The Dark Knight

There are tons of reviews for Batman: Arkham Asylum out there from people way better equipped than me with writing talent and video game insight. The only thing I could add as an almost fanatical devotee of The Dark Knight (not just that latest movie), is that this is the first Xbox 360 game I have completed to 100%. The truly amazing part is that getting to 100% wasn’t a chore. Almost all of the Riddler collectibles and other achievements could be completed with just some common sense and a little skill. I never felt like I didn’t have enough information to solve any puzzle put before me… but never felt like the game thought I was in idiot.

The challenge room achievements took a bit more work, but they’re called challenge rooms, right? And that’s the bottom line on the game: the challenging parts were challenging, but not impossible making for a deep, engaging, atmospherically spot on experience.

Many other people have voiced their disappointment with the ending, so I won’t bother adding to that pile. (It wasn’t very good.) One thing I didn’t hear complaints about was Harlee Quinn‘s redesign. I, personally, wasn’t a fan. But these are small complaints against an overall fantastic game.

Anyway, I should remember that somewhere out there, there are people who love Batman as much as I do. Thanks!

From the moment this game was announced, it’s been hounded by controversy. Mostly around the question of whether it was racist. Other, smarter, people have written about this issue at length in many locations including the Wall Street Journal. The only thing I would add, as someone who has played every major Resident Evil game, is that this was a missed opportunity for Capcom to rethink the player’s relationship with the murderous hordes in these games.

In previous RE games, you’re the outsider going into some dangerous, foreign environment where you shoot your way through to truth and hopefully some justice. Resident Evil 5 is different. Sheva makes it different. She’s a playable character who knows and lives where the game mostly takes place. The people being gunned down are supposed to be her friends and neighbors. Or as she says at the end, her “brothers.” The only problem is that this is never explored. She never hesitates. She never shows any mixed feelings toward taking her “brothers” out with a well placed head-shot. We never see any sort of internal struggle.

Capcom could have thrown the player for a loop by questioning why they’re murdering all these villagers obviously under some evil influence. In fact, the only time something like this comes up is when we encounter long-time RE mainstay Jill Valentine who has also become evil under some kind of malignant influence… But we plead with her, refrain from shooting her, then free her from her mental bonds. Why only her and not Sheva’s “brothers.” (I’m not going to go so far as saying it’s because she’s white and all the other people are black, but damn, Capcom doesn’t make it easy.)

Anyway, I’m calling bullshit. Capcom could have done so much more with this concept. Instead they delivered a typical, poorly cobbled together story many RE fans might consider sacrilegious.

All that said… The game is gorgeous. Especially the beginning part in the villages. Just beautiful.

I should remember to continue expecting more from the stories in games these days.

So, after just a couple sessions of play, I managed to complete Killzone 2 yesterday. I have to admit, I had very high expectations for this game… So did everyone, I’d imagine.

Anyway, after the awe of the stunning graphics had set in and I began progressing through the game, I couldn’t help but feel like something big was missing. Basically, the first half of the game has practically no story at all. It’s run, shoot, shoot, run, shoot, listen to people curse like sailors, repeat. Luckily, the second half of the game does a good job getting me to begin caring for the characters and their world. And by the end, they really pull it together and go out on a high note.

Endings of second games in a series are notoriously unfulfilling. Many of these sequels build you up just to have a “finishing the fight” ending. We’ve seen it in God of War 2, Gears of War 2, and, of course, Halo 2 among others. But Killzone 2 is different. It’s ending is a true ending. No, it’s certainly not the end of the series, but you certainly walk away satisfied.

I should remember to try out Killzone 2′s online multiplayer…

It’s that time again. Time to really begin anxiously awaiting the next installment in one of the biggest, baddest video game franchises ever: God of War.

The original God of War was so mind-blowingly aggressive, so ridiculously brutal, you thought it might kick the shit out of you should you decide to put it down and return to playing Katamari Damacy or some other less viciously bad-ass game… of which there were none. So, naturally, you had to play it through… twice. Then sit there praying to Zeus for a chance to once again be blessed with the opportunity to take control of Kratos and rip the eyes out of the sockets of every cyclops with the misfortune of finding itself in your presence.

Anyway, now we find ourselves with a new trailer, a video interview, and a big Game Informer article to tide us over until E3 when more will be revealed about God of War III.

Yeah, I wasn’t 100% blown away by God of War II and Chains of Olympus left a little (I mean just a little) to be desired, but I’ll definitely remember that few things in life are better than handing out one of Kratos’ signature brutal beatdowns.

I’m a fan of the Metal Gear Solid games, but I must admit that I was going into Metal Gear Solid 4 having only played MGS2 through to completion. As I mentioned before, MGS3 bored me to the point of putting down the controller.

That said, I had high expectations for MGS4 and it certainly met them… while also boring to me tears at times.

The graphics are the most gorgeous graphics I’ve ever seen on a console. Better even than Gears of War 2, if you ask me. Plus, the controls and gun play are vastly improved over past MGS games. The problem is, it seems like you spend more time watching long obnoxious cut scenes than actively playing.

And this gets to the biggest fault of the game: it’s the single most self-indulgent game perhaps in the history of video games. Tom Chick over at fidgit.com put it best when he called it “Kojima’s long slow wank and you have to get to watch.” Agreed.

I still should remember to check out Metal Gear Solid Touch to see if it’ll be a good commute distraction…

“That was quick” was the first thing my woman said when the credits started to roll at the end of my digital parkour experience: Mirror’s Edge. And she was right, it was a short game. Also, it was an extremely difficult game that found me constantly plummeting from the rooftops to my death or getting beaned by cops… also to my death.

Then there was the issue of the 2D cutscenes seemingly rendered in Flash by an intern during his lunch breaks. Why no full CGI cutscenes? Or at the very least, in-game? Was Dice trying to make a stylistic point? Or, as it felt while playing, did they run out of money?

Those two big issues aside and your left with the real reason I bought the game: the art direction. It’s fantastic. This is the most stylish and beautiful game I’ve seen in a long time. Making the decision to render the city in subtle light blues over white with high saturation accent colors… then actually sticking to it, was very brave and worked wonderfully. The runnervision which turns items in your path red worked great. Plus the soundtrack added quite a bit to the presentation. So, on the occasions when I was making quick progress through the rooftops, it looked and felt wonderful.

Unfortunately, the genius of the presentation doesn’t completely save the game. Not when it has one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve witnessed in a game for a long time. I don’t remember when developers started writing their stories as though every game will become a massive franchise, but it sucks. A little closure would be nice.

Anyway, the bottom line is that despite some major flaws, I really loved playing this game when things were going well… I’ll remember to look out for the next one.

When one door closes, another one opens. So with the RRoD sending my Xbox back to Microsoft for repairs, I decided to pick up a new PlayStation 3.

My expression so far is that it took longer than expected to setup and get into a game; it’s really weird playing without the promise of Achievement Points; the XMB doesn’t feel right; the graphics are about the same as the Xbox; and although it was tough to re-acclimate myself to the dualshock, it’s still a great controller… Oh and the SixAxis controls are difficult (at least in Heavenly Sword which is the only game I’ve played so far).

Additionally, somehow I couldn’t secure my usual obscure username.

Anyway, I should remember to give my other 2 games (Metal Geal Solid 4 and Ratchet and Clank Future) a try.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long to happen… But today the inevitable occurred during a match of Call of Duty 4: The dreaded RRoD!!

I need to rememeber to buy a PlayStation 3.

As I mentioned before, I loved Portal and even after spending hours on Call of Duty 4‘s multiplayer servers, it’s probably still my favorite game of all time. So, when I heard that Valve would have official Weighted Companion Cube plushies made up I tried to grab one… of course, so did the rest of the entire internet. Not able to get one right away, I waited until they were reissued and grabbed one. It came a few weeks ago and has been spending its days on the couch. One morning I decided to snap a photo of it and then last night that photo turned into a desktop.

Grab the desktop wallpaper now at MyBestDesktops.com and enjoy.

I should remember to spend more time with my WCC so he doesn’t get too lonely… or watch too much TV.

 A year ago, I was playing through God of War II on Playstation 2. Building on the already insanely great God of War, GoWII did everything right… unfortunately, that just didn’t seem like enough. With the 360 out and games looking and playing better than ever before, GoWII just felt a little dated.

Now, a year later, we’ve got God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP and guess what… it’s damn near portable gaming perfection… but somehow it just doesn’t seem like enough… again. Yes, the gameplay is tight. Yes the environments feel massive. And yes, the stakes seem high. But sometimes you get the feeling like the developers spent way more time on getting the game to look and play perfectly than they did on giving the player strong reasons to continue through the story.

It’s funny, but I noticed it more when playing through the second time around when I realized that there were 2 female gods I was dealing with (3 if you count Athena’s cameo), not just 1 two-faced female god.

Additionally, the admittedly cool piece at the end where you resign yourself to a life of war and suffering felt almost tacked on. Like the developers thought that they needed a big moment, but didn’t really know what they were going to do until the end… then went back into the story and sprinkled in the tiny bits of information that would lead up to this final moment.

Again, I should remember that this game is literally portable gaming perfection. It made the PSP do things I never knew it could… like get me to pick it up again.