Obscure: The Aftermath

So my friend likes horror games, and now instead of waiting for new ones he likes to dig through the bargain bins and buy any he can find. He got this one, and after playing through the first part alone he decided to get me and another friend to play it with him. Because while the game is awful, its one feature that makes it tolerable is the ability to go through it in co-op mode, the crutch of any developer who knows people will wade through crap if they can do it with a buddy. And the co-op is kind of fun, honestly. Mostly because you can beat your partner senseless with bats and hockey sticks with no repercussions. We spent so much time doing this that we figured out a retaliatory hit immediately after getting struck will always result in knocking the original aggressor to the ground, and probably added a decent half an hour to our total play time at least.

Anyway, the game's main failing as a horror game is that it's not scary at all. There's darkness (the game has no brightness control and forces you to adjust the television if you actually want to see shit, ever), and an evil plot, and monsters, and implied rape by mutated freaks, but none of it comes close to ever being frightening or even a little spooky. It really doesn't help that the dialogue is so bad that the only explanation we could come up with is it was written by aliens trying to approximate human speech without really understanding it (the developer turns out to be French, so maybe we weren't far off). The voice acting is awful too, helping make a game trying to be scary into something mostly just hilarious. The graphics are pretty pedestrian too, never enhancing the attempts at frightening the players.

So anyway, there are a bunch of playable characters and each has a unique skill (besides two males sharing one) that you will occasionally need to advance, from hacking electronic locks to picking regular ones to super monkey jumping/climbing ability. They tend to die off over time, and sometimes you're forced to use a specific pair, but you'll often have a choice of who to play as and it's trial and error to figure out what skill you need as you solve simple puzzles and fight off the various annoying enemies. There are of course boss fights along the way that all seem to follow the familiar pattern of fending them off until you stun them long enough to activate whatever environmental effect that actually damages them. It's all pretty rote and uninspired, which along with the laughable presentation makes for a passable experience if you're goofing around with friends but not much of one that's worth taking seriously. There is some merit in being so bad it's good, but the game is simply just regular bad often enough that it's hard to recommend. If you find it on the scrap heap you might enjoy it, but 60% of that will be bashing your partner over the head with chairs, which you can easily do in real life.

Yakuza 2

Yakuza 2 is as direct a sequel you can make to a video game. There are a few alterations and additions, but you spend over half the game in the same area you spent the first, the combat system is roughly the same, the graphics are mildly improved at best, and the story spends a lot of time dealing with the consequences of the first game. It still shares a lot of the same flaws as before, like a failure to gracefully increase the difficulty as it goes on and several small, odd hiccups in the presentation. If I was a jackass, I might call it Yakuza 1.5.

Not that any of this makes it a bad game. Just like the first I liked it enough to mostly forgive its idiosyncrasies, and would rate it as pretty good, if not great. Despite the previously mentioned reliance on the first game for a lot of the plot hooks, I actually preferred this story to the first, as it feels more like an epic crime drama and some of the character relationships feel a bit stronger. The first game was mostly a revenge story, and that's here too, but things are more complicated as they involve several warring factions and a specific deadly incident a quarter century earlier in the timeline. By the end the constant twists on who's REALLY behind everything start to feel half baked and the last scene before the credits would have been a terrible way to go out, but the scene afterward wrapped it all up enough for me to come away satisfied. Instead of rerecording the dialogue in English this time they saved on the localization by subtitling it, which I mostly preferred even if it hurt the sales. Unlike in film, I tend not to mind when a video game from overseas is dubbed in my own language, but in this case the entire project is just so inherently Japanese that I appreciate the authenticity.

As with last time, the game is a mix of beat-em-up combat with an RPG's leveling, money and item system, and plethora of side activities. You move through the story chapter by chapter, in this case in sections of both Tokyo and Osaka, beating up random thugs who accost you on the street until you can beat up other thugs to advance the plot. Although I didn't spend a lot of time on this one intentionally seeking out other missions, they're still there, as you can do anything from playing traditional board games for money to helping random passersby to trying to win over the hostesses at various clubs. You can even become a host yourself, although I ended up ignoring that when the game threw it at me because I just wanted to finish. The combat gets annoying quickly when they try to make it difficult, because it always seems like they're breaking the established rules to do so and the controls just aren't good enough to compensate for some of the crap they throw at you. I never got into an unwinnable situation, and thankfully the game gives you the option to temporarily turn down the difficulty if you're getting your ass kicked, though I didn't have to do that until the very end when I just ran out of health items. Despite occasional frustration with certain enemy types, it's generally fun to just beat the crap out of people in this game, and there's enough opportunity to learn new techniques that it doesn't get boring over the 15 hours it takes to beat. There have already been two more games in the series released in Japan, both for the PS3, and there's a strong amount of doubt on whether they'll ever make it over here. I hope they do, because while the first two games weren't exceptional, I did have fun with them.

Silent Hill 2

I've seen a lot of this game in the past, though I've never really played it myself. This changed when a friend and I agreed to both play a game we had only watched before, Silent Hill 2 for me, and Shadow of the Colossus for him. If you're not a fan of survival horror, this game has some of the genre's typical problems in places, but overall it's a very strong, creepy experience, and ahead of its time in some ways. It definitely holds up better than I might have expected.

I'm not a huge fan of the way the game actually plays. It's somewhat like a traditional adventure game with some clumsy combat thrown in, though none of it is bad enough to hurt the game in the long run. It defaults to the tank-style movement controls that very few people are comfortable with, although there's a simple option in the menu to switch to the more intuitive way of just point where you want to go. The combat really isn't terrible as bashing monsters in the face is actually a viable option and you can move while attacking, it just isn't the game's strong point. Puzzles are a mix of some clever believable scenarios, some strange esoteric stuff, and a few groan inducing ones like using a can opener to open a can of light bulbs (what?) to light up a door so you can see the keyhole well enough (what?). The game emphasizes exploration, as you can wander around town or in the various important buildings and find a lot of extra supplies you may not necessarily need, with certain paths blocked off to keep you from getting too far off course. I like how the spaces feel like real buildings, and not just artificial environments a game was designed to take place in. Many doors are sealed off or have broken locks, which keeps you moving to the next important place without feeling fake.

What impressed me most is how the game is designed to facilitate the dark story, and that story itself. Pretty much every design decision has some thought behind it, and every aspect of the way the environment and strange monsters look has a reason for being the way it is. I'm not going to pretend I understand why everything is how it was made, but you can tell how well constructed it is. It's a psychological horror story, and the types of scares they go for in the game fit that. It's not about things jumping out at you, it's about keeping you unsettled the entire time you're playing, dreading to see what's in the next room. There are a few different characters all facing some sort of torment in the town, and the tale is an intriguing one, with a few twists along the way. Little details in the world can be easily missed but help contribute to the narrative, although you don't have to see everything to appreciate what it does.

Besides the voice acting, the presentation is really good too. The sound effects are effective whether they're just filling in the gaps or spooking the hell out of you, and the music is perfect. Akira Yamaoka has done the soundtrack for basically the whole series, and nearly every piece is great, and it's in a variety of styles. It's best when it's accompanying something strange going on and doing everything a few noises can to rattle your nerves. The amateur voices are pretty bad, but it's rare for them to actually hinder the storytelling, and a few people are decent. The graphics are quite good for the time also, and the camera can be frustrating in some situations, like when you're trying to not be killed, but in general it works for the presentation as a whole. Silent Hill 2 is more or less a classic in the horror game genre, and worth experiencing, even now.

Persona 3 FES

I'm really not someone who plays a lot of Japanese RPGs, as I've written about in the past. But based on the constant praise and discussion of Persona 3 I saw on my favorite message board, I decided to give its special edition FES a try, and 82 hours later have finally finished what is easily my most enjoyable experience with the genre ever. It's an interesting take on some of the conventions. Instead of new areas and plot points becoming available as you go to different places, everything advances through the passage of time. The game takes place over the course of the school year, as the main characters have to balance studying for tests and making friends with their secret quest to prevent the city from strange monsters called shadows that appear during a part of the day only they are aware of. They fight by summoning Personas, special reflections of their inner selves with unique powers. Overwrought stories are a staple of these kinds of games, but although there are some moments of maybe too much talking made worse when you're seeing something for the second time and can't just completely skip it, the plot in Persona 3 is one of the most intriguing and fulfilling I've seen in a game, and because of the immense length is more like a good TV series than a movie. The most important scenes are fully animated anime-style, and while the character designs don't completely mesh with the normal portraits and models in the game it still helps convey things well. Everything up to the end works, and the end itself was pretty brilliant and brought all the big parts of the game together. FES includes a new chapter that more fully explains what happens afterwards, although it doesn't seem necessary to appreciating it.

Besides special events every full moon, most of the normal RPG gameplay occurs in a gigantic tower with hundreds of randomly generated floors, and to be honest, after a while going back there over and over becomes pretty tiring. Fortunately, a few things save it. As you play, you start to realize you don't really have to go there that often, and can spend almost your entire month outside before having to return, and at least the combat system itself is enjoyable and satisfying. Instead of revolving around building up your stats through fighting repeatedly, the key to success is exploiting each enemy's weakness and finding especially useful Personas through fusing ones you find. There were a few times where I felt I had no choice but to get a little more health before being able to really take on a tough boss, but finding a strategy that eliminates their strengths and defeats them without having to level up is a great feeling. The player's inability to directly control the actions of other party members can make things more frustrating, although it's rare for it to become a true problem. There are a few other small annoyances, including the frustration where one slip can get your party killed and waste all the time spent since the last save, but in the end I found the combat really fun and rewarding.

Even more than the fighting though, I liked the social interaction aspect of the game. The main thrust of that part are the Social Links, connections you make with various students and other people around town that improve your ability to create certain Personas. Each person with a link represents a certain Arcana, and as you get closer to them any Personas you fuse in that Arcana get stronger, eventually unlocking the ultimate one. The execution wasn't perfect, as I soon learned that telling someone what they wanted to hear was usually a better option than what I really wanted to say, but it's an interesting idea that merges the two halves of the game. The normal schedule in the game is going to school Monday through Saturday with the afternoons and evenings off to shop for equipment, improve social stats, work on links or whatever, although there are special events frequently throughout the year that change it up and allow for some interesting and often quite funny interactions among the cast members. The game spends a lot of time developing his characters, and it makes the rest of the game stronger when you just appreciate and like spending time with the different people you meet and often go into battle with. The voice acting and localization is fairly solid too, with only a few people totally failing. In general the audio is pretty decent. Although some of the music is kind of weird and you end up hearing it too much when the game takes so long to finish. In the end though, it is one of the better games I've played in a long time, and I already have the sequel waiting for me to dive into it.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

I might have appreciated it more if I had played the original, but Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a solid remake that updates the game to a more modern style with grace. It plays very similarly to Tomb Raider: Legend, the first game in the series by Crystal Dynamics after they took it over, with the same combat and platforming mechanics with a few updates, but the focus is much different. Legend felt a lot like an action movie, with car chases, large gun fights, with lots of characters and cinematic moments. Traversing around tombs and solving puzzles was part of it, but it didn't seem like the focus. Anniversary is very much about this, almost exclusively. There's not much opportunity for one liners or big explosions when most of the game is spent alone in remote locations. Combat is rare, and is almost always against wild animals that have somehow survived long enough in these deserted temples to attack you. They don't make for very interesting opponents, but the dodging and counter attack system makes it a little more fun. The very few times you're confronted with humans, Lara does everything she can to avoid murder, and is clearly against the idea of it, which is weird when she just mows 'em all down in Legend. I guess time changes everyone.

Anyway, the meat of the game is the environment, whether it's testing your wits or your reflexes, and for the most part, it really shines. It combines the best aspects of a lot of different action/adventure games, and has some of the most elaborate and interesting setups I've seen in a game like this. The problem is that the execution isn't always the greatest. There are two things that hurt it, the controls and the camera. The controls work for the most part, and are certainly better than what the series used to be, but they're not precise enough that every mistake seems like it's your fault, and that makes it a problem. Sometimes things work, and sometimes they don't, and when them not working forces you to start over, it can quickly get annoying. The camera seems worse than Legend, as it doesn't show you what you want to look at as much as you'd want, which compounds the control problem. Both problems get worse as the challenge ramps up, and every single mistake results in instant death, or at least having to do a long sequence of jumping and climbing over again. They could have gotten really creative later on and made you really think about what you had to do, but instead they elected to make you race through gauntlets and threw some lava on the floor. Legend had the same controls, but it wasn't as frustrating because it didn't demand as much from you. I still quite enjoyed the game, but not as much. It looks and sounds nice enough for a PS2 game in this age, and the story is a reasonably entertaining Indiana Jones-esque tale. I wonder how well they'll balance the puzzles in action in the new Tomb Raider coming out in November.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The third game in the trilogy, and flat-out one of the biggest ever.

With San Andreas, Rockstar full subscribed to the idea that bigger is better. The world is massive. It covers an entire state, containing not only three cities, each bigger than the ones in previous games, but also quite a lot of real estate in between, including forests, a desert, and many small towns. The soundtrack isn't as good as Vice City's, but still included a large variety of enjoyable music. They also improved the streaming technology, allowing you to go from anywhere outside to anywhere else without a single loading screen. It's quite an impressive feat, and really increases the scale of some of the bigger chases you can get into. There's a larger variety of vehicles you can use, including special ones like bicycles, tractors, and jetpacks, and there are many more indoor locations you can explore. The biggest gameplay change was the addition of a variety of role-playing elements, giving you full control over your character. CJ is always the same person in the story, but you can work out to make him buff or eat a lot to make him fat. There are several different clothes stores you can use to change your look (and how people react to you), and multiple girls you can befriend and date, giving you various bonuses for doing so. At the beginning, CJ is pretty bad at driving and shooting, but using the different kinds of vehicles and guns improves his performance with both.

With so much to do, the game could have gotten too big for its own good, but fortunately it didn't. It does an excellent job of balancing everything and easing you into it, keeping you focused on one major issue at a time. What was interesting was the distinct feeling and atmosphere in each of the three cities. The take off of Los Angeles is where everything starts and ends, and is full of the gangland warfare prominent during the time period. A lot of people can't get into that, but I thought they pulled it off pretty well. Taking over territory was an interesting diversion (as long as you didn't do too much of it the first time around, since all of your progress gets erased), and some of the things that happen near the end, like a riot in the city, are handled pretty well. Even if you don't like that culture, there's some more traditional Grand Theft Auto stuff in the other cities, where you tend to deal with other sorts of criminals, like a blind Yakuza in the driving-focused fake San Francisco and Italian Mafia in their version of Las Vegas, which includes a really cool, optional casino subplot.

CJ is a really well-rounded, likable character. He's not as independent as Tommy Vercetti, but he's a more sympathetic guy. The story follows him as he tries to help his family and rebuild his gang's status, while going after a pair of corrupt cops who have wronged him from the start. Some familiar faces show up, and the cinematics felt even more authentic once the developers learned they could get away with cussing. The missions are more elaborate than ever, and the game is filled with great moments, including countless spontaneous ones just screwing around with a friend in co-op. Some people complained that the RPG elements got in the way of the game, but that simply wasn't true, they almost always felt like an enjoyable addition, becoming a hassle on only a few small occasions. San Andreas was as big as it could get, but now it looks like Grand Theft Auto IV will be a more contained, tighter experience.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

The second game in the vaunted trilogy. It didn't make the same leap from 3 as 3 did from 2 or San Andreas did from it, but it was still an important addition.

After 3, some wondered where the series would go from there. Not many expected it to go back in time. 3 was basically contemporary, but you didn't get that much of a feel for the setting or main character. That was probably Vice City's biggest contribution to the series. Instead of a nameless, voiceless criminal, you played Tommy Vercetti, a person with goals and opinions. It was refreshing to play someone who could think for himself and often took matters into his own hands instead of just taking orders. Sometimes he was still doing grunt work, but he was in charge of his own fate. Along with the character, the game's radio played a huge part in placing you in the world. Instead of some generic house and pop music, there was a variety of stations playing a bunch of real music from the 80's. It set the mood about as well as it's been done in a video game. The music, along with the general aesthetic of the city and people in it went a long way. I don't have that much nostalgic attachment to that decade, being three years old when it ended, but it still made the experience more entertaining. The talk radio wasn't quite as good as 3's Chatterbox, but there were two stations and they were both good.

There were a lot of small gameplay tweaks and improvements that made the experience better. The addition of motorcycles might not sound that significant, but they were quite useful, and I still usually pick them over cars unless I know I'm going to be taking heavy damage. They're more maneuverable, allow you to fire straight ahead, and can be bailed from without injury. The only problem is that crashes can be pretty hazardous to your health, especially when you go flying over a railing and into the river, which Tommy still couldn't swim through. There were much better boats though, and helicopters and planes were a fun way to get around quickly. The variety of melee weapons instead of just the bat was cool, although it stifled the more dangerous part of your inventory quite a bit. There was more freedom progressing the story, too. You had to build up a criminal empire by taking over and improving various businesses like a club or marina, And it was cool buying up safehouses all over town. The story was more interesting than 3's, easy when your protagonist is so much deeper, and the missions featured more variety and complexity. My only problem with the gameplay was the design of the city itself. Part of the fun is always the car chases, either pursuing traitors or evading the cops, banking around tight turns and barreling down hills. There just weren't that many hills to be found. There were nice jumps sprinkled around, but it was all just a little flat in places. Still, it was a fine game that improved over 3 in almost every way.

Grand Theft Auto III

In anticipation of Grand Theft Auto IV, which I should be getting my hands on soon, I'll talk a bit about the Playstation 2 trilogy that made me love the series.

Around the Christmas of 2001, there was a bit of a rivalry brewing between the PS2 and the new Xbox. Both systems had a high-profile game coming out. The PS2 had Metal Gear Solid 2, and the Xbox had Halo. But a lesser known game came out of nowhere to far more commercial success than either, a 3D sequel to a kitschy top-down driving series. It was GTA3, and it was a lot of fun. I remember playing it for the first time and being amazed by what I could do. It was the first true open-world game of its kind. The freedom was incredible. Going anywhere in the city, getting into fights with the different gangs, uncovering street races or secret jumps, listening to the hilarious talk radio station.

Of course, what we ended up doing a lot was just causing mayhem, recklessly plowing through pedestrian traffic with a semi truck and getting as many cop cars as you could to chase you. It was a revelation when we realized the best way to rack up stars on your wanted level was to attack people on foot instead of just running them over. And of courses, you could pick up prostitutes to heal you in exchange for money, and if you so chose, kill them afterward to get it back. Money was never an issue in the game, it was just a darkly humorous way to beat the system. Unfortunately, this single aspect of a huge, often quite intelligent game was focused on by media watchdogs and overzealous parents. They warped it, trying to make the game out to be training kids to be brutal killers, with the mistreatment of women in the forefront. Never mind that the series has never once instructed you to harm a prostitute, or any other person who could be considered an innocent bystander. It just allows it, letting you make yourself into any character you wanted. The game also allows you to use an ambulance to deliver people to a hospital and rewards you for doing it well, but I guess that doesn't sell newspapers as well.

Beyond the sandbox mayhem, the game also started the series' trend towards interesting storylines set up by very professionally handled cutscenes. The main character never spoke, but you still felt sympathy for him when he was betrayed and wanted to help him set things right. Working your way up the ladder, interacting with all the different movers and shakers in the criminal underworld, and having a hand in the direction the city takes was a hell of a lot of fun. Everybody latches on to the primitive technology and unsatisfactory weapon targeting now, but it wasn't that big of a deal back then, when you had so much choice in how you took care of things. Other games let you decide between picking off foes from a distance or getting in their face and making them explode, but few let you set up a barrier beforehand and block off their escape route. It started the trend of making the last couple of missions in the game a little too difficult, when you're faced with tons of guys with automatic weapons and the bad targeting really rears its ugly head, but finally getting it done is all the more satisfying. There were too many technical flaws, but when you just consider the scope of it and what it did for gaming as a whole, Grand Theft Auto III was a masterpiece.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

As the developer and publisher of the first two games (and the 80's expansion) were split and gobbled up by different companies, a new team gained control of creating the enjoyable rhythm series, and the results aren't quite what you'd hope for. There's nothing about the third installment changed so much as to hurt the core gameplay, it just seems every single new decision Neversoft made was a bad one. The graphics received an overhaul, with new, shinier character models and notes on the fretboard. The changes don't improve anything, they just completely remove any charm the characters originally had (Judy Nails did not need huge breasts) and I'm not sure if it's the new notes or just a slight programming difference, but playing the songs never feels quite as natural as it used to. Not only are the characters uglier, but Pandora, my personal favorite, is completely missing. They took out co-op freeplay for no reason, and the boss battles are contrary to what's actually fun about the series, playing along to songs you know, not twiddling on meaningless solos while being interrupted by annoying power-ups.

In the end, what's important is the songs, and Guitar Hero III does have quite a few good ones, like "Paint it Black" and "Knights of Cydonia". The difficulty is ramped up if you compare it to earlier entries, and it's to the point where the note charts are needlessly complex for the sake of it, just to increase the challenge. This is especially evident if you compare the difficulty of the few songs that are in this and Rock Band back to back; the Rock Band versions are easier because they match closer to what it actually sounds like you should be playing. Guitar Hero is supposed to be fun with a group of people, but as it moves towards esoteric, excessively difficult songs, they risk alienating that crowd and giving the party scene to Rock Band, which I think is already happening. It's not a direction I'm too interested in.

Best Games of 2007

It was a banner year for video games, and I didn't even get to play some of the biggest ones, like Halo 3, Mass Effect, and Super Mario Galaxy. I liked The Darkness, but it doesn't quite stand up with the year's other great shooters, and had fun with Ninja Gaiden Sigma, but haven't got around to finishing it since I don't find challenge for its own sake particularly compelling. Sam and Max's first season of episodic adventures was also a pretty good time. I decided to only list a game as multi-platform if I played it on console and it's available on more than one. Don't ask me why. Luckily, that's consistent with last year's list.

Best of 2007

7. Assassin's Creed (Multi)


It got a lot of flack for not reaching its potential, but its potential was so absurdly high that I can't fault it that much for it. I expect a lot more from the obvious sequel, but I thought Assassin's Creed was a great start for a potentially tremendous series, with excellent core mechanics, a wonderful feel, and a very intriguing storyline, even if the normal missions were as repetitive as hell. It seems a little rushed and empty at times, but I still had quite a good time running through the cities and eviscerating unwitting guards like a parkour ninja.

6. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)


Another first installment of a series with a possibly great future. It dips its toe in the pool of frustration once in a while, but never dives in like the Jak franchise did. It doesn't particularly excel in any one area, but it's a good jack-of-all-trades kind of game; fun shooting, fun traversal (although it can't match Creed's smoothness), great graphics and sound, excellently presented and fairly interesting storyline. If they can just add some depth to the puzzle elements and keep the environments fresh, Uncharted 2 should be fantastic.

5. God of War II (PS2)


Perhaps the last great game of its generation, God of War II helped it go out with a bang. Based on the fact that the PS2 is still selling, we're going to be seeing things like Persona 3 and enjoyable ports once in a while, but I still see this as the last stand. It looks pretty terrific for a PS2 game, hitting you right in the beginning with the absurdly epic battle against the Colossus of Rhodes. It gets bigger from there, as they keep what was great about the first game, mixing easy-to-use but entertaining combat with functional puzzles and platforming, while evening out the pacing a bit to keep it fun throughout. Of course, they set up the sequel at the end, leaving fans to wonder how incredible the next game will be on PS3.

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Multi)


I don't have as much perspective on this as the other games since it was the last thing I finished, but I can still see it was a step forward for first-person shooters, maybe not reinventing the wheel but making it a damn smooth ride. I played the first couple games on PC, but as the series has transitioned to be more console focused, it's still just as gripping and entertaining. Probably the best pure shooting-things game of the year.

3. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)


This is a pretty personal choice, as Tools of Destruction didn't do much to push gaming forward, it's merely another great entry in one of my favorite series. It had been some time since the last true game was released, but I settled right into the Ratchet groove as soon as the game started, running around, blowing up everything in sight, enjoying the various diversions, collecting experience, and just having a fun time. The ending left you hanging, but you don't mind too much when you can jump into challenge mode and keep going after all the hidden extras.

2. Bioshock (360)


The best game story of the year, and not just because of the content, but because of how well they use the medium itself to tell it, defying expectations and keeping you immersed in a pretty incredibly designed experience. Big Daddies are still awesome, mixing tonics and plasmids is still good experimental fun, and the encounter with Andrew Ryan is still one of gaming's best moments ever. The gameplay is still stuck somewhere between real shooting and a rich first person RPG experience, but gameplay was the least important aspect as far as I was concerned.

1. The Orange Box (PC)


I wasn't sure at first whether to count this, as it sort of seems like cheating. I didn't review it as a single package. After all, it's not one game, it's five, two of which I've already played before. But even without the old content, I still got more fun out of it than anything else this year. Episode Two is an excellent continuation of my favorite FPS series, Portal is a brilliant, hilarious, brain-twisting experience, and Team Fortress 2 is the most fun I've had playing online since Battlefield 2. It's kind of a cop out, but The Orange Box is the best gaming value you can get for normal retail price this year.

Yakuza

Yakuza isn't an amazing, huge game. It's a solid, somewhat quirky one. But we need those too. It's a strange mix of beat-em-up and RPGs. What I might like most about it is its charm, not from a content sense, since it's a crime story filled with violence and sometimes gratuitous swearing, but just a gameplay sense. The button-mashing combat, the leveling up, the text boxes, the loading between fighting and normal play, the little shops full of items; they're all almost nostalgic in this modern world of minimalist interfaces and streamlined menus. It's a throwback to the old days.

It's a pretty enjoyable throwback too, most of the time. Besides the storyline, there are dozens of sidequests and other activities everywhere in the little area of Tokyo they lit you run around in, and you can ignore the main game for long stretched if you don't feel like dealing with it. The combat has some interesting wrinkles to it, especially if you seek out training to learn some new moves. It's usually pretty straightforward, but there are lots of items sprinkled about and techniques that are useful in various situations. It starts getting pretty frustrating near the end, when you start getting attacked by a certain type of enemy that tends to dodge everything and hit you with ridiculous spinning kicks and you get ganged up on, all culminating with an annoying boss who actually has bodyguards that revive themselves shortly after being beaten. But as long as you don't do what I did once and accidentally get into an unwinnable (almost no health against 4 guys with knives, one of whom can't be forced to drop his) fight that forced me to quit and lose an hour's progress, it shouldn't be too bad.

The story itself is pretty interesting. I wish they included the original voice track, because as fun as it is to hear Michael Madsen and Mark Hamill try to play Japanese characters, I was annoyed by the common overacting and inconsistent pronunciation. But it's still a good mob story, with plenty of twists, mysteries, and likable characters. The gameplay throughout is a constant repeat of running to the next fight besides a diversion or too, but wanting to know what was up kept me going. It got a little silly at the end, with some clichés, pointless extending of the climax, and a nearly interminable ending, but overall it encapsulated a pretty fun game well.

Tomb Raider: Legend

I played a few demos in the past, but I never really sat down and played a Tomb Raider game before because I didn't have a PS1 and the first one on PS2 was terrible. But I got a demo disc a while ago with this on it, and found I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It had some nice Prince of Persia-style platforming and puzzle solving (minus the ability to rewind and slow down time), with some decent shooting, and seemed pretty cool. I didn't end up getting the whole game until recently, but it was definitely worth the low price.

I'm not sure why this is, but the supernatural story of the game seems out of place to me. I know the series has always had weird stuff like dinosaurs, it just seems like the fiction they're trying to create doesn't jibe well with all the strange magical crap that happens. It's not a problem if you just decide to accept that there's an extremely ancient and powerful sword that everyone's after and enjoy it. Anyway, Lara's quest has her trekking around the globe looking for pieces to the puzzle. Some places are ancient shrines and caves, others are more modern places of business. The gameplay is largely the same regardless of setting, as you explore the environment, push some blocks, avoid traps, and shoot a lot of bad guys. There are some driving sequences and boss battles, although neither are especially compelling. There are also several button-timing sequences, which have become altogether too common in modern action games. They're really not very interesting any more, and I hope the fad dies down soon. The game's a bit short, although the fact that I didn't want it to end yet suggests the game itself was pretty fun just to play.

The game looks and sounds pretty nice, with good character models, impressive environments, and pretty solid voice acting. It makes the game a little better when the protagonist is good. In addition to being nice to look at (for a computer-generated image), Lara is intelligent and witty. The developers made a strong point of trying to make the mystery she's solving relevant to her past, and the end results are a bit amateurish but she's still a strong, sympathic character. The game shouldn't amaze anyone, but it's definitely quite an enjoyable eight hours.

Fumito Ueda Is A Genius

Spoilers on ICO in the last paragraph.

If you don't know who Fumito Ueda is, he's the mastermind behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, two of the Playstation 2's most loved games. They are both similar, and yet quite distinct. They happen in the same universe, with Shadow's ending setting up at least one plot element that comes to fruition many generations later in ICO. They are both brilliantly and similarly designed visually, with distinct, saturated lighting, and gigantic, breathtaking architecture common in their settings. ICO probably looks better, since it's more confined, and the poor little PS2 struggles to make Shadow's huge environments and inhabitants run at a decent frame rate. They have similarly minimalistic stories.

The basic mechanics feel a bit similar, with lots of running and jumping and climbing with less than perfectly graceful protagonists, but the actual gameplay is quite different, with ICO having you work your way through a gigantic castle, solving complex environmental puzzles, with simplistic combat thrown in to balance it. Shadow on the other hand, revolves around its battles with the titular Colossi, with a good amount of searching in between. The boss battles are generally more cerebral in nature than's typical, but it is still relies much more on the player's twitch ability. It also takes a much different direction with the score, which is all about bombast and majestic, sweeping melodies, while ICO's audio is almost entirely ambient. The stories have similar tones, although ICO's is more self-contained and whimsical whereas Shadow's is more complicated, and less resolved, while also being darker in nature.

I beat Shadow almost a year ago and ICO way before that, but I bring them up now because I've been thinking and reading about them a lot in the last couple days. It started when Ueda was interviewed about his thoughts on God of War II and the differences between American and Japanese design philosophy. Cory Barlog, director of said game, responded by posting his own thoughts about Shadow on his blog. The translated interview and Barlog's response are here and here. It was interesting to see two different developers talk about each other's games, but it really just got me to think about Ueda's work. I gave his two games and Barlog's all 9's, but while God of War II is merely an extremely competent and interesting action game, ICO and Shadow seem to resonate much more and provoke more actual thought than games usually do. They are also both used, ICO especially, as Exhibit A in the case for Video Games As Art. I'm not sure how I feel about the subject, I can see why someone would say it's really no different than a movie, but just the fact that you control the outcome and the way it's produced more similarly to a tax application than a painting just says "product, not art" to me. I think games definitely contain artistic elements, and maybe some really are art, but as a whole, the medium isn't.

But I'm getting away from what I was talking about. Reading about the two games led me to two discussions by one guy, one, a still active forum thread on Colossus, and the other encapsulated in a GameFAQ about ICO. They really delve into everything about the mechanics of the storylines, and they're great reads, the ICO one especially. I had known of the theory that Ico and Yorda are dead at the end of the game, but it never sat right with me. It was conceivable, but I didn't see why it was a necessary conclusion. The FAQ breaks down exactly why it's less likely than the obvious conclusion that they lived, and really discusses story conventions themselves in great deal. I always though these two games were a bit overhyped relative to their actual worth (which was still high), but not many games really inspire this much pondering. Gameplay-wise, they're both quite solid, but what really gives them their worth is the stuff the player isn't directly in control of, and it really is what makes Ueda so good at what he does. He's supposedly working on his next game in the same mold for the PS3, and I cannot wait to see what it is.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

This is the fifth GTA game I've played on the PS2 using the same engine, and I have to admit I'm pretty glad to admit it's the last. A new GTA game used to be an event, and the new games were always impressive in their scope and what they added to the series. But the gameplay has gotten tiring, and these ports of PSP titles don't do much to stay fresh. A lot of the allure of the "Stories" PSP games is that you get to play GTA on a portable system. When you put the same game on PS2, that allure is gone. Liberty City Stories had the same problem, but it wasn't as long, and so it didn't wear out its welcome as much as this does. There's nothing that really makes Vice City Stories inferior to LCS, it just feels even more played out. The city is familiar and Lance Vance is as irritating as ever. He's seriously one of the worst game characters in existence. He has no redeeming qualities. He's an idiot, not funny, and doesn't help. All he usually does to a mission is make it harder than it needs to be. His brother, the guy you play is, is better, but not by much. As a person he's not unlikable, but his motivations are a little messed up and it's hard to care knowing he's going to die in a couple years. That's a big problem with both Stories games - finding the will to try when half the characters you're protecting are going to get killed anyway. The biggest problem was right in the game - an extremely frustrating mission, the entire point of which is to save someone, which results in that character dying anyway. Gee, great.

VCS does offer some stuff the original game doesn't. Helpful additions like swimming, trip skip, being able to buy back confiscated weapons, et cetera make the experience less frustrating. Despite some shitty characters, the story is pretty decent and well-written, the radio stations are still hilarious, and they're filled with lots of great 80's songs. Visually, it's improved a bit, with nice draw distances and lighting, plus the blur effect they introduced in San Andreas that happens when you're going extremely fast. The load times are much better than the original games, but I wish they could have taken out the load between parts of the city. If they can stream all of San Andreas, they should be able to stream all of Vice City. There are some creative missions, but as usual, as it goes on it all devolves into a lot of shooting and exploding. The targeting continues to be terrible, and it's just disgusting to see the final battles always playing out with you sprinting away a little bit to protect yourself and just holding down target and fire. I can't wait for Grand Theft Auto IV, which looks to be more realistic, and hopefully will have a decent combat system. VCS is annoying sometimes, but it's definitely not a bad game for $20.

Jak 3

It sure took me a while to get around to playing this one. I don't have anything against the series really, I think it's a solid platformer. I just can not understand, for the life of me, the numerous people who prefer it to Ratchet and Clank. It's literally incomprehensible to me. The only think Jak has over Ratchet is animation, and storyline I guess. His games are more frustrating, control worse, and just less... good.

Jak II was a radical departure from the first game, misguidedly turning Jak into a quasi-badass and making it a more open world with a Grand Theft Auto feel to a lot of the core design. The platforming sections were still there, but in their own sectioned-off areas, you spent a lot of time roaming the irritatingly designed streets of Haven City and racing and fighting stuff there. It got very punishing at times, and was just too aggravating to be a great game. They don't fix most of the issues with the sequel, which sticks close to the philosophy of it's predecessor. I really wish they spent more time making sure everything worked right. The double-jump is way too specific about the timing. There's a common glitch where the game will pause itself during the action. I'm pretty sure it's not my controller since it doesn't happen with other games. There's no targeting system, so you have to rely on the spotty auto-aim. Jak 3 definitely suffers from Donkey Kong 64 Syndrome, which has two key parts.

1) Weak enemies that serve no other purpose than to piss you off when you're trying to do other things.
2) A perceived variety of gameplay that isn't actually that creative, but usually the same basic types of activities repeated with more frustrating restrictions each time.

The trilogy's plot is wrapped up well. The Jak story is interesting, full of twists and it sometimes approaches actual humor. The problem is the characters aren't very good. There's not much to Jak besides his anger, and he isn't really developed that much. And Daxter is supposed to be the hilarious sidekick, but he's really just a pain in the ass. He's always taking credit and complaining, and sometimes when you get killed there's a little cutscene where he mocks you before you restart. Gee, thanks. You self-aggrandizing piece of shit. Oh, and I almost forgot how restarting is annoying. It remembers the ammo and power-ups you used up, but respawns all the enemies. Awesome.

I'm really dumping on the game here, but I honestly did like it. There are lots of cheap enemy placements and not enough checkpoints, so it's hard not to be at least mildly pissed-off while you're playing, but it's ultimately a pretty rewarding experience. Despite the frustrations, the game itself is pretty fun to run around in. The different vehicles and weapons are cool, the pure platforming can be fun, and it's a really great looking game. The wasteland is an interesting new area to explore, and the dune buggies are fun when they aren't spinning out of control. You can unlock commentary for a lot of the cutscenes, and it's pretty interesting and shows the developers' care for their series. It definitely could have been handled better, because I honestly feel like they forgot to playtest it and make sure it was fun in some places. But if you can handle some annoyances, it's still a pretty good platformer from the last generation.

God of War II

The first God of War was exciting and ambitious, but flawed. Its sequel doesn't fix all of its problems, but it is still an improvement on the formula and in most ways the better game. A lot of people will always like the original more because it was new, it was fresh, and all that. But I appreciate it when a sequel builds on the predecessor, refining what makes it great and dropping what didn't work, while making sure to keep it interesting and maybe taking it to the next level. They certainly do that with the scale and brutality in this game. At times it seems almost too epic, like when you leap from the back of a Pegasus onto a Griffin while flying thousands of feet in the air, slice off its wings and spike it to the earth below. The massive temple environments are extremely impressive, and the scale of your journey is just so much larger. A quest of vengeance against Ares seems pedestrian next to the goal of changing the course of time to defeat Zeus himself. The end sets up a third game to end the story arc brilliantly, and the sequel on PS3 has the potential to be amazing.

They added a lot more boss fights this time around, although a lot of them aren't as impressive as the ones in the first game. Fighting gigantic statues and sea creatures is awesome, but a lot are against people more your size and less interesting mechanically. None of them are bad though, and it's interesting how the game depicts you as killing off various famous Greek heroes and icons like the Colossus of Rhodes brought to life. Oh, so an angry dude took it down, not an earthquake. The combat was refined a little, and it was nice to see the inclusion of some new weapons, although none of them handled as well or as enjoyably as the classic chain blades. They added some new context sensitive maneuvers and platforming elements which mostly integrated well into the gameplay. I still think the inclusion of puzzle and adventure elements is what really makes God of War more enjoyable than the average button-mashing action game, and it's still a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they haven't run out of truly annoying ideas that make you want to grab the designer by the throat and ask him what the hell he was thinking. Combat is fun, but not when you have to do it to give yourself time to rotate a lever or something, and failing to do so quickly enough results in your death. It's not more exciting, it's just irritating, frustrating garbage. At least that stuff is limited to a much smaller role than in the first game. What they were able to still do with the PS2 hardware is incredible, and it's a terrific finale for the console.

Game Archive 2

Here's the rest of the game stuff I've written in the last half year.

Role Playing Games


I used to think I didn't like role playing games. Then I realized it was a stupid thing to think. I loved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I love The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I'm currently DMing a group of Dungeons & Dragons players. I like games that incorporate RPG-style character improvement like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the Ratchet and Clank sequels. I don't dislike role playing games, I dislike Japanese role playing games, or at least the traditional idea of them.


What I like about RPG's is the freedom to create your own story they grant you. Obviously tabletop games take this to the extreme, you can basically do anything the DM can make a ruling on. But video games can get away with a bit less because of the production values and the interesting story they (hopefully) bring. You can customize your character to be good at what you want to be good at and have some choice about what to do next. Sometimes the main story is pretty linear, but that's okay because you at least have some choice about how you go about it.

Japanese RPG's aren't like this. Some have customizable characters, but others only give you superficial ability choices while limiting the cast to whatever basic job they're supposed to have. And of course, you can't expect a non-linear experience, there's probably some side quests, but the main game is a straight line. I don't define role playing games by stat building, I define them by what the name means - you inhabit a role in the game's setting, and it's hard to do that when you're just being strung along whatever story they've cooked up.

I don't want to come off like I hate all Japanese RPG's, I've admittedly had little experience with them, mostly restrained to the 3D Final Fantasy games. I'd like to expand my horizons and give some more games a fair shake, but I'm really just not interested enough to devote all the time it would take with my busy College schedule.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)


It's another Zelda game, and what that has come to mean is some extremely well-designed dungeons, fun bosses, and a grand old time rife with adventure. I do have a few problems though. It definitely beats The Wind Waker in world design, as it's easy to make a countryside with mountains and deserts and all sorts of terrain more interesting than an ocean, but I honestly prefer WW's visual approach. Unlike TP's "realistic" graphics, WW will still look good in ten years, and I think the cartoony look better matches the series' constant goofy breaks from the otherwise serious tone.

The pacing of the story seemed a little off to me, you learn too much too quickly and not a lot happens later on in the game. Also, it's really way to easy. Every single boss was a piece of cake. Combat was designed so enemies defend themselves better, but the only thing in the game that does more than one heart of damage to you is falling into lava. I guess I'm complaining a lot, but it's just because I love Zelda and I think this could have been better.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)


I wasn't sure about this one for a lot of the time I was playing it. Most of the new gameplay features add depth but detract from the fun, in my opinion. Limited inventory space, having to use camouflage, feed yourself, and mend your wounds and breaks sounds cool and realistic, but it just adds a ton of menu navigation to the normal gameplay experience. I don't think it really enhanced my experience needing to change my uniform when I move from the jungle to the inside of a building or click on a few different items to stop me from bleeding away any more health in a tight spot.

I was also concerned about the story, I was one of many who was fed up by the direction MGS2's story went by the end, but since then I've come to appreciate it more, and MGS3's tale didn't seem as twisty and interesting, perhaps in response to that backlash. MGS3 has more of a focus on character and emotion than political quadruple-crosses, and ends up being the most satisfying and best story in the series, in my opinion. And let's be honest here, thanks to the series' deep but increasingly dated and clumsy gameplay engine, the story is why we play Metal Gear. I don't have to tell you the visuals are amazing, and the sound is quite good too, well acted as always, and with some good music and maybe the best use of a classic theme I've ever seen near the end.

Subsistence also has some great special features, especially the inclusion of the first two games from the MSX (this being the first time MG2 is available legally in the US) and the hilarious Secret Theater.

No One Lives Forever (PC)


I got the first No One Lives Forever game when it came out in late 2000, but thanks to a frustrating series of events, I didn't complete it until six years later. The game ran poorly on my Windows 98 POS computer, and stuttered its way through outdoor environments even at the lowest settings. I didn't advance far before the computer crapped out and I lost my save, and lost my interest for a while. Later we got a new machine, and the game ran perfectly. I got much farther in the game before the hard drive pooped out and I lost my save again. In the Fall of 2005, I got my own computer, which kicked the old one's ass, and checked the game out, but was preoccupied and didn't get around to actually playing through it a year later. Despite this long, painful road to completion, I still saw how good a game it was.

It doesn't have the amazing gameplay and physics engine of Half-Life 2, and some of the cinemas seem awkward, but it's quite a good stealth-based shooter. I say stealth-based, but rarely do you actually have to be stealthy, most of the time you can just cap fools as you please. The game's brilliance mostly comes from the writing, which is both hilarious and intelligent for most video games. It creates a fun and self-referential world that's fun to be a female James Bond in. If you never played it, you should look past the now-dated engine and graphics and give it a go.

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way (PC)


It didn't take me long after beating the first to get right on the second, which continues in the spirit of the first pretty well. The graphics are remarkably better considering the game was released only two years later, although it's mostly cosmetic enhancements to a now-seriously dated engine, especially looking at the gravity and other physics.

The game itself is mostly solid, with fun, stealthy shooting, but there are a few gripes I have. They added respawning enemies that make it annoying when you're scouring the area for every intelligence item and extra objective you can find and they start looking for you upon finding dead bodies. The flashlight is now an inventory item instead of something you can just turn on while still shooting. I'm just not as big a fan of this game's pacing, it starts off very strong but the formula becomes more transparent as you go on and it seems a bit anticlimactic with the boring final level, and the game's apparent refusal to kill off any characters. The first game saw you infiltrating and causing havoc in various heavily defended fortresses, NOLF 2 spends too much time making you run around India and in abandoned stations in the snow. It's still a good game, just a slight disappointment after the first.

Okami (PS2)


If you have a PS2 and don't play Okami, you're a bad person. It's simply a fantastic game. The graphics are stunning - I don't care about the GE Force 8800 or the new current generation of high definition systems, Okami is the best looking game I've seen, thanks to the great art syle and amazing cel-shading technology that makes it look like a living watercolor painting. This is an opinion of course, if you'd rather look at super high-def ruins in Gears of War, that's just fine. The game also has great music, although I can't say all the audio is good. Okami's main flaw is the voice acting - it's text based, and instead of silence or some beeps, you get garbled snippets of voice (like Banjo-Kazooie) that's tolerable at first but gets very annoying after long bouts of extended exposition.

It's not just great because of its aesthetic qualities though, it IS a video game, and a good one. I can say without doubt it is the best Zelda-style action adventure that isn't actually a Zelda game I've played. It's easy, but still fun, thanks to the Celestial Brush, which you use to draw your special attacks and tools instead of having to sort through an inventory. The different brush powers are all easy to learn and remember, and they give Okami a unique flair to the traditional exploring and combat. The dungeons are more focused on using your powers to advance forward, the puzzles are less Zelda-style solving something to open a door and more using your techniques and platforming skills to reach that door. The combat is a little simple, but still cool thanks to slick attacks, a variety of weapons, the use of the brush techniques, and interesting enemy design.

The story should also be mentioned, I wasn't expecting a lot, but it's actually quite good. The character development is great and there are some cool twists and turns, and it's all enriched by the Japanese mythology that surrounds it. Overall, Okami is a cohesive, beautiful work of art and it's a damn shame no one is playing it.

Sam and Max: Culture Shock (PC)


Being the first of six parts of a "season" of new content, and costing only 9 dollars, Culture Shock is allowed to be short. And it is short. Even if you make sure to click on everything and see every last snippet of dialog, it will only take you a couple hours to see all there is to see. The jokes are a bit hit and miss, but they mostly hit. Some of the puzzles are a little annoying or take some cajoling to get working, but it's pretty satisfying when you figure out what you need to do. This isn't some major new release to get sucked into, it's a charming, enjoyable bit of nostalgic adventure gaming. Take a break from whatever hardcore game you're plowing through and have some relaxing fun.

Sam and Max: Situation: Comedy (PC)


Where Valve and Ritual have failed, Telltale Games has succeeded... not in making a good game, but in getting episodic gaming right. Like the first, this chapter of Sam & Max's new adventures is only a couple hours in length, but it hasn't been that long since I played the last one, so the memory is still fairly fresh in my mind, and the desired effect is achieved... a somewhat continuous gaming experience. It's still a little too easy, and some of the celebrity humor is lacking, but it's a mostly funny, enjoyable experience on the cheap.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)


I am conflicted. The main focus of Shadow of the Colossus is obviously the battle with the Colossi, and the game completely nails this. The fights are amazing. I found about 2 to be more annoying than fun, the rest were a blast to run around, scale, and smite. But what if this was a Zelda-style action-adventure game with puzzle-filled dungeons and towns scattered around the vast countryside with people to interact with (the towns are less necessary), and the Colossus battles were the focus and the main conflict, not the entire game? The Colossi ARE awesome, but that's all there is. The environment is beautiful but really not very interesting to explore. I would truly love this game if it just felt complete. Also, I wasn't a fan of the controls, and how when you take damage from a strong attack, you fall over, and it takes you about ten seconds to stand up, which usually gives the enemy enough time to prepare and hit you again, repeating the process. If you can't tell from my description, this is NOT FUCKING COOL. Although I really dug the connection to ICO.

Game Archive 1

Ok, I'm going to post old stuff I've written about games and music here so I have all my crap in one place.

Beyond Good and Evil (PS2)


It's truly sad that nobody played this game, because it is a gem and available for all 3 current-gen systems. It's a mix of Zelda-style puzzle-focused dungeons and exploration with sci-fi themes and a heavy emphasis on stealth. I think the design succeeds more than the actual execution in some parts. Jade isn't the best-controlling main character ever, but the design IS great, and she's the star of one of the better game stories I've ever experienced... I'm not talking about your crazy RPG plots, I'm saying I actually gave a damn about the characters and felt for them. Truly a game that everyone should play. My only real problem was that completing the story required you to collect a bunch of pearls to repair your vehicle, and that can get tedious.

Bully (PS2)


It's cool to see one of these sandboxy, open world games that has a tighter approach and doesn't have a gangster theme to it. It's actually not that open, it would have been cool to play the different factions against each other, but all you really do is proceed through the storyline missions, gaining the respect of all the groups before the final showdown. Having to go to class and stuff like that could have gotten in the way, but it's fairly easy to skip class if you want to, and once you've passed them all, not only do you not have to go anymore, but you get a lot of new moves and upgrades that help you out with the rest of the game.

It's slightly awkward at times, but the story is entertaining, and this is probably the funniest video game I've ever played. It's stuffed to the brim with funny moments and dialogue from the various school kids. The combat system is fun too, you have plenty of moves to make fist fights enjoyable and there are a lot of clever non-lethal weapons to play with. It's a bit glitchy in spots, but it's definitely a fun experience.

Call of Duty (PC)

Call of Duty's creators, who split off from the original Medal of Honor team, manage to do something that seemed to be missing from that other World War II series - make it intense. You're never too far from dying and the extremely loud, chaotic battles are broken up once in a while with an uneasy silence.

The game has many great set pieces that make you really feel like a war hero, fighting alongside your allies and comrades... parachuting into D-Day, holding a bridge from a large siege, storming into Stalingrad with nothing but a few bullets in your hand. It does get a little silly sometimes, especially in the British campaign, when you clear out and take down a heavily fortified dam singlehandedly, race to an air base, and hold off several bomber planes with a single turret.

It's a very fun, exciting shooter, enhanced by the presentation which is strong even now, although I wish more time was spent fighting alongisde large groups rather than by yourself or with a few others.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (PC)


It's a little hard to rate Dreamfall, but what it hinges on is whether you think a game that clearly ignores gameplay in favor of story is worthy of a good score if that story is good. If you don't you will hate Dreamfall. But I choose to view it as more of an interactive story than a normal game, which is what it was designed to be, and it succeeds well at that.

The gameplay is pretty bad... the normal adventure gameplay is okay, but fairly simple. The main problems come from the stealth elements, which are poorly realized, and the combat, which is completely putrid. It's comically bad. It also makes one of the three characters you play seem completely worthless, as his story is much less fleshed out than that of the other two and all he does is fight a few people.

But what the game focuses on, the writing and story, are excellent. The characters are generally very well developed and sympathetic, and especially in the magical world of Arcadia, often quite funny. Some awkward animations slightly reduce the effectiveness of the dialogue and voice acting which is much more believable than most games. Despite a couple bits like the increasingly cliche creepy little girl and evil mega corporation, the story is a unique and deeply engrossing tale that grabbed me and kept me playing late into the night to find out how it will all end, which unfortunately it really didn't. The game ends on a cliffhanger with many threads left unresolved, and I hope the final game is released somewhat soon so I can see the end. I do know I will definitely be checking out the first game to see what happens there in the meantime.

Gears of War (360)


I still say Okami has the best graphics artistically of any game I've seen, but Gears of War easily takes the cake from a technical perspective. Seriously, it looks amazing. I have the good fortune to have a roommate this quarter who has a widescreen HDTV around 40 inches in size, and the game is really a sight to behold. It sounds pretty good too, with solid voices and sound effects.

It wouldn't be a good game without gameplay of course, and Gears succeeds there as well. I'm really not that big of a shooter fan, but I still had a great time moving tactically through the war-torn environs and ravaging Locust with my trusty assault rifle, with the enjoyable chainsaw at the end. The cover system takes a little getting used to, but it works very well, by the end it was rare for me to end up in a spot I didn't want to be in. My problem is that I wasn't huge on the pacing, there wasn't much of a rise and fall in action. There were quieter moments and slightly bigger scenes, but it seemed to have an intensity level a little too consistent. I might have preferred a few more extended moments of calm to coincide with huge, desperate setpieces. Still, I felt like I could just play the game straight through if I wanted to because it kept pulling me forward with the solid shooting and great graphics.

God of War (PS2)


I can't tell if my opinion was affected by the tons of praise this got. It's definitely a good game. But I really can't see how it deserves PS2 Game of the Year over Shadow of the Colossus, Resident Evil 4 and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Or in the case of awards givers who cut off holiday games until the next year, how it's better than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Anyway, God of War is a fun game. The combat is very fluid and rewarding, as you progress and become more powerful as the game goes on. There's fairly good enemy variety, although I wish we could have seen a few more centaurs and sirens instead of an overdose of undead soldiers and harpies, and that the Cerberus were just there instead of starting as annoying little shits that spawn like popcorn.

The combat isn't why I like it though, what I really like are the adventure elements and the story. Although it seemed a bit long, the Temple of Pandora was a brilliantly designed area, and really pulled off the feel of an epic, hazardous dungeon. And the cutscenes were more interesting than I expected, by the end I understood Kratos a bit more and wanted to help him kill Ares. The animation on Kratos' double jump is pathetic, but the platforming is fairly enjoyable for a non-platforming game. What really hurt the game was the design on the whole end of it, starting in Hades. They were just lazy (or short on time) here, instead of making what could have been a really cool area, they just threw a bunch of enemies on steroids and idiotic spinning spike hazards at you, and it really isn't fun or interesting. We're nearing the climax, I'm not supposed to be getting bored. After that you fight Ares, and the whole sequence with him is no good either. After the creativity of the first two boss fights, Ares is just a cheap bastard who blocks all of your attacks and winning the final conflict is more about luck than skill. The only redeeming part about the end is how they tied off the end with the gravedigger. So, overall, a fun game, but it's lacking in ways that make it hard to call truly great.

Guitar Hero (PS2)


I don't usually play games that I perceive as having no point, sports games, racing games, and music games. But I tried Guitar Hero and decided to pick it up, because unlike DDR and its ilk, I find it fun as hell. In most rhythm games, you're just timing button presses (or footsteps) to some music and getting points. I don't find it very compelling. But in Guitar Hero, you're not playing along, you're actually creating the music yourself. If you mess up a part, you don't just lose points and get closer to failing, the guitar part drops out. When you get it right, it's like you're actually playing these famous riffs yourself, and that makes all the difference. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but before long you'll be rocking out harder than you thought you could. In just a week I've gone from bad to capable of doing well on the hard difficulty. The more complex the tune, the more satisfying it is when you execute it perfectly. It's also a ton of fun with friends. Check it out if you like fun.

Guitar Hero II (PS2)


Guitar Hero is still just as addicting as ever, as you find yourself continually saying "just one more song". It's still great fun to rock out and play some good tunes, although the setlist isn't nearly as good as the first game's. I hardly recognized any of the song names when I first read the list, although I still heard the majority of them before and just didn't know the name. The songs are all still fun to play and usually catchy, but it's just harder to get into a song and really feel cool if you don't actually know it well.

A couple definite improvements are the hammer-ons/pull-offs, which actually work this time and are necessary on the harder difficulties, and practice mode, which lets you work on and experience any part of any song without having to actually be good. Other improvements are minor, GHII is probably a better gameplay experience but it's just not as amazing when you've done basically the same thing before.

Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC)


Episode One is the continuation of, in my opinion, the best first person shooter of all time. The gameplay engine remains simply the most enjoyable to just run around and shoot things in, and Valve's level design is impeccable. Everything here is created with the intention of making a good video game combined with a strong narrative experience. I love the way Half-Life presents its story, it's just a much more immersive world than almost anything else.

I miss exploring the wide open countryside around City 17, and the game is a bit short even for only being 1/3 of a game, so it might not have been as good if it weren't for one thing - Alyx, thanks to a combination of great voice acting and the best facial animation I've ever seen in a game, is one of the most endearing and likable game characters ever. I really care what happens to her, and it wouldn't be the same if she wasn't around, watching my back. This is one of the times where graphics actually matter in pushing a game over the edge. I can't wait to battle Hunters out in the wilderness in Episode Two.

Game Update 1

I got Call of Duty, its expansion, and its sequel on Steam for pretty cheap a while ago. I wrote about the first game a while ago (I haven't decided whether to throw all that stuff up here), but didn't get around to the others until recently.

Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)


The expansion to the first game doesn't really add much to the experience and seems a bit weak because of it. They added the ability to cook grenades, which is nice but doesn't seem necessary. They added the worst sprint in the history of video games, which takes you out of the realism because of its implementation. The speed boost is only slight, but worse is that it only lasts for about a second before you have to slow down again and let the meter charge back up. One second seems like a reasonable amount of time for a highly-trained, elite soldier to be able to run, doesn't it?

The British campaign was probably my favorite part, with a cool change of pace being a gunner in a bomber plane (although the series' penchant for making you do all the real work became horribly exposed when two other gunners were killed and I had to man three positions while performing maintenance as the other survivor stayed stuck to his gun) and then later joining in some covert operations. The other sections are less inspired, as they rely on just throwing huge, overwhelming battles at you, and as fun as it is to shoot nazis, it just gets ridiculous somewhere along the way. It's an enjoyable expansion but doesn't bring much to the table.

Call of Duty 2 (PC)


The best change to the formula from the first full sequel was switching to a heal-over-time approach instead of littering health packs everywhere. It's just as unrealistic (and even seems a bit more plausible if you don't think about it too much), and works better for the kind of gameplay they're going for, where you have to stay in cover, make your shots, and then move on. If you charge the enemy, you're probably going to die, although it's fun to try.

The level design is also a little different. Often you're given multiple objectives at once, and you can tackle them however you want. Usually, you're clearing out buildings, which is fun for a while, but sometimes I would have preferred a little more variety like in the first game. There's enough interesting set pieces to keep you going, and it rarely strays into the annoying territory where it puts you in a weakly fortified position and sends endless waves of enemies at you until the cavalry comes (although it does still happen). It's still fun, although I wonder how much longer it will be.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)


A new GTA game for 20 dollars new sounds like a great deal, and it is if you keep expectations in check knowing that the location is a rehash and it's a port from the PSP. It doesn't have the oomph of a normal new GTA game, since you already know the city, few gameplay innovations are present, and the story and missions are slightly dumbed down for a portable system. It's still a lot of fun though just to be in Liberty City again. The storyline missions aren't as meaty as we're used to, but it's still a good diversion. I basically used it as a backup game for a while, playing it for a bit when I didn't have anything else to do. Not a bad use of money. I got the sequel recently, I should finish it some time soon.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3)


I'm not sure how well it works playing by yourself, but it's definitely a fun party game. Playing with three friends, working together, using your powers to help each other out, and ganging up on helpless enemies can be a blast. I got pretty far in the game on the Xbox, but we ended up never finishing that game, and I didn't see the end until I played it with a mostly different group on the PS3. It was just as fun, and looked better (besides the always horrid in-engine cutscenes), but the added SIXAXIS tilt functionality didn't add anything and seemed broken. Not only did it not seem to work at times, but a diagram with the controller and arrows showing where to tilt just isn't as easily recognizable as a color-coded button. It can be turned off though, so it didn't really hurt the experience. It's not the best or most polished game, but with a good group it can be an enjoyable, lengthy experience.

Best Games of 2006

It's a little late for yearly picks, but it took me this long to finish some of the games I wanted to play. No arbitrary number of selections, just my personal list of notable, great games. It came out to a round number anyway, but that's not a guarantee.

Best of 2006

5. Bully (PS2)


This is partly a feel-good choice, but I just really liked that Rockstar was able to put out a game this enjoyable, and you can't even kill anyone. Sure, you can beat the crap out of people and threaten them and hit them with bottle rockets, but no dying. Seriously, it's funny as hell, charming, and honestly a lot of fun to play.

4. Gears of War (360)


A lot of things about Gears are imperfect besides the graphics, making it really hard for a shooter, already limited by its genre, to do much better than this, so it's quite a rousing success. I wanted to play Gears for a long time, and then I got the chance, enjoyed it while it lasted, and then moved on. I marveled at the presentation. I laughed at a lot of things, like the probably-too-frequent glitching, the throwaway taunting dialogue ("Eat shit and die!"), the bizarre moment where Marcus and his pal turn from grizzled war vets into Vaudeville characters slipping down a wet incline, and the ridiculous carnage of a chainsaw to the face. I wondered about the lack of good weapon selection - there are two assault rifles, one of which blows; a shotgun I never saw as valuable since being in close combat was so dangerous; and a few situation-specific weapons that didn't have enough available ammunition to really spend time playing with. I also wondered why they tried so hard to make a completely harmless enemy like the Grub seem scary. I did have a lot of fun running for cover and shooting ugly dudes in the face, though.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)


Twilight Princess is a great game that still manages to be overrated. When I hear Jeremy Parish say things like (slightly paraphrasing) "It's like Ocarina of Time, but much better," I literally cringe. Yeah, TP improves on OoT in a number of ways, most notably in graphics and difficulty of block pushing puzzles. But Ocarina of Time was freaking revolutionary. You can easily bring up how much A Link to the Past influenced that one, and I won't argue with you because I didn't play it, but OoT still set the formula for what three-dimensional Zelda games are, and more importantly, how three-dimensional action adventures in general are basically supposed to work. TP doesn't surpass that just because it managed to set the franchise record for most elements and mechanics directly lifted from previous games in the series.

I don't completely agree with Jeff Gerstmann's score, but he's totally right in his points that it's a well-designed, well-executed game that doesn't stray from a formula that's worked in the past but is maybe a little dated. And just because they haven't done voices in the past doesn't mean that's a defining Zelda characteristic. People said the same thing about Metal Gear Solid's camera until they realized the one in Subsistence was much better. I'm probably bashing my number three game too much, so I'll stop. Excellently crafted game, not the best.

2. Okami (PS2)


I kind of wanted this to be my game of the year, though I must admit it isn't. It is a tremendous game though. Amazing art, excellent use of traditional Japanese music sty le and storytelling, great level and gameplay design. Like Zelda, it was too easy, but at least it seemed to be challenging in spots. The faster pace of combat and more clever use of brush techniques instead of a large inventory made it more satisfying, and the final boss at least seemed daunting, even if it really wasn't. It really is a shame games like this don't get played, but at least the will of its developers lives on in SEEDS.

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)


No game from 2006 gave me more entertainment than Oblivion did. It's not just a quantity thing though, I didn't calculate this by hours of enjoyment. When it came out, I played the crap out of it, and I played the crap out of it again on two other occasions during the year. I still intend to go back and play the crap out of it some more, since there's plenty of quests I haven't finished. I haven't been a vampire, or even got that far in the main storyline. There's just so much to do and it's all so well realized. The melee combat is spotty in places but quite good for an RPG, the stealth is as good as you'd want, and the depth of the magic system is great. So much of the crap that you don't need is thrown out, but there if you want it. A lot of Morrowind fans preferred that game, and I won't argue against them because I didn't play it, but I can't imagine myself doing so, since Oblivion does so much in terms of the technology that it would probably feel ancient. It's not a big choice for favorite, but it's definitely mine.

Notable Exception

Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC)

I had a great time with it, but as much as I liked it, I can't bring myself to include something that only lasted four hours in a real "game of the year" discussion.

Delayed Entries

These are games that were released before 2006 but I didn't get around to playing until then and warrant mentioning.

Beyond Good and Evil (PS2)

The fact that not enough people played it caused people who did to overcompensate by talking it up too much, which I contributed to. The same thing happened with ICO. Both very good games, both not quite deserving of their adulation.

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening (PS2)

I actually played the Special Edition, which came out in 2006, but I don't count rereleases. It rightly brought respect back to the franchise, as it's quite the slick, fun, challenging action game. The thing is, it has to reinvent itself a little more fully and seperate from the whole survival horror thing/vibe completely. That was cool when Resident Evil still sucked, but times have changed.

God of War (PS2)

Another good game I think is overrated by most. Yeah, the combat looks cool, but any joker off the street can pull off a sweet looking combo. Just because the animations look nicer doesn't make your combat deeper than a normal button masher.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2)

Again, I actually played Subsistence, but I don't count rereleases. Great story, really good gameplay, I'm really glad I didn't have to play with the other camera (except for the final battle for some reason).

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

The Colossus battles were totally, completely awesome, and the story was interesting, reserved, and well-presented. The rest of the game could have been better.

I actually played a ton of great games in 2006. A landmark year, really. I'll also do posts like this for music and movies, but not baseball moments of games or anything like that, for two reasons.

1) I don't watch enough non-Yankee games for it not to turn out horribly biased.
2) Even with just Yankee games, there weren't that many amazing moments last year. They left early in the playoffs, and it's kind of hard to have strong, memorable moments during the regular season, in fact, I can only think of one that really stands out, and it's not the five games in four days massacre of the Red Sox in August, which was horribly painful to watch. I've never seen so much mediocre pitching in such a short time.

No, I'm thinking of a game against Texas back in May, when they Yankees were behind 9 to 0 in the second and game back to win on their final at bat. It was amazing in several ways.

1) Obviously, the huge come-from-behind win.
2) I actually predicted this would happen when they were losing 9-0. Proof.
3) They won the game despite three of their starters being out with injuries (still leaving them with 6 all-stars, huge payroll, I know, shut up).
4) They actually had to come back twice. They took an 11-10 lead, but lost that and were down 12-11 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
5) Jorge Posada was absolutely ridiculous. He blocked the plate and got absolutely plowed by Mark Teixera, but he held on and saved the run. This isn't a huge deal, but he stayed in the game, and drove in five runs, including two on a walkoff home run that won it. It was the only time all season I actually shouted in joy when the Yankees won.

Anyway, yeah, that was the Yankees season.