Review: Dead Rising (xbox360)

There’s something funny going on in a sleepy little Midwestern town, and photojournalist Frank West (who’s covered wars ya know) is out to get to the bottom of it, or at least snap a couple of hundred photos and earn some good ole fortune and glory by selling the story. Unfortunately for Frank, his ride just dumped him on the roof of a shopping complex that’s filled to the brim with bloodthirsty zombies! Armed with a camera, and whatever he can get his mitts on in the various stores throughout the mall, Frank has to get to the bottom of what’s going on, and maybe save a few survivors, and photograph some carnage in the process.

There you have the setup for Capcom’s first “next gen” offering, Dead Rising. Rather than dip into the Resident Evil well yet-again, Capcom has gone back to their Romero soaked roots to deliver an obvious homage to Romero’s own seminal zombie classic, Dawn of the Dead. The game does a fantastic job of throwing you into the setting with a fantastic intro sequence where you fly over the town taking snapshots of some action before you actually touch down on the mall. Once you get there, you’re dumped unceremoniously on the roof and given a 72 hour time limit to get in, kill some zombies, and find out what the hell is going on. You venture through several sections of the complex, including an outdoor courtyard, food court, and several blocks of stores. Along the way you’ll meet several survivors, whom you’ll have to lead back to the mall’s security room (which is usually pretty infuriating – more on that below) and psychopaths whom you’ll have to put down in some pretty inventive boss battles.

Variety is definitely a plus. As you wind through the various areas of the Willamette Mall you’ll find hundreds of weapon choices, from golf clubs and bowling balls, to chainsaws, lawnmowers, shopping carts, and even CD’s! (Batman soundtrack? Throw it!). There are a ton of outfits available, with a ton more available for free in the xbox live marketplace, there are books and magazines you can read for stat boosts and new special moves, blenders you can use to make all sorts of tasty (or not so much so) drinks which can heal or help you in other ways (pie plus orange juice equals temporary invincibility!) and there are hundreds of photo opportunities you can track down which work towards “leveling up” your character in RPG-like fashion. There’s no shortage of things to do, and part of the fun is experimenting with how specific weapons dice through the hundreds of zombies you run into, or how useless they are. The game unfolds in a decidedly tongue-in-cheek style to a point, and bashing zombies generally doesn’t get old – thanks to Capcom inserting some great boss battles in the form of less than mentally stable survivors called “psychopaths”. Some of these battles become marathons, and they all have a specific pattern or weakness to be exploited if you’re clever enough to figure it out. Some fine examples include a group of escaped convicts racing around the courtyard in a military Hummer (which you can hijack in true GTA fashion), or the family of aspiring snipers, or perhaps the loopy grocery store manager and his shopping cart full of pointy objects. The game breaks things up into two main modes, the 72 hour mode, which will probably take you in the neighborhood of 5-10 hours, and the overtime mode, which is a tad shorter. While both modes do remain pretty engaging, there are a few choices made with regards to the storytelling that baffle. One, plot points unfold based on the game’s internal clock, and if you aren’t in the right place at the right time, you can miss some very important goings on, which pretty much hamstrings the rest of the game and makes for a lousy ending. Two, there’s only ONE save slot – which means when you do screw up and miss something important, you can basically soldier on knowing you’re screwed, or start over (though you’ll keep your powered up character). It’s these decisions that keep the game pretty liner throughout the 72 hour mode, and if you really want the best ending, you’re either going to have to follow a strict walkthrough, play through multiple times, or you’re some kind of gaming prodigy. Luckily the action remains pretty fun throughout without getting monotonous or repetitive, which makes a repeat play through or two an appealing thought. Still, multiple save slots so that you could revert to a few earlier states, and so that someone else logged in under your profile doesn’t accidentally overwrite your own game, would have been nice.

Control-wise, Dead rising handles pretty well. Frank moves a little slowly, which can make some of the faster paced battles, particularly with the psycho bosses, a little difficult. It feels like Frank is walking with a strut or a limp, which doesn’t help much (maybe he twisted his ankle or something when he jumped out of the helicopter… idiot.) Regardless, combat is fast, and pretty accurate without being frustrating or unintuitive. The Camera system could use a little fine tuning, as it’s a little slow to switch from fighting to the camera, snap a nice shot, and then go back to hacking, but it is serviceable and not altogether terrible. Zombie AI, or lack thereof, is convincing enough, and their behavior changes realistically, from passive and stumbling to aggressive when you get close. Human AI on the other hand is lackluster, which makes the survivor escort missions a major pain in the ass. Having to stumble through the mall with a wailing woman or a stupid guy clinging to you, trying to keep them alive while they stop and wait for every clump of zombies to chow down on their collarbones, or get stuck in store counters, is a frustrating experience that drags the game down somewhat. Even when things aren’t so hectic, you’ll find yourself constantly calling out to your follower, and hanging back waiting for them to catch up. It’s frustrating, and drags down an otherwise totally engaging experience. What’s worse is these survivors are essential to getting the better endings in the game. You can arm them with weapons, but it generally doesn’t help much.

Dead Rising is a gorgeous looking affair, with great texture work and some subtle but well implemented effects. Facial features are excellent, animation is smooth and crisp, the varied stores in the mall are much more than flat textured polygons, and everything has a nice three dimensional look. The gore effects are also amazing, with blood spattering over everything, including Frank. The variety of zombies is impressive, with suitably juicy open wounds and decaying flesh, wonderfully textured clothing, and convincing animations. All of Frank’s attacks and special moves look great, from running on the heads and shoulders of a tightly packed group of shambling undead, to caving their skulls in with a 20 pound Sledge Hammer. Everything about the graphics is wholly satisfying. The game does feature some of the trademarked “shadow shimmer” that we saw in a lot of later Xbox games (like Fable) and even many of the current crop (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter), which seems to be something that can’t be avoided, but overall the game looks stellar.

In the sound department, the effects are excellent. Each and every kill gives you some wonderfully juicy squish and crunch sounds to accompany the great looking gore. Each and every weapon sounds great. Voice acting is passable, but ultimately typical of your average horror game, hokey and overacted (Frank in particular comes across as a total idiot). Music is your average fluffy light stuff that might accompany a trip to a happy, sunny, mall. It really sets up a pretty entertaining vibe, there’s something surreal about hacking zombies with a katana, or cutting loose with a shotgun, while you listen to a sort of loose interpretation of “The Girl from Ipanema”.

Overall, in spite of some critical missteps with the save system and narrative structure, and perhaps thanks to an absurd batch of characters and an equally absurd plot that fits the game to a tee, Dead Rising does it’s best to become one of the more enjoyable experiences on the Xbox360. It is technically excellent, with a rock solid game engine that stays pretty much bug free and wholly stable throughout the duration. It’s a fluffy and engaging experience that is, on it’s surface, simple and quick to play. Yet it’s RPG elements and the amount of things to do add significant depth. If you’ve ever geeked out to a Zombie picture, or worship at the altar of George R. Romero, then this game is definitely for you. A trip to this mall is almost sure to entertain. There’s plenty of blood and gore spattered about, hence the M-Rating, but in truth, I’d say its fine for Teens as well.

Review: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (pc/xbox360)

The Elder Scrolls series has long been a niche franchise, a series mostly known amongst PC gamers in the mid 90’s. The first few entries were decent performers, geared towards a very particular crowd. In 2001, Bethesda Softworks, the founders of the series, attempted to take these long and arduous odysseys through fantasy worlds a tad closer to the mainstream. The result, Morrowind, was a critically praised game in most respects, and became, at least for a short while, one of the few reasons to own an Xbox in those early days of the system’s life. After its success, Bethesda went back to square one, looked at what worked and what didn’t work, and, factoring in the added resources that a hit title gave them, began work on what would become one of the first truly classic experiences of the next generation, Oblivion.

Right from the opening cutscene, a sweeping fly over of the imperial city accompanied by suitably epic score and Patrick Stewart voiceover, Oblivion sinks its teeth in. It seems that Emperor Uriel Septim is under siege by unknown forces, and it just so happens that his escape route from the city leads through your prison cell. By the end of the first hour, the Emperor is dead, and you’re left standing on a river bank, bearing the Emperor’s amulet, and instructions to find his lost heir. From here, the world of Oblivion, the entirety of the province of Cyrodil, is yours to explore. You can set out on the quest given to you by the dying Emperor if you wish, and attempt to thwart a legion of invading demons, or you can simply kick up your heels and start walking. Either way, the world of Oblivion is a huge and daunting place at first, with much to see, and even more to do.

Oblivion’s biggest appeal is in its open ended gameplay. The land of Cyrodil is huge, littered with literally hundreds of ancient ruins and old fortresses to explore, small towns, caves, hidden shrines to forbidden gods, and all manner of surprises. Outside of that there are 7 cities and the immense Imperial City to venture through, each with their own quests to accomplish. Add to that the game’s main storyline, which you can weave in and out of, and various factions that you can join, each with their own selection of quests, and the entirety of the game becomes positively immense. The open-endedness extends even to your character, whose facial appearance is entirely customizable to an insane degree before you start playing. You can choose a character class from many of the fantasy game mainstays, create your own class from scratch, or just switch gears from spell tosser to archer to sword slinger throughout the game with minimal effort. Never does the game coerce or corral you into a particular action, the very well implemented quest journal can act as a guide to keep the inordinate amount of tasks you can come across straight, but you need never follow a set path. The amount of freedom is unparalleled in this sort of game, and the fact that Oblivion still manages to tell such a fantastic story while remaining non-linear is a minor miracle of game design.

As open-ended and free as everything is, the game is equally immersive. The people you run into in towns are well represented, with a detailed and deep artificial intelligence that gives them an agenda, a schedule, and a predisposed disposition to your character, which can be altered through bribery or other means. The environment is littered with all sorts of flora and fauna that may come in handy for crafting potions or making a few coins. Soldiers patrol the major provincial roadways on horseback, and can act as a friend if they happen to be close by when a bandit decides to jump you from the bushes. You may come across conflicts that don’t directly involve you, and you may even cause entire towns to turn on one another and draw swords. It’s amazing really. The game follows a full day/night cycle, and sunrises and sunsets look stunning, you’ll see wind, rain, and snow, stars in the sky, and a blinding noonday sun. The world of Oblivion is a truly realized virtual world that dwarfs anything that has come before it, it feels alive. Yes, you can get lost in Oblivion’s world, it’s more engaging than any online roleplaying game, and it could even pry you away from that nasty World of Warcraft addiction.

Technically, Oblivion excels. Graphically, the game is a jaw dropper. It employs all of the pretty next generation tricks you may have heard about to present a world of intimate detail. The trees and landscape look stunning, weather effects are excellent throughout, and the lighting and special effects are absolutely beautiful. From the moss covered white stone walls of the Imperial City, from one side of the map to the other, Oblivion doesn’t miss a beat. The landscapes change as you move from north to south, going from snowy Alps to dense temperate swamps, and the world in between is lush forest. The water effects are excellent, character animations are generally smooth and well executed, and excellent physics have been applied to everything you can interact with in the game world. You can play the game from either a scalable third person view or first person camera view, I prefer third person, but both are equally playable and look incredible. There are occasional drops in framerate, and the occasional stuttering for load times does occur, but neither detracts at all from the experience. There have been reports of some serious bugs and glitches, which are to be expected in a game of this size, but I haven’t personally encountered anything.

In the sound department, again, Oblivion is top tier material. The score is sweeping and majestic when it needs to be, subdued and peaceful at other times, and always beautiful. Composer Jeremy Soule is developing a worthy reputation in gaming circles for his music, and this is quite simply one of his strongest efforts. Sword swings, grunts, slashes and clangs are all excellent; with a power behind them you don’t often hear. Voice acting is excellent throughout, though many voices do repeat fairly often amongst the non-player characters.

Overall, Oblivion is truly a classic gaming experience. From the technical brilliance to the gorgeous art design. Bethesda have managed to cram anywhere from seventy to a couple of hundred hours of gameplay into the game, gameplay that will change from player to player. It’s not only the very best of the “sand-box” games (a term coined by Grand Theft Auto), but is one of the deepest, most imaginative, and classic gaming experiences ever. It lends itself well to both the “pick up and play” style of gamer, or the 48 hour marathon hardest of the hardcore. A wealth of options, near endless quests, additional content available online (or over xbox live), and true freedom. This is one heck of a package. Bethesda can rightfully take their place amongst the elite, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Blizzard, Bioware, Id Software, or Bungie. Oblivion is just that good!

Oblivion is rated “T” for teen, but in reality, the subject matter doesn’t lend itself well to the younger set – Oblivion is a game for adults.

E3 - parting thoughts.

The whirlwind of gaming related mayhem that is E3 has come and gone for another year. Sony has pulled the wraps off of their next uber-console, Nintendo has done likewise. Microsoft didn't steal much of the spotlight, and yet they had quite possibly the strongest showing. The following is an account of how each company fared in the end:

Sony - The undisputed leader of the previous generation has certainly lost a step or two going in this time around. Their press conference at E3 was a solid affair, but little in the way of actual software was shown, and many are criticizing the price of the Playstation 3. The big guns from last year's show (Kill zone, Devil May Cry 4, among others) were either altogether absent, or nowhere near the level they appeared last year. The PS3's motion sensitive controller was a pleasant surprise, and there was definitely some killer software on display (including the jaw dropping Assassin's Creed), but the momentum just wasn't there. the relatively passing mention given to Sony's PSP, which, by rights, really should have come into it's own this year was also very disappointing.

Microsoft - With a full year's head start in this generation, the Xbox 360 is really coming into it's own. While Sony and Nintendo focused on new hardware, Microsoft had a solid showing of software. They have done a good job of bolstering the 360's lineup, a diverse selection of amazing looking product, as well as sequels to some of the Xbox's biggest hits (on display were trailers for Fable 2, Forza 2, and of course, Halo 3!). Also of note, Grand Theft Auto 4 will ship simultaneously for Xbox 360 and PS3 in October of next year, definitely good news for Xbox 360 fans!

Nintendo - Word of mouth behind Nintendo's Wii console (stupid name notwithstanding) has been overwhelmingly strong. Nintendo did a great job of showing that, yes, they're all about fun. The Wii still strikes me as more of a curiosity than a "hard core" gaming machine. The software on display was typical of what Nintendo has been doing with the Gamecube and Nintendo DS, which is to say accessible and breezy software built around the gimmick of a motion sensetive controller. The promising sounding Red steel was actually a major let down for me, and graphically the system severely lacks the visual punch of the Microsoft or Sony product. Nintendo seems poised to hit the mainstream, while Microsoft and Sony are sticking with the gamers. Surprises included TWO versions of the new Legend of Zelda title, one for Gamecube and one for Wii, both available on the Wii's launch day, and not much else. Nintendo also had a very strong DS showing on display, which bodes well for fans of the popular handheld.


The game watch - The most promising titles on display at the show that will see release in the not to distant future (we hope!):

Sony
- 8 Days (ps3)
- Heavenly Sword (ps3)
- Warhawk (ps3)
- Resistance: Fall of Man (ps3)
- New Naughty Dog project (rumored to be called Iron and the Maiden) (ps3)
- Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP)
- Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
- God of War II (PS2)
- Mortal Kombat Armageddon (PS2)
- Valkyerie Profile: Lenneth (PSP)
- Valkyerie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2)


Microsoft
- Gears of War (xbox360)
- Forza 2 (xbox 360)
- Bioshock (xbox 360)
- Fable 2 (xbox 360)
- Splinter Cell: Double Agent (xbox 360)
- Mass Effect (xbox 360)
- Too Human (xbox 360)
- Lost Planet (xbox 360)
- Dead Rising (xbox 360)
- Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Xbox)


Nintendo
- Legend of Zelda: The Twiglight Princess (Cube, Wii)
- Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
- Children of Mana (DS)
- Final Fantasy III (DS)

PC
- Bioshock
- Crysis

Overall, what should have been the biggest E3 of all time wound up disappointing me more than impressing me. I'm disappointed with the seeming lack of drive behind the PS3 from Sony, and the dwindling PSP support. I’m very very disappointed that we didn’t see Killzone for the PS3 (the talk of the show in 2005). I'm disappointed that Nintendo didn't approach the software for their new machine with the same creativity and originality they placed into their hardware, as we just saw more of the same fun, but ultimately shallow sort of experiences we've come to expect on the Ds. I'm also very disappointed that Nintendo didn't nail a release date and price. I'd expect more from both Sony and Nintendo. Ultimately, for the discerning gamer, Microsoft really had the most interesting stuff on display.

I'm particularly saddened by the death of the current generation; The Xbox in particular had a dismal showing. Sony's PS2 remains the strongest of the current crop by a huge margin, though the Gamecube does still have Zelda winding down the pipe sometime this fall.

I must say, both the Halo 3 teaser and Konami's 15 minute look at Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots were ultimately the most satisfying experiences of the show, even if both games are a long ways off.

Game of show:

Assassin's Creed by Ubisoft (ps3)

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal's Prince of Persia team, Assassin's Creed lets you take control of an Assassin in the 1100's during the Third Crusade. Venture between three cities in an open ended game world, and murder key targets to even the balance between Christianity and Muslim alike. Daring subject matter wrapped around some incredible looking technology that allows for interaction with crowds of hundreds of people, all with realistic Artificial Intelligence. The sheer amount of innovation present in this title is what "next generation" is all about - it's due out in January for PS3, and will follow by about 6 months for the xbox 360.

Honorable mention:
- Gears of War
- Bioshock
- Resistance: Fall of Man

Dud of the Show:

Shadowrun by Fasa Studios (Xbox 360 / Windows Vista)

What was a cult hit RPG on both the Super Nintendo and on the Sega Genesis (two very different games too), and a popular pen and paper RPG since about 1989, has been re-envisioned for the Xbox 360 (and PC) as, a Counter-Strike clone??? What the hell were you guys thinking? And don't get me started on the graphics that look like they came out of 2002.


That's it for this year.

E3 - Sony's press conference!

The gloves are off: Sony has just throwndown in a big way. The highlights:

- PS3 system launch is scheduled for November 17th, in two configurations (a 20 gig HDD or 60 Gig Hdd)

- Price = 499.99 US/549.99 CAN for the 20 Gig model - or 599.99 US/659.99 CAN for the 60 gig model!

- Two new titles shown, 8 Days (SCE London), which was a very impressive looking action game with driving elements. Much of the footage was realitme and looked very very nice. and an Unnamed Naughty Dog project whcih looks jaw-dropping, an action/adventure title in a similar vein to Tomb Raider.

- Also looking VERY good were Heavenly Sword, Metal Gear Solid 4, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Warhawk.

- Best of all, the new PS3 controller - exactly like the old PS1/PS2 Dual shock design, only ... *GASP* Motion Sensetive along 4 3d axes, exactly like the much trumpeted Nintendo Wii Control Wand. And all of this without a god awful external sensing device! Amazement is the word. One of the creators of Warhawk gave it a go and it looked like a bit of fun.

The PS3 has materialized, and it looks VERY VERY promising. Sadly, i was a tad dissapointed by the software on display (Where the heck was KILLZONE???). On the other hand, much of what was on offer looked splendid, and the system seems like it very well could live up to the insane amount of hype it has been generating. And I must hand it to Sony, gimmick or not, the motion sensetive suprise was not unlike a total gutpunch to Nintendo, very well played. We'll see what they have up their sleeves tomorrow!

Nintendo gives the Revolution a new name - Wii

This from Nintendo's official site:

If the print is to small, click on the image to view it larger - they've also got a really great little flash movie up there.

Just curious, where's the line that says "Wii've lost our freakin' minds!" ?

Ohhhh Nintendo... at least it can be said, they always march to the beat of their own drum.

Review - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (xbox 360)

The year is 2013; the army is staging a military coup of Mexico City. The Canadian Prime Minister has been killed, The Mexican President is in hiding, the US President is missing, and Tom Clancy's long running Ghost Recon is making it's next generation debut. You take the role of Capt. Scott Mitchell, commander of an elite group of covert operators called The Ghosts, and armed with the latest in military technology, your mission is to take care of a deposed Mexican general, and put things back the way they should be. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is the first game for Microsoft's fledgling Xbox 360 system to truly scream "Next Gen!", and rightly belongs on any action fan's shelf.


Developed jointly by Ubisoft Paris and Ubisoft's Red Storm Entertainment studios; Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) really pushes the series beyond what has been seen on the PC and consoles before now. Technology wise, the game is a marvel of game design; it brings elements to the single player game that haven’t been seen in the crowded third person shooter market in the past. It also provides for a near seamless game play experience. Gone are the standard fare, Return of the Jedi-style briefing screens complete with bleep bloop computer readouts and holographic maps that have become so tired in the tactical shooter genre, and say adios to those between level cut scenes, all have been replaced with in game briefings and an extensive heads-up display to keep you oriented. Nothing breaks the flow, the game continues to feel like one seamless experience, and keeps the urgency ratcheted to the max, throughout the duration of the runtime. When you leave one area, you jump onto a Black Hawk, you watch the city move below and lay down some fire in some instances from the Hawk's mini-gun, then you dismount at your destination with naught but a 2 second black screen, day turns to night and then to day again throughout the duration.


GRAW uses a 3rd-person, over the shoulder view by default, similar to the precise aim mode in splinter Cell or the view in Resident Evil 4, but you can switch the camera to left or right shoulder at will, you can also switch to a classic "gun-less" first person view a'la the original Ghost Recon, but I feel that 1st person heavily restricts your view, and hampers situational awareness, it's really there to silence the old school fans of the series I figure. Movement wise you're looking at the now traditional dual analog config, with a number of bells n whistles. The first time you click down on the left stick to crouch or lay prone while you happen to be in a full run you're in for a treat. Your character convincingly slides into the crouch position or drops foreword onto his stomach. Weapons and such are also realistically portrayed, the attention to detail is astonishing, soldiers will cradle their weapons in the crook of their arms while low crawling, and will roll left or right to retrieve spare ammo or grenades while prone, it's a subtle touch, but it adds greatly to the realism. The controls are functional, and beautifully smooth, this game plays like a dream.


Mission objectives are outlined using an interface tool called the cross com, which essentially is an LCD device that overlays tactical information in your field of view. You'll get objective markers which outlay where you have to go next, as well as enemy and friendly positions, and other tertiary locations. It may sound daunting, but it's really very user friendly. You can also bring up a tactical map, a 3-d representation of the current mission area, and see precise locations for all of these markers in a 3-dimensional space. You can perform recon using either your squad mates, or the military's Cipher drone. Send either of these elements ahead, and as enemies are spotted they'll appear as markers both on your HUD and your tactical map. It makes things much easier than rounding the corner and being taken down, and believe me, any help is good help, as this game is a difficult bitch, especially on the "Hard" setting (which is a ton of fun if you're looking for a game that keeps you on your toes). Despite the difficulty, the game never really falls into the "Trial and Error" rut that plagued some of the previous entries, you genuinely feel that when you get owned (and you will get owned), it's because you fouled something up, not because the game is punishing you. The missions are also not your average "go here, do this" missions either. The structure and objectives are dynamic, and can change amidst the chaos without a moment's notice. Squad mate control is handled very well, simply tapping on the cross pad will issue orders to either your squad, your Cipher drone, or one of the support units you may pick up along the way (like an M2 Bradley APC or a Black Hawk Helicopter) Issuing orders is a breeze, and the AI does a great job of following your instructions, or holding their own when you're hands off. Yes, your boys may sometimes run into a firefight, but it usually feels like a natural foul up rather than any fault of the AI, and Incapacitation is handled quite well. You're given a minute or two to get to your downed squad mate and patch them up before they expire, but if someone dies, they're gone.


Then there's the multi-player portion of the game, which is deep and robust enough to be a stand alone game that’s all its own. All of the typical modes are there - your standard free for all and team based death matches, capture the whatever, king of the hill, all that jazz. Like the single player game, where the multi excels is in what it brings to the table that hasn't been seen before. What’s the best of the bunch? How about 16 player co-op against a swarm of AI opponents? Far from the typical bot-matches of Timesplitters or Perfect Dark, this puppy is a fully featured 4 level campaign that can take up to 4-5 hours to play through completely. These suckers are HARD, you'll need a crack team of players here, and the experience is always a blast. Throw real-time speech with your teammates with your snazzy Xbox Live headset, and this thing is just amazing. Not only the best multiplayer experience on the 360 right now, but one of the single best multiplayer games to ever grace a console. It's that good! Some of the control features of the single player game get the axe, but the multiplayer game play is tuned a little faster and a little more ruthless, which renders some of the more methodical control aspects useless anyway. Rest assured what's needed is there, and what isn't is left in the single player game. You can also play some great scenarios using the standard multiplayer options - nothing like you and 4 or 5 of your buddies trying to wipe 40 hostile troops off of a large map in under 10 minutes with no respawn options. Intense? You bet your ass! If someone gave me a choice between this and Halo 2, I’d pick GRAW 10 times out of 10.


Graphically speaking, GRAW is a showcase for the next gen. All of the snazzy effects you've heard about and can't pronounce are in full effect. Mexico City looks downright gorgeous, baking in the equatorial sun, or under cover of darkness. Textures look photo real, and lighting effects are stellar throughout. Characters are well detailed, with fully bump-mapped uniforms and excellent animation throughout. The transitions from run to walk, to prone positions etc are all seamless. You won't see any robotic or stiff movement. The environment also wears under the weight of firefights, bullet hits send fragments of dust and brick, wood, or whatever spraying in a realistic fashion, bullet holes appear on virtually all structures, windows shatter, and best of all, explosions look downright gorgeous! The first time a stray grenade impacts with a parked car and sends it flipping end over end in a stunning display of smoke and flame, you'll be floored. Take a look at the palm trees swaying gently in the breeze, or debris shuffling around the vacant streets of Mexico City, or notice that you can see the machining of metal pattern on the inside of your sniper scope when doing a little headhunting, and you'll understand just how fantastic a job was done with these visuals! Physics are applied to all objects as well, making death animations and the disruption of stationary objects look equally awesome. The multiplayer game does take a slight hit graphically, losing the mad high dynamic range (read "blinding sunlight") lighting of the single player game (which makes sense considering the multiplayer shifts location to Guatemala, and features a more overcast look), but still looks excellent, one level takes place on a few ships in dry-dock during a nighttime rainstorm, and my god it looks incredible. To split hairs, it's a little bit of a drag that weapons are rendered as a single object, which makes reloading look a little fake, as character models grab invisible clips and insert them into weapons visibly holding magazines already, but this is nitpicking of the highest caliber, the game looks bloody amazing, probably the best looking action game available on the 360, and truly a next-gen spectacle.


Audio is every bit the equal to the graphics. The 5.1 sound is beautifully separated, sharp enough to puncture your eardrums, and employs all sorts of neat effects. The way a grenade explosion, or standing too close to a firing tank, causes the sound to drop out, reverberate around you, and whine slightly is perfectly executed, the rattle and hum of gunfire is near perfect, not too overbearing, not too subdued. Even silenced weapons have a wonderful effect. The streets of Mexico City in the single player game resound with environmental noises which, even though the city is all but deserted thanks to the fighting, make it seem alive. Music doesn't play a huge role, but when it does come into play, it does a great job of drawing attention to itself, particularly cool is how they use licensed music in some of the helicopter runs, starting as an adrenaline pumping soundtrack to set the scene, fading "into the game" as such, sounding like it's coming from a ghetto blaster or something tucked under one of the Black Hawk's benches while the crew chief issues orders or shoots the breeze, then blaring back to life. The orchestral stuff that appears throughout the game is your standard fare Tom Clancy military thriller stuff, which is to say it's great, if not entirely original. Voice acting ranges from solid to excellent. This one is a great showpiece for an expensive home theatre setup.


Bottom line, there's really not too much to complain about. Yes, it's still a third person tactical shooter, if you didn't like Socom or Ghost Recon 2, you're probably better off ignoring this game's existence. On the other hand, if you like playing a bit of soldier-boy alone, or online with friends, it just doesn't get any better than GRAW. The weapon load outs are extensive, and the technical aspects of the game are unparalleled. If you own an Xbox 360, and you're an action gamer, you need this game. If you're a huge fan of the whole Tom Clancy military shtick and you don't own an Xbox 360, well, you need to get one, and you need this game!


Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is rated "T" for Teen. It's not overly gory, but yeah, you shoot people. 8 year olds shouldn't be fighting a war, online or off.

Review - Grandia III (ps2)

The Japanese RPG is a dying breed on this side of the ocean. Recent entries in the genre have met with a chilling reception at best, and many a game has suffered critical backlash in the very fan-circles who once embraced them. Game play doesn't seem to be the central issue; rather it's the way these pseudo epics tell their stories that has fallen into question. That's where Grandia III comes in. No, it doesn't do things drastically different from its JRPG brethren, it features a colorful cast of characters with funny names fighting to, what else, save the world. Where Grandia III excels is in its execution.


In Grandia III, developed by series creator Game Arts, with the muscle of Square-Enix behind them, you take the role of Yuki, a young boy who dreams of flying, like his hero, Sky Captain Schmidt. When his mother stows away on Yuki's first real flight, and Yuki runs into a young elfin girl named Alfina, the real adventure begins. For the first 12 hours or so you are joined by Yuki's mother Amanda (who barely looks old enough to be Yuki's sister), Alfina, and the rogue-ish sailing captain Alonzo. Things take a change (in a pretty touching scene) at about the 12 hour mark, and from there some new characters come along. Throughout, the storyline remains quite engaging. Not everythign is wrapped up overly neatly, but fans of this sort of RPG experience should be pleased overall.


Grandia III's biggest strength is in it's game play mechanics. The combat system is one of the most robust and well developed systems I’ve ever come across. During combat, much of the top left corner of the screen is occupied by a large circular wheel, which displays icons for each character involved in the conflict. The icons spin slowly around the wheel, and when one enters a specific section, you know it's about to attack. What makes things interesting is that you can view the order in which other characters will attack, and if you can manage to land a heavy attack at the right time, you can knock an icon to the rear of the procession, thus canceling it's attack or disrupting the nasty spell it was about to toss your way. It's a deep system that plays very well, and it's actually much more effortless to play it than it is to describe it, and there's a great tutorial during the first fight that does a wonderful job of teaching the inns and outs.


Graphically Grandia III is a solid effort. Character designs are universally excellent, easily the best seen in the Grandia series thus far. Level design is also solid and many of the outdoor environments look absolutely gorgeous, featuring blooming sunlight or low hanging mist. Some of the more beautiful environs unfortunately, are also given only fleeting glimpses, lasting literally minutes in game time. You'll also see some pretty heavy alias shimmer on many displays, but after 6 years with the PS2 we should all be used to that by now, and it honestly doesn't do much to harm the otherwise very pretty eye candy.


The Grandia series, and Game Arts themselves, have always been known for their music, and Grandia III doesn't disappoint, even the pseudo j-pop song that opens the game is a catchy affair that does a wonderful job of portraying the mood of the game. Battle themes are rousing, and regions have themes that suit them well. The English voice acting is also quite solid; about as good as you'll hear outside of AAA affairs like Metal Gear solid or Soul Reaver. Amanda's voice is suitably brash and overbearing, Yuki's is that of a despondent teen, Alfina's is a subdued whisper for the most part, and the villain is menacing and, well, villainous. All of the characters are well represented. Action sounds get the job done, with the customary clanking of swords and whooshing of fireballs, but there's nothing exemplary there.


Overall Grandia III is a JRPG that follows the formula more or less, it's linear to a fault, and the story is nothing new, but it's hoisted beyond "also ran" status by the exceptional production design and its wonderful combat system. It's a game any fan of the genre shouldn't miss. It doesn't push the envelope, but it doesn't have to. It's quite simply the best title in the long running Grandia series (the first game was originally released in Japan on the Sega Saturn, and had a low-key Playstation release in North America at the tail end of that systems lifespan, and Grandia II made a splash on Sega's Dreamcast console before being ported "quick and dirty" to the PS2 and PC back in 2001). It's really a solid RPG experience that fans shouldn't miss. If nothing else, it'll help pass the time until Final Fantasy XII hits North American shores.


Grandia III is rated "T" for Teen, and contains some violence, but if the little ones can grasp the complexities of its game play, they're welcome to give it a try; it's a fantastic story that's suitable for most ages.

Review - Black (xbox/ps2)

Criterion, best known for their fan-favorite Burnout series of white-knuckle racing, throw their hat into the crowded first-person shooter market with Black, a modern military themed jaunt through foriegn countries with action a-plenty. Some amazing technology powers what is ultimately an accessible, frantic, and yet ever-so slightly shallow experience.

Black throws you into the shoes of covert operative Jack Kellar, more Rambo than James Bond. Kellar lives on the fringe, carrying out unauthorized military operations in the name of the US Government. These operations typically consist of shooting a lot of really big guns at a lot of unnamed enemy forces. The game uses very slick live action (real actors) footage to tell it's story, it's your typical Jerry Bruckhiemer as directed by Tony Scott footage (though there are no actual Hollywood names attached) - lots of smoke, a grim-faced politician, and rapid cuts. It does a great job of getting you into the game. While completely superficial, the story is told rather well, and unfolds in a deliberate manner, throwing a few curveballs here and there. Ultimately it leaves things unresolved, it feels more like the first act in a much larger tale.

Gameplay wise, Black doesn't re-invent the formula. This is a first person shooter, you know more or less what to expect. Where Black excels is in the work and polish that went into the game. Movement isn't whip-fast or rapid paced, it's more akin to Call of Duty or the original Halo. Enemy AI is generally well done, once these guys spot you they'll do whatever it takes to take you out, and keep themselves alive. This keeps Black from becoming a run and gun shooter, you can dart out into the open with barrells blazing, but this approach will typically result in a quick death. Cover is important, which leads me to Black's biggest draw, the destructable environment. Pretty much everything in the game can be altered or destroyed given enough gunfire or a well placed grenade, which makes your choice of cover that much more strategic. Sure you could hunker down behind that low wooden wall, but there's not much point when a barrage of gunfire will take it apart in a matter of seconds. This element works both ways, enemies can be shot through walls, and with enough firepower, there is little that can prevent you from ultimately destroying your target. Factor in areas where enough gunfire kicks up so much dust and debris that you can't see clearly, and the whole destruction element really adds to the fundamental underpinning of Black. It becomes so much more than some interactive eye-candy. The game also starts hard, and stays hard. There are 9 or so missions, and each will take you a few tries to get through. An experienced shooter may get through these levels in 30 - 45 minutes on Normal difficulty, but on Hard, the fundamental game design changes, and yu'll find yourself moving at a snail's pace, staying behind cover, each skirmish becomes an epic firefight, and levels may take upwards of 90 minutes! There is a checkpoint system in place, though i felt it was spread out a little too much, and when your 45 minutes in, get slaughtered, and have to start from the beginning of the mission, Black can be a frustrating experience. Ultimately, the gameplay remains frantic and engaging throughout despite the occasional frustrations, framerate remains consistant, levels are huge and somewhat open, and the action is addictive. Gameplay wise, while Black doesn't really change the rules, it does a fantastic job with the pre-established formula, and gameplay wise, it's one of the best shooters available for current gen consoles.

Black is a graphical powerhouse. This game looks absolutely beautiful. Upon first glance it could be very easy to mistake this one for a next gen shooter. The weapons are rendered in intimate detail, right down to animating the swivels for carrying straps on weapons. Reload animations are detailed and well executed, and the levels are wonderfully rendered. You'll see a misty haze above the damp earth of a temperate Russian forest. Shafts of light penetrating the autumn leaves of a small war torn town. and everything is fully animated. The game also handles its trademark destruction with aplomb. Explosions rip into the scenery, sending shards of wood, metal, and glass skyward in a grandiose display of smoke and flame. The excellent physics applied to the debris, and people, sent reeling from the action are about as good as it gets these days. This game is a jaw dropping spectacle in the graphics department. How Criterion managed to pull this off on aging hardware and keep the framerate more or less consistant is a wonder, and no small feat. You will encounter some slowdown during the bigger booms, but nothing that cripples or hinders the gameplay - the combat remains smooth at 30fps through the duration. You also don't see a lot of repetetive texture work - the levels are vastly diverse, the scenery constantly changing, which keeps all of this graphical flair from getting old. You'll constantly be seeing things explode in new and interesting ways.

As good as the game is graphically, the sound design is every bit its equal. Explosions and gunfire are loud, drowning out the scenery and causing your speakers to shudder. Each weapon sounds distinct, and packs a punch unrivaled in any shooter to date. If you have a nice home audio setup you'll really appreciate what this game can do when it's cranked nice and loud. The ps2 version supports Pro Logic II, while the Xbox version gives you a full blown (and rather awe-inspiring) 5.1 Dolby digital track. This oen is definitely meant to be played loud. The game also uses it's orchestral soundtrack (produced by Medal of Honor and The Incredibles composer Michael Giacchino) rather well. The game usually starts you in silence, and the score comes in at specific points during the level, really kicking the action into overdrive and getting the pulse racing. You'll be hard pressed to find a game that sounds as good as Black. Voice acting is also pretty solid stuff - typically gruff and soldier-like - though the audio in the realtime cutscenes is a little too obviously pre-recorded.

Shooter-fans would do well to check out Black. No, the game doesn't change or revolutionize what came before. It's pretty pedestrian as far as these sorts of games go, there are no vehicles to be found, no intense battles with tanks or aircraft like you may see in some of it's military contemporaries, and there aren't any "boss" battles per se, but what the game has going for it is engaging and somewhat strategic gameplay combined with larger than life Hollywood gun battles, an interesting (if a little tacked-on) story, and some of the finest production values you're going to see in a current gen shooter. Black is refined and polished to a fine shine, much like Criterion's Burnout franchise, and like Burnout, it's accessible to some of the more casual gaming crowd. Shallow elements or not, it's about the best "non world War II" military shooter available for the old guard of consoles. There's an "M" rating tagged on the package, though oddly enough there is very little gore present. There is however some harsh language in there, including a few F-bombs, so i don't recommend handing ths one off to the tykes.

Review Roundup - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (pc/xbox360)

It's out now! The reviews took a bit of time getting here, but this is one HUGE game!

IGN says:
Anyone who played through the previous The Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, will remember the almost total lack of direction, a feature which turned many off. While in that game that main quest didn't even begin until around 15 hours after starting, Oblivion kicks off with a major plot development and thrusts you immediately into the main adventure. Once given your initial task to restore order to Cyrodiil and shut down the demonic invasion from Oblivion, you'll never have trouble figuring out what to do next.

This is mostly due to the intuitive map and easy to use quest log. Whenever you accept a task to perform or are assigned a duty, an entry is made in your journal. By clicking on the quest you can see a brief description and set it to "active." Any active quest in your log is highlighted on your map screen with an arrow. Red arrows mean you need to pass through a door, green ones mean you're in the right place, and the arrow also pops up on the compass at the bottom of your screen for extra convenience. Unless you're a total masochist, it's a much welcome improvement, making quest objectives and locations much easier to find.

Currently, it's as good as gaming gets on the Xbox 360. If you're an RPG fan, it's an incredible experience. If you regularly beat RPG fans with hockey sticks, you should still try this one out. It's got combat issues, the hotkey system could have been implemented better and some may be ticked off by the environmental loading stutters. However, none of those criticisms hold back Oblivion from being a thoroughly enjoyable, user-friendly, gorgeous experience with enough content to keep you returning time and time again.
They scored it a 9.3 (out of 10)


Gamespot says:
This is a rare and remarkable achievement--a huge, open-ended, complex, detailed role-playing game that's fun to play and a pleasure to behold. Oblivion not only delivers everything that earned the Elder Scrolls series the devoted loyalty of a huge following of fans, but also significantly improves on the weaknesses of its 2002 predecessor, Morrowind. Morrowind earned recognition for being one of the best role-playing games in years, but the immersive and long-lasting experience it provided wasn't for everyone. Oblivion is hands-down better, so much so that even those who'd normally have no interest in a role-playing game should find it hard to resist getting swept up in this big, beautiful, meticulously crafted world.
They scored it a 9.6 (out of 10)


Eurogamer says:
The overwhelming thing about Oblivion isn't knowing where to start, but when to stop. It's an adventure game in the purest sense of the word in its effortless capacity to give the player a seemingly infinite wealth of possibilities - full of intrigue, excitement, risk, reward and this continual sense of the unknown.
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Much of this was true of Morrowind, of course, but technically, things have moved on to a breathtaking extent. Stepping out of the game's introductory (and obligatory) dungeon, nothing can prepare you for the genuine sense of awe of entering Tamriel's outside world. The beautiful, sweeping vistas are, without question, the most beautiful game settings achieved to date. Whichever direction you cast your gaze, there are marvellous sights to behold at every turn; lush grass sways over rolling hills, deer bound through dappled woodland, once-proud temples lie crumbling in ruins, while towns of immense, stunning architectural majesty stands proud in the distance, beckoning you to explore their secrets.
They scored it a 10 (out of 10)


Team Xbox says:
While we’ve touched on all of the major aspects of Oblivion’s gameplay, we haven’t begun to even scratch the surface because there are so many other areas and action to talk about, such as different creatures you’ll run into (including vampires!), free-form quests, and the arena. Fans of the series are probably already 400 hours in and not looking back. Still on the fence on whether this title has what you want gameplay-wise? It probably does. It is an RPG set in a “middle earth”-type of land, but it is packed full of enough action and customization to win over almost any gamer. The sheer variety is stunning, and a true benchmark in RPGs. You may start out trying to accomplish a quest objective, but it is so easy to get distracted by all that there is to do; hours may go by before you wind up back on the track you started on in the first place. The flow of the game is natural, and truly feels like it evolves with your character.

Upon booting up The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the first time, the game feels overwhelming. Massive…daunting…basically, any synonym for freaking huge works. This left us (as it may for most) a bit unsure as to where to proceed, the right choices to make, or even what on earth is going on. However, once some time is spent furthering the main quest, picking up some side quests here and there, working on leveling up your character (plus going for a horseback ride or two), you will be hooked. This title evolves as players get deeper and deeper, and it just keeps getting better.
They scored it a 9.5 (out of 10)


The Busted Controller's take so far?:

This is one of the most mindblowing experiences i've ever had with a video game. Immersion is not the word, this game has the potential to captivate a player far more than any Massively Multiplayer RPG ever could. It's a marvel of game design, with beautiful artwork and assets all around. The framerate issues alluded to do exist, but not nearly to the degree that some have cited - in fact i've been so enthralled that i haven't noticed a one. The "load Times" are akin to the original Halo's one second pauses as areas load into memory. And entering cities and towns isn't unlike the "zoning" you see in many online role players (like Everquest II or Final Fantasy XI).

What continues to amaze is the amount of depth put into each and every aspect of the game, from the brilliantly executed main quest to the deep, multi-layerd sidequests (no fetching here!) to the wonderful degree of customization offered to your central character.

A general rule of thumb in past "open ended" RPG's was that freedom comes at the cost of storyline - Apparently Bethesda didn't get this memo. Not once thus far (in 15 hours or so of gameplay) has Oblivion hearded or coerced me to follow any sort of set path, and yet the tale thse guys have woven is on par with the best of the fantasy RPG epics!

Graphically the game also shines, and the third person perspective does indeed work extremely well (and the camera is scaleable, despite what one of the above posted reviews states) for everything but ranged combat.I actually prefer playing from this perspective, switching to 1st person when i draw a bow or toss a fireball.

Oblivion is a true classic in every sense of the word. Morrowind was a solid niche game, endlessly open ended yet hamstrung by many technological issues, Oblivion has all of morrowind's strengths, and none of its weaknesses. Bethesda has really proven itself with this one, the degree of care and attention this game has recieved places it in the upper echelon. The rarest of the rare. Bethesda can stand tall with the likes of Blizzard, Bungie, or Id software, they have created a game for the ages, and have provided the polish and care to ensure it remains that way.

A full review will be forthcoming. The score will be high.

Playstation 3 news!

Ken Kutaragi, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the company's game division, made the announcement at the firm's annual PlayStation business briefing to software licencees.

Sony plans to produce 1 million PS3s a month. 6 million will be ready by March 2007.
Other info from the conference report:

• Worldwide November 2006 launch
• Two-tiered online service model
• Requiring of HDD
• Linux on the HDD
• Basic model of online service is free
• Final dev kits will be sent in June 2006
• Full backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 in HD
• All PS3 games are on BR discs

It's official, and exactly what many expected - The Playstation 3 will launch in Novemeber of 2006 in North America.

Worth noting is Sony's online structure, obviously patterned after microsoft's excellent Xbox Live service. Also rumored is an iTunes like music store were you can purchase music and movies, downloaded directly to the HDD in your PS3, and support for Sony's LocationFree wireless streaming setup (similar to the xbox360 Media Center Extender functionality) which allows you to stream video and music from your PC, as well as access your streaming media from anywhere via the internet. Imagine being on the road and streaming a movie from your PS3 at home to your PSP! Or streaming some music from your extensive MP3 collection whist on the move! It may become a reality with the PS3!

If all of this is indeed true, then the PS3 will be one HELL of a machine!

Now we can only hope Sony doesn't price the system out of the game. A 449.99 US/599.99 CAN price tag wouldn't be wholly unreasonable.

From EvilAvatar.com

Review Roundup - Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (xbox360)

Well, the game is out, should be on shelves as you read this. Here's what some of the major players in the game review world are saying:

IGN says:
The list of impressive additions is long and detailed, just as the feature list is, but the core elements to this game emerge from the single-player campaign's integrated presentation and graphics, which tie the game together like few before it. Both are impressive and well-handled and more significantly, they affect and enhance the most important thing, gameplay. GRAW is fundamentally the same methodically paced, squad-based sniper game of yesteryear, but the formula has been enhanced, polished, and realized in ways it's never been capable of reaching in prior generations. Of course, the online portion is vast, impressive, and deep in replay value, and it may very well be the reason to finally get on and stay on Xbox Live for the first time in this console's short history.

They scored it a 9.2 (out of 10)


Gamespot says:
The first thing you'll notice about the game is how breathtakingly massive and believable the city looks. You take several helicopter rides throughout the campaign, and the city is literally sprawled out all the way to the horizon with buildings and streets. Fires and smoke curl up into the sky from patches of fighting or factories. As you land, you find yourself engulfed by the metropolis and plying your way through the maze of buildings, streets, and alleys. The graphic detail extends not only to the character models, which are some of the best we've seen in a modern shooter, but also to the unique lighting and shadows.
They scored it a 9.2 (out of 10)


Gamepro says:
You actually feel like you're in a gun-downed urban sprawl of Mexico City, complete with towering office buildings, hillside shanty towns, and unwelcoming resident neighborhoods. Other graphical eye pleasers that shine include slick visual effects like gun fire and exploding armored vehicles to your team's detailed fatigues. Truly, Advance Warfighter's visual presentation is a force not to be reckoned with.

The visuals may be on target, but Advance Warfighter's controls in the single-player campaign bites the bullet. It's been an unfortunate and ongoing theme in the Ghost Recon series, yet the wonky control scheme still hasn't been fixed. Your teammates still walk in front of you while you're busy firing off rounds, and for some reason, your comrades neglect to automatically find cover once fired upon. They'll even sporadically move directly into a hot zone on their own without your command. (Busted Controller says: They must have been playing a pre-final build - Control was amazing in the retail, and i've yet to encounter any AI issues)
They scored it a 4.0 (out of 5)


Team Xbox says:
The game in its final form is a finely polished realization of what the Ghost Recon franchise is all about, as well as a good indication that developers have only began to touch the potential of what the Xbox 360 is capable of. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter serves up a hefty helping of tactical combat in a variety of interesting and complex environments that every living, breathing shooter fan definitely must experience.
They scored it a 9.3 (out of 10)


The Busted Controller's take so far?
This is our first TRUELY next generation game. Farcry, Doom 3, and Half Life 2 may have upped the graphics ante, but G.R.A.W really brings entirely new gameplay features to the table. From the near seamless gameplay (you seldom if ever see a real "loading screen" outside of first booting up the game, the controls seem complex at first, but are quick to learn, and really bring new abilities (gameplay altering abilities) to the table. Graphically the game is a powerhouse - a beautiful showpiece for that XBOX360 and that nice new 55" Sony Grand VVega you just bought. Difficulty is up there, this one is a challenge, especially on the Hard difficulty, and the degree of multiplayer features is insane! (16 player co-op anyone?) Fight Night Round 3 may have looked pretty, Call of Duty 2 may have had lovely smoke effects, but Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter truely BRINGS IT! Welcome to the next level people. I'll be back in the next week or so with a full on review. Oh, and The Gamepro guys are smoking some bad rock.

Good News Everyone!

This just in:

ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION has gone gold! It will be available at retail for both Xbox360 and PC on March 21st.

March is looking to be a very good month for Xbox360 owners. Check out the official announcement here.

For those unfarmiliar with the Elder Scrolls seris, It's two most recent iterations in particular, Oblivion is a huge sprawling open-ended Role-playing game set in the Elder Scrolls universe. The most recent title, The PC/Xbox entry, Morrowind, was heralded for unparalleled levels of freedom and a huge, beautiful, game world to roam in. Oblivion looks to up the ante on every level, but provides some signifigant enhances to combat and interface to make things a little more user friendly. This is what many consider the first truely MUST OWN title for the Xbox360. Take a look at these purdy pictures (stolen from ign.com)

Discs Gone Gold! - Xbox360!

Two highly anticipated titles for the Xbox360 have gone gold! (Meaning games are finished and on the way to duplication!) Look for the following on shelves in the next few weeks:

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter - The latest entry in Ubi soft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series finds the elite team embroiled in political crisis in Mexico City. Strategic action featuring the latest in real military hardware. The single player looks amazing, add in unprecedented online features like 16 player online co-op, and this one looks like a must buy for 360 owners!

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Burnout Revenge - Esentially the same game released last year for current consoles, only with drastically improved graphics and some additional features. The game was immensely popular on the old machines, and well met by press and public alike. A solid entry for fans of Arcade racing and shameless vehicular mayhem.

Burnout: Revenge

Now we can only hope the rumors for a March 21st release for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hold true!

Images from www.ign.com

Review - Full Auto (xbox360)

It’s been a hard crawl for those of us who were lucky enough to land Xbox360’s before Christmas. The first new release to grace Microsoft’s ivory super-beast since Dead or Alive back in December is Sega’s arcade racer Full Auto. Is it worth the cash? Can it fill the void for greedy 360 owners looking for something new to play? Maybe.

Full Auto takes cues from Criterion’s excellent Burnout series; it’s a hard hitting arcade racer with an emphasis on destruction and carnage. What it does differently, however, is add big bore firepower to the mix. You take to the streets in larger than life muscle cars and hot rods laden with machine guns, rockets, cannons, grenades, and all sorts of fun implements of destruction. Pretty much everything you see on a particular course is destructable, including the other racers. The concept is pretty straight forward – race to the finish and blow up everything you see. There are plenty of gameplay modes, including the traditional multiplayer, career(where you’ll probably spend the majority of time) and arcade modes, and there’s a decent enough tutorial which teaches you the inns and outs of the game. So what’s not to like?

Races consist of a few laps of carnage and explosions, rinse, repeat ad infinitum. Have I mentioned how much this game resembles Burnout yet? There’s just no depth here, none. You unlock weapons, new paint jobs, vehicles and such, and you’ll get some achievement points to make your gamercard look nice, but after a few tracks everything just starts to blend together. The vehicles all feel about the same, the sense of speed never really hits the heights of something like Burnout Revenge, and the car handling is terrible – there’s no feeling of weight or grip to the vehicles, they all slide around like bars of soap on a wet bathtub. About the only significant differences between rides (that I noticed) is how much punishment a particular vehicle can take. The level of destructibility in the environments is pretty impressive, but really doesn’t serve any purpose in the grand scheme of things – the first race in the tutorial (a straight up “clean” run) really feels no different from the later runs, outside of the explosions. The game also gives you a rewind feature to go along with the traditional “boost” feature, so that you can flip time backwards and avoid that nasty crash or screw-up that may have cost you the race. It’s a neat little feature that actually works pretty well. The boost works much like other racers, build up the boost meter and you’ll get your typical nitrous-oxide style boost of speed. Courses are pretty standard fare city runs and what not – nothing you haven’t seen before.

Full Auto really shines in the graphical department. This is a damn nice looking game. Cars all shine and shimmer, reflect their surroundings, and generally look like highly stylized racers. The particle effects and lighting are also solid, as are the wonderfully rendered explosions. It’s not a showpiece for the Xbox360 by any means, but it’s probably a little glossier than anything you’d see on the old Xbox. It definitely wears it’s Burnout influences on it’s sleeve, both in the car designs, and in the text effects, motion blurring, and general sheen of the action during a race. Seeing as how Burnout Revenge was one of the nicest looking games on the last generation of consoles, this is hardly a complaint. The destruction also looks absolutely fantastic, towers break apart and crumble to the ground in shards, buildings explode in a shower of glass, steel, and flame, Cars erupt and deform, flipping end over end leaving trails of smoke, and bullets tear chunks out of everything they hit. At times the screen is utterly littered with flying debris, and yet the frame rate remains consistent throughout.

Sound wise, Full Auto really doesn’t do anything special. Sound effects are pretty stock affairs, explosions are passable, but really lack any sort of heavy presence. Car sounds are generic, but differ between vehicles. The soundtrack is also hopelessly generic rock and techno stuff – thankfully you can break out the custom soundtracks.

Overall, the complete lack of anything even remotely resembling depth keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending Full Auto. If you played the hell out of the Burnout series, or you’re looking for something you can enjoy in quick bursts, then Full Auto may be right up your alley. The multi-player is enjoyable, as long as you don’t go for marathon sessions. Parents – despite the “T” rating, this thing might be just the game for little Timmy or Johnny, and it’s halfway entertaining to watch.

Overall: 6 (out of 10)

Game Reviews - something a little different.

You will of course be seeing game reviews here at the Busted Controller. But these won't be your typical reviews. I plan to do things a little different: - Reviews will be on a 1-10 scale, which is nothing new I will admit - however, with regards to numerical value, high scores will be RARE! Fucking rare even! I'm sick to death of seeing a review peppered with negative comments only to see a solid 8.5 or 9 attached at the bottom. For too long, the gaming media has been leading people to believe that in order for a game to be good, it has to score in the high 8's. This is simply not the case. By my criteria - the average game will score in the 6-7 range, while exceptional stuff scores 8-9, and only the absolute classics score a 10. So? Says you, what's so different? Well - it's like this - The vast majority of high scores out there are for damn good games that do nothing to further the industry or their particular genre. When a game is "genre-defining" then it scores a 9, when it is an absolute classic title, you'll get a 10. We'll take Halo 2 for example - The gamerankings average for this game is a 95% - Bullshit! This game is a prime example of Hype scoring a review. Halo 2 is a great game - don't get me wrong, however it does nothing to evolve the first person shooter genre, or hell even perfect what has gone before - Halo 2 is a solid FPS with a few issues in the gameplay department, some heavy graphical bugs, and a lackluster second half - the game scores a 7.5 in my book - and always has. The fact that the general consensus on this one has been so torn in the time since its release also speaks volumes that the game was indeed overscored. You want a perfect 10? How about Final Fantasy VII? When this game was released in 1997, there was NOTHING else like it. It brought immense production values to gaming, it showed how the CD-Rom format could truly benefit we the gamers... It featured a wonderfully told story, beautiful (for the time) graphics, and remains a fond memory in the hearts and minds of millions of gamers almost a full decade after its release - to the point that people STILL look for this game at retail outlets on a semi-regular basis (while copies of Halo 2 clog the pre-played racks of major dealers). Sure many gamers have other entries in the FF series that they prefer, but FFVII was THE game of the 1990's. So when you see a score of 6 or 7 in the future - do not be afraid - read the content of the review and you'll better understand. An 8-10 score is not something I'm going to slap on a game simply because it's a good game, 6-7 is still a good game, just not a great, genre-defining moment. I'm a picky bastard too. - I plan on revisiting a game six months down the road and chiming in with how the game has aged. It may not be extensive, a paragraph or two. But I will revise my score if necessary, and I'll give a damn good reason as to why. There are many games that simply lose their luster over time, or perhaps (Jade Empire being a prime example for me) they just don't grab you initially, only to endear themselves to you down the road. - I am not for sale! Anyone out there working for either a developer, marketing firm, or whatever - feel free to send me reviewable copy - I'm all for it - but please don't assume that I'll play favorites if you do. I promise to be fair and concise, and I promise to give a title adequate treatment in a semi-timely fashion (I do still work 40 hours a week and have a daughter). But please don't request anything in particular from me other than a fair and unbiased look at your title. Time to outline it for ya, blow by blow - from 1 to 10:

1 - Utter total garbage, bad juju all around - do not waste any time on this one.
2 - Nothing worth your effort, not entirely unplayable, but painful nonetheless.
3 - A few good ideas, but still nothing worth playing.
4 - A solid concept ruined by poor execution - fans of the genre may find something worthwhile
5 - Passable, shows neither ambition nor imagination, but a solid representation of the genre
6 - Some good stuff in there! Not quite polished or overly ambitious, but worth a glance if you enjoy that sort of game.
7 - Better than average, either brings something new to the table or distinguishes itself from it's contemporaries through solid presentation or lots of spit and polish.
8 - Excellent stuff - either pushes the envelope or otherwise wows with presentation or polish. Representative of the best in a chosen genre.
9 - truly outstanding - takes a genre and redefines or adds significantly. Tight presentation, bug free, truly exceptional gameplay with no complaints.
10 - A bonafide classic, a game without equal, that will establish itself as the paradigm by which all other entries in the genre will be compared. Truly the best of the best in all categories. A game for the ages.

There ya have it!
Cheers,
Steve

Capcom *heart* Playsation Portable

More new titles coming from Capcom for the PSP - on top of the six already either released or coming in the immediate future:

Power Stone Collection - Dreamcast owners will probably fondly remember this free for all fighter. The collection for PSP features both Powerstone games complete with wireless (Ad hoc) multiplayer, and new features.

Capcom Puzzle World - This one features the fan favorite Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - a Tetris/Dr. Mario style puzzler featuring Street Fighter characters. Also included are Block Block and the Buster Bros. Collection.

Ghosts n Goblins Extreme - Simialr to the recent treatment given to Mega Man X. The classic Ghosts N Goblins remastered with nice looking 3D graphics.

Also of note - Word is that Capcom has also begun work on the second game in the Mega Man Maverick Hunter series, which should see release later in '06. This brings Capcom's PSP offerings up to 10 titles.

This is just the sort of boost Sony's PSP needs in North America. If only Konami or Square Enix would follow suit. then PSP owners would really have something to be excited about!


News from GameDaily by way of Evil Avatar

War Is Coming - Musings on the next gen

This is an article I originally posted over on Blowin’ Smoke 1.0 shortly following the launch of the xbox 360 back in November of last year. I figured it would be a good inaugural post for The Busted Controller.

Instead of cutting and pasting verbatim from what has gone before, and since some pertinent info has since leaked with regards to both the Revolution and the Playstation 3, and now that the 360 has had a few months to age – I’ve decided to edit and revise the original article some. My thoughts haven’t changed drastically in the interceding months – but I felt some clarification was in order on my part, and perhaps some elaboration on my part to better share with you, dear reader, my impressions on how things may or may not shape up in the coming years. I’m no Oracle, I own no Crystal Ball, but what I bring to the table is a decade of involvement in this crazy little industry – and more than a little “closed door” info on how these companies run. That said, this is pure speculation on my part based on the tidbits I’ve received.

So without further adieu, I bring you the first in what will hopefully be a long running series of informative writings:

War is coming!
Musings on the Next Generation of Video Game Consoles:

Microsoft – The XBOX 360

Microsoft gets the dubious honor of being the first out of the gate this go around. Their system is a powerful piece of kit, and the software lineup is coming together nicely, with some solid exclusive titles in the pipeline, and at least one high profile series (Resident Evil/Biohazard) guaranteed on the system simultaneously with the PS3 version. The launch however has been less than rosy. There’s been nothing in the way of a truly “killer app” for the machine – No Halo in particular – and much of the first gen software has paled in comparison to the previous generation gap. Much like Sega’s late entry, the Dreamcast, we’re getting many current gen games “ported” to the new machine with ever so slight graphical upgrades. There have been shining stars, Project Gotham Racing and Perfect Dark Zero give us a glimpse at new technologies in action, but there isn’t quite enough. To Microsoft’s credit, they have made some very strong leeway with the XBOX brand, and that particular platform was still on the rise when they announced the 360, while Sega, in the Dreamcast days, were trying to compete with the original Playstation and it’s stranglehold on the industry. This fact alone gives Microsoft a somewhat better chance of success – as long as software does materialize, and materialize quickly. Other problems include the near microscopic scrutiny paid the MS crew by the internet gaming clique – each and every system failure (I’ve seen a handful first hand) or whispered rumor of melted discs (which is total BS) causes more and more people to jump ship. The Microsoft haters will use these reports as ammunition in a smear campaign, and the fence sitters who didn’t buy into the initial wave of hype will be swayed away from the MS camp. System failures are to be expected – and I haven’t really seen anything too out of the ordinary – hell – half of the Dreamcast units shipped at launch couldn’t read half of the launch software (luckily for Sega, Soulcalibur wasn’t affected!). What’s alarming is how quickly these stories appeared. Perhaps there is some truth in the rumor that Microsoft rushed things in the Quality Assurance department in order to make their November launch. This sort of practice could come back to bite them on the behind if these reports of defective systems become more frequent.

What Microsoft needs to do to succeed is get some AAA exclusive software out there. Sure Elder Scrolls: Oblivion looks amazing, but it’ll be available up PC’s – likewise with the launch lineup (perhaps the most praised title, Call of Duty 2, was available on PC’s a month before the 360 launched). Microsoft needs to get titles like Gears of War out into the market, and they need to do it ASAP (and still keep the quality up there). They need to iron out any kinks in the hardware, and they need to demonstrate that their system can hold it’s own with Sony’s upcoming PS3, which is certainly no slouch, and is backed by the Sony name, which up to this point was a video game juggernaut.

What’s Microsoft doing right? Well, the hardware is impressive to be sure. The idea of connectivity to Windows Media centre PCs is a brilliant concept – being able to stream video and music over a home network into your 360 is a sweet proposition. They also have the best online infrastructure in existence in Xbox Live. The Xbox360 iteration of live, with it’s marketplace and Arcade features is a sweet thing – anyone with a high speed connection can get into Live now – with movie trailers, music videos, and Game demos all downloadable (though you still need the pay-based “Gold” subscription to actually play most multiplayer games). The way the system manages user profiles is brilliant as well – allowing you to create default options based on a unique profile and have those options apply to each and every game you play (no more navigating option screens every time you pop a game in!). Much thought went into the engineering of the system’s interface, and it shows. These features definitely add some luster to the package as a whole – imagine surfing your computer for some Fu Manchu whilst playing a race or two – or getting some Call of Duty 2 multiplayer on the go with the Band of Brothers soundtrack blaring as your in game music – I’ve done it – and it kicks ass! There are some issues with the Media CenterMedia Center extender functionality, but on a wired network you’ll have no trouble. Software wise, there’s a lot of solid stuff out there, the problem is that it’s not entirely new or impressive compared to what’s come lately on the current machines or the PC. That will probably change over time. functionality, if you’re the sort who loves to download divx – the 360 will balk, but say you have a few AVI’s? Well the 360 can play that stuff right over your home network. You need one hell of a wireless network to sustain the

So should you bet on Microsoft? Risky – The 360’s initial hype has carried it thus far, and while not at all a disappointment, the system is hardly the harbinger of the next generation… yet. On the other hand – Microsoft has built itself enough of a fan base with the original XBOX, and the brand has that “cool” factor that benefited the Playstation all those many years ago. While none of the Microsoft franchises of the past generation have eclipsed the elite of the PS2 franchises, games like Forza Motorsport, Crimson Skies, Fable, Amped, and Mechassault did generate loyal followings, and next gen sequels to these games are virtually assured at this point – and there’s still an 800 pound gorilla by the name of Halo, which will almost assuredly be making an appearance sometime in 2007. If they can give “we the gamer” between five and ten triple-A titles a year, they’ll be set.

Sony – The Playstation 3

Sony would have to try awfully hard to screw up the PS3. The PSOne and PS2 were resounding successes, the most popular video game consoles of all time – selling over 100 million systems each. The Playstation brand has become synonymous with some of the most loved video game properties of all time, and many a new blockbuster franchise has been birthed on Sony hardware. From a technology standpoint – the system simply dominates anything currently available with its BD-ROM (blu-ray) storage medium, support for up to seven Bluetooth wireless controllers, Support for every memory format under the sun (Smartmedia, compact flash, and Sony Memory stick ports all come standard)and built in wireless network support. As far as raw power is concerned, Sony’s new Cell based processor is a beast to be sure, but reports as to how it stands up next to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 have been conflicting, at best it’s capable of 3-4 times what the 360 can do, at worst it’s ever so slightly the lesser. Regardless – these system wars will be won with software, and with new entries in several popular franchises, including Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo, Devil May Cry, and (of course) Grand Theft Auto already confirmed to be in development for Sony’s next machine, the outlook already seems pretty apparent. Those people who bought into the PS2’s ability to play DVD movies may also be swayed by the PS3’s support for the upcoming Blu-Ray DVD format – but it remains to be seen if this format will become another DVD, or go the way of the Laserdisc. If anything, the PS3 will benefit Blu-Ray far more than Blu-Ray will benefit the PS3.

Sony is also reportedly working on an online structure very similar to Xbox Live. It’s being bandied about that Sony’s infrastructure will allow for multiplayer gaming, friends lists, clan structures, all the usual trimmings, but it will also provide an I-Tunes like system where users can pay for digital downloads, be it music, movies, or television. This definitely takes things up a notch. There’s also talk that the machine will interact with Sony’s PSP in a big way, from being able to take your PSP online through your PS3, to being able to use your PSP as an additional controller for the PS3 – complete with an added screen (an idea pioneered by Nintendo with it’s Gamecube/Game Boy Advance). At any rate – Sony looks to have an online option in place that is every bit as robust as Xbox Live – if the rumors are all true.

The big question mark right now is price. Sony are not idiots, they will not price themselves out of the game… and if a $399 or $499(US) price tag is eventually revealed, there’s little doubt that they’ll stack the package as they did with the PSP system (including accessories and the like) so that it appears, outwardly at least, that the consumer is getting a solid deal for their buck. It’s been confirmed that, while there will be an expansion bay, no hard drive will come internal in the system. This is sure to be an issue to some, but with the rapidly expanding capacity of flash memory, and with the PS3’s support of pretty much every memory format under the sun, the hard drive may be a non-issue. As long as save game file sizes remain small and manageable, a simple 32 mb memory stick would probably do just fine, but once you get into digital downloads – that space will disappear in an awfully big hurry.

The other grey area is software… As of yet, we’ve seen some very pretty proof of concept demos and not much else. About the only real game footage has been the (rather stunning) look at Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – but if other big name series like Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto can be equally impressive – then there should be no issue. There’s also a lot of Japan-centric stuff coming, which isn’t really en vogue in North America at the moment. We really need to see more – perhaps at E3 ’06 – before we can safely say that the PS3 really brings the goods in the software department, and to be perfectly honest, the big guns probably won’t start showing up at the party until the fall of ‘07. And remember those internet gaming circles we talked about whilst discussing Microsoft? Well they will be twice as judgmental with Sony. Being the leader up to this point adds additional scrutiny, and people will look for any and all weak spots, and exploit them. Early on, several reports about programming difficulty were blown into a big issue – though much more recent accounts pin the PS3 as a nice flexible development platform, on par with the 360, and no-where near the beast that the PS2 was.

So do we bet on Sony then? Well – at this point it’s more of a sure thing than Microsoft. A new Grand Theft auto game already in development is reason enough for North Americans to get behind this one. Microsoft still has Halo up their sleeves, but it’s doubtful that even the almighty Halo can stand up to the holy trinity of GTA, Metal Gear AND Final Fantasy. To top it all off – the capabilities of Sony’s machine, outside of the hardware’s “guts” are probably far more appealing to the mainstream gamer vs. what the Xbox 360 can do (the aforementioned wireless controllers, broader range of HD support, support for next gen DVD’s, built in wireless and interactivity with PSP vs. Microsoft’s Media Centre compatibility). The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and until Sony can give a clearer indication of what the system launch - and more importantly the crucial first year – can bring to the table in terms of software, the decision is a slight advantage in Sony’s favor.

Nintendo – Nintendo Revolution

Nintendo is in a very precarious position right now. Having barely made a dent in the last two generations, they’ve shied away from the mainstream market and into niche territory. Their new entry, the Revolution, is a curiosity really – hinged entirely upon the concept of a motion sensitive wand-style controller. Hardware wise, the system is rumored to be barely a fraction more powerful than the first generation XBOX, and Nintendo’s silence on that particular issue (the fact that they may never release detailed specs on the Revolution to the public) speaks volumes. On the one hand, this design may indeed be innovative enough to give the industry a shot in the arm, really revolutionize interactivity with video games. More likely, we’ll be stuck with niche titles with limited mass appeal and gimmicky gameplay features (as we’ve seen with the DS, and to an extent the gamecube) and half assed ports of software from vastly superior hardware.

The other big selling point is access to a library of classic Nintendo titles from the company’s heyday (NES and SNES eras). It’s not yet known to what degree this classic software will be available – weather it will be first party titles only, or complete libraries – and more importantly, weather or not the end user will have to pay per-title, or perhaps a monthly fee for the service. The concept is very similar to Microsoft’s XBOX Live Arcade program, only with a vastly superior selection. Also still in the air is the medium on which all of these downloads will be saved. At any rate – a broadband internet connection is almost assuredly a requirement. Old school Nintendo die hards, those still fanatical enough to be loyal after being kicked around by the N64 and Gamecube, will undoubtedly gobble this feature up.

Software is a huge problem right now – As much as we’ve seen from Sony, we’ve seen little to nothing from Nintendo, not even so much as a finished proof of concept demo. Will we actually see truly immersive next gen titles? Or will we see more rinky dink gimmick titles like Wario Ware and Under the Knife. Will we get conceptual titles with some intriguing gameplay mechanics, but no depth whatsoever? Or will Nintendo pull the same trick they have with their handheld market, and rely heavily on retro-gaming through ports of classic titles.

If nothing else, the Revolution is guaranteed to be cheaper than either of its competitors (barring a Microsoft price drop), which helped the Game cube immensely. Parents will gobble up the little buggers simply because they are cheaper, and because they have Nintendo sprawled on the box. There has been nothing said about any sort of online infrastructure, and I doubt very much Nintendo will be willing to sink the resources into such a plan. The biggest problem is the seeming lack of concern from the company itself. Fans are screaming for new titles in Nintendo’s flagship series’, but they want them how they remember them. No gimmicky gameplay elements like in Super Mario Sunshine. Has Nintendo listened? Well find out I’m sure.

So where does Nintendo stand? They aren’t even in the race… They’ve chosen a different route altogether – head to head against the XBOX 360 and the PS3 is not a road they’ve taken. There’s a slim chance that Nintendo’s third party developers could be genuinely interested in cooking up some new, original, and most of all involving content, but that possibility seems unlikely. The big companies like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft look to maximize profits, and spending a fortune in R&D and creating original concepts based around Nintendo’s new controller would wind up costing them more than they’re willing to gamble on what will ultimately be a niche system. What Nintendo hopes to do is filter some of their handheld market over to their console, particularly the slowly growing cult of DS fans enamored with that systems offbeat quirkiness. Combine those with the die hard Nintendo followers, who will simply follow the name, and the curiosity seekers intrigued by the Big N’s new controller, then there’s the kiddie-friendliness of the Nintendo name and budget conscious parents grabbing the cheaper system. If you’re betting on which system will be successful, the Revolution is a sure thing, if you’re betting on it taking down Microsoft or Sony – put your cash back in your wallet.