Mass Effect 3: Demo Impressions

Posted on 15/02 by | Leave a comment

Thank you Bioware for a fantastic Valentine’s Day gift. The demo for the highly anticipated upcoming third installment of Mass Effect was released yesterday and we had the opportunity to sit down and play through it.

The demo lasts about an hour and shows off a few pieces of the story as well as some of the new combat mechanics and kinect support.

Let me go into a few of the more remarkable moments.

Game Style

The game allows you to choose from a style of play Action, Role Playing or Story. Action, launches you straight into the game, skipping the charater personalization process and increasing the difficulty of combat. Role Playing, the game describes as the “traditional Mass Effect experience” – you will be able personalize your character and the combat will be challenging. And finally, Story is a style of play that lends more to the player who isn’t interested in combat as much, making encounters easier and less technical and playing up the narrative aspect of the game (in what ways, remains to be seen.)

Combat

A large personal gripe with the Mass Effect series that I have held is lack of interesting combat. Though there are some neat biotic and tech skills to level up and the character progression system is interesting, combat in Mass Effect always got stale. Since it’s possible to beat the entire game just running through with an assault rifle – there was more left to be desired. Sure, you could play the game in a different manner, but what’s your motivation if the enemies are all easily dispatched with the same loadout?

Oh yeah. The Omni-tool? You can use it to shank people.

I was pleasantly surprised by difficulty of combat in the ME3 Demo. Even when you’re in cover it is possible to still take (though less) fire from enemies. Additionally, the game encourages you to stay on the move as enemies hurl grenades that either threaten to burst you into little bits or smoke screens that actually make it impossible to see where they went.

Enemies advance, using cover, to your position and try to flank you – combat, simply put, is more engaging. The shots fired from the new weapons we used (a submachine gun, a semi-auto assault rifle and a longer range shotgun) were satisfying and we found the need to switch weapons often in each encounter.

Kinect

Being the proud owner of the kinect accessory is bit of a joke right now. Unless you’re a dance game fan or you have some addiction to Kinect Fruit Ninja (guilty) – there hasn’t been a big name game that has made good use of the Kinect yet. Until now. I had to try out the Kinect voice commands for myself before I would give credit to the claims of seamless combat and ease of use. I must say, that I stumbled upon by accident. I was in combat with Garrus (yep, he’s back. Liara and Wrex too!) and mad that he was still using the Sniper Rifle. Frustrated, I yelled at my TV, “Gah! Garrus use your Assault Rifle!” To which he responded, “On it!” and switched immediately. I almost freaked out.

Giving your companions voice commands or even switching your own weapon in combat by simply saying “Shotgun” or “Assault Rifle” is awesome (and works 99% of the time.) You can set up your own commands when in the weapons selection screen for use in combat as well.

I thought that the novelty of the Kinect vioce commands would fade and we’d be left with a gimmicky feature that no one really uses. In reality, I found myself issuing commands instead of using the RB and LB wheels to tell my team what to do. As a result, combat kept moving, was more challenging and kept me immersed in the experience.

Not only does voice work in combat, but it works in conversations as well. When you’re presented with dialogue options you can just say what you see on screen and Shepard will take the appropriate course of action.

OVERALL

We can’t wait for the release of this game. If you haven’t played the demo, go download it. Like right now. If you haven’t preordered – go do that, like right now. Ashley Williams or Kaidan Alenko is back (depending on your previous encounters – and the demo asks the beginning who was your “combat loss”).

If you’re a fan of the franchise, this promises to be the best yet. Reavers are scary, they’re here attacking citizens, Shepard is back in action and innocent people are dying – go save the universe on the Normandy!

Did you play the demo? Impressed? Unimpressed? Leave a comment!

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Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Review

Posted on 13/02 by | Leave a comment
Spoiler Alert:  This article contains a small amount of spoilers. Mostly focused on the story surrounding the first hour or two of gameplay. You have been warned!

It has been five years since a Zelda game has appeared on a video game console. Does Link’s new adventure live up to games of the series’ past?

You better believe it.

STORY

From the outset, Skyward Sword pulls you in. Link is a youth in an academy in Skyloft training to become a knight so that he can serve and protect the islands in the sky. Among the amazingly animated residents of Skyloft are Link’s teachers, classmates, his rival Groose, and Zelda. Of course, through a series of events, Zelda falls to the world below and it is up to Link to save her. But this game makes the mainstream Zelda story much more interesting.

Zelda is not a princess. In fact, she’s a lifelong friend of Link’s, and the two have a semi-love connection to each other, an element that other Zelda games have never really outright shown. This is a refreshing addition to the series because it makes the story more entertaining and gives Link more of a reason to go after Zelda rather than the sole reason being that he’s some “chosen one” or something of that nature.

Ganon is not in the game. Although he is clearly Link’s antagonist in all of his adventures (with a few exceptions), he has no appearance in this game. Instead, you fight Ghirahim, a demon lord who is trying to revive an ancient evil once sealed away.

This game also marks the beginning of the Zelda series. There has always been some sort of ambiguity as to which game came first, but this one clearly does. This makes Skyward Sword particularly meaningful to fans of the series because the game casually makes references to the other games. It also gives everything in the game an “origin of” vibe, which is fun.

In my opinion, the game has the best story any Zelda title has seen.

GRAPHICS

Beautiful. Everyone knows, the Wii is not capable of producing life-like HD graphics, but that  didn’t stop Nintendo from making a beautiful game. They decided to build a world using artwork born out of a fusion of the graphical style Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, which works perfectly. This style works excellently to the franchise’s benefit because Wind Waker’s cartoon look makes the world timeless, no matter how old the game becomes. The same goes with Skyward Sword. There are bright colors, animated characters and cutscenes, and beautiful environments that make the game shine. It is a perfect fit for Zelda. The game runs at a very steady framerate. I never once experienced any lag or framerate drops. Never pop-in of the scenery or environments either.

SOUND/MUSIC

There is no voice acting. Although it could be seen as a welcome addition to the series, the lack of it doesn’t affect the game negatively. The characters still have the quick sound bursts/noises that they have made for the past four games, though. The music in the game is great, as well. Although there are not as many memorable tunes as some of the others in the series, the ones that do stick are epic and wonderful. The Ballad of the Goddess is still stuck in my head.

GAMEPLAY

Nintendo decided to take the game into a different direction of gameplay: the use of Wii MotionPlus to directly control how Link swings his sword. The Twilight Princess did use the Wii Remote’s ability to swing Link’s sword as well, but it was not direct one-to-one recognition. Instead, a simple swing in any direction let Link just take a random swing. While it was fun, it is not close to the experience that Skyward Sword creates with the addition of  MotionPlus. It does take some getting used to in the beginning (especially if you played the Wii version of Twilight Princess), but eventually, fighting as Link with a controller/sword in hand is one of the greatest feelings and experiences I have had with a video game.  The fighting is much more like a chess game. Rather than just madly swinging Link’s sword at his foes, you have to watch how they fight, hit them in a vulnerable place, and even time your blocks precisely.

Which leads to another new addition. Link’s shields have stamina/health, and can break. Each shield loses stamina on every block, with one exception. If you time Link’s block perfectly with the swing, the shield stays undamaged, and the enemy becomes staggered. This is just another element of strategy that ultimately makes the game harder, yet much more enjoyable and less monotonous.

There is also a shield and item upgrade system. There are tons of materials and bugs to collect, which can be utilized/used/provided to the games merchants to create better shields, items, or potions. This is a refreshing addition to the series because it gives a desire to search the world to find as many collectibles as possible to make Link’s arsenal more effective.

In the world below the clouds, there are three main regions. While that does not seem like much to explore, the game does a good job at opening up new areas in these regions that become available upon return. This does, however, lead to one complaint I had with the game. There are only six dungeons in the game. While all of the dungeons are large, innovative, and require a great deal of thought and patience (even the first one), it gets to a point where there is more to be desired. Dungeon gripes aside, it will take even the experienced sword-wielding adventurer around 40 hours to complete Skyward Sword. On top of that, after the first go-round, you unlock Hero Mode. While some consider it “hard” mode, there is more to it. Hero Mode not only makes the game more difficult, but also causes Link to take twice as much damage, and hearts no longer appear in the game world. The only way to recover that damage is through potions. Not for the feint of heart (see what I did there?)

Enemies, as I said before, actually become fun to fight, and you’re engaging in just mindless swordplay. Skyward Sword does a great job, too, at changing up the pace and making enemies harder as the game goes on. Just as I got comfortable fighting the normal goblin enemies, they started wielding electric swords, causing me to be more cautious when taking my swings. The boss fights are fun, too, although I found that a few of the later bosses were easier than some of the earlier ones.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with the game is the final boss fight. While the fight is epic and gorgeous, I found it surprisingly easy. Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, and Ocarina of Time all had more difficult boss fights that gave much more satisfaction when Link delivers that final blow.

VERDICT

This was a tough one. I enjoyed the whole game and spent many times playing late at night and putting off sleep. Having played every other console Zelda game, I couldn’t keep myself from comparing them all. The MotionPlus really makes Skyward Sword stand out as the best gameplay among the others. Even with so many things going for Skyward Sword, the fact that some of the bosses toward the end of the game seemed to get easier, including the boss of the game, was disappointing. Also, It would have been nice to see more dungeons (10 in “A Link to the Past”). Is this the greatest Zelda game ever made? In my opinion, no (“A Link to the Past” is). But, it is easily somewhere in the top three, depending on what your take on Ocarina of Time is (and if you’ve played “A Link to the Past”). All things considered, I loved this game. Whether you’re a fan or new to the series, Skyward Sword is well worth the $50.

9.5 out of 10

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Cloud Gaming: Will the end of physical media hurt the video game industry?

Posted on 07/02 by | Leave a comment

All indicators suggest that physical media is on the way out. There is no doubt that physical media can be a more convenient way to find and purchase titles for whatever new systems are coming down the chute in the next few years – but what about the drawbacks?

Security / Loss

  • Pro: We imagine that your purchases will follow a user account, be it a PSN or XBL handle or otherwise. For those of us who regularly decline the additional three dollars at Gamestop to add insurance in case your little sister kicks over your 360 and carves a nice ring into that brand new copy of Kingdoms of Amalur – this is a great thing. No longer worry about storing and transporting discs back home from college or to a friend’s, recover your info, download, play.
  • Con: With all of the hacking going on these days it’s difficult to deny the sense of security that accompanies holding something tangible in your hand. Consider what might happen if there were another outage of the PSN. Would players be able to access their games and play at all?

Connected vs. Non-Connected Play

  • Calling to mind network outages begs the question – how about gamers who don’t currently play on the Internet at all? We couldn’t find statistics but one must assume that there are many who elect to play offline and have no need for the services made available via PSN, XBL or Nintendo’s upcoming offering. If it became a requirement, would all users be required to pay a subscription much like the current payment expected of XBL Gold users – just to own and use your console?

Payment

  • According to the demographics (i.e. according to our Wikipedia search: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture) the number of children aged 8 to 18 who own a video game system is over 70%. Keeping that in mind, how many individuals in the same 8 – 18 age range do you think have a debit card, credit card or other means of electronic payment? According to a 2008 survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the average age at which young people acquire their first credit card is close to 21 years old. Debit cards work as well but typically in order to acquire a debit card before age 18, you must have a joint bank account with a guardian as a co-signatory.

  • While we certainly aren’t suggesting or condoning children making purchases without their parents’ consent – we do think that a sizable amount of video game purchases are made with cash by those ages 8 to 18. It’s your method of payment as a kid: change from the movies, birthday cards, allowance, mowing the lawn, etc… The standard source of income for most children is cash money. So what happens when all purchases go electronic? We’re guessing that kids don’t always tell their parents what they’re viewing, renting, buying – so how many of those purchases wouldn’t be made if things went cashless?

Used Games Market / Borrowing from Friends

  • And how about those friends that you have who basically refuse to buy any titles at all? The ones who just borrow games from you all the time. What about the used games market? Studios benefit from used games being sold, borrowed, traded. You may be thinking, “But Splicepoint! Game developers and studios don’t make any money off of the used games market.” Maybe not directly. But think about the greater reach that their games have. Someone who wouldn’t ordinarily pay $60 to play a game can borrow it risk free. Maybe they like it and buy their own copy. Maybe they play through it but buy the sequel because they don’t want to wait for their friend to finish it, or because they want to play it at the same time so they can talk about it with their friends. And how many games are bought used because someone wanted to play the single-player campaign and not multiplayer and the second owner ends up paying for the DLC?

Fandom

  • One thing that brick and mortar stores support that the “cloud” doesn’t is fandom. While not everyone attends conferences and midnight releases – many line up hours in advance waiting for the clock to strike midnight so they can stay up all night with the newest installment of Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Oblivion and the like. What happens when gamers don’t get together anymore and you simply sit on the couch watching Family Guy reruns until the clock hits midnight and your console downloads the game?

Retro Game Enthusiasts

This is particularly disquieting for collectors and enthusiasts for retro games. Many of us have held onto our NES, SNES, N64, PS2 or GBC and occasionally take trips down memory lane to play some favorites, be it Chrono Trigger, Kirby’s Dream Course, any of the Ninja Turtles games, Paperboy, and dozens of other classics that invoke a heavy dose of nostalgia. Will this still be possible? We can’t imagine that these companies will want to pay for the upkeep of their new cloud networks decades after they move on to the next generation console. Even if they would – would it remain technologically feasible? Things are being updated all the time.

Gift Giving

  • This last point may be a stretch – but still relevant, at least, for now. Though it is possible now to give your friend a song on iTunes by purchasing it and sending them an e-mail with a link, or printing a redeemable code for their free download – many find that much less satisfying than opening a physical item. At the end of the day, there is just something about giving or receiving that physical item you’ve had your eye on. One of the greatest challenges of our era is the valuation and protection of intangible assets such as intellectual property and electronic data. So what happens when a grandmother wants to get her granddaughter the newest Cooking Mama game?

Plain and simple: People like the tangible. They want to hold things in their hands. It gives them a sense of ownership that a list on a screen or monitor can’t ever hope to replicate. We’re not against moving “to the cloud” but at this point we’d just like to point out some of the more obvious hurdles that stand in the way of cloud based media ownership – that goes for not just for video games, but for music, movies and all the rest.

What do you think?

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