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Review: Shank 2

By
Kyle Baron
– February 22, 2012Posted in: PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Aside from some awful graphical glitches, Shank 2 is great to look at

Note: The Playstation 3 version was played for review. Shank 2 is also available on Xbox Live Marketplace and on PC.

Developer Klei Entertainment knows that a difficult game should be fine tuned to a point where players can survive by skill and wit alone. 2010′s downloadable game, Shank, got this right; high level play would have you juggling multiple enemies with huge combos – all a whirl of shanks, chainsaw, and bullets – while dodging enemy attacks and lunging through the air with all the savage splendor of a Rambo movie. Shank 2 unfortunately can’t live up to the well tuned combat of its predecessor, despite a handful of clever new ideas.

So much of that shortcoming is because of very strange design choices. While the first Shank let you switch your secondary weapons on the fly, Shank 2 confusingly buries this option in a menu, which really breaks the quick pacing that the game maintains so well; it also makes it a lot harder to have any great feeling of familiarity with the weapons by the time the single player story ends after a handful of fast paced hours.

Much of Shank 2′s combat is about managing crowds of different enemy types with a mixture of weapons and grappling moves. Unfortunately, there’s a persistent oddity where not every enemy within range of your strikes gets hit; they’re supposed to, but they don’t. After taking out several crowds of enemies and wondering why I was taking damage from foes that were supposed to be stuck in stun animations, I ended up defaulting to hit and run tactics throughout the whole game to avoid taking damage.

Counter attacks are brutal and incredibly satisfying

It’s a shame that the only foolproof way to ace Shank 2′s combat is to skirt around it, especially when it’s obvious that Klei Entertainment wanted to make a lot of changes to the combat that, combined with its great art style, is what has given the series its name. The counter system has been revamped; rather than being a parry move performed after a block, grabbing an enemy when you see the exclamation mark above his head creates a stylishly emphatic blur effect while Shank turns the enemy’s own weapon against them. Sometimes a counter will be a simple break of an enemy’s arm, but most of the time Shank, the character, will brutalize the enemy into a bloody pulp – one counter has Shank taking the baseball bat out of an enemy’s hands, jamming it in their mouth, and then kicking it into the back of their skull with his boot. It’s incredibly satisfying, and this system and all of the minor tweaks continue into the new multiplayer cooperative mode.

Survival, playable with one to two players online or offline, lets you pick from over a dozen unlockable characters, all with unique stats, in order to survive waves of enemies. Money earned from kills can be used to buy weapons and obstacles that, added with the traps found within each level, are absolutely necessary to defend the “supply points” in every stage. The waves become incredibly hard and working together with a friend to activate traps and split up the hordes of enemies is essential. Unfortunately, the inconsistent hit detection with group combat becomes a big problem when every bit of health counts, and this was especially true when I encountered a bug where I couldn’t revive my partner.

Aside from a game-breaking glitch, co-op is a blast

The  bosses and the narrative in the single player campaign aren’t as interesting as the combat, platforming scenarios,  and surprise gameplay twists. Because of this, co-op ends up being the more memorable part of the overall package and shares many of the mutual frustrations and satisfying moments of the single player combat.

The hand drawn art style, animations, and cutscenes all paint the action of the game in a beautiful and uncluttered style, which is key in a difficult game that demands so much of its players. However, I did encounter one glitch during a chase scene where, despite reloading the checkpoint five times, the front half off the screen wouldn’t load in any textures. This led to an odd sequence where I was running away from a giant boulder into a completely black part of the screen, left to puzzle out traps and spikes through trial and error until I got through it.

Judged on its own merits or against those of its fantastic predecessor, Shank 2 is oddly hard to recommend in the face of all of its problems. That’s a real shame when so much of what Klei Entertainment has done with the visuals and combat is a creative step from the previous Shank game. If the problems are fixed with a downloadable patch, this game will be easy to recommend. Until then, it’s a try-before-you-buy at best.

Pros

  • Outstanding art style
  • Great visual effects
  • Co-op can be a ton of fun
Cons
  • Graphical and technical glitches can break the co-op and single player experiences
  • Inconsistent hit detection during group combat and dodging
  • In-game selection of secondary weapons is hidden in the start menu
  • Bland story and uninteresting bosses
2/5

 

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Review: Gotham City Imposters

By
Don Parsons
– February 19, 2012Posted in: PC, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Somehow, both teams survived taking this picture together

Note: This game was reviewed on the Playstation 3 platform and is also available on the X360 and PC platforms. 

Skating across the map, I tossed a motion sensor down and circled in anticipation of a red blip on my mini-map. As soon as I saw one, I darted off in that direction hoping to catch my opponent off guard. I slowed down, pulled up my sights and as soon as I saw the red-and-white facepaint of the Joker come into view, squeezed off a few rounds of my Partisan assault rifle. Joker fell to the floor, no doubt cursing my name as he watched me skate off in his kill cam. I may not be the Batman, but the biggest difference was the Batman-ensemble I wore was made from a towel for a cape and the cardboard box I used for a cowel. Oh, and I kill people.

Gotham City Imposters, developed by Monolith Studios (last known for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin), does something most digital first-person-shooters dream of; creating a high-quality and content packed FPS. With a cartoon atmosphere and loaded with laughs, Gotham City Imposters has the ability to lure in people that aren’t usually interested in violent shooters. You play for one of two teams. Instead of Nazis versus Americans, or the USA versus Russia, you are either part of the “Bats” or the “Jokerz”. No matter which side you play for, you also have customization options so you can kill with style.

Probably how Batman dressed pre-corporate funding

The game is primarily online, but there is a Challenge mode. Each map has it’s own challenges, and they increase in difficulty. At first, you are simply trying to hit checkpoints with a certain gadget (ie. grappling hook) in a certain amount of time in order to get a gold, silver or bronze medal. Then, you have to shoot targets and hit checkpoints. You gain some XP for this, but this game mode really plays second fiddle to the bulky, feature-rich online.

People that just enjoy running around mindlessly killing other people (in games) will be happy to see Team Deathmatch. It is what you would think it is; the first team to get x amount of kills wins. There are also two modes that require an increasing amount of teamwork, and give people objectives to secure. Fumagator is very much like Conquest in Battlefield 3. Your objective is to secure flags, and having more flags will make your percentage add up (by taking from theirs). Once your percentage is near 100%, a siren blares signaling the inevitable. Fumes will then spew out everywhere and the match ends.

If only all superheroes used cardboard boxes in their attire.

The third and final competitive mode is Psych Warfare and it is much more involved, requires even more team work, and the matches last quite a bit longer. The game is split into two rounds, and both teams race to a battery that spawns in the middle of the map. Once you have the battery (assuming you get there first), you and your team take it to a machines, plug it in, then defend it for a short amount of time. If it charges up completely, the machine sounds an alarm and the opposing team runs around disoriented and gun-less for less than half a minute. They can still slap you, though, so don’t get too close.

A big draw to Gotham City Imposters is the customization. After every match, you not only earn XP to level up (did I mention there’s 1,000 levels?) but you also earn costume coins. Let these accumulate and you can buy all sorts of outfit pieces to look your best while killing the opposing team.

Loadouts work similar to the Call of Duty formula, but with a little more thought and a few more levels of depth added to them. First, as you level up, you earn unlocks which you can spend freely. So when you get a weapon unlock, you can buy any weapon you don’t own. When you get a weapon mod unlock, you can unlock any weapon mod for any weapon you have unlocked. It’s a brilliant formula that allows for you to get the things you want, and not what the developers want you to get at said-level.

Shredder from the Ninja Turtles even makes an odd cameo

Now, the depth comes from the additions to the loadouts, not how they work. Aside from guns, gadgets and the like, you can pick a body type which amounts to how much speed, health and melee strength you have. It’s a well-balanced feature that gives a variety of players an opportunity to shine. Are you that person that likes to hang back and protect the objective? The bulky characters give you an advantage. Do you like to speed around the back alleys and get to the opponents base and capture it while they are getting the middle one? The lightweight character with roller skates will get you there in a flash.

The game is balanced well-enough so that even people who aren’t into competitive shooters can still enjoy this game. The weapons have a tight, high-quality feel that one would expect from a Call of Duty or Battlefield title. It even has the Call of Duty challenges, giving you bonus points for completing certain things (and even calling card backgrounds and icons at certain milestones).

In whole, the game isn’t missing much. The lack of drop-in game joining (soon to be fixed in an upcoming patch) is really the only issue I had while playing. If the game started out four against five, and people start leaving the already-handicapped side, it’s truly an uphill struggle with no help coming anytime soon. It’s a known problem, though, and soon-to-be-fixed. There is also free DLC coming soon; including costume(s), map(s) and more. So the already jam-packed game will get even more quantity packed in.

If you’ve spent hundreds of hours playing Call of Duty, or Battlefield for that matter, Gotham City Imposters offers a quality substitute that gives you $40 or more worth of content into a $15 package. It may be hard to not just call this a clone of said-games, but it works so well, and has those familiar faces, that it feels justified and even an improvement over what Call of Duty is doing.

Pros:

  • AAA-quality gameplay for a downloadable shooter
  • more content than many retail FPS games
  • hilarious comedy throughout
  • depth of the loadouts and ease of play

Cons:

  • no drop-in game joining (yet)

Score 5/5 

 

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Review: NeverDead

By
Chris Scott
– February 19, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Note: This review was done using the Xbox 360 version of the game. It is also available on Playstation 3.

Character action games have long been one of the most popular game types around. However, with so many of these games being made each year, every developer needs to find the unique hook to draw in new players. Developer Rebellion must have thought they hit gold when they came up with the idea for NeverDead. The game features a main character that is immortal and possesses the ability to detach his own limbs to be used against his enemies. And as a game concept, there is little arguing that NeverDead is certainly one of the more outlandish ones to have come to fruition this generation. Unfortunately, the rest of the game fails to live up to the high marks set by its pitch.

At its core, NeverDead is a character action game in the same vein as Capcom’s Devil May Cry. The game stars a surly, immortal demon hunter named Bryce and his lovely human partner, Arcadia. Bryce has a huge chip on his shoulder stemming from the death of his wife 500 years ago and his “gift” of immortality, both suffered at the hands of the mighty demon lord. Arcadia on the other hand is a straight laced company girl, always towing the line. Bryce and Arcadia both work for an organization that hunts down demons keeping the public safe from harm. Recently demon activity has picked up quite a bit and of course this can only mean bad things for Bryce and Arcadia.

If the story seems familiar, it is because iterations of it have been done numerous times over the course of the past decade and it lacks even a sliver of originality. Worse than the unoriginal storytelling though is the utter lack of respect the game has for its players. I have been playing games a long time and during this generation developers have begun to handhold more and more, NeverDead takes it to a whole new level treating the player as if they have never played a game before.

Early on in the game an enemy that serves as a body part vacuum cleaner is introduced. This enemy is ostensibly the mechanism used to kill Bryce, because having his head sucked into one of these creatures will prevent him from reattaching to the rest of his body dooming him to a life of boredom in the stomach of this creature. Arcadia explains what the enemy does and Bryce responds with something to the effect of, “I guess that would be game over.” Shortly after that nugget of wisdom Bryce encounters a boss creature that has large glowing patches on its ass end and Bryce’s boss interrupts over the communication channel that Bryce should shoot the glowie bits. Later in the game Bryce comes across a series of tubes that can be rotated using levers and Bryce exclaims, “Looks like a puzzle”. And the game is filled with these moments that slap the player in the face telling them they are too dumb to understand how to play it.

I am honestly not sure what is worse, the insulting way the game guides you through the experience or the fact that the game looks and plays like a launch title for the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. The environments are devoid of interesting artwork and are as generic as the storyline including abandoned buildings, empty museums, police stations, and city streets. The enemy models might leave even more to be desired with only a handful of types each having a few different skins and abilities to make Bryce try out different tactics. Unfortunately, the game can be pretty easily finished by upgrading the damage on both of Bryce’s weapons and spamming simple enemies with the sword attack and taking on bosses and flying enemies with his guns. No further tactics are really needed.

On one hand the simplicity of the combat works in the game’s favor. NeverDead controls fairly loosely with its two standard attack modes of melee and ranged. I quickly found ranged combat to be useless against the standard hordes of enemies because aiming, even with upgrades to improve it, is sloppy. Bryce dual wields his guns and for some reason Rebellion decided it would be a good idea to have these two guns function independently with separate aiming reticules. It feels awkward and I generally avoided using ranged combat unless I had to.

Melee combat though, while more effective, has its fair share of problems as well. The biggest of which is the highly unresponsive control scheme. Instead of mapping Bryce’s sword to a singular button, NeverDead has the swordplay mapped to the right analog stick. Many games have decided to utilize the second stick in interesting ways with mixed results. NeverDead’s attempt may very well be the worst I have ever experienced. To attack the right stick needs to be swiped but I was never able to determine exactly how it should be manipulated because things hardly ever worked the same way twice in a row. Worse still, I often found my Bryce standing amongst a horde of monsters doing nothing because no matter how I moved the stick the sword would not attack. Additionally the mapping of the sword to the right stick strips camera control away from the player leading to more frustrating moments.

On the other hand, the lack of a need to use different tactics is something of a shame because if anything in the game is done well it is the upgrade system. Everything Bryce does in the game grants him experience points which can be spent to purchase various upgrades. These upgrades, as previously mentioned, can be used to level up Bryce’s weaponry but they can also be utilized to unlock more powerful combo attacks and other special bonuses. Unfortunately, as also previously mentioned, the game does not really give players much of a reason to actually spend experience points. After my play through I spent a lot of my experience points to snare an achievement but for gameplay purposes I stopped upgrading after level three.

By now you have probably noticed that I have talked very little about the cool concept the game is founded on, Bryce’s ability to dismember himself. This is because it is such a non-factor in the overall game. Aside from a couple environmental puzzles that need to be solved with a piece of Bryce, the dismemberment is more of a frustrating hurdle than it is a fun gameplay mechanic. Nearly every heavy attack from an enemy will cause Bryce to lose bits and pieces of himself which artificially makes the game more difficult and rolling around a battlefield trying to avoid an army of always replenishing head sucking monsters is far from my idea of fun. In the end, the dismemberment is nothing more than a fascinating bullet point on the box.

Sometimes, after playing a less than stellar game, I sit back and imagine how much better I could do if given the chance. I come up with concepts for games and play mechanics that could potentially be used as evidence in having me declared utterly insane.  I take these ideas, write them down and eventually put them in a shoe box to be forgotten until the next moment of revelation strikes. After playing NeverDead, it is obvious someone at Rebellion has a box just like mine and just like me maybe they should hide that box under their bed and stop pulling ideas out of it because NeverDead is not a good game. In fact it is actually a bad game, potentially one of the worst games to be released this generation, and certainly a front runner for worst game of 2012.

Pros:

  • None

Cons:

  • Insulting to people that actually play games
  • Looks and plays like a launch title
  • Terrible controls
  • Boring design
  • Complete waste of its selling point

1 / 5

1

DLC Review: Lightning and Master Sergeant Amodar Battle

By
Don Parsons
– February 16, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Note: This material was provided by Square-Enix for review purposes. 

“Come forth, brave protector of Valhalla- incarnation of Etro’s champion!” ~ Arbiter of Time

It was a little off-putting that Lightning, the main protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII, was not a playable character in the sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2. She’s in the opening scene, you hear her voice throughout the game and she’s even on the box-art and title screen. Her younger sister, Serah, does a decent job at filling the role of a main protagonist, but Lightning has been one of the best designed characters through-and-through that I have seen in a Final Fantasy game in quite some time. Well, Square-Enix has remedied this situation with it’s first piece of DLC; the Lightning and Master Sergeant Amodar coliseum battle.

Costing a mere $2.99 US on the Playstation Store, you’ll unlock a new area with the battle coliseum as soon as the Historia Crux is loaded up. Once the battle is selected, a short cut-scene between Lightning and your party is shown. I did this battle after completing the game, and had a very strong party. While not challenging at this point, one can appreciate the battle itself for the tactics you can use. Amodar shows up after a brief “mini-battle”, which is when the real fun begins.

 

Lightning and Amodar switch up classes in the same manner your own team does, with a few varieties. I make use of Saboteurs in the beginning of battle, so if they switched and had Lightning in a Medic role, all my work to cause ailments on them had little payoff. So even though the battle was not a challenge, different scenarios made it a little more fresh each time you fight the duo.

“Why would I fight them more than once,” you ask? Both Lightning and Master Sergeant Amodar can be recruited and used in your party. The percentage for capture is very limited, mind you, so even though I five-starred all dozen or so fights against them, I only received Lightning in my last battle. Lightning only makes use of the Ravager role and Amodar is a strict Commando role. As I said, I only got Lightning, but once leveled up, she was comparable to the Ravager I usually used, though her Feral Link attack didn’t seem as powerful. I can’t say much about Amodar.

The rewards are decent for such a quick match. 2,000 CP, and 3,000 Gil (that varies on skills; I have a Gilfinder ability that ups the gil received) for a 4 minute match is pretty nice, and the fact it requires a few Paradigm shifts for excitement is a bonus.

Bargain DLC on a regular basis is a great way to add bits of content to a game, and Square-Enix is setting a fine example on how to add post-launch content to an RPG. Another coliseum battle is planned for next month, and a whole chunk of story is also slated for the future. But for now, if you’re looking for a small- but-quality addition to Final Fantasy XIII-2, this is a very worthy purchase.

Pros:

  • value-priced; it’s hard to beat $3
  • Lightning now plays a small role in your party if you want

Cons:

  • capture rate is incredibly low, even if you five-star the fight
  • first coliseum DLC could have been free to new purchases

Score: 4/5

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Review: Soul Calibur V

By
Tony Odett
– February 13, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Note: This review was done using the PS3 version of the game. It is also available on Xbox 360.

The Soul Calibur series has long held the title of “Fighting Game of the People.” While Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Marvel vs Capcom received all the press, Soul Calibur was the one game you could sit down and play without getting a PhD in combo-ology.  Soul Calibur V continues this fine tradition, sacrificing complexity, challenge and precision in the name of playability, to varying amounts of success.

Applause is due the greatest feature of any fighting game ever: a fully functional character creator. When I was able to make my combatant a massively tall spear waver in a pirate coat, with jester boots (complete with bells on the tips), a top hat, and a massive purple afro, I decided I was in love.  Too long have fighters forced us into using a set of fighters with a couple of alternate costumes. Soul Calibur V allows us to choose a move set, and then build a character that looks like whatever we wish them to be. The editor has extensive features and was definitely the best idea the game brings to the table.

I’m not as excited by what Soul Calibur V presents in the single player campaign. The presentation is distinctly sub-par. The infrequent cutscenes are supplemented by drawings with voiceover. The drawings themselves are, frankly, awful, though the voiceover does do an adequate job of explaining what’s going on. Given what we’ve seen from other developers in this department in recent years, the story presentation was disappointing.

The campaign itself consists of 20 levels of one of one fights. Occasionally, you’ll fight more than one enemy per level, but the combat themselves are pretty generic.  I understand that there’s a formula to encounters in fighting games, but changing it up once or twice over the course of 20 levels would have been refreshing.  To top it off, the single player AI was pathetic.  In most of the fights, I was able to win by spamming the same single button combo over and over again. I didn’t even need to learn the block function until level 19. This was on the highest difficulty setting.  Side stepping seems to leave the enemy AI facing the wrong direction for the entire battle.   If you are looking for a single player venture, you can skip SoulCalibur V due to the poor AI combined with the mediocre presentation.

Arnold would be proud.

Thankfully for Soul Calibur V, there’s a lot more to it than that.  The multiplayer suite is quite deep, and has a full set of features, including stat tracking. The more you play, the more you level up, and unlock more ways to outfit your character.  And of course, being Soul Calibur, anyone can pick up the controller and stand a chance in a fight (though, actual deep knowledge of the controls, combos and such provide a key advantage).

Doing (or receiving) damage in a fight boosts up your Critical Gauge, which in turn allows you to conduct special attacks and combo breakers at key moments.  As nice as a feature as this is, it seems less impressive than some of its brethren (with Mortal Kombat’s gory X-ray attacks and the screen filling insanity that happens when you fill the gauge in Marvel v Capcom 3).  The attacks don’t seem to do much more damage than normal combos, and don’t look particularly impressive.  If my character can call in his werewolf persona to tear into his foe, I want to see something that awes me.

Soul Calibur has one again called in a well-known character from another series, in this case, Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed 2.  Unlike previous guest characters, I didn’t find Ezio to be completely overpowered, and he seemed to fit the aesthetics of the game a lot better  (16th century folks would not be able to stand up against, say, light sabers, like they did in Soul Calibur 4).  He’s a fine addition to the game, and I’d like to see future guest characters in the series given the same sort of consideration, and be equally as appropriate to the setting.

If you’re looking for a multiplayer experience that’s both familiar and easy to digest, Soul Calibur V is the game for you.  However, the single player campaign is insufficient for a recommendation on its own merits. It leaves the game feeling a bit incomplete, and I can’t help but thinking my opinion of the game would be higher were such a throwaway mode not included. The multiplayer is fun, but if you are used to a more hardcore experience, you might wish to look elsewhere.  The fight between Soul Calibur and Soul Edge continues. I recommend ignoring it in favor of the battle between yourself and random player on the internet.

Pros

  • Very playable.
  • Good online multiplayer.
  • Soundtrack.
  • Full Character Creator

Cons

  • Bad AI
  • Weak presentation
  • Single player adds very little to the experience.

3 / 5

Proper weapon for the man on the right: lighter.

4

Review: Final Fantasy XIII-2

By
Don Parsons
– February 11, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Note: This review is based off of gameplay on the Playstation 3 console. It is also available on the XBOX 360. Square-Enix provided this game to Vagary.tv for review purposes.

Releasing a sequel to a game with such polar-opposite reactions as Final Fantasy XIII is a bold move, but Square-Enix proceeded to do it anyways. It’s really a rare thing when you see a sequel to a Final Fantasy game. But the fans that enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII and the world contained in it, rejoiced.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 picks up a few years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII. In a drastic shift in the party model, you only control two characters throughout this journey, Serah and Noel. Serah is trying to find her sister, Lightning, who strangely disappeared after the grand reunion at the end of XIII. Noel’s story is more complicated, but in short , he was sent from the future by Lightning (from a place outside of time) to help Serah. In controlling just these two characters, it really strengthened the focus on their stories instead of trying to tie together half a dozen random individuals in typical JRPG fashion. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you, but this really allowed for a more streamlined experience without the comments in the back of your head about “oh yes, fate at work again.”

Finding Lightning is the routine “starting goal”, but things grow in scale as you learn more and more about what is going on. I don’t like to hand out spoilers to games rich in story, but outside of one instance later on in the game (the obligatory “have to collect x amount of things” plot point), the story flowed well and kept me playing. It flowed so well, in fact, that I didn’t even want to bother with a majority of the side-missions. Outside of wandering around the more-open area on Pulse (which is much smaller compared to XIII’s version), I only did the small quests that were along the way.

Once finishing the main story, the option to go back and do “paradox endings” adds length to the rather short story-arch in XIII-2. These ultimately change the ending of the game altogether. My only problem with these paradox endings is that there is no real indication (that I could find, anyhow) on what exactly could trigger these events. To be honest, I used a guide to figure out what would trigger a few, and went and did them. Some hints would have been great, because I truly enjoyed these alternate endings and would have preferred to be coaxed along towards them instead of resorting to a guide.

Time travel plays a large part in XIII-2, with different eras and areas of Cocoon and Pulse unlocking as you make your way through the story. So think of each time period as a small sandbox, with its own item shop, individuals to talk to and get quests from, hidden items, monsters, etc. Square-Enix has removed the “point-to-point” nature of XIII by switching to this system, but you are still confined to a certain path in each area so in reality, the game is still rather linear. In order to access these areas, you must unlock them by going through a time gate. This requires a specific artifact or a generic “master key-type” wild artifact. Wild artifacts are usually hidden well, or received from side-missions. Story related artefacts can’t be missed.

While combat remains similar to its predecessor, XIII-2 has overhauled the Paradigm Shift system. As I said earlier, you control Serah and Noel. Your third party member is now a tamed monster, and you have slots to bring three types into battle. These three slots affect your Paradigm Deck choices. Each monster has a specific role and can be leveled up with certain items (usually gained after battles in decent quantities). You have no control over the monster AI, so if you are using them for buffers and ailments, you have to hope they are using the things you want them to use. Granted, the AI is smart when it comes to attacks in XIII-2, but aggravating when I wanted them to cast Brave, and they chose Imperil instead!

That said, the addition of monsters being in your third slot for battle makes things so much more dynamic. Each monster also has its own attack, known as a Feral Link ability. A gauge slowly fills up at the bottom of the screen, and when you chose to use it, you have to input certain commands (it differs per monster) to establish how powerful it will be. The possibilities for team setups are staggering, and I bet you could ask ten people what group they used at the end and it would be wholly different.

Now, approaching combat has returned to its “random battle” roots. In XIII, you confronted the free-roaming enemies in the open. Square-Enix has made things feel a little more classic by the enemy appearing randomly (and frequently, might I add), and the “Mog Clock” appears. The clock starts in the green position, giving you a chance for a preemptive attack. Once the clock reaches yellow, they start attacking you and you lose your Haste and chain-boost bonus’ (you can still hit them first and get the bonus, mind you, they are just more aggressive). Once the clock hits red, no matter how far away, you are locked into battle and no longer get a “retry” option. You do have the chance to flee, but the clock ticks down at different rates for different enemies. Some are completely unavoidable. It’s a functioning system that caters to long-time fans of the series.

The Crystarium (your path of progression in the FFXIII series) has also been overhauled. It now resembles the shape of your character’s weapon, and once you trace the complete path, you level up the Crystarium. This gives you a choice of opening a new role (you only start with two), adding to your Accessory limit, adding another ATB bar (giving you more options for powerful moves), or boosts to your role ability. You can select between the roles you have unlocked to level up, which grants you stat bonus’ or moves accordingly. The amount of abilities seems reduced as well. No more Haste or Regen, for one. And certain Final Fantasty-standard abilities are also missing, such as Mug for example. The updated Crystarium works for what it is intended to work for, but once I hit the 30-hour mark, I was done getting new abilities and it was simply a matter of boosting my stats.

Monsters work in a similar manner, but cap out much sooner. Depending on their level cap and grade (there are five grades, each needing a different quality of item to level up), some can be maxed out very soon while others can take the course of the game to max out. Another neat feature about monsters, though, is that they can be infused into another monster to pass on their abilities and stat increases. The stat increases are things unlocked in the Crystarium such as “+44% Poison Resistance”. Since each monster has its own, usually small, move pool, passing one to another can be very beneficial in the long run, though each monster can only have so many moves. Again, this whole new system adds a wildly-huge difference to the combat system in general.

The last change to battles of note are the Cinematic Action sections. These are just what they sound like: quick-time events. During certain boss fights, you’ll be prompted to hit “x” button or direction on the analog stick during an epic cut-scene. Now, why we couldn’t just watch the cut-scene with the awesome finishing move is beyond me. I never understood the fascination developers had with quick-time events. They detract from what is going on by forcing the player pay attention to button prompts.

I do have a serious complaint with the musical score at the end (though, admittedly, I enjoyed it up until that point). Without giving too many details, it simply doesn’t fit. Music is supposed to heighten moments, and it should be fitting for the mood. The final cutscene and its music just don’t match up correctly, and nearly ruins everything the scene is trying to invoke.

If you enjoyed aspects of Final Fantasy XIII, the sequel is definitely worth a shot. What Square-Enix overhauls and changes in the sequel make it feel fresh enough for people that put 60-100 hours into the first game. They also included a primer to get people caught up with what happened in case they either forgot or didn’t finish the story to its completion in XIII. While not a drastic change in the series from the previous installment, it’s a great extension to the Final Fantasy XIII universe.

Pros:

  • good continuation in the story from Final Fantasy XIII
  • the monster system allows for a more dynamic party approach
  • great post-game material to play after beating the main story

Cons:

  • the narrative isn’t as strong as its predecessor
  • more limited skill sets for main two characters
  • much shorter main story than XIII

Score: 4/5

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Sony Confirms LittleBigPlanet Karting

By
Royel Edwards
– February 10, 2012Posted in: News, PlayStation 3, PS3

A few days back, rumours were circling around the internet that there was a LittleBigPlanet game that was dedicated to karting. Thanks to Sony, we know the rumours were true.

Sony tweeted, “We can confirm that LittleBigPlanet Karting is in fact in development and we look forward to sharing more on the game soon!”

Details are still very scarce, and it’s not yet known if Media Molecule is behind the project or how long the game itself has been in development.

If you’re familiar with LittleBigPlanet, you are probably familiar with the whole ‘Play, Create, Share’ idea of user-made levels, but the idea of LittleBigPlanet Karting slightly borrows the same concept as Modnation Racers. Only time will tell, but lets hope this LittleBigPlanet game doesn’t flop since previous games have come out on top for Sony’s Playstation 3 system.

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Review: All Zombies Must Die!

By
Magnus Risebro
– February 6, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

This game was played on the Xbox 360

All Zombies Must Die is an odd case of modern game design-tropes working to a game’s detriment. The oft-celebrated model of fusing RPG-structure with action-gameplay is spread a little too thick here, hurting what is an otherwise solid title.

As with most zombie-related titles nowadays, AZMD is very tongue-in-cheek about its story. This is something I’m often skeptical of, as certain games seem to use it only to escape the effort of a serious narrative. Luckily, the plot, which sees four comedy characters assemble to survive an unexplained zombie apocalypse, doles out sincere chuckles on a consistent basis. Specifically, the sub-plot involving the main characters’ conviction that he is in a videogame provides good laughs. Throw in some strong pop-culture references and you have a one of the funniest games to come along in a while.

As for the gameplay, anyone familiar with dual-stick shooters will quickly be at home with the controls – Top-down perspective, left stick to move, right stick to aim. Zombies will home in on you and you’ll navigate around them, lining up shots and collecting pickups. Where the game differs from the basic formula is mainly in structure. Instead of a linear series of levels, the game is set in a mostly open world segregated into arena-like zones. To progress, you’ll complete a series of standard kill/fetch-quests, upgrading your stats and crafting new weapons on the way.

For a while, this spattering of RPG design has the desired effect; the carrot-on-a-stick of new weapons and better murdering-capabilities will motivate you to continue, making what is in reality well-trodden gameplay ground sparkle with new life. But it’s only after a few hours that fatigue kicks in: When running through the same 8 arenas, carrying out what is only a slight variation on an objective you’ll have done 15 times beforehand, the appeal starts to wither. It becomes a grind.

It’s a shame, because the moment-to-moment gameplay in AZMD is actually rather good: There’s a great, tactile feel to mowing down the zombie hordes, much thanks to some nifty and suitably cartoony animation. The weapons are all distinct enough in function and feel to warrant changing your inventory regularly. There’s a cool mechanic of zombies being affected by elements like fire, electricity or radiation, each with different effects, which also transfers to the crafting system, where you can modify weapons to apply those effects when fired.

The problem arises when this solid yet quite by-the-numbers gameplay is tasked with supporting the RPG-like structure. There’s simply not enough substance to it for it stay meaningful in the face of the six-hour series of treks through the same few environments the game has you endure. Playing the game in four-player co-op mode (local multiplayer only) or in shorter bursts remedies this problem somewhat, but still does not remove it outright: AZMD is simply too repetitive.

All Zombies Must Die asks too much of the basic dual-stick shooter formula and suffers for it, but it’s still a well-crafted game that will please fans of its genre. Play it in Co-op and pay attention to the jokes for maximum enjoyment.

Pros:

  • Good feel and some depth to the gameplay
  • Charming presentation
  • Funny

Cons:

  • Becomes far too monotonous
  • Occasional glitches

3 out of 5

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Review: Madcatz MLG Pro Circuit Controller

By
Don Parsons
– February 6, 2012Posted in: Hardware, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Meet Mad Catz Newest Controller

Note: This was tested on the Playstation 3. It is also available for the Xbox 360. 

We recently got our hands on the new Mad Catz MLG Pro Circuit controller for the Playstation 3, and from the moment it was unboxed, it was clear it trumped many aftermarket controllers. With any controller, really, you are stuck with whatever options you are given and have to hope for the best. For example, the PDP Afterglow controller is slightly smaller than the stock PS3 controller with the Xbox 360 analog stick layout. But the sticks were concave, so I trashed the controller. Mad Catz has an answer for that, but at a steep $99.99 US pricetag.

With a unique modular design, the Pro Circuit controller allows players a very customized experience. After you unbox this glorious controller and pick it up, you’ll immediately notice the extra weight and soft, velvety backing. The weight is added due to an interchangeable  weight cartridge with two 35 gram weights in it. You can remove one weight or replace the whole piece with a cover. Even without the weights, the controller is heavier than the standard Dualshock controller.

The back’s texture offers great grip during intense situations (ie. Major League Gaming), and when my hands started to sweat, there was no slipping off or re-gripping the controller, unlike my Dualshock. While the back surface can’t be replaced, the front can. The front plates can be swapped out between matte and gloss finishes. The middle, larger piece is easy to remove and attach, but also stays in place like it should thanks to small magnets. The small side pieces (the “legs” of the controller) were a little harder to swap off and on, but once you decide which finish you want, it shouldn’t be an issue. I preferred the matte finish just because it matched the rest of the controller, though the shiny finish didn’t actually feel any different during gameplay (as opposed to having the shiny finish on the back, which would have felt different).

Back to the modules, this is what truly sets this controller apart and puts it in the major leagues. The Pro Circuit controller comes with a pair of D-Pads, a pair of convex analog sticks and a pair of concave analog sticks. After lifting off the front plate, you turn the module counter-clockwise to unlock and remove it. The analog sticks (both styles) have little notches around the base, making the whole process a lot easier. The D-Pads, though, don’t, so you actually had to use the lifted button part to get a grip and lock/unlock it. I found that to be a small problem, and didn’t like switching D-Pads at all.

One of the D-Pads is a cross-style, while the other is button-style. I preferred the seperated, button-style as opposed to the other when playing shooters. But if I was using the button-style one to navigate menus, if I didn’t hit it just right it also moved in another direction. However, this could have been me not being used to the setup I was using (X360-style).

Both of the analog options have the same tension setting as the other. After going back and forth with the Dualshock and Pro Circuit controllers, the Mad Catz offering has a much stiffer analog stick. This is something that might be easier for X360 gamers to get used to, but someone who only plays on a PS3 might have some issues getting comfortable with the difference in tension.

The varying degrees of controller layout offer each individual player their own way to play. You can play with the standard Dualshock option, the standard X360 option, or any mix in between. For awhile, I played with a X360 layout that had a concave left stick, button-style D-Pad, and a convex right stick. But I eventually went back to my comfort zone of having dual convex sticks.

The controller is also considerably bulkier than my usual Dualshock controller. It has the X360 shape, and even the triggers resemble the X360. The Home, Start and Select buttons are all positioned towards the top of the controller which made certain things more difficult. I’m sure it keeps some people from accidentally hitting those buttons (I don’t run into that problem, myself), but when you are playing Battlefield 3, my shooter of choice, it made it much more difficult to spot people with the Select button.

If you are looking for a wireless option, look elsewhere. While the 9 foot cable has considerable length, certain home-gaming situations just don’t work well with me (and I’m sure some other people). That said, this is designed for competitive gamers, specifically MLG combatants. For those unfamiliar with their rules; you can’t take controllers that have a “turbo” or “macro” option, and controllers have to be wired if not stock controllers. Mad Catz was thoughtful and designed one sturdy cable that actually screws into place.

A last minute addition to the Pro Circuit controller is a “reverse trigger mode”. I saw this advertised and it wasn’t in the manual, though I have been told this will be fixed for future manual prints. Holding the Start and Select button (it should be noted this is a PS3-only feature) for around 5 seconds will reverse the L1/R1 and L2/R2 trigger functions. I played the first night with the standard setting and it just wasn’t comfortable at all. After enabling this mode, everything felt more natural with this particular controller.

All of these goodies, and the controllers still give you more. How about a nice little carrying bag? It fits nice and snugly, so you can take the ownage with you anywhere you go.

If you want to replace your standard controller, and want something more customizable, the Pro Circuit controller from Mad Catz has you covered. In the future, different colored modules and plates are going to be available too, so you can not only own the battlefield, but do it in style.

However, if you are not into competitive gaming, and just need a new controller, the high price-tag may be a big factor in your decision on purchasing or not.

Pros:

  • Modular design offers multiple controller configurations
  • Soft, velvety backing gives great grip
  • Ease of swapping parts on the fly, and a carrying case to keep everything together

Cons:

  • High price-tag
  • Re-positioning the Home, Start and Select buttons
  • Difference in tension between the Pro Circuit and Dualshock analog sticks

Score: 4/5

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Microsoft & Sony: No Console Announcements at E3 2012

By
Kyle Baron
– January 31, 2012Posted in: News, PS3, Xbox 360

Announced at E3? Probably not. Also, this terrible name won't be used.

Don’t listen to all of the rumors about the next generation of Microsoft and Sony home consoles being announced at E3 2012.

Cedrick Delmax, director of marketing for Microsoft France, said in an interview with Le Point that “Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished. The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year.” Referencing the presence of the Nintendo Wii U at E3 2011 and 2012, he added that “we [Microsoft] are not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers.”

Delmax also said that Microsoft isn’t concerned with Sony’s supposed decision not to showcase the next Playstation console this year.

Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony, has already said that there are no “plans” to announce another Playstation at E3 of this year. In another interview with Le Point, Philippe Cardon, president of Sony France, said that Sony was the last to release a console in the current generation and “will probably be the last to announce something.”

It’s important not to misinterpret the elusiveness of the responses from both console manufacturers. That caginess is likely to serve to cover the tracks of each company with respect to how their competitors and shareholders are closely monitering them. Delmax said it best when he pointed out that Xbox 360s are still selling. Playstation 3 units are still selling as well, so any announcement of a future console will undercut current sales for both consoles.

The abysmal software sales of Wii titles, combined with the continued decline of Wii sales after it hit its stride, certainly add to the reasons for Sony and Microsoft not to be intimidated. Add that to the fact that a lot of the announced titles for the Wii U are multiplatform titles available on existing consoles and you should feel happy with the console you already own for a good while longer.

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