God of War 3 Review (PS3)

I love the God of War trilogy.  I've been a fan since the epic first game debuted and God of War 3 was one of the main reasons that I wanted a PS3.  The previous two games were arguably two of the best action platformers of all time and oozed with style that many games today still try to emulate.  Its an understatement to say that the third game in the trilogy had some hype to live up to.  The question now is, did it?

If you've played the second game and beat it, then chances are that you were pissed at the ending.  I know that I was and I couldn't wait for the third game to release.  Little did I know that it would be close to 3 years of waiting.  (By the way, if you haven't played the first two, pick up the GoW collection for PS3 for 29.99)  Once you pop the disc in your PS3, the first thing you'll notice is how ridiculously detailed Kratos is (games protagonist).  You're then dropped straight into the action picking up where the last game left off and (minor spoilers ahead) seriously if you haven't played the first two, please do yourself a favor and play them.  At the end of the 2nd game, The Goddess Athena is dead and you're on your way to Mount Olympus on the back of the Titan Gaia to confront your father Zeus.  You're after your revenge and won't let anything get in your way be it Gods or Titans.  (end of minor spoilers).  I'm not exaggerating about how incredible the rendering is in this game.  Kratos scars and equipment are much more visible from the last game and his facial animations show every feeling his character has.  The levels are packed with dozens of enemies on screen at once and the levels themselves are so detailed that at times you may get lost just looking and admiring the scenery.  Of course you could easily die to the scenery seeing as how sometimes you're literally fighting the terrain you're standing on. 

The gameplay is just as fluid and if you've ever played any good action game before, you'll feel right at home.  Each brutal kill is shown in excellent detail and showcases the developers hard work.  Give them credit considering that over the span of three games, they've had three different directors.  You probably wouldn't have even noticed considering how seamless the games tie into eachother and God of War 3 is a nice cap to the end of the "trilogy".  But you may notice that while there was a jump in quality from the 1st game to the 2nd (in terms of graphics and gameplay) the 3rd one seems to be slightly more superficial.  That's not to say that the gameplay is bad or that more of God of War 2's excellent combat is a bad thing, its just that as a fan, I kinda expected a little more, gameplay wise.  Once again I'm nitpicking, but with a great game like this, sometimes you need to be honest about ways the game can be improved.  Also, the game can easily be beaten in under 10 hours and while there's extra costumes, special arena modes, and harder difficulties, there doesn't seem to be too much here to continue playing.  Of course like the first two games, you can play through the fun story mode, but is that enough to warrant a 60$ purchase? 

If there's one thing that the God of War Trilogy (excluding the PSP adventure Chains of Olympus and the mobile game Betrayal) is known for, its the epic boss battles.  Who could forget the openings of God of War 1 where you fight the three headed hydra or the second games colossus fight?  God of War 3 doesn't disappoint at all with bosses putting you against some of the largest and most epic bosses you'll ever encounter.   One fight literally has you scaling the boss as he throws enemies at you, swats at you with his building sized hands, and makes the Shadow of colossus bosses look like midgets.  The gameplay remains largely unchanged though consisting of slashing the enemy, dodge, slashing the enemy, QTE, brutal kill.  I could go on and on about each boss but of course, it'd be a lot more better if you tried the game for yourself.

SUMMARY

Pathetic:

Gameplay doesn't introduce anything new

Short Quest

Some fights become tiresome

Very Nice!:

Some of the best graphics ever

Epic boss fights

Decent end to the trilogy

Solid fun overall

FINAL GRADE: A

The game doesn't really introduce anything new, but it doesn't really have to.  Great game and a lot of fun for fans and newcomers.  Another solid title for the PS3 library for 2010.

Mass Effect 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Before I begin I'd just like to let everyone know that I never played Mass Effect 1.  While I have heard that its a great game, it just never seemed to get my attention.  The second one came out and I found it for a price that I couldn't pass up so, I ended up buying it.  I planned to beat the original one first and then immediately jump into the second adventure, but I never got around to playing the first one.  If you've played the first game, chances are you've bought the second one and have thoroughly enjoyed the many hours spent going through this sci-fi outing.  This review isn't really geared to those who enjoyed the first game, but more towards those who've never touched Mass Effect 1.

You play Commander Shepard as you try to assemble a team strong enough to take out a hostile alien race (pretty standard sci-fi material).  That's pretty much where the story stays the same for every player.  The reason being is that everyone who plays this game, can have different outcomes for their decisions.  I played through the game being a paragon (good guy) but I can already see how different things may have been had I chose to be a renegade (bad guy).  You're given freedom to tackle quests at your own rate and to build relationships with your crew members.  Help a squad mate deal with her past issues?  Or choose to explore unknown planets in search of adventure?  The choices are entirely up to the player and the game unfolds around your decisions. 

The gameplay is a mix of some of the best pieces of other great games.  We have the run and gun cover system of Gears of War 2, story decisions of games like Fallout 3, and powers from games like Prototype or Infamous.  You're given free reign to mold the gameplay to accomodate your tastes.  Choose heavy firearms over your biotic powers if thats your preference, or have a strong mix of the two (my decision).  From what I've heard about Mass Effect 1, there were some parts of the game that weren't too enjoyable (I'm looking at the elevators and land rover).  While Mass Effect 2 seemed to address the problems of the first, there still are some minor issues I have with this game.  I don't really enjoy the tedious task of having to mine for resources to better equip my squad and myself, nor do I enjoy the sometimes dimwitted teammates (not bad played on normal, but sometimes awful on insane difficulty).  This didn't hamper my game overall though and if anything, I'm nitpicking. 

The story seems to be one of the biggest reasons that the Mass Effect franchise is popular and to be honest the story is epic.  Now try to understand that I've never played the first game and have no knowledge of the story of the first.  I was lost in the beginning, but after an hour or two I figured out what was going on, and realized that you didn't really need to play the first to enjoy this game.  The story truly is great and a lot of it has to do with the amazing voiceover work.  The actors do a great job giving life to the characters and overall in the auditory department, this game excels.  Visually too this game is stunning although the facial animation sometimes looks a little off.  Of course its easy to say that compared to Heavy Rain's almost lifelike facial animation but whereas that games characters looked like they were talking, a lot of their voices emotions, left much to be desired.  Mass Effect 2's actors truly helped give the game life and could even have you feeling true care about these in game characters, further testament to the games amazing story.

SUMMARY

Pathetic

Mining is a CHORE

Takes a little while to get into the story

A.I. at times can be truly dumb

Wait for the 3rd game in the trilogy is going to be EXCRUCIATING

Very Nice!

Story is one of the best in years

Shooting, biotic powers, and the ability to control squad members is fine tuned

Very immersive

Visually stunning and amazing voice acting

FINAL GRADE: A+

Mass Effect 2 is one of the best games I've played in recent memory.  Great characters, beautiful worlds, truly fun gameplay mixed and one of the best storylines helps shoot this title to an early contender for best game of 2010.  While it may not win, this game is my game of the year.  Considering that I work full-time, have church responsibilities, time needed for family and my gf, and I STILL put in 35 hours of my time shows that this game is amazing. 

Heavy Rain Review (PS3)

Let me start by getting one thing out of the way: Heavy Rain is more of an interactive movie then it is a video game, at least what we typically describe as a game.

Now with that out of the way, let me also state that I truly liked this game.  Imagine taking the arcade game Dragon's Lair and fusing it with one of those old "Choose Your Own Adventure Books";  throw in a pretty engrossing story and you've pretty much got the basics of Heavy Rain. 

For those not old enough to know about Dragon's Lair and its gameplay, it pretty much consists of quick flashes on screen that the player much react to in order to advance the story.  In Heavy Rain, there will be these Quick-Time Events (QTE's) in which you must move the right stick in a specific motion, or tap one of the face buttons or shoulder triggers in order to have your character respond accordingly.  Besides these QTEs, the rest of the gameplay has you moving your character around the environments, reacting to certain objects and making choices based on either the situation you're in, or what character you're responding to.  Now when I heard about the gameplay consisting solely on QTEs, I was a little skeptical.  I don't really enjoy having to react to an on-screen prompt during the flow of action so I didn't know whether or not Heavy Rain would be for me.  However, I feel that given the situations you're put in, this game excels at giving you a reason to get into these QTEs.  When you're in an apartment and getting attacked by knife wielding lunatics, the screen may flash triangle to have you dodge a slash, and if you mess up, you may end up getting stabbed.  That's okay James, I'll just reload my data and continue from my last save right?  That's where you'd be wrong my friend.  In this game, there are no continues.  You have no lives; no do-overs.  Every choice that you make, affects what happens to your characters.  You may well make a mistake and possibly kill off a main character.  The way the story unfolds is up to how you play it.

We've seen many games use these quick button presses during sequences (Resident Evil 4, Shenmue, God of War), but they've mainly been short distractions during scenes where we could not truly control the action on screen.  While these can be fun, if done right, the scene better be pretty compelling to have me wanna deal with these.  Heavy Rain's story is definitely compelling enough.  The easiest way to sum up the plot is that there's a murderer known as the Origami Killer and you control four individuals having intertwining stories revolving around finding him.  During these four characters stories, you're thrown into problems that must be resolved on the fly.  Do you decide to risk your life in order to gain new information about the killer? Or do you play it safe and wait for a new opportunity to show up, giving the killer precious time to escape?  Mix in a soundtrack that perfectly sets the mood for the situations and you're guaranteed to be wiping sweat off your controllers when you put them down.  I'm not exaggerating, this game is one of the few games to truly make me that tense.  Don't get me wrong though, there are some very genuinely sweet moments in this game.  For example, you may need to gently tuck your child in to bed, or rock a baby as she's slowly falling asleep in your arms.  These scenes help you to relate to the characters and shows you that a game can tug at your hearts strings in more ways then one.  Throw in an unpredictable ending (at least mine was based on my actions) and you're definitely given one of the best stories I've played through in years.

The graphics are run in 720p and are some of the best graphics I've seen on any console to date.  The character models are eerily realistic and pretty much mirror the people they're based on.  Have a look:

The Heavy Rain directors also chose to have some of these people voice their in-game characters.  While I enjoyed most of the sounds and characters, some of the voicework was a little sketchy.  Some characters sound truly realistic, while others sound very detached and scripted.  For example, the children often sound like robots, whereas Scott Shelby helps convey what his character is feeling at key moments in the game.  Oftentimes its not too bad, but sometimes when the characters interact its hard not to get thrown off at some of the bad voiceovers.  The same can be said with the graphics.  Sometimes the graphics are so fluid and beautifully rendered, that its hard not to feel like you're watching a movie and at other times the characters move so unrealistically that its almost humorous.  But of course, I'm nitpicking and I'm not the only one who notices these flaws.  They don't really take that much away from the game and during my first playthrough I didn't really even notice.  The games camera angles, the ridiculously detailed facial animations, and the (sometimes) great voicework do their job in making you feel like you're part of their grim world.

I played through this game in practically one sitting, over 10 hours in the span of a day.  I was so compelled to continue the game, that no matter how late it had gotten I was still wide awake, wanting to see what would happen next.  This is definitely the perfect game to play in front of others in that the story is entertaining and surprising.  My girlfriend was watching and actually sometimes yelled out at me to choose path A or move quicker.  While I didn't entirely enjoy having her help make a tense situation, even more tense, I did enjoy the fact that she felt involved.  Sometimes the scenes ended with both of us just staring, jaws dropped at what we witnessed.  Other times, we both were racking our heads trying to make a choice on how to handle what was thrown at us.  However you play the game, I doubt that you'll come out of it feeling as if you didn't get a great experience.  And that's the best way to sum up Heavy Rain: It's a gaming experience. 

SUMMARY

Pathetic:

Some voicework sucks

minor control issues

quick-time events not for everyone

Very Nice:

Great and compelling story

Beautiful Graphics

Worth multiple playthroughs to see different outcomes

Perfect for backseat gamers

FINAL GRADE: A

ONE OF THE BEST GAMING EXPERIENCES IN YEARS.  NOT FOR ALL GAMERS, BUT DEFINITELY WORTH A LOOK.  IT GAVE ME A REASON TO PLAY MY PS3 AGAIN RIGHT?  SO ITS GOTTA BE GOOD.

Bayonetta Review

For those out there who know nothing about Bayonetta, let me tell you, this game..is..AWESOME. For fans of Devil May Cry I highly recommend this game. In fact, for fans of pure action gaming, I highly recommend this game. Hell, for fans of good games, this one is one to check out.


You play as Bayonetta, a witch who wants to know about her past. Apparently she was found at the bottom of an ocean, some 20 years ago, yet doesn't know anything about how or why she was there in the first place. You're accompanied by Enzo, a rotund street wise man, and Rodin, your merchant of sorts. I forgot to mention, that Rodin is apparently the Devil. Still with me? Good..You're looking for this artifact known as the "Right Eye" and along the way you fight twisted looking angels, an upside down face with wings and two dragons connected to him, a sphinx-like aircraft that shoots missiles, and other non-sensical beings. What do I fight them with James? Why, your four guns of course! Yes I said four..You have one in each hand and a pair on your feet. But guns alone aren't enough to take out these super-powered enemies, so thank God (or I guess the Devil) that you're equipped with the power to summon your own super beings. The only catch: they're created by your hair. In fact, you're not even wearing clothes. Your clothes, are made from your hair. I said the game was fun..never said it had to make sense did I?


Now if you can get past the silly premise and over the awkwardness of the game, you truly will find one of the best action platformers in recent history. The game has a Japanese developed feel to it (not at all trying to be racist, but if you play games, you know there's a difference in Western and Japanese developed games.) Above all, you can see that this game was a labor of love and that the developers put a lot of time and effort into their product. The countless references , the memorable protagonist, and the EPIC boss battles show just how much care was given to this game. As I played through, I enjoyed practically every moment of this game. The boss battles are some of the best I've played in any action game and if you don't believe me, go youtube a boss fight. Go ahead..I'll wait........done? Trust me when I say that its a lot of fun.
 
SUMMARY: You know what? I can't really express how good of a game this is. If you don't like weird Japanese games, can't get over the weird premise (or the constant oogling of Bayonetta the game forces you to do), or just don't seem to like action titles, then don't bother. But if you like great action games, are a fan of Devil May Cry or other action titles, then check this game out.

Pathetic ~ Very very very weird. Some bosses speeches are long winded. Game may be too hard for some. Awkwardness of sexual portrayal of Bayonetta. May be too short of a game for some.

Very Nice! ~ Amazing graphics and gameplay. Boss battles are epic and fun thanks to tight controls. Bayonetta is a very fun and likeable protagonist. Some of the best video game action sequences in recent memory

Final Score: A

This game is amazing. I highly recommend you check this game out.