God of War Collection (GoW 1 and 2)

PUBLISHER: Sony

DEVELOPER: Sony
Played on: PS3
Initial impression (1): Finally.
Initial impression (2): Better? Better.

Liked:
- Story
- Visuals

Disliked:
- QTE Abuse
- Any Rushed/Timed Puzzle

On The Fence:
- Myth Overload

Kratos, a Spartan pleading for help from the gods while in the heat of battle, unwittingly becomes a slave to Ares, the God of War. Tragedy befalls him and his subsequent revenge is your journey. It drags you through 'heaven and hell,' literally, to destroy those who wronged you. It will be hard for me to separate the two games without doing two separate reviews, but that's OK because what I liked and didn't is the same across both games.

God of War (1) Screenshot

Liked
The tale of Kratos is one I was already slightly familiar with. Previously I had been riveted by Chains of Olympus on the PSP, which provided enough of a back story to make that game interesting but not so much to make GoW unnecessary. Aside from some seemingly dead-end moments, the pacing of the game unraveled the tale nicely. The visuals - a cleaned up and repackaged PS2 game - were amazing, considering the game's age. I'll have to look into what they actually did with the remastering, because the cutscenes looked great. The environments like Hades and Pandora's Temple were very inspired.

Disliked
Quick Time Events are when you're watching a cutscene and there's a break in the action where a button command flashes on the screen. You have about 2 seconds or less to react or else it's game over. I'm also no stranger to QTEs. Shenmue had them. Heavy Rain had them. Lots of games have had them, but the ones in GoW feel forced. Every GoW game I've played has these QTEs at the most disjointed locations (defeating a major boss, watching story... OH SHIT SMASH BUTTONS!) and every time it caught me off-guard. Furthermore, every time you failed to press the button in time it was completely "game over" forcing you to re-watch the same cutscene OVER AND OVER until you got it right. Even worse, the button combos CHANGE every time you encounter the QTE. FUCK QTEs.

Press X To Jason.. er, eye gouge.

Also, timed puzzles are shit. I complain about these every time I encounter them and I will continue to complain about them because they are asinine bullshit. You know exactly what I mean - push a button or throw a lever on the extreme left side of a room, then run like hell to get through the gate it opened 3 rooms over to the extreme right. There was one such timed puzzle that I had to look up how to defeat it, but it took me watching a video to get through. It sucked, because I had already figured out what needed to be done but I wasn't doing it fast enough. Turns out (as I saw in the video) I was jumping too early and it added a quarter-second to the time needed to get through. This was rage-inducing to the point I wanted to hurl the controller through the TV. Oh, my point - GoW is riddled with these timed puzzles. There's at least one every stage/area. Luckily 90% of them are not so surgically precise.

On The Fence
I don't honestly recall much of GoW1's plot to say if it completely qualifies for the myth overload descriptor, but GoW2 certainly does. Pegasus, Icarus, Gaia, Prometheus, Zeus, Atlas, Perseus just to name a few, and almost all of those characters give you some sort of power or weapon to use. It was my encounter with Icarus that sparked my eye-rolling at the sheer amount of mythology that was being piled on. I'm not really complaining about it, but I did feel that they were being unfortunately shoehorned into the tale to provide cool accessories more than they were being given the proper representation. Granted, a curious sort will go look those stories up after the exposure, but you're not answering many Jeopardy! questions from playing these games.

In Conclusion
The God Of War collection is a great way to play the PS2 games I was never able to play, mostly because I didn't own a PS2. They look great and gameplay is solid. There are some frustrating mechanics that define the genre of third person platformers, but in spite of them you get a great story.

PARENTAL WARNING: Lots of violence, lots of female nudity. Boobs, large and perky, are often seen uncovered. There's a sex mini-game (which apparently is completely miss-able). The Oracle, some random women on a boat, and even some enemies have giant DD+ sized tits that are never covered. Oh yeah... that sex mini game? It's a QTE.

This is from God of War III, but it's just continuing the trend.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft

DEVELOPER: Obsidian/SPS
Played on: PS3
Initial impression: Sweet...

Liked:
- Story
- Visuals
- Music

Disliked:
- Repetition
- Overall 'Rushed' Feeling
- Thematic Breakdown

On The Fence:
- DLC?

"Maybe we started to rely on Microsoft and Sony so much that we forgot that all we need to play are the simplest things. Like, like this. [grabs a stick from the ground] We could just play with this. Screw video games, dude! Who fuckin' needs them?!" 

-Eric Cartman

Episode 246: Titties And Dragons

In the best viral marketing I've seen in a long time, South Park creators Matt & Trey had a three-part Game of Thrones/Console Wars parody that ended with an advertisement for this game. Years in the making (I want to believe it started with the LOTR parody episode), they finally had it ready... and it was SWEET.

This is totally what it's like, you guys...

Likes
The tale has you, the new kid in town, learning who your neighbors and new friends are, all through an extended Live-Action Role Playing game of which apparently all the boys in town are taking part. Doesn't matter what you look like or what your name is (but, let's be clear, you're a boy... no girls allowed), they'll take you in because you're one of them. You gather friends on Facebook (that's what the menu and inventory screen is based on!) and there's even an achievement or two for getting popular. Like any other standard RPG, you have a 'party' of friends traveling with you, but in combat you can only use one of them (2 on your side, up to 4 on the enemy side). Each 'buddy' has special abilities that tie to them - Butters can invoke his Professor Chaos persona, while Kyle has a lot of Jewish-themed moves. The gameplay, visuals and dialog are as if you're watching a multiple part episode story arc on Comedy Central. Everything in the world looks, sounds and feels like it does on the show. The medieval fantasy inspired music interjected with familiar pieces from the beginning of the show's existence remind me of the old LucasArts IMUSE system.

Your first friend is Butters. This isn't even a spoiler as it happens about 2 minutes into the game.

Dislikes
The few things I didn't like seem a little nit-picky. Dialog in fights are incredibly repetitious, especially when you're using the same supporting characters and their special abilities often. I swear if I hear the Professor Chaos intro again I'm going to be ill.

I felt at one point that I was being rushed from plot point to plot point, and as a result I was missing out on some of the more subtle things happening in the game universe. I learned to just ignore my main quest line on the second play through (I'm about half-way through that). It's not really a race to the end, and the game is short enough without running straight to the main quest points.

Then there's thematic breakdown of equipment. "What is thematic breakdown?," you might ask. It's when a game is created with a very specific theme, but then factors are introduced that chip away at the set theme in a way that makes it lose the original spark. This game suffers from it in that the gear you use quickly becomes unthematic. At first, you are dressed appropriately for a kid's interpretation of medieval fantasy, but as you level up and outgrow the usefulness of that equipment, you can only replace it with stuff like SWAT gear. I think they should have had a system in place where you take the 'found' items (i.e. SWAT gear) to the kid playing an armorer to alter it into the appropriate style. The only other system I think they should have introduced as an alternative is to have a 'gear' loadout and a 'cosmetic' loadout, like what LOTRO has. This way your cosmetic could look right, but your stats are coming from your actual gear.

On The Fence
This DLC rant involves two things: Pre-order DLC and the dangling carrot of more content. Dangling carrot first: I'll say it. This game was short. Really short. Arkham City short. inFamous 2 short. So short that you might not feel pleased for spending $60 on it. But never fear - They claim that DLC is on the way, including more quests! Hordes of people online are bitching about it being content that was supposed to be in the game that they removed to offer as DLC. Some speculate that it's unfinished levels, and that Obsidian wanted to see how the game was received before bothering with polishing them. Whatever. Just give me more to do and I'll be happy.

Now the Pre-Order DLC. I'll admit it. I pre-ordered to get the three exclusive costumes, and they were great. They looked awesome and weren't too overpowered for the level in which I was using them. That said, I really wish I could have used them for more than a level or two. I out-leveled their usefulness in about a half hour.

This is what I got. The Fellowship Pack is thematic and great, while the other set is silly but fits SP.

In Conclusion
If you're a South Park super fan, you already have this game. If you're a slightly more casual fan (like me) you should totally check this game out. If it's been a while since you've watched South Park, do yourself a favor and catch up on the episodes before firing this game up. The amount of in-jokes that span the entire rub of the show is ridiculous and hilarious.

I'm hoping they listen to fans and come out with DLC or a new game that changes the Fantasy RP to the Super Hero (Coon & Friends) RP. That would be awesome.

PARENT WARNING: This game is crude in both visuals and dialog. It's NOT SAFE to play around kids, nor is it safe for kids to play. I don't care if they have watched the show. This is the equivalent of the raunchiest Tarantino-written R rated film, except it's now in interactive format.

Portal 2

PUBLISHER: Valve
DEVELOPER: Valve
Played on: PS3
Initial impression: Hoping it's not a rehash, but then... SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Liked:
- Story
- New Gameplay Elements

Disliked:
- Some Puzzle Ambiguity
- Graphic Anachronism

On The Fence:
- Replayability
- Multiplayer

Oh, Valve - How I love your story-driven games. The original Portal, released as a tech demo for the most part, was among the best games I had ever played, both from a technical and story perspective. I was very enthused to play the follow-up title and I was not disappointed in the least. I'm just sorry it took me so long to get to it.

In case you're not familiar, Portal 2 is a direct sequel to Portal 1 (Valve even changed the ending to Portal 1 via an update to make it work). You play as silent protagonist and Aperture Science test subject Chell, awoken from stasis in order to help a rogue personality core escape the establishment before it decays into ruin. Things don't quite work out so smoothly. You're eventually flung into the bowels of the facility, left to explore the original offices built in the 50's, then the 70's, and again to the locations from Portal. You'll get to hear commentary from the charismatic founder of Aperture, Cave Johnson. His pre-recorded messages were hilarious and the look of the early areas as well as his descent into madness were thoroughly entertaining.

The new storyline was entertaining and informative, with enough callbacks to the original to make it gel nicely. Those who have played it can see what I did there. I made a self-referencing joke to a gameplay element. I've marked your reaction in your file. I'm sure you'll be rewarded, as well as the talk of [SUBJECT HOME TOWN].

This leads me to the gels - Repulsion, Propulsion and Conversion gels, specifically. For those new to the game, they are explained and utilized rather nicely without shoving too much info at you at once. Repulsion is bouncy. Propulsion makes you move faster. Conversion turns any surface into a Portal-friendly surface.

On to the only two things I didn't like about the game:

Some puzzles were just too ambiguous. Maybe it was me, trying to solve these on too little sleep in the middle of the night that kept me from figuring them out. Maybe it really was that obscure. I had to look up a solution to two specific spots, and I'm kind of angry that I felt I was forced into it. I'll admit that I was frustrated by some puzzles in the first game too, so I'm going to chalk it up to my occasionally un-clever mind.

The other issue is a bit of an anachronism. There's a time in the game when you go back to areas you saw in the first game. These areas are nearly identical, except for the "new" graphic for the doors. I don't know how much time passed between 1 and 2, but I do know that the facility was more or less dormant for that amount of time. Who came along and replaced all the doors? The turrets? A slight screw up there in my book. If it's explained in some hidden room diary, well, that's fine I suppose. Would have been nice for them to acknowledge or explain the change with some character dialog (GLaDOS or Wheatley).

I'm sure at some point I'll replay the game just for the trophies and to look around at the environment some more. I'm not itching to get back there.

The multiplayer element is a stand-alone co-op storyline that weaves back and forth through the single player experience. I've not yet played it but I am looking forward to it. The hard part is finding someone who can play it well enough. (I have a standing offer from a fellow FPS veteran, so Whenever I can get to it...)

Overall I find Portal 2 about as good as the original. It felt like a longer game, and the new mechanics made for a nice spin on the old game. I'd say this one is worth playing even if you didn't play the first one, but honestly you'd need to play the first one to catch all the nuances of the plot.

It's Been A While...

I apologize to my followers. All two of them.

It's been a while since I have said anything here. Truth is I haven't been playing anything new. Tried Alien Swarm - it's awesome, but I only played it once. Playing a few Facebook games but those don't count.

Lord of the Rings Online has gone Free To Play, meaning people can get in for nothing. They can't get far, but they can get a taste of the game without any money spent. If they like what they see they can purchase upgrades. Increased level cap, storage and zones are all just a few dollars away - all with no monthly fee. For me - a lifetime subscriber (meaning I put up $200 early on) the game stays exactly as it was as long as I log in at least once a month. That's easy to do since there are a number of horses I want to obtain. Getting those will keep me busy. I can think of 5 right now that I don't have that are obtainable through regular game play. Others are festival only horses that I will have to wait until next summer before they become available.

I've also been delving into PvMP (Player versus Monster Play - real people control the orcs, spiders and wargs). Honestly I just want to get Rank 9 so I can buy the horse. I'm at Rank 4 currently. What sucks is that you need to get tens of thousands of Renown Points to go up a level and one PvMP kill yields between 1 and 30 points - average being 15. It's a lot of grueling work and the Ettenmoors aren't always accommodating. Currently the area is bugged and there's no real safe place for the Free People to hide from the evils of Angmar. Whenever that gets fixed I'll head back into the zone and work on that horse.

I still have a massive backlog of PS3 titles to get to, but on top of that I've picked up Dante's Inferno ($20 new at GameStop last month) and Valkyria Chronicles ($17 used). VC was a suggestion from someone on Kotaku and just based on screen shots I think I might really like it. I'm tying up loose ends on RDR, trying to get all the trophies. I want to start BioShock 2, but might wait until the dark of winter - I have a thing about those kind of games and that time of year.

Speaking of which I might go for my December Dead Space play through sometime around the 11th. This will be purely a trophy run. I need all those "kill x necromorphs with x weapon/skill" trophies, and with the best suit in the game coupled with the completely spec'd out weapons it should be a breeze.

So - what's on the menu? Well a whole lot of LotRO to get those 5 horses (Lorien, Mirkwood, Dunedain and the 2 new ones from Endewaith). I really want the Dunedain one the most because it matches my current armor choice. Silly, I know, but I like to look like a complete character.

Maybe some scheduled PS3 love is in order.

UPDATE: inFAMOUS, The Path of Evil

I decided to run through inFAMOUS again, this time taking the path of being a self-serving, uncaring bastard, which honestly comes rather naturally in these games. My first truly evil act was to scare people away from food dropped to supply the city so I could keep ot all for myself (and 2 friends). It takes a while for you to see the effects of being a tyrant, but when they show themselves these effects are interesting. He shoots red electricity, starts to turn monochrome and has a weird head tattoo thing going on. The environment gets gloomy, with the end sky being red and cloudy. People begin to hate you, and will gang up to throw rocks at you anytime you're on the street.

None of the story missions or side quests changed except for the cinematics. Instead of doing "Good" based side quests, I went for "Evil" - of which there are 15 (just like the other side). These dealt mostly with Sasha, a boss you take out between islands 1 and 2. She talks to you telepathically, and sends 5 Reaper Conduits to help you along. These missions were mostly 'kill everything in sight' type, with the occasional 'moral decision' items in there.

Overall, playing as evil really didn't do much differently except in a few cutscenes and one specific mission involving the Ray Sphere near the end. Other than that I unlocked a handful of trophies that were Evil side specific.

I'm still 5 stunts, about 40 blast shards and a handful of train-riding kills away from having the Platinum for the game. My only suggestion from playing this now a second time is to try to get the train-riding 25 kills done as soon as you get shock grenades and start up the first train in the Neon District. These enemies are the weakest, and it's much harder to find enemies to kill while riding the train after you've cleared a certain percentage of the island(s).