Actually, name this post “I can only afford to not buy one”.
In part one, I mentioned several big name titles that I couldn’t wait to try out, and somehow come up with only one to buy. Last time I was able to pick the winner (Saint’s Row 2), this time I’m afraid it is impossible. Let’s look at the list again:
* Fallout 3
* Dead Space
* Gears 2
* Red Alert 3
* Mirror’s Edge
* Resistance 2
* Little Big Planet
* Call of Duty 5
Now given that I didn’t actually get to try three of the above titles (Red Alert 3, Resistance 2 and COD5), I’m in enough trouble as it is.
First off, Fallout 3. The one that people call “Oblivion with guns in a wasteland”. I didn’t really enjoy western-style RPGs, did not go too far with Fable/Fable 2 and also Oblivion back then. Oblivion came close though, because I really enjoyed the open ended world and interaction with the NPCs, in one sitting of playing I was able to fight my way through a palace to a sewer battling rats, come out in the middle of a forest and started fighting wolves and finally back to civilization stealing someone’s plate from their house. The one thing I had trouble with was the pace of the game, even with a horse it still takes a chunk of time travelling around, and battles can last long since it’s mostly melee. Fallout 3 offers virtually the same open-ended world, character interactions but now with guns and grenades, now that I gotta see. Just as expected, the team at Bethesda really outdid themselves with this one. I mean, last time in Oblivion I came out of a sewer to see a big open forest after witnessing a king die and killing a bunch of mutant rats; this time in Fallout 3 I came out of a vault that I had lived my whole life so far into a post-apocolyptic nuclear wasteland and I just killed my best friend’s father which was the ruler of the vault! Now this is drama, and I bow down before the graphic galore done by the team, it is the best damn looking thing you can load up from your 360 hands down. And it is actually fun, too! I’m slowly getting the freeze-battle concept while drinking nuke-cola. This is a must-buy, no question, since it is in a nutshell a prime example of how a game should be designed and executed. I’ll even shell out the $30 extra to get the lunchbox collector’s edition.
Now Dead Space, I have been watching the trailer for this game almost everyday during August to October this year. Why was I such a follower for this original IP offered by EA you ask? Well I’m not. I was just sitting in the EA lobby waiting for my supervisor every morning and the only thing that is on on their TVs is something called the “EA channel”. I kid you not, ads of The Sims, the new FIFA, NBA Street, you name it.. and it plays over and over and over again.. Anyway
Before I understood what the deal is with the grafity-defying gameplay elements of this game, I was simply admiring the atmosphere that this game is able to produce. We’re talking about a game coming from a company that makes Harry Porter games and freaking SPORE, never attempting a survival-horror title before. I think the dev team deserves credit even if they just copied another game, but they did us one better by creating something that is unique and not cheesy (It’s not easy since both spaceship and zombies are cheesy as hell). Think Resident Evil 4 meet Silent Hill, but not saying it is the unicorn. The camera angle is not annoying and is better than doing a first-person view because you have things sneaking up from behind a lot in the game, level design is good and make the corridors of an abandoned spaceship not boring and totally confusing for you to find your way. More over, the “where should I go” button is a good/bad thing among the reviews, some say that it’s awesome others say it insults the player’s intelligence. I say why not have a button like that? If you feel like you’re up for a challenge just don’t click the damn thing! The monsters are creepy and you don’t want to walk past them right after they collapse because they’re not necessarily dead, and this is where the “strategical dismemberment” gameplay comes in: You aim anywhere but the head, I like it. Kinda messes me up when I go back to playing traditional FPS though. Weapon design is somehow refreshing, and the upgrade system is more fun than that in Bioshock (although it very strongly encourages you to play the game through at least twice if you wish to max out a weapon). Last but not least the thing about EA insisting in minimal HUD on screen is very pleasing to me, seeing my health not from a health bar and interaction with other characters on a projected screen in front of the main character (and you can walk around while doing that) not only adds to the immersion, but also shows clever efficient design. All in all, I would’ve gotten it for full price anyway, but I happened to work at this place called EA for a few months.
Gears of War 2, this one is a given. I liked the first one, the story’s okay but the game mechanics made me wanted more. Also spent a great deal of time battling online with my buddies in Hong Kong, a very replayable game. This one was in my “Buy-it-now” list so I got the limited edition the day it came out. Played the missions, loved it UNTIL about 3/4 into the campaign. Dom all of a sudden got hit with autism, he would offer to “team up with me and tear this thing down” when we got to the underground Locust grounds and then stay behind during each single fucking encounter with enemies. I would not have brought this up if he at least stays close enough to revive me when I’m down, but he’s that far. So throughout the battles I took down every one of the enemies, sorted out ammo and health and finally, went to the far back and guide Mr. Weebrain out with tender care and baby steps. Sometimes he gets stuck by obstacles, you know. After all that’s over I thought to myself “phew glad I’m back to the good old ball’n'chain” since I really wouldn’t say a word even if they copied the whole Gears 1 engine over and redid the levels and dialogues, I’d be happy! But no.. seems like as if the driving a tank within swarms of bats level wasn’t frustrating enough, this time you pilot a flying Locust monster Panzar Dragoon-style, and the controls are horrible along with harsh overpowering enemies chasing your ass. I forgot how many times I died on those missions, I however remember vividly that I literall had to switch games several times before I fly my controller into my lcd and ended up crying for mama. All in all, I was glad to finally see the end credits, but for an entire different reason now. And I attemped Horde mode, it’s good but not really made for one person to play. I hopped online for a few matches only to find out that the mode is not only plagued by unbalanced settings, but by all sorts of glitches such as this one. I wanted to take all this with a grain of salt and patiently wait for Epic to patch things up, however after the single-player experience this is just putting salt on a wound, I closed the limited edition metal case and on the shelf it went. And stay there!
Mirror’s Edge, strangely I had the same feeling playing it as when I was playing Dead Space. The taste of originality, the refreshing visuals and controls, the disbelief that I had to look over the game box again and again to make sure that EA made this game. Wow, who would’ve thought that running on rooftops would be this much fun and not at all dangerous? I understand that there’s an achievement for completing the game without firing a gun, but aside from bragging rights I actually wanted to run through this thing without having to even throw a fist (although that was proved impossible given the boss fights). Sure, there were occasionally demending situations that leave you with no choice but to trial and error by dying ten times. Yet I kept coming back for more.
Imagine a book titled “Create your own adventure!” topping the best-selling charts, you bought it home wondering what the big fuss was about. Once opened it you realized that it was actually a blank notebook with a little pen attached. That’s how I felt 10 minutes after I booted up Little Big Planet. So let me get this straight, you want me to get creative right? I have to create everything from the level design itself to a sticker? You the developers pat yourself on the back by giving me a damn sandbox and say “go create your own fun! oh and don’t forget to share it with your friends!” People expected to pay $60 for a game not a game-creator ok? And so much for flexibility if at the end of the day you still end up jumping platforms collecting shit. People only play the user-created levels because you give nothing to them out of the box! Lazy bastards, god help you if you think this title is gonna turn PS3′s gongshow situation around.
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At the time of writing I’ve yet to try out Resistance 2, Red Alert 3 and Call of Duty 5! I guess I’ll get back to those in another post.. since I should probably publish this one (the first draft was written on 13 Dec, 2008).
