Opinion: Spider-Man - Edge of Time

Beenox and Activision, the developers of last year's game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, announced today the development of their next Spider-Man game, Edge of Time, scheduled for a Fall 2011 release. This game, instead of focusing on the four different Spider-Men from the previous game (Noir, Amazing, symbiote, and 2099), will just focus on the untimely death of the original Spider-Man and the attempt to change the events that transpired both in the past and in the catastrophically affected future as Spider-Man 2099.

Having played Shattered Dimensions recently, I am markedly concerned by the news that Beenox is developing a new game. I did not like the first game at all - the story was very paint-by-numbers Spider-Man, and the gameplay was not nearly good enough to justify the poor story. Beenox made the very strange developer decision to nix an open world for Spider-Man and instead have very linear levels with very diminshed amounts of web-swinging, and what they did have was too sloppy and glitchy to truly be used effectively. To put it in perspective, having a Spider-Man game where you cannot swing from your webs at any given time (and there were parts where you simply were not allowed to use them, without any contextual explanation) is like a Batman game without a grappling hook.

Maybe I am just hoping for another Spider-Man 2 (seriously, how good was that game?), but from what I am hearing about the story and who is developing it, I am worried about a similar game to Shattered Dimensions, which felt a little like shovelware to me. This is one of the issues of the game industry that worries me, and holds back video games. Activision will likely stick with Beenox for the next several years with the Spider-Man license, much like Atari with Dimps regarding the Dragonball franchise, which never makes any progression (creatively or financially) due to the refusal to attempt to create something interesting with the license.Companies need to branch out and work with studios that are going to do something different, my case and point being Rocksteady Studios with Arkham Asylum, a relatively unknown studio who completely broke the mold on what to expect from a superhero game by releasing an absolutely brilliant title. When Activision released Web of Shadows a few years ago, it was flawed, but definitely a step in the right direction, allowing the player greater freedom in how they would fight their enemies and incorporating a web-zip function that was actually useful (if a tad overused). It gave me hope that the franchise would continue to evolve into a game that would be much better, but I view their partnership with Beenox and Shattered Dimensions as a step back from the promise offered by Web of Shadows.

So, if you read this, Activision (not likely), please go back to the drawing board and what truly makes a Spider-Man game fun: freely swinging around New York City and pummeling super villains with an acrobatic flair while making terrible, terrible jokes. Spider-Man is too good of a superhero to be squandered on uninspired games like Shattered Dimensions and Edge of Time.

Video: Battlefield 3 Fault Line Episode III: Get That Wire Cut

Today, DICE released the third and final part in its Fault Line series of gameplay videos for Battlefield 3, which placed special emphasis on both stealth and hand-to-hand combat (regardless of whether that scene was scripted or not, that was pretty cool). As in the other videos, the sound and visuals for this game are topnotch and drool-worthy, and my excitement and anticipation for this game just rises with each new video that's released.

Stay tuned after the "credits" of the video to catch a small glimpse of how the incredible new Frostbite 2 engine creates an earthquake that breaks the ground apart and tosses the main character out of the back of a truck. Keep checking the blog around mid-April to see the full 12-minute gameplay reveal once it is released by DICE.

Video: Mass Effect 2 DLC - "Arrival"

Scheduled to be released today, Arrival is going to be the final piece of downloadable content (DLC) for Mass Effect 2, and is (reportedly) meant to act as a bridge between the two. The Mass Effect series has been my favorite series of the current console generation since the first one came out back in 2007, successfully capturing in both its gameplay and storyline what it is to make a great science fiction story, with compelling characters, awe-inspiring new alien races, and edge-of-your-seat action sequences and choices that affect not only the immediate game but future occurrences.

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the new downloadable content, which will hopefully help explain just what is going on in the teaser for Mass Effect 3, featured below. The next Mass Effect game will be released somewhere near the end of 2011.

Video: Jedi Knight Armor Progression in SW:TOR

Released today (as Bioware releases a bit of new information each Friday, dubbed "Fan Fridays", the "Jedi Knight Armor Progression" video for Star Wars: The Old Republic focuses on the types of armor you will be unlocking and/or acquiring over the course of the game.

Guess I know what I'm playing as! The only issue I am having with what I am seeing in the trailer is the lack of greatly varying armor sets - all of them look the same! Given the copious amounts of rich material available to the game's designers based on the Star Wars universe and the types of armor all the different characters can have (yes, I know, I am a huge nerd), I was expecting a much more varied set, a la the armor featured in the Bounty Hunter trailer.

Impressions: Deus Ex - Human Revolution Developer Walkthrough

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the prequel to the original Deus Ex game that was made just over a decade ago, and the first time the series has been made available on current-generation consoles. I've been following this game since it was first announced, and I have very much liked what I have been seeing so far. I will include several videos below, and my impressions of the gameplay.



The Good:
Versatility - I like a game that gives me options. As much fun as first-person shooters are, there usually is only one way to beat a level. Even Bioshock, with all the different ways you could take out enemies, did not give you the option of stealth or exploration as an additional option. This game looks like it does, giving you the choice of stealth, exploration, or combat.

Old-school-ness: Demonstrated in one of the videos below, this game, in some ways, seems like a return to the roots of RPG's, with the option to combine different materials to form new ammo types (and possibly weapons, but I'm not sure about that one).

Color Palette: This is a cyberpunk story, and the colors of the world reflect this. The colors being used, from the trailers to the logo for the game, are black and orange and the game seems to stick to them heavily, but uses them softly enough as to not be overwhelming on the viewer.

The Bad/ The "Why?"
Takedowns: Violence is a part of most video games; there's no way around it. Normally, I have no issue with it, and have certainly played enough video games to have run the gamut of good and bad taste, but the lethal takedowns were something I was not a fan of in this walkthrough. Not because there was blood, but because it was bloody and combative when it did not make contextual sense. If you're trying to take someone down without alerting other guards, why are you doing grand sweeping sword slices?

View Shifts: Switching from first-to-third person games are not something we have never seen before; Rainbow Six Vegas (both of them) uses it frequently when it comes to the cover system in the game. However, for this type of game, especially with the potential for melee combat (c'mon, the guy has sword arms!), I feel it hinders, rather than helps, the game.

Gamescom 2011 Trailer:


Cinematic Trailer:


IGN Gameplay Trailer:

Downtime

My apologies for the lack of updates over the last several days - we had a campus-wide (and most of the surrounding area) power outage recently, which created a backlog in work to get done. We'll be up and running again tomorrow with some big updates, including some new Deus Ex 3 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim footage - keep your eyes peeled!

-Matt

The Emotional Impact of Children in Video Games: Bioshock

Video games are usually a teenager/adult-only affair, with everyone fighting in the battles being age-appropriate and with sufficient traits/flaws to make their fates reasonable. Every protagonist is an able-bodied adult male or female. However, occasionally in this day and age, you come across a game featuring children, either as a driving force for the protagonist's motivations or as a representation of an important moral choice. It is around this time that the social and action dynamic of the game often changes to reflect the subject matter.

Bioshock: In this game, the player (you/me) is presented with what I believe to be one of the bravest gameplay mechanics I've ever seen in a title: the moral and practical consequences of the salvation/destruction of a child. Your character, through a sequence of seemingly random events, discovers a city at the bottom of the ocean that thrives on ADAM, unstable stem cells harvested from sea slugs that are modified to give the citizens of Rapture (said city) varying abilities, from an improved physical appearance to the ability to move objects telekinetically. The player, in order to survive, splices their DNA with Adam in order to combat the remaining residents of the city who have spliced their own DNA until they lost their minds. During the course of the game, the player comes across Little Sisters (shown above), little girls who have been implanted with the ADAM-producing slugs and conditioned to collected ADAM from the corpses around the city, and are given a choice:

On the one hand, you can choose to forcibly remove the slug which kills the little girl in the process, a reprehensible act but one that yields a very large amount of ADAM with which to combat those trying to kill you.



On the other, you can choose to save the little girls by removing the slug safely, allowing the girl to live, but giving you a limited amount of the genetic material in turn.



As you do not obtain much of the material throughout the game, each little girl is a decision, both for the character and for you: can you live with the death of a little girl on your conscience?

Videos: Star Wars - The Old Republic footage from PAX (Part Deux)

In this post, I'll show you guys a presentation of the space combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will seem very similar to anyone who ever played the Star Fox games, as well as several of the planets that players will be able to visit and explore!

Space Combat Presentation:



Bounty Hunter and Hutta gameplay (homeworld of the Hutts):



Hoth Presentation:



Tatooine Presentation:

Video: Battlefield 3 Fault Line Episode II: Good Effect on Target trailer

The second in a series of trailers for Battlefield 3 that EA and DICE are releasing focusing on stealth and sniper combat in the upcoming game. The game looks downright awesome, with destroyable cover (look at how those sniper bullets chip away at the covering walls and put holes in the pipes), very smooth prone animations, and some of the coolest destruction I have seen in a game (did you see that building go kaboom?). You can check out my original post on Battlefield 3 at GDC for my impressions on the game.

Videos: Star Wars - The Old Republic footage from PAX

Without further ado, over an hour of PAX East footage of the upcoming Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic to sink your teeth into, and there's still more coming - stay tuned!

Official Developer's Walkthrough of the Taral V Flashpoint:



Public gameplay of Taral V Flashpoint as: Jedi Knight



Korriban gameplay (Sith origin world and where you start as a Sith)



Tython gameplay (Jedi origin world and where you start as a Jedi)

Impressions: Arkham City Gameplay Trailer

I'm just going to jump right into the nuts and bolts of the first gameplay trailer for the newest Batman game, Arkham City.

The Good:
Animation - There is still a lot of versatility to the way Batman moves and fights; it does not look like this game is going to disappoint in that category.
Graphics - Arkham City is just as good-looking as its predecessor, if not more so. Gotham looks decrepit and evil, which is exactly what they are going for. The atmosphere especially is excellent.
Voice Acting - The voice actors for both Batman and the Joker are the same as they were in the 1990's television show, and everything sounds great as usual.
Flight - The "dive-bombing" that you see in the trailer will be how Batman gets around in the game. I wasn't sure if Rocksteady was going to be able to pull off flight for Batman in an open-world game, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Combat - Smashing two enemies together, the way Batman was always meant to? Yes, please.

The Bad/ The "Why?"
Trailer - As cool as the game looks, I don't like how they went about making the trailer. The slow-motion, accompanied with the song... I just can't quite buy it. The game still looks awesome, but the trailer reminds me way too much of Call of Duty: Black Ops (which was accompanied by Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones).

As promised, I've also included the cinematic trailer below:

Rumor: Arkham City Gameplay first look tomorrow

According to Greg Miller's Twitter (he works for IGN), IGN will be posting the first look at gameplay for Rocksteady's next Batman game, Arkham City, tomorrow morning at 7:00am PST. Anyone who played the first Batman game can tell you that not only was it the best Batman game ever made, it remains to this day one of the best games to come out for the present generation of consoles. Seriously, if you have ever even remotely thought Batman was cool and have not played this yet, there are no excuses. Borrow, rent or buy it - I assure you, you will not be disappointed. This love of the incredible tribute Rocksteady did to both the Batman character and his universe only heightens the excitement for Batman's next outing, especially given that the game is set in Gotham City (well, part of it) and this is Mark Hamill's last hurrah as the Joker before he hangs up his voice-acting chops for the character; for those who do not know, Mark Hamill has primarily been the voice of the animated Joker for the past several decades, and should be familiar to anyone who saw the 90's Batman cartoon, or anyone remembers Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars films.

I will have the video posted on here by 11:30am tomorrow morning. Check back in around then to enjoy what is sure to be an awesome trailer! I will also be sure to post the cinematic trailer from the Video Game Awards, for anyone who has not seen it yet.

Impressions: Star Wars - The Old Republic at PAX

At PAX this past weekend, there was a very large showing of the upcoming Bioware MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, with a brand-new trailer released (featured above) showing both story and gameplay elements extensively, and a hands-on/playable demo of several parts of the game, including the Old Republic's equivalent of an instance, called a "Flashpoint". While I admit, I was positively drooling over the footage, I did have several qualms that I am hoping they address and iron out before the release of the game, whenever that is; Bioware has yet to set a specific date for release, as it is unknown to them that the wait will kill me. Just kidding. Or am I?

I am.

The Good:
Gameplay - It looks fun (important for an MMO) and very reminiscent of World of Warcraft, and if that's any indication of how the final game is going to play (WOW meets Mass Effect), my school grades are doomed.

Graphics - While not stellar, given the semi-cartoon-y art style of the game, they do accomplish one important thing that some MMOs tend to overlook: it makes the game an equal-opportunity employer for all gaming rigs and computers. As cool as ultra-realistic Jedi would look in an MMO, there would be ten computers that could run that game. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but one of the things that makes World of Warcraft so successful is that it runs on every computer, even terrible ones.

Story - Yes, there is story in this MMO; not only is there a fully-fleshed out story in this game, but each class has their own storyline, different from other classes. Which means I'll have to play this game eight times. I may need to take a leave of absence from school...

The Bad:
Graphics - While also listed as a good, the problem with the graphics is the same - they are not leaps and bounds forward. So yes, this game can sell and will be able to be played on all computers, but a realistic-looking Star Wars MMO would be awesome. Not a great loss, but still, a negative aspect.

Bugs - Throughout the gameplay demos I've seen from PAX, all of which I will be posting later this week, I have seen a bunch of gameplay bugs, from shaky scene cuts, buggy image appearances, and delayed reactions on the part of both the player and the NPCs to attacks. It's not unheard of in an MMO, but wishful thinking is that they will iron it all out before release.

The "Why?"
Voice Acting - While I am ecstatic that this game will be fully-voiced, an MMO first as others in the past just used text for both speech and for missions, I would like it a lot more if there was a lot more variance between character voice actors (as they all sound like they have the same accent). Maybe it's just me, but if I'm talking to a Sith Lord, I would like him to sound appropriately menacing, such as a gravelly voice, not like he's going to offer me crumpets and a spot of tea.

First Week Milestone

To all my new and faithful readers - I say "and", as it's only been a week, so I guess we're all new - thank you so much for your support. It's been exactly a week since it first started and I've already received more than 300 views on the blog! The blog is still both a work-in-progress and an experiment, with myself learning what works and does not in the successful maintaining of a blog, but as for the day-to-day  updates, I'm just going to keep posting stories and videos for everyone to view, and we'll see where all of this takes us! Please leave a comment or email me if you have any suggestions on how you want this website to be run - I'd love to get some feedback!

Here's hoping all of you are enjoying the two-day school reprieve that is the weekend; keep your eyes peeled this week for lots of big PAX announcements and updates!

The Emotional Impact of Children in Video Games: Heavy Rain

Video games are usually a teenager/adult-only affair, with everyone fighting in the battles being age-appropriate and with sufficient traits/flaws to make their fates reasonable. Every protagonist is an able-bodied adult male or female. However, occasionally in this day and age, you come across a game featuring children, either as a driving force for the protagonist's motivations or as a representation of an important moral choice. It is around this time that the social and action dynamic of the game often changes to reflect the subject matter.

Heavy Rain: The story of Heavy Rain revolves around the presence of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who abducts young boys and drowns them in rainwater after several days, leaving an orchid in their hands and mud on their faces. Most importantly, however, most of the game revolves around the abduction of Shaun Mars, the son of one of the main characters, Ethan, and is a race against the clock to prevent Shaun's untimely death (caution, spoilers ahead).

 Ethan and Shaun Mars

Much of the story is centered on Ethan Mars and his attempts to save Shaun from his fate, and are redoubled as a result of his guilt for a car crash that resulted in the death of his first son Jason and Ethan lying in a coma for six months, shortly thereafter resulting in his divorce from his wife (which is only ever alluded to, but never mentioned directly). You find out later on in the game, through messages received by Ethan from the Origami Killer, that he, the father, must prove he has the strength and courage necessary to save his son through a series of trials. If you play the game so that Ethan survives to see the end of the game (your actions have consequences here), you find Shaun in a grate-covered hole in an old factory, and have to break the lock to rescue him.

What's interesting about this final part, and the game in general, is the connection you as the player feel with this computer-generated little boy. Throughout the course of the game, while you are put through trials, you are given the option to walk away from them. While your choice to do so will alter the ending of the game, you will progress through the game regardless, giving no practical reason to go through all the effort of completing the trial, save one: your own connection to the relationship between this father and his son. I found myself genuinely caring about the well-being of Ethan after, through my actions, he suffered electrical burns attempting to navigate a series of live wires to ascertain a clue to the location of his son. I frequently reanalyzed evidence and clues to Shaun's whereabouts to make sure I had the correct address so that I would not put him in danger. When trying to free Shaun from his cage that was slowly filling with rainwater, I found myself frantically tapping buttons to work faster at releasing him, desperately racing against time and then audibly breathing a sigh of relief when I was successful in extracting and then resuscitating him. Below, I have posted this scene from the game:

Also worth noting as both an extension and a conclusion to my previous thought is the reason for the determination in this type of game to save this child, which is the simple fact that it is a child. Whether it be because its a biological imperative programmed into us to protect children, or simply our empathetic understanding that this is a small creature that loves unconditionally and relies on you for your protection, you feel a kinship to this computer-generated child, and their survival becomes directly linked to the survival you perceive for yourself. Although I know nothing of being a father, I imagine this game emulates the relationship between a father and his son to a degree not seen before in a video game.

Video: Star Wars - The Old Republic at GDC

Anyone who knows me knows how excited I am for this game to be released. It has everything I want a game to have: Star Wars (I'm a big fan) and a massively multiplayer universe. Granted, I don't always love MMOs, and have only played a few, but they, when done right, are fun and addicting as hell (I'm pointing an accusatory finger at you, World of Warcraft). From what I've been seeing thus far in the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I do not think I have anything to worry about. I have the utmost trust in Bioware, as I have yet to play a game of theirs that was anything less than stellar, and the third entry in their Mass Effect series is one of my most anticipated titles of 2011.

For those who do not know, the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a convention for all things "nerd" in Boston, is happening this weekend. And I'm stuck here in Los Angeles.

Crap.

Anyway, there's going to be lots of trailer premieres and live gameplay demos at the convention this weekend, which I plan on reviewing extensively next week, including new footage of SW:TOR and Brink, an upcoming shooter (and these are just two of the games right off the top of my head... it's a good weekend to be a gamer). I plan on doing a full write-up of my impressions once I have the new footage in hand (or on screen, as the case may be).

Until then, have a great weekend, everyone, and keep checking the blog for updates!

Impressions: LA Noire's Investigation & Interrogation Trailer

Rockstar Games recently released the latest in a series of trailers for their 1940's crime drama LA Noire, this one focusing on both the investigative and interrogative tactics used by the game's main character, Cole Phelps, a police officer moving up through the ranks in Los Angeles. One of the hallmarks of the title, which have been talked about extensively in interviews and developer videos, is the facial animation technology for this game, which records a motion-capture actor/actress' every facial expression and then transfers both their likeness and their facial nuances into the game at a near-perfect level (it's really something to see - check out the trailer for some examples; I'll include a previous video at the end of this post, as well as the facial animation tech video).

The Good:
Facial Animations: This is a whole new level of motion capture; it almost makes Uncharted look not as incredible as it is. Almost. Every wrinkle, every sneer, every blank expression on someone's face is captured. If you look closely, you'll see that they are using Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman from Heroes and veteran video game voice actor), John Noble (Walter Bishop), as well as a few others (anyone recognize a Dinner For Schmucks alum?).

Gameplay: It looks very similar in gameplay to both Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, which makes sense given that they have the same developer. The similarity does not bother me; both GTA and Red Dead were awesome games, so it bodes well for this title!

Interrogation: From the small snippets they show of it in the trailer, it looks well thought out. Your questions and line of questioning being based on the subtle facial tics displayed by the alleged perpetrator is a very fresh idea and, if it plays anything like it looks in the trailer, should be nerve-wracking (in a good way) in the game. I'd be curious to know if you can fail a case in the game?

The Bad/ The "Why?"
Color Palette: Maybe it's just me, and it's not all the time in the trailer, but I feel like the colors look a bit washed out on occasion, especially when it comes to character's faces and clothing; skin is a pale, blanket color occasionally, and suits look like they've been white-washed. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but definitely something I'd watch for in later trailers.

Impressions: Uncharted 3 Footage at GDC

I'll start off this post by making one thing about myself perfectly clear: I love the Uncharted series, and their developer Naughty Dog. For those who have never played either of the two Uncharted titles, I'd describe them as an action/adventure game that applies the Indiana Jones formula to itself: treasure hunting, shootouts, beautiful women, and betrayals (won't link to this one - wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't played the game!). What results is simply the most fun I've had in a video game in quite some time. The main character, Nathan Drake, is a treasure hunter who, while cheeky, cocky, and arrogant, has a big heart and is fiercely loyal to his friends. Over the course of the first two games, which play much like the plot points of an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider film, Nathan takes on mercenaries, ex-girlfriends, war criminals, sassy news reporters, and yetis (yes, yetis). Do not take my word for it however; if you have not played either, go out now and buy them.

Yes, right this second. I'll wait.

Okay, good, you're back. Several months ago, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception was revealed to the public at the Video Game Awards (VGAs), which was followed by a live gameplay demo on Jimmy Fallon shortly thereafter; I've included both of the videos at the end of this post.

The footage featured in this post is a cinematic sequence from the third game, revealing for the first time who the villain will be in Uncharted 3: Katherine Marlowe, the head of a four hundred year-old cabal, one of whose deceased agents is Nathan's ancestor Sir Francis Drake, the subject of the first game.

The Good:
Nemesis: She looks and sounds positively sinister, and reminds me heavily of Helen Mirren. I have a feeling she is going to be a much different nemesis than Lazarevic, the brutal war criminal from the second game; she seems a lot more connected and prone to manipulation.

Graphics: The cutscene, while cool, is even cooler for another reason: all of Uncharted's cutscenes are in-engine. What this means is, all the gameplay looks just as good as the cutscenes (which is a rarity in games). That lighting and those character models? All in-game, friends!

Sully: He's back! While he played a diminished role in the second game, his role will be much more important in this game, and the relationship between himself and Drake will definitely be a focus.

The Bad/ The "Why?":

Marlowe: Her facial animation when seeing the ring seemed... off to me. Anyone else reminded of Gollum in Lord of the Rings?

As promised, here is the debut trailer and the gameplay demonstration:

Review: Bulletstorm (Xbox 360)

Developed by Epic Games, in conjunction with People Can Fly, Bulletstorm is a first-person shooter title revolving around a group of ex-special forces space pirates who mutiny against their murderous and corrupt former general and, through a sequence of events, find themselves marooned on a hostile planet, where the only thing that wants to kill them more than the general trapped there with them are the psychotic flora and fauna that call the planet Stygia their home.

As I did not play the multiplayer component to this game extensively (after beating the game, I did not have much interest in coming back to play the multiplayer), I won't be talking about it in this review.

The Good:
Skillshots: Bulletstorm's claim to fame can be found in its skillshot system, an inventive way of killing your opponents that nets you varying amounts of points based on the creativity and difficulty of said kill (and arguably the spiritual successor to Bizarre Creations' game The Club. These skillshot points function as a currency system, allowing the player to buy ammunition and upgrades for their weapons based on their performance. These skillshots, at least for me, encouraged me to play the game in ways I normally wouldn't, such as using the environment to kill enemies, and extended my interest in the game past the simple "point and shoot" aspect of its first-person roots.

Main character: You play as Grayson Hunt, a space pirate/ex special-forces type who maroons his crew on Stygia. Generally a drunken, idiotic chauvanist idiot, his character would normally be one to immediate write off and forget about. Not so in this game. What separates this character from the countless other "space marines" in similar games is how Grayson, and his guilt-tripping squadmate Ishi, bring morality into the shooter genre. Several times over the course of the game, you are told by Ishi to question why it is that your character thinks it's okay to make the general's ship crash into the planet, killing hundreds of people on bored, why your character's revenge against the general for his betrayal is worth all of their lives. As a result, your character does express remorse for his actions and their results, both for his squad and for those he fights against. While the story was not ground-breaking, it takes guts to bring an emotional aspect to a potentially brainless character (although the best example of morality in a first-person shooter belongs to the Bioshock series).

Graphics: This is a very pretty game. Colors are stunning and really "pop", as well as being extremely diverse (no brown, grey and red Gears of War color scheme here). In addition, the dynamic lighting featured in the game, with the way shadows react to each light source, is definitely the cream of the current crop

The Bad:
Story: While the morality is definitely a high point in current shooters, the rest of the story is (mostly) forgettable. There were the typically predictable ups and downs of every shooter, with squadmates being killed and your character finding exits and routes through dumb luck. The ending especially was... well, for lack of a better word, terrible. It ended with the fate(s) of one (or more, I won't spoil) characters up in the air, and ends without closure. The ending suffers from what I call "Sequel Syndrome", where a fresh IP (intellectual property) is set up to have an unfulfilling ending specifically so that a sequel can be made for the title, which is done often with movies as well.

Weapons: Outside of the explosive-chain gun, most of the weapons in this game are ultimately forgettable, and not much fun to use once you've completed the lists of skillshots associated with them. The guns, while fairly common in most shooters (shotgun, sniper rifle, assault rifle, etc, all modified for this game), just felt tacked-on when I played the game, and I did not spend much time using them once I did not have to anymore.

The "Why?":
The Ending: I know I already addressed the ending, but the sequel-set-up of an ending in this game just seems like such a boneheaded move, given the developer. Epic Games, the same studio that made Gears of War, has enough experience making shooters that this could have been easily avoided, and I am disappointed that it wasn't.

My Score: 8/10
While a fun game with some interesting and unique facets, Bulletstorm is ultimately forgettable, failing to truly distinguish itself from all the other shooters on the market. While potentially great, I feel that this is a game destined for the used-game section of your local video game store.

Recommendation: Rent it.

Impressions: Battlefield 3 footage at GDC

The Game Developers Conferenece (GDC) was held last week at the Mascone Center in San Francisco, CA. During the span of the week, Electronic Arts released a gameplay trailer for Battlefield 3, a continuation of the popular Battlefield series being developed by DICE, a Swedish game development company. The release of this trailer had been teased several weeks before, showing several brief glimpses of gameplay, but the trailer released last Wednesday was the first (mostly) uninterrupted display of how the game looked and played that was seen by the general public; there was also a closed-doors demonstration of the game that was filmed and leaked to the Internet, naturally. This same demonstration was detailed in the March 2011 edition of the magazine Game Informer, with attention given both to the demo and to the technology driving it, such as the updated Frostbite engine (which allows for better visuals and audio, higher destructability of the in-game environment, and the quicker development of character animations, allowing for a much more varied approach to how both the player's character and computer characters behave during gameplay and cutscenes) and the company's use of ANT technology, the same animation technology that powers many of Electronic Arts' sports games, FIFA being one example.

The Good:
-Animations: They looked incredible in both the trailer and the leaked video. Characters stacking up against doorways to clear houses, soldiers sprinting down alleyways, and the player dragging a wounded comrade out of harm's way... it all looks great.
-Graphics: It's still early, and the release is not until this fall, but the graphics are really raising the bar, both for the Battlefield series and for games in general. The dynamic lighting is incredible (if you don't believe me, check out that alleyway and the unlit house), and everything is crisp.
-Gameplay: It looks FUN, which seems to be an afterthought these days when it comes to how your game looks (I'm looking at you, Force Unleashed 2). Clearing houses, gunfights in the streets... oh yes, I'm excited. Granted, I have not played this game at all, nor will I be likely to before its release date, but if it plays anything like Bad Company 2, it's going to be another fun entry in the Battlefield series.
-Audio: You. Hear. Everything. If they had a guy sneezing from down the block, I guarantee you would be able to hear it. The sound, while often underutilized in games, makes or breaks a lot of games, and it's looking sounding excellent.

The Bad/The "Why?"
-Nothing: Sure, all we've seen of this game has been in those three trailers, and they're all roughly the same material, but I loved every second of that trailer. The work DICE put into building a new Frostbite engine definitely shows in the game, and it looks like this could be raising the bar for what we can expect to see in shooter games moving forward. As Robert Bowling, creative strategist at Infinity Ward, has gone on record saying that they will not be updating the engine they have been using for Call of Duty for the last several years, DICE and EA definitely seem to be looking to give Activision, owners of Infinity Ward, a run for their money.

Impressions: Beyond Good and Evil HD (Xbox Live Arcade)

Beyond Good and Evil was one of my favorite games to ever come out for the Playstation 2, all the way back in 2003 (both the game and the system remain in my possession and working to this day). The game revolves around Jade, a girl in her twenties who works as a photographer with a small rebellion to expose a conspiracy within the government regarding the invasion of the DomZ, an alien force that is abducting people. Here in 2011, while still waiting for the long-gestating follow-up to the original, I downloaded the high-definition remastered version of the original game for a large helping of good ol' nostalgia. As I'm currently playing through the game, I'll offer my impressions thus far, seeing as I, along with everyone who played the game when it originally came out, knows how the game ends.

The Good:
-This is the game I fell in love with eight years ago. The characters are there, the charm, the score, the story, everything. This is a pure blast from the past, residing in my system's hard drive.
-The sound is crisper than it used to be and sounds great on a surround sound system.
-The framerate is very solid and smooth; I've been playing for several hours with next to no slowdown at all
-Jeez, it's Beyond Good and Evil! It's like a conspiracy and stealth version of The Legend of Zelda, with aliens. What's not to like?

The Bad:
-The graphics, while "updated", are still sub-par by today's standards. This is to be expected, as it is an HD remake of a Playstation 2 game, and often when companies say "remake", they mean "updated textures and improved sound quality"
-The bugs from the original game are still here; Pey'j sitting in a corner and being unresponsive is to be expected.
-Some of the controls are a little wonky and don't make much sense. I feel like developers are past the times where you can't use both the directional pad and the joy stick to navigate the in-game menus, and it took me a little bit to figure out how to access Jade's rucksack

The "Why?"
-The Leaderboards: I admit, I've never been a big user of leaderboards, but this is a single-player only game, so they do not seem to serve much of a purpose, but I see the inclusion of leaderboards with a lot of games released over Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network

And so it begins!

I have been asked "why are you starting a blog about the gaming industry's current events" by friends (and I've even asked myself the same question), and the answer, unsurprisingly, is very simple: because I love video games, and everything that goes into them. I've been a fan since the day I played an NES when I was four years old, and my passion for them has only grown since then. I've played Sonic with my little sister on the Sega Genesis and Star Fox with my best friend, handing the control back and forth as we tried to figure out how to go the "secret" route through the game to get to the true final battle. I've played online shooters with friends and anonymous people alike, and marveled at the increasingly incredible quality of both gameplay and presentation as gaming technology progressed. I've fought colossi with nothing but a sword, a bow, and an arrow, and I've wrestled with the choices both of a commander racing to stop a terrorist and of a man trying to survive any way he can in an underwater dystopia. My love for gaming comes as a natural progression to my others interests: film and novels. In movies, the viewer gets to watch a story unfold through the perspective of a protagonist; they get to observe their actions and the consequences. In a book, the reader gets to learn about those actions, about both the motivations and thoughts that drive that character. Video games take what these mediums accomplish a step further, by allowing the gamer to step into the shoes of that character, and make those decisions themselves, to experience what it would be like to be the protagonist in a story. Gaming is the literal adaptation of the expression "walking a mile in a man's shoes".

This looks to be the inaugural post of my blog; over the next few days the posting will likely be erratic as I find a good rhythm for my posting schedule and work out the design kinks of this thing. I want to get this thing off the ground in the right way, so it won't swan-dive into the forgotten depths of the Internet. The set-up is likely to change, but not significantly. As for my personal preferences in gaming? My current favorite game developer is Bioware (of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect fame), for their continuously outstanding ability to develop and release successful new game franchises, while my favorite game, which persists to this day, is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; really, ask anyone: is there a better game?

I've always loved gaming. I love playing them, learning about how they're made, listening to developers talk about them, and writing about them. I hope, through this blog, I can convey why they are so important, both to me and to the millions of people who play them.

Looking forward to the future!