Commander Shepard in: Bringing Down the Sky

I finally got around to playing the Mass Effect DLC, Bringing Down the Sky (BDtS). In BDtS, Shepard and the funky bunch land on an asteroid (named X57) in order to prevent it from obliterating a human-colonized world. This adventure turns out to be as epic as it sounds. Landing on X57 initially feels much like a regular side mission from the main game but that isn’t the case. A new race is introduced (the Batarians, a nod to people who have read the Mass Effect novel) along with a complete story line and new gameplay elements.

The thing that stood out to me the most was how much better the combat was in BDtS than in most of the main game. Some of the spaces Bioware used, especially for the final battle were laid out well and fun to fight in; long stretches for snipers, decent cover for close to mid-rage combat and lots of flank routes. Also, the Batarians seem to have more “classes” of enemies. I was fighting a range of soldiers, biotics, robotic drones and four legged creatures all at once.

As for new gameplay elements, Shepard encounters new types of turret guns on the surface of the asteroid that have physical shields which raise and lower depending on your distance from them. These turrets also move along tracks which surprised the shit out of me the first time I encountered them. Fighting armored, moving turrets was much more challenging than turret combat in the rest of Mass Effect. The thinking and strategy required to take out base defenses was a welcome addition.

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Grand Theft Auto IV: Committing Every Sin, I’d Do It All Again

Make no mistake, Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) is a good game. However, no game is perfect, and even the best games deserve a critical once-over.

Even if you’re not into open world games, you have to appreciate the excellent job Rockstar did with the overall quality of their game. There are plenty of reviews out for GTA IV, so I’ll try not to cover the obvious. I really only want to cover two things: where I think Rockstar made design improvements from previous games in the series, and where I think they need to make improvements in future titles.

I Came a Long Way to See You:

Taxis – You mean I don’t have to drive everywhere if I don’t want to? Being able to call taxis in GTA IV is a lot like using mounts in World of Warcraft, except that you can skip the ride. I’d like to personally thank the developer that came up with that idea. The taxi system has fundamentally changed the way I approach the series and I can’t imagine not having that feature from now on.

Cell Phone Interface – I think Rockstar has managed to make the best cell phone / text message interface in any game to date. EA has tried similar (smack talking emails from rival snowboarders in the SSX series, for example) virtual cell phone systems, but they always fall flat. In GTA IV, the cell phone is integrated into various missions where you must use the camera phone functionality, receive text messages to find car locations to steal and so on. Rockstar even included little details like that static-y interference buzz some phones make when you’re near speakers (I thought it was my real phone the first time I heard it). You can customize and upgrade your phone as well with new themes and ring tones, which really brings the phone to life.

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Stranglehold: A Benchmark for Destruction

After finishing Stranglehold a while ago, I’m still impressed with the amount of destruction the player is able to do. Pretty much all prop models, and a good portion of environment can be destroyed in one form or another, all of which goes into physics. If you’re into destructible environments, Stranglehold is your cup of tea.

Stranglehold borrows a lot of it’s design from the Max Payne series. Tequila is able to jump and dive around and slow down time, all which were awesome features of Max Payne. In addition, Max Payne had a “follow the bullet” cam on sniper rifles, which in Stranglehold has been mapped to an ability you can use at any time (on the d-pad) assuming you have enough energy stored up.

The combination of the cool Max Payne abilities with all the destructibility adds up to be a pretty decent experience. Unfortunately, the game really falls short due to the art. The lighting on objects is either very flat or very contrast-y, especially on characters. Don’t get me wrong, the artists did a great job with the variety of destructible objects, but the over all “look” of everything in the game is pretty noisy which ends up being distracting for gameplay.

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Addicted to PMOG

I bet you’ll be hearing a lot more about PMOG (passively multiplayer online game) in the near future. I learned about it a few weeks ago and signed up for the beta. Well, I got an invite to start an account today, and I can say that I’m officially addicted.

The concept is simple: install a firefox “game” plug in, browse the web, and get points (datapoints in PMOG). Once you get enough points, you level up. As you visit various sites, you might stumble upon a “portal,” which is placed by other people playing the game. These portals might take you on missions which in turn, get you more points. Missions are just a string of sites that players connect together with “lightposts,” which are basically just comments on each site. So far I’ve learned how to set up an emulator for my DS, where to shop for girls, or the scoop on letterboxing, all while leveling up.

There are some other interactive elements such as dropping off crates with goodies for other players, dropping mines to take points away from other players, and deploying “St. Nicks” which prevent other users from planting mines on that page.

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Before I Forget: Rainbow Six Vegas 2

I completed Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (RB6V2) a few days ago. I have to preface by saying that I enjoyed the first one immensely. Sure, the first RB6V has some issues and bugs, but overall I had a good time playing co-op with friends and got a few weeks of multi-player out of it.

After buying the game with three other friends from work, I learned that RB6V2 only has two player co-op! Well, I guess technically they have four-player in terrorist hunt mode, but story mode is where it’s at. I could see why from a design standpoint why they reduced it to two. The implementation of re-spawning on any other alive member of the squad makes the game incredibly easy, even on higher difficulty settings. This was the case in RB6V2 , since it allows one player to be extra aggressive and draw fire, and the other guy to hang back and basically be the mobile spawnpoint. In RB6V, having three extra spawnpoints made the game challengeless.

A friend of mine and I played all of RB6V2 on co-op on the “realistic” setting with little trouble. Another friend of mine has been playing through on realistic on his own, and having much more difficulty. I decided to help him out on the last two levels, and his impression was that all tactical gameplay went out the window after I joined in, but that it was a lot of fun to see me killing other guys and whatnot. Evidently, the difficulty doesn’t scale well for co-op, but the fun factor scales appropriately. Game design issues aside, I think it was a mistake to move away from four player co-op, if only because it’s what people expected from the first game. I will say that the co-op portion of the game is much smoother in the sequel, especially with hot-joining. The server / map list from RB6V wasn’t really gamer friendly.

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“Army of Two” Impressions

I finished Army of Two a few night ago, and decided to write a little bit about it as I’m playing it some more on co-op.

I gotta admit, I’m a huge sucker for co-op games. I like playing together with other people more than playing against them. So, here we have Army of Two, a game built from the ground up to be a two co-op player game. However, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the game. I think in general, it’s a game of missed opportunities.

Let me say what I like about the game. First, obviously, is co-op. Not many games even have co-op as an option, so it’s pretty ballsy to create a game that is built on the foundation of co-op. I’ve already played with with a couple of friends, and just being able to play with them makes the game fun to some degree. Second, I like being able to buy and upgrade weapons. I wish more shooters had weapons customization and upgrades. I also have to give them credit for making the weapons feel distinct. For example, the MP7, the minigun, the shotties, pistols, and so on, are all fun to use in different ways.

Okay, let’s talk about missed opportunities.

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“Frontlines: Fuel of War” Verdict

Okay, so the game wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t awesome either.

Really, the best part for me was one mission where you start with a Barret, and later gain access to the various remote control death toys. The level ends with a defend sequence that went too long, but you also get to set up some rail guns which are pretty meaty. One problem though, is that there are some wacky sequences, like where the enemy uses nukes in your immediate vicinity (it’s okay, they’re tactical) and because you’re in a tank, it’s all gravy. However, you can’t get out because you’ll die of radiation! I hope those tanks you’re in are lined with 10 feet of lead. But later, you can get out once you’ve gotten closer to where the nukes went off. Maybe the nukes wore off? That’s some halflife on those radioactive isotopes.

One of the later (maybe the last?) levels has an equally silly sequence where you’re rolling into a destroyed Russian city and there’s like 50 nukes going off all around you. I guess in the future, we make nukes less radioactive, or something. No one really seems freaked out or cares, but I don’t think the game takes itself that seriously anyway.

So, single player was okay. Crazy ragdoll, contrived situations, 50 bullets to damage a guy, but cool toys.

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“Front Lines: Fuel of War” First Impressions

So, a couple of guys at work convinced me to get Frontlines: Fuel of War. Apparently, it’s from the guys who did the Desert Combat mod for the Battlefield 1942 back in the day. Anyway, I saw a couple of videos and saw some cool shit with drones and air strikes. Since other people at work are playing it, I figure “What the hell,” and take the $60 (plus tax) plunge.

The first thing I did was hop into single-player to get a feel for the game. The game felt pretty smooth. The frame rate stayed at a solid 60 (a necessity for any FPS worth it’s salt), and the weapons felt decent. The story has a pretty cool premise, but I’m not sure about this reporter guy. I felt a little disconnected. I’m sitting there thinking to myself “Oh no, they’re going to make me play as this reporter that turn out to be a bad ass,” which fortunately they didn’t. They seem to be spending a lot of time on this character, so I guess he becomes important later.

Anyway, I complete the first mission, and the drones were a pretty cool gameplay element. I was hoping for a little turret you could shoot right away, but maybe they get to that. For now, I got some flying bombs which isn’t a bad way to start. Also, my AI squad seemed to stay around me and move around enough, so that’s good. The enemy ragdoll is a little silly though. I pepper an enemy with a few rounds and they flip head over heels. I prefer a little more realistic ragdoll, maybe even blended with an animation. I dunno, maybe it’s an Unreal engine limitation? I see a lot of games with unrealistic looking ragdoll.

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