Archives for Feature category
By Ravi Sinha
This year has already been hugely beneficial for both Sony and Microsoft, though it currently tilts more towards the Playstation 3. Nonetheless, by the second week of May, each console will have three AAA exclusives to each call it’s own. Which is all well and good, but what next after that?
After Alan Wake releases for the 360/PC in May, there won’t be a single AAA exclusive for the 360 for about four months. The Playstation 3 has it worse, because after God of War 3’s release, it’ll be bereft of any exclusives for six months. This is not to say the appeals of either console’s exclusives will wear off very quickly – God of War 3, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell Conviction, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 and MAG should all support their respective platforms for a good 2-3 months after their release. However, the number of people buying a 360 or PS3 to experience them will steadily drop as compared to pre-existing owners giving them a whirl. This is not to say the drop in sales will be sharp; just that a noticeable decline will follow for a while.
The Xbox 360 will quickly emerge from this slump in September with the release of Halo: Reach (with Fable III to follow by the end of this year), while the PS3 has Arc releasing in Autumn (there should be hopefully be word on LittleBigPlanet 2’s release as well, at E3). But both consoles will have to rely on third party titles like Lost Planet 2, Dragon Age: Awakening, I Am Alive, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, No More Heroes 2 and Dead Rising 2 to sustain interest over the next few months. The problem is more pronounced with the PS3 since there are currently no exclusives slated for release these coming months (The Agent doesn’t have firm release date; neither does most of Sony’s rumoured titles like Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, and no one in their right mind would consider ModNation Racers a big deal). This is not counting the proposed shortage of PS3 units during the same period.
This gives an advantage to Nintendo, the current leader in the console wars, which has five strong exclusives from March till July with Red Steel 2, WarioWare: D.I.Y., Monster Hunter Tri, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. There’s also news that the new Zelda could appear some time at the end of 2010, so Nintendo has it’s Autumn-Christmas base covered too. And this is not even counting the casual audience that is currently the Wii’s strongest market – they have plenty of family titles planned to sustain them as well. Not only can Nintendo compete with Sony and Microsoft during their stronger months, but will ably pick up the slack while they’re out of the picture. Though The Forgotten Sands and No More Heroes 2 will also come to Wii, they most likely won’t make much difference to sales.
E3 2010 will be a big opportunity for both Microsoft and Sony to expand on previous rumours, announce new titles and generally get the hype ball rolling for Autumn and Christmas. While it’s easy to say Nintendo has been dominating it’s competitors since the Wii’s release, it’s my prediction that it’ll have an even easier time in the Summer till pre-Autumn, while it’s competitors planning their prospective futures.
Posted on February 27th, 2010 at 4:03pm by Split-Screen
Filed Under: Feature, Game Reviews and Opinion
By Ravi Sinha
With all the problems Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been encountering, the lines are getting blurred between the nuisances and actual issues. First came the crib that it didn’t look much different from the original. Next, Activision lashed out at Sony for not reducing the price of their console – shortly after, they hiked the price of MW2, thus earning boycotts galore (all AWOL when it sold it’s millions on day one). Then came the lack of dedicated servers, wherein the game would rely solely on the matchmaking process of finding online games. This spelled death for multiplayer clans and those wanting to play online with their friends. The “No Russian” controversy also insured that the mainstream media took seething notice of MW2. Needless to say, anybody and everybody has a reason to dislike Activision/Infinity Ward these days.
On Penny Arcade the other day, Mike “Gabe” Krahulik stated the following:
“I tried the single player campaign but got bored with it pretty fast. The game just feels old to me, like I’ve played this game a hundred times before. It’s a FPS without any kind of cover system and to me that just feels very dated. I’ve shot all these ambiguously foreign guys in other games for the same convoluted reasons…Where the single player campaign felt old and dated to me the multiplayer actually feels fresh and interesting.”
Skimming through several reviews online, reading between the lines of the massive praise some sites had, the consensus was pretty much equal: “You’ve played this before, shot these dudes before. It’s not even that long. But it’s fun. Oh, and great multiplayer.” There were many titles which I personally felt were unfairly awarded great reviews because of this very saying. Gears of War 2, Halo 3: ODST, Left4Dead, even Killzone 2, you name it. Other titles, like Resistance 2, faced the opposite charge – that of not having a very popular multiplayer and thus enduring a certain shaft by gamers in general. Even though the single-player has the most impressive scale we’ve see in an FPS yet.
Just recently, I came across the following review aggregates for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 across all major categories on Metacritic. PC fans may not have their dedicated servers, hence the low User Rating aggregate of 1.4 (based on an average of a whopping 1839 votes). PS3 fans may still be angered by Activision’s previous complaints of withdrawing support for Sony’s PS3 if the company didn’t reduce it’s price. Hence you have an aggregate User Rating of 4.9 based on an average of 477 votes. Then what about the Xbox 360? A console considered to be the de facto choice for FPS fans, with the Gears and Halo franchises, not to mention the rabid popularity of these titles (and even the original MW) on Xbox LIVE, sees it’s version of MW2 with an aggregate User Rating of 5.5 based on an average of 825 votes (and rising).
All of which is irrelevant, of course. For all the hundreds of users who state their dislike of the game, publicly, on the internet, there are millions upon millions of customers, and potentials, who love the game to bits. Hell, the original Modern Warfare and World at War ranked at no. 2 and 3 respectively in LIVE activity on October for October 26th (figures revealed last week on November 3). And a peek at some users recent activity indicates MW2 will steal the top spot.
Are games in this generation judged simply based on their multiplayer? That sure as hell doesn’t stop the single-player hype. Are the controversies and glitches coming back to haunt Activision? Not many critics seem to have been faced with the same glitches, though a buggy review copy isn’t exactly what most reviewers get (and vice versa). Are these just the rants of the few and the far between? Or has Modern Warfare 2 simply killed off all innovation, and we’re seeing the last signs of rebellion from a gamer base that has come to bask in Hollywood sequences of flash and fury?
Whatever side you may be on, at least you can be sure the sides are the same. You’ll either madly love Modern Warfare 2 or hate it deeply. And neither critics nor other users could convince you to switch by their own logic.
Posted on November 12th, 2009 at 3:25pm by Split-Screen
Filed Under: Feature
By Ravi Sinha
I won’t attempt to explain the Mumbai terror attacks that took place almost a year ago in our native land of the saffron, white and green. Unless you were in India, you wouldn’t really understand it – unlike a 9/11 that took place over the period of one admittedly beautiful New York morn, 26/11 took place over a period of almost two days. In those several hours, we learned of Splinter Cell voice actor Michael Rudder being injured, the deaths of major industrialists and special operatives, and for those who cared, the delay of GTA IV for PC in India. And in those several hours, every person who wasn’t glued to their TV or walking an all-too quiet street in the afternoon, we had our lives changed. That we haven’t had a terrorist attack on that scale in almost a year is saying a lot.
And now a year later, the news arrives of Modern Warfare 2 featuring a level wherein five Ultranationalist terrorists enter an airport and begin mowing down civilians in a manner meant to resemble the Mumbai massacres. With Activision’s blockbuster worldwide release nearly coinciding with the anniversary of the attacks, I thought it best to summarize one Indian’s take on any controversy this is meant to create.
Fucking deal with it already (initiate Full-Rant Mode. Execute).
The original Modern Warfare had an opening sequence wherein you played the victim, President Al-Fulani, from the first person perspective. I couldn’t move or control my fate, letalone affect those of my aggressors. It was little more than a standard first person cutscene, albeit a personal that set the tone for the grisly combat to follow. Personally, it evoked memories of Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder while politically, it set the stage for what would become a mirror to the real world invasion of Iraq. The whole idea created a connection to the real world, further reinforcing the game’s realism.
As soon as I heard the basic details of this so-called Airport Massacre mission in Modern Warfare 2, along with subsequent news that it was skippable (same as the case for Al-Fulani’s first person execution), I immediately thought of a particular sequence in Die Hard 2. Here a SWAT team and airport officials literally march to their death at the hands of former US Army Spec Ops soldiers before John McClane heroically drops in to their rescue (for which more people die later. “Yippee-ki-yay” indeed, mother fucker). In terms of real world politics, the only thing I could connect it to was the 2002 Nord-Ost Siege in Russia by 40-50 Chechen terrorists, in which more than 129 hostages were killed. I also felt a nostaligic twinge for Reservoir Dogs. Maybe it was the suits.
Activision and Infinity Ward will most likely remove this portion from the game until the heat calms down. But if not, let’s make one thing clear: When I play Modern Warfare 2, I’m going to thoroughly enjoy killing all those civilians and leaving their bodies spread across escalators, elevators, and what-not. I’m going to love watching them crawl away helplessly before I pull the trigger, and move on to mowing down hapless security guards who haven’t a hope in hell of defending the innocent. Just like I loved shooting Ultranationalists at close range in CoD 4.
Just like I love dismembering and disintegrating Nazis in Wolfenstein, just to hear their terrible screams of pain. Just like I loved running people over in Grand Theft Auto 4 once and then driving alternately in reverse and forward to finish the job. Ditto for killing more humans by the second in Prototype in the most fantastically brutal. Did I mention getting a kick out of mass murdering in Smash TV, Serious Sam, Myth II and Robotron? I’m not a political prankster looking to get mileage out of playing off of people’s emotions. I’m not a hypocrite who believes games cannot undergo amazing revelations like cinema has with Asian Extreme cinema and New Wave French Extremity, simply because kids are “more susceptible” to picking violent games then watching violent movies (”because games are meant for kids” they say). I’m not some recluse who sees Lara Croft as more beautiful than any girlfriend could ever be.
And as far as violence goes – even if I get killed at the end or I’m a double agent in the game, even if I murder 200, 300, a billion innocent people (and seriously, if we want to play the realism game, how many strangers do you know who are completely innocent?), I’d still be able to wash my hands afterwards without uttering “Out damned spot!” even once. Besides coming back with an experience that I know I couldn’t, wouldn’t and shouldn’t ever obtain in real life.
Just like they told me a year ago about GTA IV because of the Mumbai terror attacks; just like they told me 10 years ago about Doom because of two extremely stupid kids in Columbine; just like they told me 17 years ago about Mortal Kombat for no good reason other than they were afraid of what they didn’t understand. Ironically, the game targetted will keep changing but the issue remains the same. And time upon time again, we must stand up and speak loud and clear to our easily offended species when we say “It’s just a game”. Seriously. Quit playing common sense catch-up and get with the program already.
Posted on November 3rd, 2009 at 10:00am by Split-Screen
Filed Under: Feature
Game: Dead Space: Extraction
Publisher/Developer: Electronic Arts / Visceral Games
Genre: On-Rails Shooter
Verdict: An outstanding showcase of what the Nintendo Wii is truly capable of
Pros: Awesome environments, compelling story, and brilliant HUD design
Cons: Lack of character personality and puzzles seem tacked on.
Developer Acquired
A new Dead Space game? Already? After a year that saw the publication of such outstanding original IPs as Spore, Mirrors Edge, and Dead Space, Electronic Arts looked to be moving in a positive direction towards new content, the polar opposite of rival publisher, Activision. Just when we thought the days of squatting out yearly sequels were behind them, EA showed their true colors once again. Upon the announcement of Dead Space making its way to the Nintendo Wii, fans became frothy with glee, envisioning a Wii port of what was easily the biggest surprise of last year. Resident Evil 4 fueled antics and a unique Wii control scheme were dancing through the heads of reviewers, like sugar plumbs through the dreams of kindergartners on Christmas Eve. Much to the dismay of the excited masses, the game was revealed to forgo the port treatment, instead favoring an on-rails shooter, acting as a prequel to the events that haunted the slumber of every man, woman, and child that played the original. The real question is: did EA’s risk pay off, or are we looking at another mature Wii title that is dead on arrival?
The first mission aboard the USG Ishimura left us wondering what it would take for such a colossal structure to become devoid of virtually all human life. In the story of Dead Space: Extraction, players get to live out all of the destruction, pain, and horror that set the stage for the events of the original game.
Like most pieces of literature, feature films, and games that revolve around the dismantling of the entire human species, there is one thing that is always a safe bet: humans did something stupid to unleash their ultimate demise. This has been a story mechanic that dates all the way back to the Titans of Greek mythology being imprisoned by Zeus in Tartarus, later escaping and wreaking havoc. So why mess with a good thing, right? In the case of Extraction, the main enemies, the Necromorphs, are released during the attempted mining of a religious marker of some sort on the planet Aegis VII. As one would assume, once a possessed entity that is comprised entirely of deceased human tissue is released on your planet, you have only one option: run like the devil is in your back pocket holding a lighter to the underside of your nut-sack (or equivalent female bits — Ed).
Featuring traditional mechanics that have been found in every on-rails shooter since House of the Dead defined the whole genre, there is really nothing present that is cause for alarm. The “stand in one place while randomly generated zombie sprites hobble, stumble, and outright sprint directly into the sights of your crosshairs” mechanic remains unchanged. That is not to say that there are not new tricks thrown in here and there to enhance the combat, but it seems like a very safe take on something that could have redefined what a next-generation shooter experience could be on the Wii.
As funny as it may sound to hear the words “next-generation” and “Wii” in a sentence other than, “Dear lord, when is Nintendo planning to rob our pocketbooks and steal our wives, with the release of the next generation Wii,” the visuals tend to argue otherwise. In short, this is the single most detailed and aesthetically pleasing game available on the console to date. It is nothing short of staggering what the developers over at Visceral Games have been able to produce with such drastically underpowered hardware. In an age where studios have used the limitations of the Wii as an excuse for delivering piss poor environmental assets and muddy animations, it is nice to see someone legitimately push the machine to its limits.
Sticking with the theme of stellar design, the HUD and visors used to progress the plot of the game are spot on. They are located in areas of the screen where key information can be conveyed quickly, without interrupting or distracting from the action at hand, while still seeming to not be outside of what one would expect. Another particularly well crafted piece of the puzzle is the engrossing narrative. Throughout the events of the game, the player will take control of a great number of different characters. This significantly enhances the overall perspective of the player, allowing a greater sense of the story than if limited to on point of view. The game is set across a great number of different environments, helping to portray a feeling of satisfaction through the relentless forward progression.
Veterans of the past Dead Space installment will remember the game’s upgradeable weapon system. Fortunately those helming the prequel decided to bring this across the console chasm, recreating what may be the single most gratifying mechanic of the entire game. Having the ability to choose up to four weapons of your choice and upgrading them as you see fit helps to both engross and reinforce the life-or-death scenarios that take place. Just make sure to shoose upgrade your weapons wisely: they will be critical to your survival in later stages.
If there are two areas where the game falls tragically short, they would have to be the puzzles and personality. First off, there are a number of different points where environmental puzzles are employed to increase the tension of a scene and provide a necessary break from the gunplay. While succeed in breaking up the monotony of the action, the actual puzzles themselves leave something to be desired. Normally taking the form of having to hack a locked door or re-activate a dead elevator, this element just seemed like a tacked on mini-game that would be better suited to a precision-based multiplayer mode.
The area where the game lacks the most is the personality. Sure, the game has solid voice acting and decent character development, but there is nothing that drew me into caring about any one specific character. It doesn’t help matters much that the game is a non-stop, high-intensity experience. Reflections back to games like House of the Dead: Overkill come to mind, except for one key factor: Overkill injected humor at regular intervals in order to break the tension. Having a bit more humor, as dark as it would need to be, might have helped all of the characters feel more authentic, rather than skittish and abused puppies in pasty human form.
Games like Dead Space: Extraction do not come along very often and especially not on the Nintendo Wii. It successfully manages to combine lush visuals, satisfying gunplay, and top tier storytelling into a title that has raised the bar for what to expect from a Wii game. This is a must own for any Wii owner with a bent towards the mature and gratuitous violence that only the threat of an alien genocide can provide.
Posted on October 30th, 2009 at 1:00pm by feedback@gamesareevil.com (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Blood, Dead Space, Feature, Guns, House of the Dead, Nintendo Wii, On-Rails Shooter, Reviews, ea, explosions, featured, visceral-games
Download audio file (evilcastrecap07.mp3)
DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE IN iTUNES
Whats that? You want a live EvilCast you say? You got it! Not only that, we will also have a special guest stopping by from the Family Guy set to help introduce the show and send us off with a bang. Along with our jam packed roster, we will have plenty of time to hit on the biggest gaming news of the weekend including sky high PS3 sales, hands on impressions of the Xbox Dashboard, and Ross’s Top 5 November game releases. Be sure not to miss all of that and more in tonight’s EvilCast Newsbrief.
Links to Topics Discussed:
1. PS3 sales take flight.
2. The dog ate your XBLA account?
3. Hands on with the Xbox Dashboard Update
4. Civ set to invade Facebook in 2010
Open To The Public:
Do you like to play Farmville on Facebook?
The Evil Cast:
- The Trifecta of Trite: Ross Polly, Ammon Horn and Blake Grundman
Special Thanks:
If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions, get off your ass and get them to us!
- Leave us a comment (DO IT NOW!) here on the post
- Email us at feedback@gamesareevil.com
- Call and leave us a voice message at (206) 309-4286
Related stuff to check out:
Posted on October 26th, 2009 at 10:39pm by feedback@gamesareevil.com (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: EvilCast, Feature, News, podcasts
After Alan Wake releases for the 360/PC in May, there won’t be a single AAA exclusive for the 360 for about four months. The Playstation 3 has it worse, because after God of War 3’s release, it’ll be bereft of any exclusives for six months. This is not to say the appeals of either console’s exclusives will wear off very quickly – God of War 3, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell Conviction, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 and MAG should all support their respective platforms for a good 2-3 months after their release. However, the number of people buying a 360 or PS3 to experience them will steadily drop as compared to pre-existing owners giving them a whirl. This is not to say the drop in sales will be sharp; just that a noticeable decline will follow for a while.
The Xbox 360 will quickly emerge from this slump in September with the release of Halo: Reach (with Fable III to follow by the end of this year), while the PS3 has Arc releasing in Autumn (there should be hopefully be word on LittleBigPlanet 2’s release as well, at E3). But both consoles will have to rely on third party titles like Lost Planet 2, Dragon Age: Awakening, I Am Alive, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, No More Heroes 2 and Dead Rising 2 to sustain interest over the next few months. The problem is more pronounced with the PS3 since there are currently no exclusives slated for release these coming months (The Agent doesn’t have firm release date; neither does most of Sony’s rumoured titles like Killzone 3 and Resistance 3, and no one in their right mind would consider ModNation Racers a big deal). This is not counting the proposed shortage of PS3 units during the same period.
This gives an advantage to Nintendo, the current leader in the console wars, which has five strong exclusives from March till July with Red Steel 2, WarioWare: D.I.Y., Monster Hunter Tri, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. There’s also news that the new Zelda could appear some time at the end of 2010, so Nintendo has it’s Autumn-Christmas base covered too. And this is not even counting the casual audience that is currently the Wii’s strongest market – they have plenty of family titles planned to sustain them as well. Not only can Nintendo compete with Sony and Microsoft during their stronger months, but will ably pick up the slack while they’re out of the picture. Though The Forgotten Sands and No More Heroes 2 will also come to Wii, they most likely won’t make much difference to sales.
