Saturday, March 24, 2012

15 Years of Gaming, Part 16 (2010)

Mass Effect 2
Release Date: January 26, 2010.
Platform: 360/PC (later PS3)
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: BioWare/EA
GameRankings: 95.6%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.6/10 (Legendary)


Look past the horrific box art. Look past the meandering, confused main plotline that only really pays off at the very end. Look past the relative lack of RPG elements. What's left is still one of the most daring, absorbing and best games ever made. The original Mass Effect, while certainly a great game, perhaps reached a little too far, a little too high. The concepts were great, but the execution (and more importantly the polish), was underwhelming at times, ending sequences aside. It was very much an experiment, albeit a high budget, Triple A one.

The second Mass Effect suffers from no such lack of polish. It's staggeringly massive and detailed, featuring a cast of characters at least double in size of the first, and yet no less intriguing. In fact, it's in the other characters in your party that this game truly shines. Their personal quests are among the most involving and high-stakes in the entire game, as they all look to Commander Shepard to help them put their affairs in order before what looks to be a suicide mission. Except that it isn't. Or it is, depending on how you play your proverbial cards, and how prepared those cards are.

This is possibly BioWare's magnum opus (at least until the third game comes out) and one of the best games of this new decade, full stop. I recommend it heavily if you haven't played it (or the first one), or even if hardcore, old school sci-fi mixed with adrenaline pumping action on a scale not usually seen in video games is your thing. It should be.




BioShock 2
Release Date: February 9, 2010.
Platform: PS3/360/PC
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: 2k Marin/2k Games
GameRankings: 87.87%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.5/10 (Very Good)


BioShock 2 is a game I wasn't sure I thought should exist. The original ended on a nearly pitch-perfect tone, and the sequel wasn't even being made by all the same people. By all rights, it was an unnecessary and possibly terrible game. It wasn't. While the plots and twists weren't as sharp and shocking as the first one, the protagonist and the pacing were miles better, and while the setting and ideologies behind the game were wearing a little thin, the gameplay was arguably better (which was a weak point I found with the original). It's not as good as BioShock, but few games are. It expanded and elaborated upon almost everything that was great about the original.

I will say this, however. It's probably a good thing that the next BioShock isn't set in Rapture. I'm would have had a hard time believing there are any splicers left to kill if there was a third game set in Andrew Ryan's underwater dystopia.




Final Fantasy XIII
Release Date: March 9, 2010.
Platform: PS3/360
ESRB Rating: T
Developer/Publisher: Square Enix
GameRankings: 85.17%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.3/10 (Good)


The Final Fantasy series is one that has been slowly fighting the passage of time over the last decade. 2001 saw the release of Final Fantasy X, in my opinion one of the two or three best of the entire series, and the last entry to follow the tried and true turn-based methodology followed by all the others. Since then, the series has scrabbled to find it's way in a more modern gaming landscape. FF12, while a good game, held very little of the magic so often found in its predecessors. FF13 perhaps captures a little more of that old charm that made the Final Fantasy series one of my favorites growing up. The combat system is fluid and truly original, instead of being the clunky clone found in FF12. The characters, while still annoying for long stretches of time, were maybe a little more indelible than those found in 12. The setting, while not as iconic as Ivalice, is visually striking (even if a few too many hours are spent in the same places). FF13 is not a bad game. In fact, it's a better game than 12. But it's not great. And it's still a lateral step rather than a forward one. FFX was a last great gasp. Everything since then has been a wheeze.




Red Dead Redemption
Release Date: May 18, 2010.
Platform: PS3/360
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
GameRankings: 94.18%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.3/10 (Great)


Manifest Destiny. If there's any phrase that describes Red Dead Redemption, it's this one. The year is 1911. The old west is at it's end. Civilization is spreading, unchecked and unstoppable. The only thing worse than the lawless men who terrorize the wilderness are the civilized men who control it. This might be sounding a little pompous, but if there's anything this game is about, it's the expanding moral bankruptcy of the fledgling American Empire.

How does this translate to a game instead of a concept? Quite well. Few games, if any, quite capture the essence of loneliness like RDR does. It's not the biggest open world in gaming, but sometimes it feels like it, taking place over an extremely diverse landscape that combines pastiches of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and, like all good westerns, Mexico. Speaking of good westerns, many of the characters, towns and situations are homages to many of the great westerns (most noticeable is the Man With No Name's poncho).

Red Dead Redemption sits alone in the history of gaming as a singularly lonely work, one that combines the reality and the fiction of the old west into a sad, desperate game that is as affecting as anything Rockstar has ever done. And it's damned fun to boot.




Halo: Reach
Release Date: September 14, 2010.
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Bungie/Microsoft Game Studios
GameRankings: 91.71%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 9.1/10 (Great)


The Halo series has never been one praised for it's realistic depictions of war. And for good reason. For the most part, these games are high sci-fantasy, starring an invincible cyborg as he fights valiantly against an unstoppable alien horde and boogeyman from the darkest corners of the id. But there is, despite what you might think, despite what you may have been lead to believe, more. The same sort of "more" that was in 2009's dark little masterpiece ODST. The same sort of "more" you might find in an actual wartime scenario: the prolonging of the inevitable. It's readily apparent, early  on (even without the sort of familiarity with the background material of the Halo universe that I'm writing from) that the battle for Reach will be lost. No matter what you do, no matter what your squad does, you will lose. But that doesn't mean you can't die trying. And die trying you do.

With every "we just need to buy some time," to every "we still have a chance" in the script, that experience of sacrifice paints the narrative of Halo: Reach in shades the other Halo games never really had to use. As Bungie's swan song, it does as good a job as possible in encapsulating what made the Halo games maybe THE premiere series of the 2000s, while simultaneously being different enough from the other games in tone to be it's own legitimate game. From the start, you that it's the end, in more way than one.








Fallout: New Vegas
Release Date: October 19, 2010.
Platform: PC/360/PS3
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda Softworks
GameRankings: 83.8%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 8.6/10 (Very Good)


New Vegas is another 2010 sequel that, to begin with, I wasn't sure should exist. Fallout 3 was such a singular, wonderful title, that I wasn't convinced that a sequel, a sequel developed by another studio nonetheless, was necessary. And, much like BioShock 2, I was wrong. Where that game built off what was good about the original, with minor additions, Fallout: New Vegas builds off of what's different about it than it's predecessor. It's similar to Fallout 3 in setting and name. That's about it. Set in the significantly more developed area around what used to be Las Vegas, New Vegas takes place in a more political world. Notice I didn't use the word "civilized." Nothing in the Fallout universe can ever hope to have such lofty aspirations.

Fallout: New Vegas isn't as good as its decorated predecessor, but then again, few games are. It comes close enough (while being different enough) to come wholly recommended to anyone who knows that war never changes.





Fable III
Release Date: October 26, 2010.
Platform: Xbox 360/PC
ESRB Rating: M
Developer/Publisher: Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios
GameRankings: 80.52%
Completely Arbitrary Personal Score: 7.9/10 (Above Average)




Fable III is unique among the series for finally, finally, living up to at least some of Peter Molyneux's lofty praise and otherwordly hype. After twice promising the moon and delivering just a Polaroid, Molyneux's final (?) entry into the Fable series is the biggest, most ambitious, most tensely plotted entry in the series. That doesn't mean it's the best.

Where the third game differs from the others is in it's political aspirations. The hero does not become any more powerful, in a video game sense, than either of the other Fable protagonists, but he or she does become significantly more powerful politically. Where the second game saw you become a king, the third game sees you become a ruler. Alliances, economics, treaties: everything that one could reasonably expect to come with being a monarch is present in some form or another, and it adds a touch of Real Time Strategy that I found both surprising and refreshing for a game of this type. Another great addition is the co-op feature, which allows a friend to join your game (with their hero) at any point in time, building their character to be just a strong physically as you. While it's nothing novel, it is well implemented.

Why isn't Fable III the best in the series? For precisely the same reason. The first game was simply the journey of a kid growing into an adult, and maybe saving the world along the way. There was a sense of anonymity and...wonder that seems to be lacking (purposefully so) in the sequels. I really can't describe it. That being said, Fable III is still wonders better than the second game. Also, Stephen Fry and John Cleese are in this game. That's certainly never a negative.


Friday, March 16, 2012

Obligatory March Madness Tie-In: More First Round Action!

Hello. Shall we continue?



Miyamoto Regional


#1 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, 1998) vs #16 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo, 2003)

This Legendary matchup (it's the Miyamoto Region, what other games were I supposed to go with?) went into overtime, as the newer, showier Zelda looked to defeat it's older, also showier predecessor. One of these was called the greatest game of all time. The other was called a travesty by certain VERY undesirable sections of the alltogether undesirable Nintendo fanboy swarm. The joke is that they're the same game. One just has cel-shading. That one looks better now, and it will continue to look better in the future. Wind Waker wins.


#8 Super Smash Bros.: Melee (Nintendo, 2001) vs #9 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Bethesda, 2002)

Morrowind, one of the biggest games of its time, takes on SSB: Melee, one of the most focused games of its time, and- *falls asleep*.

Melee wins. Because this.


#5 Fallout 3 (Bethesda, 2008) vs #12 Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (LucasArts, 1997)

I love Jedi Knight. I really do. It's a game well before it's time. It held the title of my favorite Star Wars game for nearly 7 years. It had the first official live action Star Wars footage filmed since Return of the Jedi.

Fallout 3 has Liam Neeson. As your father. Jedi Knight has no chance. This one's over by halftime.


#4 Metroid Prime (Retro Studios, 2002) vs #13 Lost Odyssey (Mistwalker Studios, 1998)

Lost Odyssey was a quiet, literary little throwback to a simpler time in RPGs. Metroid Prime was a quiet, solitary little that took what should have been a throwback to the Metroid games of yore and turned into some sort of mutant behemoth that only knows how to be amazing. Art design is a gift, and Metroid Prime has this in spades.

#6 GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1998) vs #11 Jade Empire (BioWare, 2005)

GoldenEye was great, but have you played it in the past decade? No, thanks. Jade Empire is criminally underrated. Not anymore. It finally has the recognition it DEMANDS in this silly bracket that 50 people will read.

You're welcome, BioWare.


#3 Halo 3 (Bungie, 2007) vs #14 Halo 3: ODST (Bungie, 2009)


The last game in the Halo trilogy faces it's own spawn in late west-coast matchup. Master Chief was dominant for the favorites, with more rebounds than lines of dialogue. The scrappy underdog fought back with Nathan Goddamn Fillion, but was eventually worn down to the verge of defeat. Then the Halo Array was activated and all advanced life was wiped clean in the entire known galaxy. Oops? ODST wins, just because.


#7 Gears of War 3 (Epic Games, 2011) vs #10 Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal, 2011)

Gears 3 had a great gameplan in the works, and then the game's ending was leaked and for some reason they didn't change anything. DXHR star player Adam Jensen, despite repeatedly stating that he never asked for this, recorded and sextuple-double and personally assassinated 3/4ths of the Gears cast with these wicked elbow blade things he's got.

Gears 3 forfeits due to lack of players/coherent plotting.


#2 Mass Effect 2 (BioWare, 2010) vs #15 Unreal Tournament (Epic Games, 1999)


Unreal Tournament steps up to the proverbial plate with the sort of swagger only a late 90s shooter could ever hope to conjure. Squealing guitars and crude-looking bits of what we're supposed to believe are people rain down around the arena. When the dust clears, not a single opposing player is standing. Unreal Tourney reigns triumphant.

Then everyone realizes that instead of ME2, Unreal had been fighting longtime nemesis Quake III: Arena, Commander Shepard having used a renegade interrupt to convince them to fight in his stead. In fairness, he had told Unreal Tourney of this development, but they had ignored him while screaming something about frags.

Mass Effect 2 wins in a landslide.

Obligatory March Madness Tie-In: The First Round!

Hello and welcome to the first second round of play here at the OMMT Tournament! Without any further adieu, and because this premise is already wearing thin, let's get the action started. Hooray!


Kojima Regional

#1 Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar, 2001) vs #16 Final Fantasy XIII (SquareEnix, 2010)

FFXIII, fresh off it's wondrous comeback victory by default in the play-in game, wows the competition with it's beautiful graphics and fully voiced action. It then makes a furious assault headlined by it's frenzied fighting system and memorable characters. And then Claude from GTA III walks up and blows them away with a tank. While already having 6 stars. Impressive.

Final Score: GTA III- Tank. FFXIII: Not Tank.


#8 Max Payne (Rockstar, 2001) vs  #9 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Konami, 2001)

The second of Rockstar's crop of 2001 games heads into battle against one of 2001's most anticipated titles. It is, in all honesty, a heated contest throughout, with Max Payne's international conspiracy theme cancelling out MGS2's international conspiracy theme. Then, right near the end, Raiden gets naked and MGS2 eats itself in front of a live, 2001 national television audience. Tragic to see. Max Payne wins.

Final Score: Max Payne- Constipation Face Max Payne MGS2- Naked Raiden


#5 Gears of War (Epic Games, 2006) vs #12 Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000)

Gears of War was all like "Hell naw we got chainsaws." But then Perfect Dark was like "we got laptops that turn into turrets, son!" Then Cliff Bleszinski showed up and called everyone lame and everyone exploded and died. Except Marcus Fenix, because he is apparently made of granite and doesn't wear a helmet because he doesn't have time to bleed. Perfect Dark would have survived, too, except it forgot to bring the Expansion Pak that held it's entire campaign. Whoops?

Survivor: Gears of War


#4 Batman: Arham City (Rocksteady, 2011) vs #13 Warcraft III (Blizzard, 2003)

Warcraft III, mismatched from the start, held off valiantly through 30 minutes of grinding, slogging, true RTS style ball denial. Arkham City, through no fault of it's own, was down by half a dozen entering the final five minutes of play. Then Arkham City remembered that it stars Batman, and it broke both of Warcraft III's collarbone/shin/spleens. The game was called due to blood loss.

The Winner, Vengeance, the Night: Batman


#6 BioShock (2k Games, 2007) vs #11 Halo: Reach (Bungie, 2010)

BioShock uses it's high-concept concept to race out to what seems to be an insurmountable lead, only to see Bungie's last Halo game make a furious comeback based solely on the fact that it is actually fun to play in large bursts. Unfortunately, it couldn't maintain it's own momentum, which is sad considering it's literally the easiest thing for a Halo game to do. BioShock wins in one of the better contests thus far.

#3 Half-Life 2 (Valve, 2004) vs # 14 Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare, 2009)


Half-Life 2 wins solely on the strength of one level. Ravenholm. Dragon Age fans get all upset and start complaining about how their game, the greatest game ever made, is so unjustly neglected. No one listens. Especially not BioWare. Half-Life 2 just won on the strength of one level alone. No big deal.

Has Ravenholm: Half-Life 2.

#7 Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, 2005) vs #10 Final Fantasy VIII (Square, 1998)


FFVIII comes agonizingly close to pulling an upset, until everyone realizes how terrible most of it's characters are and sobers up. The junction system is still cool, I guess. RE4 survives despite it's lack of coherence and and semblance of holding up over time. Hooray!

#2 GTA: San Andreas (Rockstar, 2004) vs #15 Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, 2008)


Brawl, though a decided underdog, becomes one of the darlings of the pre-tournament, building up a nigh-ridiculous amount of hype around itself. Then, Sonic grabbed a Super Smash and killed all the other players. San Andreas in a landslide.

Obligatory March Madness Tie-In, This Time With Video Games!

I thought I'd do a little something in honor of the bewildering insanity that is the NCAA tournament, but since my basketball writing mojo is currently less than zero, it's going to be something more in the vein of this illustrious blog.

A 64 (or 68) video game bracket, replete with scouting reports and game recaps! Enjoy!


Play-In Games

Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian, 2010) vs Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, 2010)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo, 2003) vs Dragon Age II (BioWare, 2011)
Star Wars: Jedi Outcast (Raven Software, 2002) vs Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (Pandemic, 2005)
Left 4 Dead (Valve, 2008) vs Soul Calibur II (Namco, 2003)

The first play-in game got off to a rousing start, as New Vegas took a quick early lead into halftime. FFXIII's characters got together to decide if they should try their hardest or not and had a 45 minute cutscene, accounting for the hole they found themselves in. Unfortunately, New Vegas bugged out with mere seconds remaining on the clock, awarding the victory to FFXIII by default.

The second play-in game saw The Wind Waker facing off against a vastly inferior game in Dragon Age II. BioWare maintained that DA2 was really a solid candidate, worthy of not only it's inclusion in this tournament, but of the victory over this forgotten classic from 2003. They then banned the shit out of everyone who disagreed. While they were distracted with making acceptable same-sex romances, Wind Waker ran away with the contest. A laugher.

In an all-Star Wars matchup, Battlefront 2 won in a close one that apparently only I attended, because apparently no one else can be bothered to remember these games.

Left 4 Dead came out like a game possessed, blowing away all expectations and looking like the major developer powerhouse it is. Then, during the second half, it did almost the exact same thing as in the first half, only pretending that everything was different. It wasn't. Soul Calibur II wins.


Check back in the next few hours for the opening round of games.