Review - Jurassic Park: The Game

Review - Jurassic Park: The Game

Pros: Captures the feel and mood of the original movie.

Cons: Repetitive gameplay and forgettable storyline.

Final Judgement: Worth the download for fans of the movie who want to relive the experience in an interactive environment.

http://www.telltalegames.com/jurassicpark

Available for: Xbox Live, PS3 Store, PC (Steam), iPad

If I had been writing the Redcoat Review back in early 2010 and not just ranting about various titles to my associates over fermented vegetable drinks, I probably would have named a little ditty by Quantic Dreams as one of the best games of the year. The game was called Heavy Rain and it followed the exploits of four different protagonists as they tried to catch a serial killer and save a young boy. The game was full of intriguing characters, branching plot lines, gripping narrative and gratuitous female nudity. It focused on the narrative storytelling and played like an interactive movie. For example, players interact with characters and the environment through controller movements and button sequences displayed on screen instead of the traditional game controls. Heavy Rain was masterful in execution and I enjoyed every second of its play through. Whenever I jump on my soap box and argue that video games are a legitimate art form that can stand up to award winning books and movies I always speak of Heavy Rain in hushed reverent tones and then hold it aloft so that its radiance can shine down on the masses. If you have never tried this game, go pick it up, you'll thank me.

This man is hardcore, he dosen't look it, but trust me... he is. For the love of god, go play Heavy Rain.

I’m not writing a review of Heavy Rain however, nor am I writing a blog about a sequel to Heavy Rain, This week is a review of a game based around Jurassic Park and all its rippling water and cutting edge CG dinosaurs circa 93. Ah… I remember the first time I saw Jurassic Park the movie. Those were the halcyon days my friends.  I loved everything about that flick, from the T-rex’s enjoyment of freeze tag to the inexplicably complex GUI that the parks computers employed. I also loved the top down/fps video game for the SNES that came out the same year. I fondly recall one warm summer weekend where I set up two TV's in my bedroom so I could watch the movie while I played the game. To me this was the greatest thing ever, it was like being the guy that discovered that Peanut Butter and Jelly together tasted fucking amazing, top of the world... halcyon days..

Ok... So we've come a long way since 93' I know, but this game is still fun.

Any who, the point I'm trying to get across to you is that I loved Heavy Rain and I also loved Jurassic Park. So when I downloaded Jurassic Park: The Game (yes that was the best name they could come up with - Jurassic Park: The Game) off of Steam and found that it was a blending of these two particular joys of mine; it was peanut butter jelly time all the fuck over again. My expectations were high, mayhaps unfairly high, and I found myself slightly disappointed. Jurassic Park: The Game is nowhere near Heavy Rain's calibre.  The plot of Heavy Rain was far more complex and superior to that of Jurassic Park. However, the Jurassic Park game did capture the feel of the original movie and when the credits rolled I wasn't upset by what the game provided me. It was definitely a far better sequel to Jurassic Park then The Lost World or Jurassic Park 3 ever was. Not that it’s hard to top those movies, I mean you could probably just loop keyboard cat for an hour and a half and it would be a better sequel then the lost world.

Now much like Heavy Rain’s plot line , you play as six different protagonists, three of which are main characters and another three that play a supporting role. However, unlike Heavy Rain where the characters are looking at different sides of the same question, and it is only near the end of the game that you see how they are all truly connected, in Jurassic Park the protagonists get thrown together fairly early on and then are forced to work together to escape the dino-ridden island. The three main characters are:

·         Gerry Harding: Jurassic Park's chief veterinarian / absentee father consumed by work stereotype.

·         Jess Harding: Gerry's 15 year old daughter / Lex rip-off / misguided teenager with daddy issues stereotype.

·         Nima Cruz: An Industrial Spy / displaced resident of Ilsa Nublar / little guy trodden on by a large corporation stereotype.

The supporting characters are:

·         Billy Yoder: Soldier of Fortune #1 / wisecracking solider stereotype

·         Oscar Morales: Soldier of Fortune #2 / cold blooded serious solider stereotype

·         Lara Sorkin: The Doctor that originally cloned the dinosaurs / dino rights activist / genius horrified at the application of their discovery stereotype.

The game is split into four episodes with the first one taking place parallel to the movie and the last three taking place within a day or two after the movie.The first episode of the game picks up right around the point in the movie that Dennis Nedry (The guy played by that actor who’s best known as Neuman from Sienfield) steals the Dinosaur embryos from Jurassic Park and shuts down the park's security systems to cover his escape. As we know from the movie, Nedry hides the embryos in a Barbasol can that is a portable cryogenic freezer.  During hisattempt to escape the island his car crashes and he is eaten by a Dilophosaurus. A Dilophosaurus which I can only imagine then developed hyper tension and cholesterol related health problems, as Nedry wasn't exactly a svelte man.

I suppose you could call him human kobe beef

Cruz is sent in to locate Nedry after he fails to show up at his appointed rendezvous.  Upon locating Nedry's ample corpse Cruz searches out the barbasol can.  When she finds the can she is attacked by a venomous dinosaur with sinister glowing eyes and staggers off into the jungle slowly succumbing to the venom. As she emerges from the jungle and on to one of the parks maintenance roads Harding, who is trying to drive his visiting daughter to the dock so she can leave the island, nearly hits Cruz. Harding collects Cruz and upon seeing her condition turns his vehicle around and heads towards the visitors center of the park to treat her. While en route to the visitor’s center it slowly dawns on Harding that the park is in serious trouble and that the wheels have really come off. Before long Harding is face to face with an escaped T-Rex and  the group is forced to work together to survive Jurassic Park and try to escape the island of Ilsa Nublar.

Harding and his Daughter, Lex... I mean Jess

The first episode was great; a large part of the episode is devoted to Nina and her investigation of Nedry's crash scene. As you move about the area you piece together the last few minutes of Nedry's life. The game also completely and faithfully recreated the movie set from the scene where Nedry's demise takes place as well as the visitor’s center.  The rest of the first episode also follows a parallel story line to that of the movie. It felt like I was seeing another side of the movie I enjoyed so much as a kid. However, that is where my enjoyment ended. 

YEAH! Its the tree! With the Jeep! And you can even find that stick Nedry throws!

In the second episode Sorkin, Yoder and Morales are introduced.  The two mercenaries are hired by inGen to rescue the remaining survivors, and from there on out the story of the game really falls on its face.

Episode two as I said introduces the two aforementioned mercenaries hired by inGen to rescue the remaining survivors, and from there on out the story of the game really falls on its face. While Nina, Jess and Gerry are fairly stereotypical characters they are at least enjoyable to watch and play, mostly because the characters do have some development, you learn about their motivations and reasons for doing what they do. Billy and Oscar however are downright cheesy. It’s like they just grabbed two default characters out of the stereotype handbook and rammed them into the plot. For example at one point in episode three Oscar decided that it would be jolly good fun to stalk a velociraptor, and then, using only a knife, goes toe to toe with one because he’s awesome and has every person he’s ever killed tattooed on his arm as a skull. Alternatively Billy gets chased by the T-Rex and instead of doing what a normal person would do which is… probably scream… he cracks wise while fleeing for his god damned life, because he’s the comic relief but still hardcore. It’s like Michael Bay was hired as a consultant for character creation.

I mean look at him... I bet when you heard the name Oscar Morales, you probably pictured exactly that.

There were many points throughout the remaining episodes that your merry band of survivors basically escaped from Jurassic Park only to get re-stranded on the island. At these points it felt like the writers shoehorned in a reason to continue the story. This created a decidedly ho-hum plot line in the remaining episodes and essentially just played the "escape from the dinosaur" scenario over and over. If it wasn't for the occasional character interactions between Gerry and Nina where you see some glimmers of character development and the soundtrack, which is taken directly from the movie, I might have not been able to finish the game. This is not say that the plot doesn’t take a bit of a rebound near the end of the final episode and start to get good again, but for the most part episodes two, three and four were all but disappointing.

"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING??"

The plot isn't really helped either by repetitive gameplay which quickly transitions from novel to tedious.  Again, in Heavy Rain, the traditional control method was eschewed for a system which had players follow on screen ques to perform actions in game. This worked because it was well implemented.  There were many different types of actions and the gameplay was paced appropriately so that players still felt drawn into the game and challenged. Jurassic Park: The Game also went for this style of game play but falls short of Heavy Rain's implementation. There are only a handful of different actions that players need to perform and the game really isn't that challenging, all you need to do is have rudimentary motor skills and any player can stumble their way through a scene successfully. They may not get a "gold" rating for the scene, but the ratings don't affect the plot or story in anyway so there is no incentive to want to replay scenes to obtain that flawless result.

You could try to dodge the spit... or you can just take it like a champ and continue on... your choice, either way no big deal.

Jurassic Park: The Game is a hammy waltz through the world created by the movie. The characters are flat and the plot isn't exactly ground breaking. However fans will enjoy the game for what it is - an extension of the movie. With a cost of about $35 Canadian I'm willing to overlook many of its flaws given its value price point. It’s like the straight to DVD movies that invariably follow Disney's blockbusters, sure they aren't great, but you watch them because it’s more of what attracted you to the movie in the first place. Yes gameplay isn't too challenging, but some days you don't want to climb Kilimanjaro, sometimes you just want to go for a stroll in the park. A stereotypical, repetitive, park.

Review - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Review – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Pros: Fantastic Graphics, Excellent multiplayer, polished gameplay.

Cons: Nothing new innovations from the last two Modern Warfare titles. The quest for an epic conclusion to the saga goes over the top and campy.

Final Judgement: Heavily slanted towards multiplayer, a must for online shooter players.

 

www.callofduty.com/mw3

Available for PC, PS3, Xbox, Wii

Oh Boy…

Where do I begin? Let me start by saying that I’m not a real fan of Military shooter sims, specifically the ones in the Battlefield and Call of Duty vein.  Although I enjoy the relentless explosions and noise, the developers invariably rely on you playing the multiplayer aspects in order to flesh out your gaming experience. They’re like a full course meal. They give you a single player campaign appetizer to get your mouth watering, hoping that you’ll then fill up to bursting on capture the flag and king of the hill and death match. As a result, the single player campaigns are, as a wise man once said: Nasty, brutish and short. Now I play video games to escape from people.  A game which requires me to play with others in order to gain the full gaming experience is not my cup of tea.  This is not to say that I have never thoroughly enjoyed multiplayer games, but those are always under the right circumstances with the right people. Getting repeatedly shot in the face by a pimple faced, overweight, basement dwelling, mouth breather half a world away while he decries the sexual promiscuity of my mother and his extra marital relations with her is not my idea of a good time. I simply don’t have the patience to sit there and get as they say “pwned” for days on end while I build the rudimentary skills to not be called “noob”.  Now I don’t necessarily dislike Battlefield and Call of Duty, I just don’t want to pay full retail price for a game that I’m only buying for twenty to thirty percent of the game that makes up the single player experience. That being said, I went out and bought Modern Warfare 3 at full retail price because I’m committed to you dear reader and to bringing you timely and insightful rants about video games.

Because I’m cool like that.

Let me start by saying, I am all for fantastical tales of adventure, magic and danger. I`ll suspend my disbelief to the point where I`ll allow you to say that Yanni is fucking metal provided you give me a framework to deal with. That being said, Modern Warfare 3`s plot is like a bad Nicholas Cage movie. It’s like Infinityward`s writers gave up on trying to come up with a plausible story for a world war, broke out the jack daniels and started throwing plot hooks at the wall to see what would stick.

Actual photo from theLead Writer's Office

As you may or may not recall, in the previous game, Russia invaded The Eastern Seaboard of the United States after the villain, Vladimir Makarov, engineered a slaughter at a Russian Airport in which an undercover CIA agent took part and then was killed at and left at the scene to implicate the United States.

You know, I'm for the most part against censorship in games, but even I thought this level was a bit much.

Well, in Modern Warfare 3, the first part of the game focuses on the US Army repelling the Russian invasion of New York. After you succeed in halting their advance and forcing them to retreat from America`s shores. The game switches to the Russian President on his private jet with his daughter flying to meet the US President for peace negotiations… Peace negotiations. Hang on a second, didn`t he just declare war on the USA because of the actions of one, possibly rouge agent? Now, Modern Warfare didn’t mention any elections or regime change in Russia, So this is the same guy that just declared war literally days before, and now he’s all “We must make NATO our friend, so that we may have peace.” I don’t know how receptive the USA or NATO are going to be to that olive branch considering I saw a lot of dead civilians in Manhattan.

It will be like 9/11 times 2356!

But before he can get to the peace talks he’s kidnapped by Makarov.

Russia’s response to this is then to invade Europe. All of it, at the same time, in one day and no one saw them coming. Didn’t anyone notice the legions of soldiers and companies of tanks parked at their city limits grunting and gunning their engines? This is where I really call bullshit. How does Russia have so many resources that it can attack America and then invade all of Europe the next day? How did they manage to attack London, Paris, Prague, Berlin and others at the same time? Like shouldn’t it take them at least a few days to get across the continent?

It seems like every movie and game lately in France features the Eiffel Tower getting all fucked up.

The only concession to the story line I can make is the way in which Russia kicked off operation “invade everywhere right the hell now”. They start their master plan by detonating trucks full of chemical weapons in all of the major cities of Europe, terrorist style.  I’ll give them this one because this was an actual Russian plan during the cold war that was to be implemented by the Vympel unit of the cold war Spetsnaz (Russian Special Forces). You see the Vympel were created by the KGB for deep penetration, espionage and covert action. Operatives spoke foreign languages and were intended to act in countries, deep behind enemy lines. They were also trained in special and improvised explosives and used terrorist style attacks as part of their operations. So I suppose a bunch of Special Forces guys detonating chemical weapons in city centers is crazy but plausible.

Anyway, the story goes on and the war escalates.  Just when humanity seems doomed the Special Forces Task force, that you play, determines the location where Makarov is holding the Russian president.  You then engage in a climactic battle underground in a diamond mine. The prez is rescued at the expense of most of the US Special Forces… And then World War 3 abruptly ends. All is forgiven, the invasion of North America, the unprovoked attack on Europe and the use of Chemical Weapons on non-combatant civilians. You think that would all make for a fairly awkward first round of peace talks, but no it’s all Vodka under the bridge and the world goes back to normal. It’s a bit too perfect of a wrap up I was half expecting one of the main characters waking up and realizing it was all a dream. I really don’t know what happened to the writing in this game, the first story was great, the seconds was a bit more fantastical and James Bond-ish but still very good, this… this was just out of hand, I was half expecting Russia to invade the internet so that they could destroy the moon or some shit.

They're getting to it... its on their list.

Any who, let’s talk a bit about gameplay. Now let me see if I can properly crystalize the experience of playing the game for you in a written format; it goes a little something like this:

AHH! SHITS ON FIRE! AHH! SOME DUDES ARE SHOOTING AT YOU! AHH! THAT BUILDING JUST EXPLODED! AHH! LOOK OUT GRENADE! AHH-aww you died, here’s a quote about war. Its ok though because you re-spawned so look out because- SHITS ON FIRE!…

The above is literally how the entire single player campaign plays out. Is it exciting? Definitely.  Repetitive?  Yeah, a little bit. Almost every mission follows the exact same formula:

·         Your character enters the battlefield and things go sideways fairly quick. 

·        Just as things start to go your way your character gets hit by an explosion or other catastrophe and is knocked senseless.  You are then rescued by a squad mate, allowing you to pick up a gun and finish the battle all Rambo style.

The above would be great if it wasn’t the norm. Modern Warfare 1 and 2 both used this formula, however it was used sparingly, which made it exciting when it happened. It made the battle feel that much more pitched and reminded me of some of the great war movies like Blackhawk Down and We were Soldiers.  However, when it happens in every mission like it does in MW3, the formula loses its effect and becomes more of a sign post for how far through the battle you are.

"Get up! Big finale time!"



There really is nothing new or revolutionary about Modern Warfare 3’s gameplay elements.  You still switch between different characters and some missions break away from the action to allow you to command Predator Drones, Gun Ships or air strikes. Which is still fun but MW3 has lost some of the novelty and wow factor that the original AC-130 mission had back in Modern Warfare 1. I`m sure Infinityward would argue that they`re just giving people more of what they like and I would tend to agree. I still enjoyed raining down fire and brimstone on my hapless foes from a gunship, however it would be nice to see them pull out an event or mission that we hadn`t experienced at least three or four times prior.

Repetition aside any veteran of the Modern Warfare Series can tell you that one of the games signatures are the details. The graphics are incredible, the visuals, the environmental effects and the character models are all top notch. As well, Infinityward takes pride in putting out a technically accurate package; they’re like the Gran Turismo of Military shooters. All of the firearms and equipment that you can pick up and use in the game exist in the real world more or less exactly as they are depicted in the video game world.

Credit where credit is due, this game looks awesome.



The game’s AI Is also very polished. Your foes use cover techniques effectively and will attempt to flank you or flush you out with grenades if they notice you camping behind cover for too long. The enemy also has some unique behaviors that add flare to the combat. They’ll react to injury and battle damage, limping or laying on the ground and firing at you with a pistol while crawling to cover. They’ll also pick up specialty weapons that their fallen comrades drop which can make a threat that you thought was neutralized reappear rather suddenly and pick you off when you turn your attention elsewhere.

So overall the game play is great.  You`ll enjoy the battles, the graphics, the vehicle sections and the authenticity of the gear you use. You will not however, experience anything new or see anything that you haven`t seen at least a couple of times before in the previous modern warfare games

Although I haven’t played the multiplayer aspect of the game, several of my associates have and they all swear by it stating that it’s the best multiplayer experience going at the moment. As for the single player campaign, it’s pretty, it’s exciting, it’s fun, but the plot is a bit on the crazy side. Shut your brain off, don’t think too hard about it and you’ll have a good time. Do I recommend Modern Warfare 3? For the online gamers, you already have it by this point I’m sure and don’t need my opinion. For the casual or single players, think of it like a campy summer action flick. You aren’t there for the story, you’re there for the explosions and action. Modern Warfare has both in spades. 

Review - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Review: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Pros: Revamped levelling and advanced combat system makes the game accessible to a wider audience.

Cons: Busy storyline and numerous quests make it easy to lose focus and become overwhelmed

Final Judgement: A must for any fan of Elder Scrolls or RPG’s (Roll Playing Game) but definitely not the title for the casual gamer.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim

Available for: PS3, Xbox, PC

Vikings! Mead swilling, axe wielding, village pillaging, fuck-you-and-your-culture-I-have-a-horned-hat wearing Vikings. If you think about what it is to be hard core, if you examine the tao of it, Vikings a.k.a. the Norse more or less have it on lock down. Only the Norse could come up with a story where the hero kills a dragon, bathes in its blood and then eats its heart. You may be asking: “Redcoat, why would he do this?” Well he was bored and an old man told him to. Some old guy said ‘Hey whipper-snapper, go have a dragon blood bath.’ and his response was: ‘Roger that old dude, dragon killing time.’ The Norse are also the men who believed the goal in life was to pick fights and die a warrior’s death. That way the top god Odin would put you on the guest list of the giant party that was the afterlife. There you would get pissed on mead with your dead buddies until the end of the world. At which point you go forth and die all over again in bloody combat while the world burns and I can only assume Odin wails away in the background on a guitar. As I said, the Norse, much like the Wu-Tang Clan ain’t noth’in to fuck with.

This is what the Norse looked forward to in the afterlife. Hardcore.

There really aren’t a lot of good games on the market that explore Norse Mythos or culture.  Too Human was essentially a sci-fi retelling of Ragnarok (the Apocalypse).  However, most people couldn’t finish the game because every time you died you had to watch a thirty second cut scene just so youcould respawn. Valkyrie Profile was another great game, but it was more just using the names and places as opposed to really following the Mythos.  

So here comes Skyrim, the fifth entry in the Elder Scrolls saga. Imagine my joy at picking up the game and being immediately inundated with Norse inspired story lines all mixed in with Dungeons, Dragons-esque fantasy, magic and role playing. Indeed, Role Playing Game + Norse Mythos = Win. Can it get better? I submit to you, that it cannot.

The game is not based on Norse Mythology but rather inspired by the culture and legends. Norse architecture dots the landscape of the game.  Norse titles such as “Thane” are bantered around and the world is populated with tall muscular and pale humans called Nords who have a distinct Scandinavian accent. The Norse legends are subtly woven into the main story lines. One legend in particular is central to the story and appears a few hours into game when you character learns he or she can “Shout” or project magic by uttering a word of power. Apparently this is a big deal as you are the first person in many years to possess this ability.

This is Sven... he's a Nord. Not Norse... Nord.

In Norse Mythos, Odin has this exact same power. The myth is described in the poem Havamal.  The poem follows Odin, the original Charlie Sheen, as he tries to prove how ‘winning’ he is by hanging himself from the tree of the world. He did this as a sacrifice… to himself. That’s right; he felt he was such a rock star from mars that the only person worthy of sacrifice to Odin was Odin. I would accuse Odin of being a narcissist but I’m fairly sure he’d kick my ass. Long story short, he hung around (tee-hee) for nine days on the tree at which point his sacrifice was so bat shit insane that he unlocked the mysteries of the Runes which were magic words he could utter or shout to create miraculous effects. A focus of the games story is your characters quests to harness the power of his voice by learning the runic language of dragons. Ability to kill people by saying a word, thanks Odin, that’s a sexy hook for a game.

"Hanging from a tree to get power? Duh... Winning."

Elder Scroll games are like a Universe in themselves, trying to catalogue everything that’s going on in them will break you. The good news however, is that each game has you create your own character which you then play in a unique land with an innumerable number of story paths available to choose. Because of this unparalleled freedom Bethesda is forced to make each individual game its own self-contained story that only shares a common thread of all occurring on the same planet with the same history. The developers simply couldn’t make a story that builds on its self as no one would be able to keep track of what was supposed to be going on. Simply put, you don’t have to play the previous games to enjoy Skyrim, there is really nothing for you to know, and you can pick it up blind and understand the story.

Speaking of the story, Bethesda Software has claimed that this is the largest Elder Scrolls game to date and has three hundred hours of game play and story events. As a result the ten or so hours I’ve been able to put into the game so far really doesn’t scratch the surface of its plot and I’m not even going to comment on it beyond saying that what I’ve seen of the main plot line so far is engaging and original.  What I can talk about is the sheer amount of things that you can do in the game. You can, in fact, completely ignore the main quest of the game, and Skyrim won’t hold it against you. Everywhere you go in Skyrim you are going to find ruins to explore, people that can be friends or foes and quests to play through. The game offers several different guilds and associations that your character can join. Each of these groups has their own campaigns and story lines that you can experience and could be considered stand-alone plots. You are free to more or less to experience Skyrim and craft your experience as you see fit. The main plot is just an experience that Skyrim is recommending. I have to say it’s a refreshing change to have the freedom to do what you want in a game and not be reminded constantly about what the game feels you should be doing.   

Each of the people in this screen capture have a quest for you.

Skyrim also has made some major gameplay mechanic changes since the last entry in the series.

The first thing a veteran to the Elder Scrolls series is going to note is that the levelling system has been reworked. In previous instalments of the game, after selecting your race then gender and appearance, you selected favoured abilities and major skills. Using these abilities and skills caused your character to level up. The system was nice because you could create any combination of these skills and abilities that you wanted and then create a class name that was unique to your characters configuration alone. It also meant that you could take some rather silly skills such as athletics (your ability to run) as a major ability and level up by just running around a town. It also made it so your minor abilities were fairly difficult to develop. What it came down to is that you could create any character you wanted, but if you wanted to be able to play the game in a way that wasn’t a constant uphill battle you were forced to give up some of the skills you wanted for skills that were boring but made your life a lot easier.

The new leveling system has you star gaze to choose your characters path in life... there is something so very zen about that.

In Skyrim, Bethesda has done away with the complex levelling up and creation system. All characters now start the same. You level up by preforming any one of 16 skills.  The more you use any skill such as swinging an axe or shooting a bow the quicker that skill increases. As your skills increase your level increases. When you level up you choose to increase one of three attributes, mana (your ability to cast spells) health or stamina. You then choose one perk for the skills, such as making locks easier to pick or making your swords do more damage and that’s it. It’s simple, it doesn’t fence you in with a structured class and it gives you a lot more leeway to play your character how you want. The new system takes a bit of getting used to, but in my opinion superior to the old complicated one.

The combat system has also been reworked and improved. The first person sword play feels a lot more natural and less like you’re just repeatedly waving a stick in the direction of your foe. The game has also included pre-scripted critical hits and finishing moves.  For example, the action will now break away from first person to a cinematic third person clip of you running a monster through on your sword or beheading a crippled foe. These cinematic breaks add some much needed variation and visual pop to the combat of the game without interrupting the pacing of combat.

Get used to this... Dragons really, really don't like you.

Any fan of RPG or fantasy settings can find something that they will enjoy in Skyrim. However, Skyrim is probably not the game for someone who is either new to gaming or new to the role playing genre. Skyrim does not hold your hand, it places the experience of playing the game very much with the player. As a result, what the player puts in is what they will get out of it. Skyrim will tell you where you should go but the player has to be the one driving the story forward.   The game will also continue to barrage you with new quests and plots as you are trying to work through an adventure. This happens so often that I could easily see a player getting overwhelmed and not knowing how to proceed or which quest to tackle next.

So for fans of Elder Scrolls, Skyrim is a fantastic next chapter. For the casual or busy gamer, who likes to be able to pick up and put down games, Skyrim is definitely not the title for you. Its streamlined levelling system and revamped combat has made the game more accessible and easier to play but the game is vast and deep that it can be easy to lose yourself and your plot direction amongst the many plains and mountains in vast land of Skyrim.

Review - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Review – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Pros: Exciting game play with cinematic pacing.

Cons: Finicky controls can make Drake difficult to control.

Final Judgement:  Great stand-alone story line and incredible visuals makes Uncharted 3 a must for adventure gamers.

http://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted

Available for: PS3

It was two weeks before ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ was due out in theaters when I finally decided to sit down, for the first time, and watch the Trilogy in its entirety.  There I was, all innocent and excited, clutching the trilogy in my hot little hands. I watched Raiders, thoroughly impressed.  Upon the roll of the credits, I immediately stuffed Temple of Doom in to the DVD player. I hit play.  Then, as if God was punishing me for my hubris, a pre-diabetic Asian dwarf shoe horned his way onto the screen and Jones' love intrest was screaming like a bitch about the semantics of sinking and crashing. My expression faded from a smile of joy to a grimace of pain and disappointment. By the end of the second movie I was a broken man, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the third. I spent the next two weeks convincing myself that the new movie would be better; that it would redeem the cinematic holocaust that I had borne witness to. So I bought a ticket, sat in the theater and watched a movie about aliens and Harrison Ford surviving a nuclear bomb inside a fridge. Some days I still stare longingly out the window and sigh wistfully at what might have been…

Now I tell you this because I really like adventure stories.  I like tales of lost treasure and ancient conspiracies, especially ones that are at least superficially grounded in actual historical events. It’s why Uncharted holds a special place in my heart, Uncharted to me is what Indiana Jones should have been. Naughty Dog Games created the adventure game formula with the journeys of our hero Nathan Drake, his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan and his on again off again paramour Elena Fisher. Unlike Indiana Jones, which every second movie slaps us across the face with a dick, Uncharted just gets better with each game. Naughty Dog also crafted their stories to be stand alone with only an overarching side story involving Drake and Elena. You can pick it up, play and totally understand the characters and their relationships without having to play the other games.

They're back and looking for another lost city to destroy shortly after they rediscover it.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception follows Drake and crew as they travel around the world looking for the Lost City of Ubar or as Lawrenceof Arabia called it “The Atlantis of the Sands”. The plot begins with SirFrancis Drake, who was apparently searching for Ubar while he was supposed to be sailing in the West Indies during 1570 and 1571. A search which Drake promptly gave up on because he probably stopped and asked himself why a bad ass sea captain/pirate such as himself was spending all his time fucking around in the god damn desert. A desert which any scholar will tell you is the exact opposite of an ocean. Deserts and lost cities also have nothing to do with boats or stomping Spaniards, both of which were Drake’s bread and butter.

You really can't blame Drake, I mean, this Spaniard looks like a total douche.

The game purports that Drake was a part of a secret society working along with the Occult Mathematician / beard enthusiast John Dee for Queen Elizabeth 1 to execute her wishes.  The game also implies that hundreds of years later Lawrence of Arabia was murdered by the same secret society after he stumbled upon Drake’s trail while researching Ubar. Nathan Drake, the hero of our game, gets involved because he believes he is Francis’ descendant. As he works towards discovering the secret of Ubar the same shadowy group tries to take Drake out while simultaneously looking for the city themselves, which kinda makes their motivations a bit confusing. First they’re looking for the city, then they cover it up, then they kill Lawrence of Arabia for looking for it, then they start looking for it again while trying to kill someone else who is looking for it. Do they want to find or not?

"Gimmie that ring, I need it to find or perhaps loose a city... its complicated, you wouldn't understand."

Before I talk about the game play I’m going to side track for a moment.  As you may recall, in my introduction, I mentioned that Naughty Dogs gets many of the foundations for the Uncharted series from actual historical events. I’m no historian but I was able to verify some of the more interesting points about Drake, Dee and the lost city of Ubar used by Uncharted. Points which I thought were just spice added by Naughty Dog for the game but turned out to be historical fact! Pull up a chair while I rap at you about some of these historic nuggets from the Game:

·         Drake and Queen Elizabeth were quite buddy-buddy.  In fact, after he returned from his circumnavigation of the planet, a.k.a. “Operation Spanish Smack-down 1” during which time he accrued more ill-gotten booty from the Spaniards then the crown took in by itself that entire year, the Queen knighted him, gave him a jewel depicting her portrait (a very uncommon honour to be bestowed on a commoner) and then promptly declared his entire endeavour a state secret and classified all documents pertaining to his most excellent adventure. Think about that, a round planet is a relatively new idea and the dude just sailed around the god damn planet. The Queen’s response: good job… now don’t tell anyone.

"Good job bro... now everyone forget this happened."

·         In the game they cite John Dee as the original “007” and have documents where Dee signed his name with the image now synonymous with Ian Flemmings alcoholic British nymphomaniac. Dee actually did work as an informant to the Queen and signed his letters to her with two circles, as if to say he was the Queen’s eyes and a stylized number seven which he believed was a lucky number. Ian Flemming used Dee as inspiration for James Bond even though Dee, as far as I can tell, never played Baccarat or drove an Aston Martin.  

No shit! I can't make this stuff up!

·         Ubar or “The Atlantis of the Sands” is a legend of an ancient city that existed in the Rub’ al Khali desert and was destroyed by a supposed act of god. There is a great amount of debate about where the city was and the wealth that it contained.  However some archeological records have been found that mention the city as a trading partner, meaning this place actually existed and probably just got over embezzled,like how people say Meg Ryan is a totally great actress and then you watch Proof of Life.

See? Interesting stuff; now you know the secret origin story of James Bond. Feel free to use those facts next time you’re trying to impress some strange at the local bar… you’re welcome. Now back to game play.

Uncharted 3 keeps great pacing that always has Drake minutes away from his next harrowing escape or battle. The game creates a balance between puzzle elements, stealth situations and frantic gun fights.  The puzzle elements make you stop and think, without being frustrating, while the frantic gun fights have you dashing between points of cover while blazing away at enemies. Throughout the game there are climactic and dramatic chases as well as escapes that really manage to pull the player into the game.  

For example, the box art of the Game shows Drake among the wreckage of a crashed plane in the desert. The game sequence leading up to the crash has you controlling Drake as he fights for his life in the cargo hold of the plane. As the battle goes on, you and your opponents cause collateral damage to the plane causing  it to pitch and the difficulty level of the battle to steadily increase.  This continues until a quick time event occurs that has Drake getting sucked out of a hole in the fuselage of the plane over the desert.  Drake desperately works his way to an air drop cargo pallet that is free falling. As you get Drake to the pallet you have to mash the controller repeatedly to get him to cling to the cargo and manually deploy its parachute. Yes I know it sounds ridiculous and not based anywhere near reality, but the camera angles employed as you’re spinning through the air in a free fall over the desert mixed with a great soundtrack make the scene amazing and had me on the edge of my seat.

It's shit like this that makes me hate flying.

Uncharted 3 also features some excellent cinematography and directing that employs creative camera angles and zoom outs for dramatic effect. The graphics are also vibrant and well detailed.   Lots of care was put into little details such as pictures on room walls or items on coffee tables. Naughty Dog also put a lot of effort into the character models and faces, which move and convey emotion very well. Put together the visuals of Uncharted 3 and the game could very easily be mistaken for a movie as opposed to a video game.

Drake gives us his best "Magnum" look.

However with all the good that can be found in Uncharted 3 there is also bound to be some bad which, while not game breakers, were at times distracting.

The first issue I found was in a way linked to the excellent character models I just mentioned.  Uncharted 3 included an innovation where Drake now reacts dynamically to his surrounding environment. When Drake gets near a wall he will put his hand out to balance himself against it as he moves. It also means he will stumble or stagger if you run him over uneven ground, cower behind cover and generally look like he’s doing everything he can to not die. During the chase and action sequences this really adds to the mood and tension of the game.  It provides a more human and cinematic feel to the game. However, Drake is always doing this, even when he’s just on a Sunday walk in the market. When there is no rush and no one is trying to harm him, Drake runs around stumbling, looking over his shoulder and pushing off walls. When you aren’t in a life and death situation it looks silly and creates the opposite effect, killing the mood of the game. It would have been nice if they had made his movements context sensitive or included a button you could press to make Drake walk like a normal person.

The biggest issue I had however was that the controls could be a bit finicky during game play. I found the analog sticks to be a bit too sensitive which made precision aiming during gun battles tricky. When I tried turning down the sensitivity in the control options I found the aiming to be too sluggish.  After playing with the sensitivity sliders for a while I was disappointed to find that I was unable to get a happy medium. Drake was either hopped up on horse tranquilizers or on his fifth cup of coffee for the day. Eventually I just went with the default aiming sensitivity and made the best of it.

The finicky controls also became an issue during the aforementioned action sequences where Drake is desperately trying to avoid death.  There are moments of confusion as to what you are supposed to be doing or where you are supposed to be running. I found myself dying most of the time in these sequences.  Not so much because they were too challenging but because the game just wasn’t clear as to where I was supposed to be going. What looked like a path would turn out to be a cliff that resulted in instant death.  Sometimes the game just didn’t give enough cues or warning as to which direction you should be running in to avoid whatever apocalypse was going down around our hero.

Honestly, would it kill them to give you an arrow or sign to follow?

I have to recommend Uncharted 3 for both fans of the series and new comers alike. The story is what I’ve come to love about Uncharted and holds its own against similar games such as Tomb Raider and the other entries in the Uncharted series. The visuals are excellent and well detailed and the action sequences, while occasionally a bit unclear and finicky to control, are exciting and will draw you in to game.

Review - Batman: Arkham City

Review – Batman: Arkham City

Pros: Excellent game play with a well thought out story line.

Cons: Mark Hamill's last time playing the Joker

Final Judgement: Easily one of the best games released this year, fans of both adventure games and the Batman Franchise will truly enjoy the play through.

http://community.batmanarkhamcity.com/game/

Available for: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Back in 1992, when I was but a lad, I stumbled upon a show that would change the way I thought of cartoons. It depicted a dark world with psychological adult oriented plot lines. The characters in the show fought each other by punching, kicking, and using honest to goodness guns on each other. Guns that fired god damn bullets and not “fru-fru lets all hug” laser beams. Oh and best of all, the heroes and villains got hurt, and they bled actual blood and sometimes they even died.

The show was Batman: The Animated Series. I was hooked immediately.  I continued to watch the show long after they stopped production.  When I couldn’t find it on TV anymore I bought the entire series on DVD.   The show has now been around for almost twenty years and I still find myself throwing it on the home theater a couple times a year.

Seriously, go watch these... You'll be glad you did.

I could honestly go on for hours singing the show’s praises, but for the sake of time and people’s attention spans, allow me to rattle off a few quick facts about why this show was so damn great.

-          The series was inspired by Frank Miller and his timeless graphic novel “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”.  Note I said, The Dark Knight Returns, which I recommend every one reads and not Miller’s glue huffing dog’s lunch of a sequel “Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again” which is so terrible I refuse to even link to it out of fear some misinformed reader will accidently purchase a copy.

 

What the hell was Miller thinking when he wrote this? I think it may have been "Contractual Obligation".

-        The actors all recorded their lines together in the same recording studio as opposed to being in separate rooms and never meeting face to face. This allowed the actors to play off each other and create more natural and authentic character interaction. At the time it was the only cartoon recorded in this fashion; this method has since become a standard for all DC Cartoons.

-        Throughout the shows run it won four Emmy’s and was nominated for six others. IGN called it the best comic book cartoon of all time and the second best animated series of all time.

-        The show has been celebrated for having a very high production value including hand painted backdrops and original orchestrated pieces by eight different composers, including Danny Elfman.

-         Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, used two distinct voices to depict Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman. This was the first time an actor playing Batman had done so. This was Conroy’s own idea.

-         Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill re-launched his acting career as a voice actor playing a homicidally whimsical Joker.

-         Harley Quinn, The Jokers sidekick, was created exclusively for the show. As well, Mr. Freeze, who before was only a bit part mad scientist, was reimagined in the show to be a tragic and vindictive figure lamenting his doomed wife. Both Quinn and the deep complex Mr. Freeze were so popular that DC Comics actually changed the canon of the Batman Universe. Quinn was made a recurring character and Freeze, who had been killed off years before was brought back with a personality and back story taken from the animated show.

Though she was a bit more "PG" looking in the cartoon

Now the reason I’m prattling on so much about the animated series, aside from the fact that it’s awesome, is because both Batman Arkham City and the previous game Arkham Asylum are very heavily influenced by the Animated Series. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and several other voice actors from the series come back to reprise their roles and lend their talents to the game. More to the point however, both games were written by Paul Dini who was the writer for twenty three episodes in the series as well as the theatrical movie that accompanied the show, Batman: Mask of the Phantasam. I would not be surprised if Rocksteady Games made these games for the fans of the Animated Series as they really feel like an extension of the show for the now adult audience that was first captivated by it back in the ninety’s.

For those who haven’t played Arkham Asylum, allow me to sum it up, Batman captures the Joker and delivers him to the asylum which is currently over crowded as a result of a fire at the nearby Blackgate Penitentiary. Of course getting caught is all part of the Jokers master plan to stage a takeover of Arkham Asylum with the help of side kick Harley Quinn. As Batman face-punches his way through the Asylum he faces off with Poison Ivy, Bane, The Riddler, Quinn and The Scarecrow. During this time Batman learns the Joker is using the asylum to manufacture the super steroid “Titan”, the drug which makes Bane look like he’s been power lifting exclusively with his neck muscles. The Joker injects himself with Titan.  Then Batman and The Joker have a throw down on the roof of the Asylum while TV helicopters circle and I can only assume broadcast the entire spectacle. Batman wins the day and all is returned to normal… Or is it?


No, of course it isn’t, after all this is the Batman universe, nothing stays normal. What would happen if the Joker just stayed in Prison for more than a week? Are you going to read a comic about Bruce Wayne reviewing his stock portfolio or planning a trip to Ibiza?

"Tee-hee"

So in the lead up to Arkham City, here’s whats been going down;  Arkham  Asylum is fucked worse than a frat house after frosh week. It’s now been about a year since the Joker tried to steal Mark Mcgwire’s bit and Hulked out. The former warden of Arkham Quincy Sharp, has been elected mayor of Gotham.  Quincy being the proactive prison warden turned mayor that he is, has converted the slums of North Gotham into Arkham City. A giant walled off section of the city in which all the insane and hardened criminals of Gotham could totally wail on each other. A giant re-enforced cement wall which was apparently built in less than a year. You know, because that’s totally do-able, I mean they`re building a bridge near my house which has taken almost three years and its only half done, and that’s just a bridge. This is a two hundred foot high re-enforced cement wall with gun emplacements, surveillance equipment and missile launchers.  

Anyway, Batman being the only sane person in Gotham sees that the super prison probably isn’t a good idea and starts using his alter ego Bruce Wayne to get all up in Arkham City’s business politically. For his troubles he’s arrested by the security company in charge of Arkham City and is caber tossed over the wall faster than an acrobatic fat kid breaking in to a pie factory.

That’s how the game starts, Bruce Wayne locked up in Arkham City. Before long you change into the Dark Knight and start face punching your way through many more mindless thugs along your path to uncover the master plan of Arkham City and its warden Dr. Hugo Strange.  Along the way you’ll encounter the Joker,  the Riddler, Penguin, Two Face  and others including Mr. Freeze who I must say has an excellent fight sequence.

Arkham City is beautifully crafted.  The character models and environment look great and really capture the dark feel of the source material. Batman’s villains have all been given makeovers to give them a more sinister edge but any fan of the show or comics will still instantly recognize who they are supposed to be. For example the Penguin was changed from the Danny DeVito malformed hunchback into more of a sleazy businessman and arms dealer with a penchant for sadism and torture. 

Thats a broken beer bottle shoved into his left eye by the way... Ouch.

Arkham City eschews the previous games linear progression for an open sandbox style setting, allowing Batman to freely roam the prison, with all areas of the game available to the player from the start of the game. Needless to say this game is huge. It has easily twenty five to thirty hours of game play, split between the main story, side quests and Riddler challenges. There are even easter eggs tucked away in the game for people to discover, such as Crime Alley where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered. The chalk outlines of his fallen parents recreated by Dr. Strange as part of his attempts to get into Batman’s head.  There is also a code for DLC included with the game that allows you to play as Catwoman. She plays a supporting role to Batman and has her own side story a side story that can trigger an alternate ending to the game, depending on a choice she has to make. No one will leave this game wanting more from it or feeling that they didn’t get their money’s worth.

"What do the five fingers say to the two-face?"

As for the gameplay, basically take the Stealth Action of Metal Gear Solid, and instead of being a mulleted rip off of Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York, you’re the god damn Batman. The out and out street brawls where Batman or Catwoman take on hordes of thugs all at once are exciting and fast paced. You can wade into the middle of battle and convincingly lay the smack down thanks to icons that appear over a thugs head when they are readying an attack. All you have to do is press the counter button, and the attack is countered, that’s it. No complex combos, no moving the analog stick in the direction of the attack, just tap the counter button and you’re done. If there is more than one attacker coming at you just tap the counter button twice.  It’s simple and keeps the game fun and you actually feel like a super hero. This isn’t to say that it makes combat easy, far from it, counters do minimal damage and if you want to thin the ranks of bad guys you need to go on the offensive. This is where the game can get difficult.  While you’re trying to finish off one bad guy you may not notice the other two thugs sneaking up behind you.  

Does Batman look worried? He isn't.

However, more often than not the game focuses on takedown scenes where Batman is locked in a room with several armed thugs. In order to survive you need to use stealth and Batman’s utility belt of gadgets to strike from the shadows, snatching and subduing your opponent’s, leaving only an unconscious thug’s body behind for the remaining ones to find. During these sequences the music switches between stealthy subdued themes to booming crescendos as you move between waiting in the shadows to pouncing your enemies. These scenes are incredibly fun and while they do require a bit of patience and planning, nothing is more rewarding than watching the hard boiled thugs go from calm to terrified as you pick them off from the shadows.

They have no idea that they are mere seconds from "Go Time"

Arkham City is a well thought out, well-polished game. I have real trouble finding fault with any part of this games experience. Given that Batman is a household name and everyone is more or less familiar with who he is, anyone can pick up Arkham City and enjoy it.

Everyone loves a little Batman/Catwoman sexual tension.

I’ll end by saying that Mark Hamill has confirmed that, after close to twenty years, this is the last time he will voice the Joker and that he wants to leave his role as Batman’s nemesis on a high note. Well, you did a hell of a job Mark, thanks for a memorable grand finale.