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2009-06-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

inFAMOUS wins:

By Peter LeBlanc

So as I said in my last blog is wasnt untill I actually got into the store that I decided on inFAMOUS. It was a mix of the positive reviews and the demo that made me do it. However the lady working cash at EB games totally screwed with me. "Do you play online?" she asked me to which I replied "umm yeah why?" and se says "Oh we might still have some pre-order bonus's" which got me pretty excited because that would mean I get a code for the uncharted 2 multiplayer beta. But then she looked and there totally wasnt any, which was kinda a bummer. So I didnt end up playing it untill about 11 pm because I had been out with some friends, but so far what I've played of it I definetly like. The only thing that kinda bugged me is having acess to all those sweet powers in the demo, which I now need to unlock. The story is not as good as most people where making it out to be. Its told in a comic book style which is pretty cool, but the overall progression is really nothing interesting so far. The powers seem pretty fun so far, and as expected the parkour element is awsome (yet not as awsome as say a crackdown). I dont have a whole lot to say about it right now as I havnt really played much of it, but I'll update as a play more.

2009-06-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

inFAMOUS vs Prototype, oh the choices:

By Peter LeBlanc

So the other day I guess I decided I wanted to grab a new game. Kind of an odd choice considering I still have Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 and Too Human to beat. However I couldnt help but look past the two newest open world games, inFAMOUS and prototype. Now I've always been kind of a sucker for open world, sandbox games. Grand Theft Auto has always kept me happy, but I think the biggest reason for me wanting this game is because the parkour elements of the game reminded me ALOT of Crackdown which is a great thing. Crackdown was fantastic even after the main story was beaten. The ability's you had in Crackdown where just awsome and kept the game fun for a long time after. So I guess that was the first thing I had to look at when I decided I wanted one of these two games. Prototype seemed a little more like Crackdown, a little less parkour. inFamous on the other hand is the complete opposite. Example, lets say we have a building we need to get to the top of. In inFAMOUS maybe you'll climb up a flag poll, jump some windows and bam your there. In prototype, you just straigh up run up the wall and get there pretty quick. The next thing I wanted to look at was the different types of gameplay. inFAMOUS is more of a shooter, while you never get guns it is definetly a shooter. Your lightning powers serve as your guns as you get grenades, rocketlaunchers and snipers, all powered by your charge metre which keeps track of your electrical charge, when your charge (amo) is depleated, you can simply run up to a car or anything with a charge and suck it dry, replenishing your health. Prototype however cant seem to decide what it is. Your main character in prototype has many different abilities to him, allowing him to change his hands into things like tenticles, blades, hammers ect. Each different power has a number of combos thus is sounds like a brawler, however there are many sequences where you will get guns dropped by the millitary where it becomes a shooter. Now reviews have been raving about inFAMOUS and prototype not so much. They say inFAMOUS's controls are much more refined and fluid, which I got to try first hand as there is a demo out, but I'll get to that. Prototype appearntly suffers from poorframe rate and targeting system, aswell as sloppy controls. Now, my choice would be so much easier if there where a demo out, however there is only 1 for inFAMOUS. The inFAMOUS demo was very good. They put you in an early part of the game with very high level powers and gave you a mission in which you had to get a train of people to saftey. The mission was very creative, where as the train had no power thus you had to use your powers and act as its third rail. The demo was pretty good and renforced all the good feedback inFAMOUS has got. Yet still all I have is videos of Prototype. I'm heading out to EB games tomorow, and I bet I wont know which one I'm going to get untill I'm there.

2009-05-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

Assassination Of The Arch Duke:

By Peter LeBlanc

May 7th, it was confirmed by an employee at 3D realms that the company had indeed shut it's doors forever and thus ending the 12 year development saga of Duke Nukem Forever. You may remember Duke Nukem Forever as the game with one of the longest development cycles in the history of gaming. It was originally set for release in 1998, it ran on the Quake2 engine and was slated to come out for PC and last-gen consoles. However, after various engine switches and a new console generation, Duke Nukem Forever kept getting delayed and finally shutdown, along with it's development team. Now there is still a slight chance Duke can still come out. Publishing rights for Duke now rely with company Take Two, so if they wanted to try and pimp out the game to different developers, they could. This is however a slim chance because ever since the announcement, a slew of Duke Nukem Forever resources has been leaked by internal sources. Screen shots of levels and models along with an actual 10 minute game play video, even an entire design document telling every last detail about each level in the game. That being said, while it is cool to see what Duke could've been, the fact this all leaked out and the game no longer has any secrets, it will probably never get released. I suppose now we have to play the waiting game to see how things turn out. Personally I never really viewed DNF as something I would pick up, however after watching all the videos, I got really excited for the game, then realized I would never see it released. I also don't really think DNF would've sold much anyways. Duke is a product of the late 80's early 90's, originally built as one big satire on action movies, he can easily be compared to Stallone in Commando or Jean Claude Van Dam in Street Fighter, coming up with cheesy one liners such as "it's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum". If it were released now, kids today wouldn't have that kind of connection, thus Duke is no longer culturally relevant. I for one will miss Duke, the days of walking up to strippers and pressing the space-bar to give them money in Duke Nukem 3D seem to be over, which is definitely too bad.I'll leave you with the video mentioned above, might get taken down as a lot of them have been, I'll just repost if that happens. Happy trails!

2009-05-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Vikings and Zombies:

By Peter LeBlanc

So my weekend started out with a bang so to speak with the purchase of Doom 3 for the PC. I worked a lot this weekend but I was still able to play through it a enough to get a first impression. As far as I can tell this is what that bad Doom movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was basing itself off, with a few minor changes. Doom 3 sticks to it's classic story in that you're on mars, some stuff goes down, a portal to hell is opened and your the only one who can save it. The game starts you off in this Mars research facility and sends you on a mission to find a run away scientist. On your way you over here conversations of ghost sightings and other eery tales. The lights flicker constantly and can sometimes go out for several minutes at a time. The only way you have to see is the use of your flashlight, however the flashlight is an equiped item, so you cant shoot and have your flashlight out at the same time, increasing the scare factor Doom 3 puts out. You eventually find said scientist and find out that he has discovered that something evil lies within Mars and this facility however it is too late, the portal to hell is opened and demons come pouring through, possesing everyone on board turning them into zombies.Gameplay (so far) consists of shooting dudes, using your flashlight, using your dumb PDA to read email, repeat .The game can be classified as a series of "monster closets" Ie. You open a door, and something will pop out. It was scary the first few times a flaming skull would pop out of a closed door with the lights off, but you come to expect it after awhile. And thats as far as my Doom 3 play went, I'm trying to find time to play a bit moer this week, but Im going to be occupied with other things.

I also took a trip down to the local Best Buy to get in on there $10 game sale, looking specifially for Too Human. However upon getting there, I found out this sale was in the states only. Discouraged I went to EB games and there right on the rack was Too Human which had been marked down from $30 to $9.98, sold. Too Human is a game Directed by the insane Dennis Dyack and a game that took Silicon Knights 9 years to make. 9 years? Jesus this must be the best game ever made, I mean games like GTA4 and Metal Gear Solid 4 only took like 2-3 years, imagine whatn they could do with 9 right? Thankfully this was not my actuall oppinoin but Im sure there are some people who thought just that and I feel sorry for them. That being said the game isnt bad I mean I've been having a lot of fun with it. No, the game isnt bad...its just not good, technically speaking. The controls take a lot of getting used to, and the choice of making the right analog stick for melee attacks (while bold) makes combat a bit awkward and keeps having you feel like your not getting any better at it as time goes on. Too Humans story (as far as I can tell) revolves around Norse mythology, and you play as a sort of demi-god, chosen by the great god Odin. However nothing really fits because it all takes place in this futuristic, almost post appocolypitic world where everything is crazy technologicaly advanced. You play was Commander Baldur, a champion of Odin trying to find a machine which is ripping peoples heads off and drinking their blood. The story flip flops and is hard to follow at points however the inclusion of Norse mythology makes up for it. As I said above combat is very awkward, you hold the back bumpers to shoot the guns you have equipped and then use the right analog stick to slash your sword in which ever direction its pointed. The sword combat take getting used to but after awhile you get used to it. You can double tap the stick to throw an enemy up in the air, you can hold the stick in a certain direction to slide and attack the nearest enemy, and you can hold the left and right stick in the same direction to do a finishing move which can he ranged or close. I have a lot to say about Too Human and I've only been playing for roughly an hour and a half which can be good or bad, but there really is one thing thats going to keep me coming back, and its also the feature I keep hearing critics talking about, and thats the loot system. I remember playing Diablo 2 and loving just going around, mess dudes days up, then collecting all the delecious items dropped. Well Too Human does this and more, its constantly giving you more stuff to play with. Your always picking up new equipment to dress your character up, picking up new weapons to use in combat, getting runes to put in said weapons to make them more effective and picking up blueprints in which to make more equipment. At the end of the day you take 20 minutes out of a 50 minutes play period just to inventory managment, which to my surprise wasnt a bad thing. To wrap things up, I see myself playing lots of these 2 games in the future, but I still havnt even finished Resident Evil 5, but thats a whole other post.