the things they’re doing are what I care about MechWarrior. It’s about having these immensely powerful machines, without the capacity to churn out more of them. The machines need constant repairs and battlefield salvage is very important. It’s not about cloned armies of disposable machines – here, a single “lance” of a handful of mechs is enough to take an entire planet. It’s not about action movie heroes, it’s about old families and immense responsibility.

Looking forward to it a lot.

May 31 0 comments
Xbox 360

Call Of Duty: World At War

Call Of Duty: World At War, featuring Nazi zombies

Call Of Duty: World At War, featuring Nazi zombies

This weekend I burned hundreds of men alive. I stabbed dozens with bayonets and knives. I shot fleeing soldiers in the back. I shot prisoners. I invaded a dying, broken city and killed its last, weak defenders, unfit for frontline duty. I was used as an example of doing what’s told to a soldier who didn’t want to take the rifle that was given to him. I felt bad about myself for most of the time, when not too engaged in trying to stay alive, and while the audiovisual experience was breathtaking, it was also so much to take in that I thought this is as close as I want to get to photorealism.

There is one scene in Call Of Duty: World At War where you’re actually a hero, landing into a warzone at sea in a plane and dragging drowning sailors to safety with your own hands. There was nothing ugly about that, whereas the rest of the game is… nasty. You’re going through excellently crafted scenes of war and I felt like I was in a museum, experiencing a simulation of what life was like back then. (Although I imagine most troopers did not single-handedly kill thousands in a weekend.) While World At War is a sensational action game first and foremost, I get the feeling that Treyarch does care about the events it’s depicting, taking care not to exploit them. Stalingrad, war on the Pacific, the assault of Berlin – these are not tidy battles and Treyarch is not portraying them as clean fun, either. Certainly it’s not an easy trick to pull off while making million-selling entertainment products.

While I did have fun playing (the tank mission was a blast), I appreciate World At War taking me to places I wish I never have to go. Making me actually think about the people who had to live through it is an accomplishment for any Christmas hit.

After the credits the game launched me into Nazi Zombies, which is all kinds of awesome. It did somewhat cheapen my somber mood, but you don’t have to feel bad about killing Nazi zombies, that’s for sure. They come in waves and you know you gotta surf.