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3DS Review: Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

By
Chris Scott
– March 2, 2012Posted in: Nintendo 3DS, Reviews

The Olympic Games are a huge draw around the world and few things get the national pride and competitive juices flowing more than the Olympics do. The Games themselves seem like a natural fit for a video game; so, it has always struck me as odd that quality titles based on the Games are so few and far between. Four years ago, with the Shanghai Games, Sega and Nintendo teamed up to try and rectify that trend bringing Mario and Sonic together to compete for the gold. While the quality of that title and its winterized sequel from two years ago is subject to debate, there is little denying that fans of the iconic duo ate it up.

This year, the Games are in London, England and once again Sega and Nintendo have teamed up to bring us, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. And this time the Games will be mobile as the game is playable on the Nintendo 3DS. The game comes complete with a very in depth story mode with Bowser and Dr. Eggman (he’ll always be Dr. Robotnik to me) sabotaging the Games because they were not invited to participate. Barring the obvious question of why plumbers, princesses and talking animals were asked to participate but not giant tortoises and people that look like eggs, the story mode is actually a fun time with well paced, if somewhat hokey narrative starring all your favorite friends and foes of Mario and Sonic.

The story mode, while entertaining and well produced, mostly serves as a great sampler to the 40+ events the game has to offer. Mario, Sonic and friends will compete against Bowser and Eggman’s minions in a variety of events. Most events take less than a minute to finish and while it is certainly fair to call the game a mini-game compilation but that should not be seen as a negative.

Similar to the Warioware titles on the original DS, the game creates quick experiences that utilize nearly every feature the platform offers to its fullest extent. Also similar to the Warioware titles, the correlation between on screen action and what they player is tasked with doing can be somewhat sketchy. But then again how does one simulate swimming, or weightlifting, or any other Olympic sport on a handheld device? Sure, yelling into the 3DS microphone has little to do with lifting weights but it is fun, even if you look like a tool while doing it. And there are a lot of events where the actions make perfect sense for the activity, like target shooting being controlled by the right bumper or sailing by a combination of gyroscopic controls and blowing into the microphone to simulate wind. However, not every action is a ton of fun to perform and button mashing remains as un-fun as it was back when I played Summer Games on my Commodore 64.

While the majority of the game is quite fun to play, there are a few technical issues that hold it back from being a stellar 3DS release. The biggest of these issues is the 3D implementation. The 3D in the Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, is subtle at best. While the nature of the game, and how the controls were implemented might have been a factor in the diminished role of 3D here, with games like Super Mario 3D Land and Resident Evil really showing off the power of the system, it is something of a letdown to see exactly how little it is utilized here and I ended up playing the majority of the time with it shut off.

As great as it is that Sega developed the game to utilize every aspect of the 3DS, it is also one of the game’s biggest failings. The 3DS by nature is designed to be taken on the go but the variety of actions that are required to be performed put the player into some awkward positions, for instance being asked to put the 3DS down on a flat surface or twist it around to aim, might not be possible while playing on the go.

And finally, mini-game compilations scream for great multiplayer and what is packed on the cart is less than stellar. All multiplayer in the game must be done locally with people on your same network. I love local competitive play as much as anyone but I know exactly one person who I regularly play games with locally that even owns a 3DS, not being able to play with my other friends via the internet is a huge detractor for the game. That said if you do have friends that have 3DS’s to play with you locally, the game features download and play multiplayer, allowing for only one cartridge to be shared amongst the four players.

All in all, despite its issues, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is a fun little diversion from all the other big titles that are releasing on other platforms. The competitive nature of the Games translates well to the mini-game superstructure and the story mode provides a lengthy, well produced, and fun, if somewhat goofy, play experience. Considering the 3DS library is still aching for quality titles, Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games makes a worthwhile addition to anyone’s playlists.

Pros

  • Lengthy, well produced, and great looking story mode
  • A ton of unique events to challenge players
  • Utilizes nearly all the features of the 3DS

Cons

  • Lackluster 3D
  • Some of the gameplay is not friendly in a mobile environment
  • No online multiplayer

3 / 5

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Review: Resident Evil: Revelations

By
Magnus Risebro
– February 23, 2012Posted in: Nintendo 3DS, Reviews

It’s ironic that Resident Evil Revelations has been hyped up (and even marketed) as a return to the more deliberate, atmospheric, tense style of old school Resident Evil. In reality, this game pushes the series further into modern, western territory than it has ever been before. In doing so, some of Resi’s interesting quirk is lost, but the experience becomes less stilted and more playable.

Where Resident Evil 5 was survival horror with the atmosphere of an action game, Revelations is a third-person shooter with a horror aesthetic (see: Dead Space 2). It might be set in sparsely-lit environments where freakish mutants lunge from corners, but the creeping pace, abundance of puzzles, and scant supplies of earlier Resident Evil games is missing. This might put Resi veterans off, yet Revelations is a decidedly solid action game and should be enjoyed as such, regardless of franchise.

The plot – the element of the game most true to heritage – sees Jill Valentine and her burly spanish partner board an abandoned cruise ship in search of Chris Redfield, only to find, predictably, that the ship is not so abandoned after all and is full of shuffling slug-men and other nasty aquatic mutants. Actually, that’s only about half the plot. Soon, a convoluted narrative of back-stabbing and double-crossing is introduced and the plot thickens considerably, for better and worse. This conspiracy-story is occasionally interesting, but coated in Resi’s trademark layer of cheesiness, it becomes hard to take too seriously.

The most significant thing about the narrative is that it ties with one of Revelations’ major departures from the Resident Evil formula, the structure; shorter side-levels punctuate the time on the ghost ship and have you playing as other characters in various times and locations. While the cruise ship retains at least retains a semblance of classic Resi openness, these levels are purely linear and almost entirely action-focused. Furthermore, the game is divided into 30-40-minute chapters, most of which begin with an off-ship level and end with a cliffhanger. The new, more frenetic structure is a double-edged sword; While the regular switch-ups do much to keep monotony at bay, the Resi tension that came with  being stuck in a nasty place is dampened. When you’re so frequently whisked away from your persistent concerns and given a new batch of weapons, herbs, and ammo, worry has a hard time growing on you.

Having said that, the on-ship segments themselves do much to stop you from feeling any dread. I mentioned the ship was semi-open, but this matters little when you’re always guided through it by your partner, map markers and an unambiguous “OBJECTIVE:” tab. “Jill, I think we need to-” your partner will say, and then you’ll do just that. Seldom are any puzzles or unclear tasks involved, and seldom will you need to explore the ship of your own accord. In addition, ammo supplies are bountiful and inventory-management is all but gone, so you can merrily gun through most areas with the accuracy of a stormtrooper, free of concern. Also, inventory-management and herb-mixing are both cut, so you have a very blasting-focused game.

It’s a good thing then, that said blasting is thoroughly satisfying. Thanks to the addition of independent moving and aiming (should you have the Circle Pad Pro – without it, you can shoot and move, but not aim and move), combat flows much nicer than in any previous Resi. There’s a decent variety of freaks to mow down and the guns handle like you’d want them to, with said freaks recoiling appropriately at every well-aimed shotgun blast.

The combat gameplay’s closest cousin would probably be Dead Space, as it shares that game’s weighty and tactile feel. Impressively, the game intermittently throws in a console-size set piece too. From underwater segments to a helicopter showdown with a colossal boss creature, these switch-ups in gameplay and scale pace out the relatively predictable corridor-shooting to great effect.

In the way of multiplayer, there’s decent co-op by the name of Raid Mode. Here, you and a friend/online stranger will play through areas from the campaign populated by an increased number of enemies. Essentially, it’s a version of Resi’s classic Mercenaries mode that’s linear instead of arena-based. There are characters and costumes to unlock as well as guns, upgrades, health items etc. to buy as you rank up through a leveling system. Cooperative play doesn’t bring much to the core gameplay and teamwork is seldom necessary or beneficial but, as with most games, Revelations is fun with a partner. Still, a relatively low volume of content prevents this mode from having any real legs, especially as every level is cut from the campaign.

Finally, there’s the little nugget that Revelations looks damn good. From the opening ship deck where waves clash against the hull and rain showers gleaming metal and onwards, the fidelity being squeezed out of Nintendo’s handheld is worthy of high praise. The textures and particle effects are only a stone’s throw away from console-level. If we can get a title this good looking just one year into the 3DS’ lifetime, what visuals are in store for the future?

There is a short segment set in a mansion-like area early on in Revelations where you are left without weapons and are forced to dodge any enemies coming at you. During the 10 or so minutes this lasts, it’s easy to see the classic Resi spirit shine through. However, aside from the few moments like this, Revelations should be categorized a third-person shooter. Luckily, it’s a quite good one.

Pros:

  • The mutant-killng feels nice and meaty
  • Cool gameplay variety with quick pace
  • Incredible visuals
  • Raid mode boosts longevity, though not very much

Cons:

  • Messy, cheesy story
  • Little in the way of tension
  • Too easy

4 out of 5

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Review: Scarygirl

By
Don Parsons
– January 30, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Scarygirl, meet dragon-machine-thing.

Note: This game was reviewed on the Playstation 3 platform. It is also available on the Xbox 360.

Scarygirl, originally a free-to-play web game, takes you on a journey through a vast set of environments and will make you remember just how much rage old-school platformers can cause.

Scarygirl, the protagonist, mixes platforming and combat with the use of her whip-arm. For transportation, the whip-arm is used to cross gaps by holding the jump button. This lets you to helicopter across and outside of this fundamental reason, it also serves as “jump correction”. The floaty physics of Scarygirl can be forgiven because you can just hold the jump button to perfect an otherwise awkward jump. 

The game relies heavily on its simple combat. That’s not a bad thing, but there are some frustrating parts later on in the game that are sure to provoke yelling and (possibly) throwing things. Sometimes i’s frustrating because of some moments that feel busted, but other times it’s a matter of design; Between a bad checkpoint system and trying to figure out what moves to use against what enemy, I was at wits-end during certain portions of the game.

One of the many pretty environments.

The 21 levels vary in length. Each level has enough of a varied design and theme to keep you intrigued as to what you will come across next. The few water stages, for example, were simply beautiful. The graphics in general are a little on the bland side and don’t pop as much as I had expected, but the neon seaweed was quite mesmerizing. Checkpoints, however, are a different story. Sometimes, they are well placed, but other times they are spread so far apart I wondered why they even bothered. Clearing four waves of incredibly difficult enemies time-after-time just to die on the fifth wave made me want to pull my hair out. Other times I’d be greeted by a checkpoint a few platform jumps later and I’d be greeted by a checkpoint.

The quirky level design, with fun little camera shifts, is something that immediately stood out.  Skipping along through a stage, the level will suddenly shift to a different angle and you just keep on skipping. It may or may not rotate back, but it was little additions like this that made the game different than others in its genre.

By collecting gems in the game, you occasionally come across a weird Octopus shopkeeper where you can buy new moves, equipment and vinyls. The latter is simply a collectible to get a trophy/achievement, and I spent most of my gems on the moves as they unlocked. Most of the equipment didn’t seem to affect gameplay in a significant way.

It's a scaryworld if owls are out during the day.

The single biggest fault Scarygirl has is its grappling mechanic. I am no stranger to whip-across-the-chasm gameplay, but it gets a little frustrating when you release from one point and can’t grasp the next point easily. Wall-climbing is the same; climbing across a wall, jumping over an obstacle, and hitting up on your controller’s d-pad should make you re-grapple the wall. It didn’t all the time, and it was inconsistent things like that which totally killed my joy of strong platforming sections that should otherwise be fun. You can also grapple onto rocks or stunned enemies in order to throw them at targets, but I had the same issue of it not aiming in the direction I had it pointed at.

Couch co-op fans will be pleased. While there is no online play available, you can partner up with a local friend and tackle the levels together. From the little bit of co-op that I played, it didn’t change anything drastically, but it can be fun if you have a significant-other or family member who enjoys platformers.

For people who enjoy a decent platforming experience (especially with an old-school frustration element), and are looking for something new, this game is a perfect addition to your digital library. But casual fans of the genre may steer clear; the grappling and difficulty of certain sections can be a little too much at times.

Pros:

  • great level design and shifts in perspective
  • quite lengthy for a platformer
  • upgrades give you a sense of progression

Cons:

  • bad grapple mechanics (aiming, swinging, wall climbing) can add unneeded frustration
  • inconsistent checkpoint system

Score: 3/5

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Review: Scene It? Movie Night

By
Chris Scott
– January 12, 2012Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

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

Scene It? has long been the film fanatic’s game of choice when it comes to trivia board games. Microsoft, in an effort to capture a more casual user base, brought the board game to the Xbox 360 with the 2007 release of Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action. Since then, a pair of disc based sequels have been released and Microsoft eventually gave up the publishing rights, which allowed the series to go multiplatform. Sadly none of those console releases ever captured the audience that they set out to. Scene It? Movie Night is the latest attempt to crack the casual nut.

Scene It? Movie Night, available via Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network, forgoes the big budget stylings of its predecessors and opts to deliver a very straightforward trivia experience. The game has a very bare bones approach to its style and even when held to the low standards of other trivia games, Scene It? Movie Night looks like a budget title. As mediocre as the visual presentation may be, the faux game show host sounds a bit like a coked out Will Smith and is potentially the worst aspect of the game. Comedy is highly subjective but anybody that thinks his lame jokes are funny should probably have their comedy button reset.

Budget presentation aside, losing the bells and whistles of past iterations does not hurt the actual experience at all; in fact it may even strengthen the core question and answer experience.  Scene It? Movie Night focuses on simply delivering solid movie trivia using the developer’s unique brand of questioning. Despite being a downloadable title, the game comes packed with a good selection of movie clips and still-imagery from blockbuster films. Nothing quite trumps watching a scene and then being asked how many times a coin was flipped and by what actor, except for watching classic movie scenes played out as 8bit video games.

The core trivia experience in Scene It? Movie Night is amongst the best of this genre. But playing by oneself is rather pointless, thus players are going to need opponents. This, sadly, is where Scene It? Movie Night stumbles. We are in the midst of an unprecedented era of competitive gameplay but it is also an era where much of that competitive play is done online. Scene It? Movie Night offers no option to play online, ultimately limiting any competitive play to those sitting around the television with you. For me, this just does not work; my family and friends may be willing to play a round or two of Scene It? but only to appease me. Simply put, they don’t like losing to me over and over again. Considering that previous versions of Scene It? have had online play, the omission of it in Scene It? Movie Night is somewhat disheartening.

As someone who watches a lot of movies, I love that Scene It? gives me a place where I can utilize all the worthless movie knowledge I have collated over the years. This iteration however, with its bare bones production and lack of online multiplayer, is a bit of a step back. It is still great fun with a group of friends but considering you can get a more fully featured version of the game on disc, for a few dollars more, it is hard to recommend Scene It? Movie Night to anyone other than those looking for the latest in movie trivia.

 

Pros

  • Still the best game when it comes to movie trivia.

Cons

  • Bare bones presentation.
  • Awful announcing.
  • No online multiplayer.

3 / 5

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Review: NCIS

By
Don Parsons
– December 23, 2011Posted in: Nintendo Wii, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

My fault, I'm misleading you.. not a shooter..

Note: This game was reviewed on the Playstation 3. It is also available on the X360 and Wii consoles.

It’s not uncommon for other forms of media to find their way into the gaming industry. Comics, movies and yes, even TV shows have become a staple in gaming and whether you like it or not it’s here to stay. With NCIS, you become one of the team members that is responsible for bringing Navy criminals to justice.

The game contains four episodes, all of which closely imitate the TV show it portrays. A short scene will open the episode, followed by a representation of the NCIS intro done using the in-game engine. Nope, no live-action splice work here. Afterwards, you wind up at a crime scene. This is one of four parts to the game.

You investigate the scene looking for clues to what happened and gathering evidence. Moving your character is done with an on-screen cursor rather than controlling with the analog stick. This makes sense if you factor in the Move controls. Gathering evidence is done by taking pictures, which (like everything else) involves a short mini-game style action. In this case, moving the camera, then zooming in and releasing the trigger at a certain point. It would get tedious, but the crime scenes are short and spaced out enough that it wasn’t too much of a problem.

After you find all the evidence, you will move on to the next part of the episode. We’ll swing by the lab in this case. Abby is quite a character, as she is in the show. NCIS (the game) does a great job with the writing, and while the voice acting matches the show as well, but it can get repetitive and isn’t spliced together to flow naturally; small pauses that shouldn’t be there are one instance of a sound issue I had.

Everyone's favorite goth is still awesome in the game

In the lab, again, you’ll partake in a series of puzzle-like mini-games dealing with the collected evidence – things such as matching chemical spikes, fingerprint patterns, and lines along a bullet. Once you’ve analyzed everything, which sometimes consists of moving back and forth between lab benches to re-analyze evidence,in a different area, you’ll usually find your way to the Deduction board. In short, the Deduction Board is where you match up and explain pieces of evidence.

If a dead body is involved, you’ll head to the autopsy room with Ducky. This works the same as a crime scene, finding highlighted parts and taking pictures to later analyze in the lab. In the event of any sort of electrical evidence being involved, you’ll take control of McGee. These little mini-events are more reflex-based, things like pressing a highlighted number, memorizing a sequence, or following a car on GPS by keeping the recticle over the moving car. The data is then at your fingertips to pick the relevant piece[s], and most likely take it to the Deduction Board.

Interviews are simple affair; simply press X when prompted to hear more. Some interviews have you using evidence against the person, in which case you pick the appropriate piece of evidence. You only have so many chances, otherwise you have to restart the interview. Luckily, you just have to watch it unfold, and don’t have to present evidence again.

Each episode is fomulaic in presentation: Opening, crime scene, McGee, Abbey, either interview or Ducky, crime scene, McGee, Abbey, and then on to catching the criminal. It only varies so much, but the pattern is obvious as you start playing the second episode. Without spoiling things, I did enjoy the plots to the episodes and they did a good job of feeling like the show. Each had a slow beginning but once things start to become clear, there was a definite “ah, I see” factor. Once you progress through the episodes, it gets better because you start to see how they correlate with one another, which really made me enjoy the final episode that much more. This is really the main redeeming factor to the game, and of course, mainly appeals to fans of the show or crime dramas in general.

If matching bullets is this easy, sign me up for a hefty pay raise!

I shouldn’t even mention the graphics because it seems to be customary for TV show/movie games to be lacking in the graphics department. It seems they rely too much on the liscense usage itself, and try to whip something together to appease the market. I personally didn’t mind the below-average graphics. The characters looked like who they were supposed to look like, so I didn’t care much that the textures looked almost ancient in comparison to the contemporary masterpieces in graphics.

The biggest downside to the NCIS game isn’t the graphics. It’s not the poorly spliced together sound. It’s  not even the simplistic nature of the game. Replay value in NCIS is non-existant. After I finished the game, there was absolutely no reason to go back and play the game again. And, being only four to six hours long, that’s a serious issue. Sure, I enjoyed the plots, but the path is so linear and there is nothing else to achieve by playing it again, not even trophies. I got the platinum trophy just playing the game. I love that fact, but there should have been a few more episodes in order for me to be okay with getting every trophy in a single playthrough. Nothing was even hidden, every trophy is gained just by playing. Nothing out of the ordinary needs to be done, and the replay value alone affected the score more than anything.

Fans of NCIS or other crime shows should at least look into this game. Again, had it not been for the short length and lack of replayability, I would have a much easier time recommending this title to people, even at $40 US. After five hours of gameplay and cleaning up every trophy, this game sadly won’t see my console again. The episodes are good, and follow the show’s flow with funny writing from time to time as well, so fans of the series are at least in for an interactive treat if nothing else.

Pros:

  • true-to-the-show storytelling and pacing
  • great plots across the episodes, with tie-ins later on
  • Platinum trophy in one playthrough

Cons:

  • no replay value
  • short, only four episodes
  • simplistic events

Score: 2/5

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Review: Voltron: Defender of the Universe

By
Don Parsons
– December 4, 2011Posted in: PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

For us older gamers, Voltron: Defender of the Universe was an iconic cartoon of the mid-80’s. Featuring five members of the Voltron Force, their lions combined into the giant robot known as Voltron, who then took on the evil forces and their Robeasts. WIth Voltron returning to TV last summer, it was only a matter of time before a game came out. THQ made a great decision in what followed.

A twin-stick shooter, Voltron: Defender of the Universe let’s you pilot one of the five different lions, each with varying stats (armor, strength, speed, etc.). If you choose to do so, you can also team up with friends in both online and offline co-op. People are actually playing, too (if you read some of my previous reviews, a big complaint is not being able to find a game online), so finding a game is a quick and painless procedure.

Kicking nostalgia into high-gear, the game features a scene from the cartoon to open the story. You’ll start your adventure on Arus, which the cartoon will set up. Spanning across four stages, there are three worlds total, with the last stage being a boss battle. The game progresses at a good pace on the medium difficulty setting (Hard is unlocked after finishing the game), with more and more powerful enemies coming to the battlefield on a regular basis.

Like most twin-stick shooters, the controls are simple; move with the left analog stick, fire in the direction you want by using the right analog stick. A “pounce” attack can be performed by hitting R2 (reviewed on the PS3), which helps with flying opponents and deals radiant damage to enemies around it too (the Black lion deals electric damage around your pounce attack). A melee swipe can be executed by hitting the R1 or L1 triggers as well, but I rarely used those when I played the game.

The graphics don’t only look great, but each world has it’s own diverse look to it. Everything shimmers and glistens and when you shoot through some objects, they break apart. A minor detail I absolutely loved (and showed the developers attention to detail, as well) was the paw prints left behind by your lion. Again, it simply looks great, and coming from a TV franchise transitioning to a game, you don’t expect the best, but Voltron delivers.

Boss fights start like a normal stage. They have an array of moves they use against you, and you avoid and attack as your lion. When their health bar is depleted, a cartoon of Voltron forming begins. I’m assuming this is for leaderboard purposes, but you can “put together” Voltron by following on screen analog stick prompts to get a higher score. I completed one perfectly, and outside of scoring a nice chunk of points, I gained no sort of advantage in the following combat sequence. Also, I missed some in one of the scenes, and I wasn’t penalized for it.

The next part of the battle is Voltron versus Robeast, and it is a simple quick time battle. You choose an attack, then a bar shows up with a moving highlighted section. In order to successfully do the attack, you have to hit X when a line gets to the highlighted area. If you miss, you take damage via a reversal from your opponent. During their turn, you have to hit the prompted button in a quick fashion to perform a counter-attack of your own. Again, it’s rather simple, but the animations for the two characters are fun to watch as they battle one another.

Voltron’s form of collectibles (something games just can’t seem to get away from it seems) is rescuing survivors. Scattered around the levels will be little groups of people with a highlighted blue ring around them. Have your lion run over to them, and rescue complete. During my playthrough, I found quite a few, and nothing unlocked as I found them (though there is a trophy for getting 100).

The one thing this game needed was some sort of progression or character development. The game gets rather stale after a few levels pass and you can’t upgrade anything. It’s great in small doses, but the longer you play, the more you get that feeling something is missing. Which may be why the game is so short. It can be completed in a few hours, but I had to break it up across a few nights because of this issue. A hair more creativity would have easily raised the bar on this one and put it into a whole new category. But as it stands, it’s simply a short, albeit fun, trip down memory lane. Without friends to play with, I can’t see this being more than a single play-through for me.

In it’s category, Voltron plays right and looks great, but it’s that little something it is missing that keeps it from standing out as more than just a nostalgic trip into your childhood. Any big fan of the series would be foolish not to pick this up. But if not, there are other twin-stick shooters that offer more depth and replayability than Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

Pros:

  • great graphics, and attention to detail
  • online play and local co-op
  • original cartoon cut-scenes during load screens
Cons:
  • very short 
  • no upgrade system or anything else of the short to add to replayability.
Score: 3*/5
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Review: Jurassic Park: The Game

By
Don Parsons
– December 2, 2011Posted in: PS3, Reviews

[Reviewer's Note: As this game's strong suit is its story, I may talk about the plot in a general sense, but I tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. I normally try to do this for most of my reviews, but as I really enjoyed discovering the story on my own, I didn't want to ruin that experience for you, the reader. Enjoy!]

Telltale Games has started an interesting trend. Remember Back to the Future: The Game? It brought the classic gameplay from their point-and-click adventure games to a franchise everyone knows about. Recently, Telltale touched another franchise from my childhood and created Jurassic Park: The Game. I’m not the biggest Jurassic Park fan; I loved the first one, that’s about it. But I can tell you that this now sits atop the throne for my favorite fiction from the series.

Set off the coast of Costa Rica, on the island of Isla Nublar, you start your four part adventure in an action sequence. Running from dinosaurs is something you will do often, and these “action sequences”, as I call them, are a series of quick-time events (QTE’s). Designed in a clever manner to mimic what is going on, you’ll do various button pressing and analog stick manipulation. Unlike the little bit of Back to the Future: The Game that I played, this game isn’t just a series of puzzles and dialog options. The scenes bring the Jurassic flavor to the field, and some really get the blood pumping and keep you on the edge of your seat. Every encounter with dinosaurs I had was intense, and enjoyable.

Quickly, let me add I usually don’t like QTE’s, as I think they break the flow of most games. On the flip side of things, I also loved Heavy Rain and what it did with QTE’s. Jurassic Park: The Game is much like Heavy Rain in that sense, as it adds a sense of tension, and the way the QTE’s flow are both well thought out and well placed.

After your first run-in with the cold-blooded creatures of the island, you’ll start to meet the rest of the cast. A collective crew once assembled, you’ll learn more about them all during the progression of the game. While the voice-acting is nothing that grabs your attention, the dialogue is at least mostly well-written. A few times, I scratched my head at certain dialogue options, but they were few and far between.

The pacing of this package is what I really loved about the game. Split into four episodes, each has its own cliffhanger. It makes you want to play more, and the peaks and valleys of the game are spaced out in a manner that you can sit down and finish an entire episode in a sitting. Time-wise, they average around an hour and a half, so you can treat it as a movie night with interactive qualities. Normally, when I played, my wife had to stop whatever she was doing because Jurassic Park: The Game had her attention.

As is a standard for Telltale Games, you’ll come to what I consider “puzzle” or “dialogue” sequences. These usually happen after a brush with danger and allow you to calm down a little. Most are very easy to go through; I only had problems with one. It was probably me personally just not getting it, and it broke the whole flow I had going during that episode. Most are quick, and they make you think JUST enough to be considered a puzzle. Like I said, these calm the storm just a tad before throwing you to the dinosaurs again. These are also where the character development comes in, as you learn more about the people you are following.

Now, pretty much everything has been positive up until now. So I suppose it’s time to shed light on the negative parts of Jurassic Park: The Game. First and foremost, the technical issues are HORRIBLE (at least on PS3). I can stand framerate dips. Sure, I’ll point out if it doesn’t run smooth in a review, but I can enjoy a game with them. To a degree. The pauses, hiccups, and skips in this game are terrible. You can’t make it through one short scene without something lagging. Some of the pauses froze the screen for upwards of 10 seconds. While those were rare and extreme, when they happened I was scared my PS3 froze. I missed quite a few QTE’s due to this, as well, so making a flawless run would have taken me multiple times. Sadly, it ruined my involvement in the game during some portions.

And my only other complaint about this game is that dialogue options have no consequence. Maybe Heavy Rain spoiled me with it’s “evolving gameplay”, and I realize it’s harder to write branching paths, but it would have been nice to have seen certain characters just explode in a rage when they are irritated and kill you for poking at them. The dialogue is there. You know NOT to try it, but you do anyways. They get more aggravated, but nothing comes of it. A few of the trophies revolve around clearing dialogue sequences perfectly, but that’s the only reward you get.  Having a consequence would have been a nice touch. [Note: This did not actually effect my score.]

Priced at $30 for the whole bundle, the story is very, very much worth it if you are a Jurassic Park fan. With high action moments and a plot that thickens and throws a curve ball every once in a while, it could even entertain someone not familiar with the dinosaur-ridden series. But looking at the horrendous technicalities, it can be hard to enjoy at times.

Pros:

  • lots of action
  • developing characters are enjoyable, and colorful in personality
  • the story just gets better and better
  • a T-Rex
Cons:
  • serious framerate issues, pauses, freezes
Score: 3*/5
1

Review: Need for Speed The Run

By
Don Parsons
– November 21, 2011Posted in: PS3, Xbox 360

Cancel your plane tickets.. one coast to the other in a little over two hours. Speeding, of course.

The Need for Speed franchise has bounced around the notion of having a story in their single player mode for years now. This change in the single player mode to a story-driven career has seen a whole variety of generic stories that have generally left me dry and wanting more. I eventually gave up and just complained every time a new NFS game came out, wishing they would focus on the cars because the story was usually bland. Finally, developer Blackbox delivers an entertaining joy ride.

Need for Speed The Run, EA and Blackbox’s latest story-driven entry in the racing series, puts you in the seat of the usual array of high-performance and exotic cars, this time as Jack Rourke. Opening the game with a cut scene containing quick time events was an unusual choice (and personally, I HATE quick time events), but you none-the-less wake up in a car, hands tied to the steering wheel, and proceed to escape the vehicle as it’s being crushed. You drive off in an Audi, escape the mob, and meet up with your navigator, Sam Harper. She gets you set up on your cross country run from California to New York with the promise of a nice chunk of money and to help pay off your debt with the mob. Sounds like something straight out of the movies, no?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snooooww.

Unlike pretty much every other Need for Speed game, The Run doesn’t have any races where you complete laps. As you might expect in a cross-country race, everything is “sprint” style, which means you’ll be driving on a long stretch of road.

From checkpoint races to the usual race to first place, The Run offers a small variety of race types. What it lacks in selection, it makes up for with some of the epic races you will partake in. Each of the ten stages has a theme to it; whether it’s mostly dirt roads, open highway, cityscapes, or icy mountain passes, there’s going to be some grand race that ends the chapter. For example, the icy stage in the Rocky Mountains ends with you tearing through a mountainside blast zone while racing against one opponent. Not only are you vying for the victory, but you spend the whole race dodging falling boulders. This sequence and one offered in the last level really made up for some of the short comings, as I was left with an adrenaline rush I haven’t gotten from a racing game in quite some time.

The loading time between events is rather a buzzkill, though. Unlike past NFS games that have a nice chunk of data to install, there is no install option with The Run. It’s aggravating to have a breathtaking moment like the one I mentioned and have it marred by waiting to load the next sequence. Luckily, once the race loads, the transition from cut scene to gameplay is a rather smooth operation.

We don't just have exotic models acting, we have exotic cars as well.

Another big let down is the lack of tuning cars. Much like the series before the NFS: Underground games, you have a selection of pre-designed cars to choose from. While you can select a kit and color for the standard cars, that’s all. You unlock cars as you play various modes, but once you unlock the car, there is no further progression beyond that. You don’t unlock more kits and you don’t unlock more parts. It’s very straight-forward and it makes sense in the grand-scheme of the story (who has time to tune a car when you are in a race across the country?), but I can’t help feel a little disappointed. You unlock a small selection of cars as you play through the story, but most are unlocked in the multiplayer and challenge series.

Leveling up keeps things mildly fresh as you unlock an assortment of profile icons (including one for use in Battlefield 3) and backgrounds, as well as skills like nitrous and drafting. Your player level from the story mode carries over to challenges to online racing, so it pays to play the other modes before hopping in online matches.

Online racing is a lot of fun and Blackbox makes it interesting by separating things into “playlists.” You only have a few playlists to begin with, but you unlock more by accomplishing objectives in those playlists. Objectives are something I like, as they give you goals specific to that playlist. In the tuner playlist, for example, you complete an objective by accumulating a certain amount of drift points in a race. Each playlist has over a dozen objectives, including group objectives if you are racing with your friends.

After each set of races online, you select the next selection of races and a random wheel will select an additional award for winners – things like a gold trophy for the winner (that can only be won this way, mind you), a bonus car for the top three, or additional XP. The whole structure of The Run’s online mode is something I like but, again, it feels like it is missing something; namely, customization and tuning.

The last mode is the Challenge Series. After each stage you complete in The Run, you unlock a corresponding set of challenges; These are five races, each with a specific car or set of cars in mind. After you complete all five, you earn a reward based on how well you did. A bronze will unlock a car or a profile picture, a silver unlocks backgrounds, and a gold in each challenge will earn you another car. There is also a platinum medal, but I only got two of those, so I’m not sure what you earn if you win a platinum medal on them all.

With the past Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit release, the Autolog has become a standard fixture in the series. This is a competitive feature that acts like a leaderboard, but does a little more. You can find friends-of-friends that play the game and it recommends things to you- such as “suchandsuch beat your time on x-race! Go beat xx:xx:xx to reclaim your spot!” That’s not verbatim, mind you, but you get the point. It’s an endearingly mild way of antagonizing you to go and do something again and little push for you to be competitive. It even carries over to the story, showing you who has the fastest time per stage and overall.

Like every Need for Speed game, I adore the arcade-sim physics. While this isn’t overly realistic like Need for Speed Shift, it still has a still feel that is right at home with the series. My only complaints with the racing itself is the rubber-band AI and the camera. Not only is the camera too close for people like me that like the camera fixed behind the car, but the developers thought it would be funny to tie the camera button to L3. There is a reason that button is a horn, or not used at all in racing games. When things get frantic, or you put just a little too much pressure on the stick, the camera changes to in-car view. Mid-drift, this is a serious problem. And you can’t change the control scheme. It’s quite possibly my biggest gripe about the game, and I hope other racing game developers take note not to follow suit on this terrible design decision.

The rubber-banding AI is nothing new to the series, and keeps it from being a “time trial”, which games like Gran Turismo suffer from if you are better than the AI. Even on Easy mode in The Run, you can pass them on a shortcut with a five second gap, and all of the sudden, despite your perfect driving, they are hot on your heels. It’s aggravating and highly unbelievable when you are in a Porsche 911 and an 80’s Audi Quattro comes snaking up behind you.

While the story is only a few hours long, I have thoroughly enjoyed this entry in the Need for Speed series quite a bit more than the other entries in recent years. If you have any interest in racing games, don’t skip over this one. The sheer excitement some of the races can develop is reason enough, but the interesting take on multiplayer is worth checking out too.

Pros:

  • great graphics; the Frostbite engine is put to full use
  • epic races through out the story
  • unique and interesting take on multiplayer
Cons:
  • camera button placement, and camera position behind car
  • QUICK TIME EVENTS!!!
Score: 4*/5
0

PC Review: Tropico 4

By
Tony Odett
– November 14, 2011Posted in: PC, Reviews

Had I been born in the Caribbean, I would have been destined for dictatorship. With my dashing good looks, brilliant mind, and iron will, I could have rivaled Fidel Castro with my own little island paradise to control. Sadly, I was born in America, and am forced to live out my parallel future in a gem of a game called Tropico 4.

Tropico 4 is a unique twist on the city building sim. Instead of building some continental urban metropolis within the confines of a larger nation, you’re given an island to rule as you see fit. Sure, you’re still building power plants, residential buildings and such, but your level of control extends to all walks of life. Does a peasant disagree with your rule? Throw them in jail. Is a professor plotting sedition? Have them executed. Is the military about to stage a coup? Buy them off.

Factories make beachfront even more pleasant.

The game’s greatest strength is the wide variety of possible play styles.  You could cater to the needs of your people, focusing on making them as happy as possible. You could construct of tourist paradise, or become a paragon of industry, or export your island’s natural resources. It’s even possible to build your island on weapon’s trading.  I tended to bounce around a bit with my economy, but I really favored military dictatorship to rule my people. The game includes a host of factions for your island, from the intellectual elite and the communists, to staunch loyalists and pesky environmentalists. Instead of bending over backwards to please them all, I elected to focus on building large military forces and convinced my simple island folk that my way was the best way of doing things. The fact that this is a viable strategy in any game is astounding, and here it works with dramatic effect. The oppressed people will occasionally rebel, and a bloody battle over some particular object in your domain will ensue. If you have enough soldiers, your victory will be assured.

Your island is part of a global economy, and you are forced to deal with other powers on the world stage. Foremost are the United States and the Soviet Union. Anger either one too much, and troops will land to end your reign.  This was an issue in Tropico 3, but Tropico 4 also adds additional power. Lesser powers include China and the Middle East, who are important in trade but lack the strength to actually attack your island. Really, I failed to see the effect of this addition. Often, when choosing sides in a political dispute, you will be left with opting between one of the great powers that could oust you from power, and one that you only have to deal with in trade. This made a lot of the political events really trivial decisions.

Surf's up!

New to this iteration of Tropico are natural disasters. I have to admit having dreams about the tsunami event in the game, as it was rather impressively shown off. The effects can range from insignificant damage from a tornado or earthquake to the destruction of nearly every building on your island. As awful as the latter result sounds, in the grand scheme, it’s really not so bad, as the United Nations will pour money into your island so that you can fix everything that was broken. This makes disasters an interesting diversion, but one that will delay (and not destroy) your efforts to rule your island.

If I have to commend Tropico 4 on anything above all else, it is the stellar tutorial. It has become far too commonplace for strategy games to offer insufficient tutorials, leaving the player to scour forums and strategy guides for advice. Tropico 3 suffered from this mentally as well, which is what made it refreshing to see the focus on teaching in this new effort. The game walks you through not only how to navigate the map and build buildings, but also goes into depth explaining how the various items interrelate. You end the tutorial not merely knowing how to play the game, but the fundamentals of building an economy. My first few play sessions of Tropico 3 ended in dismal bankruptcy and failure, so it was nice to be able to play around and feel like I actually had some sense of what I was doing.

Tropico 4 offers a refreshing change of pace to the slate of fall gaming releases. If you have never had the pleasure of playing a Tropico game, I highly recommend you take this one out for a spin.  If you highly enjoyed 3, Tropico 4 will provide you with new content (though the two are very, very similar), and a campaign which allows interrelate missions, as you build Tropico into a veritable Caribbean empire. Detractors should probably stay away, as the fundamentals of Tropico 3 are still dominant in the gameplay. But then, suddenly there aren’t any detractors. Perhaps, perhaps, someone has made them “disappear.”

Now... let's PARTY!!!

Pros: Ruling an island with iron first, fall release that isn’t a shooter, amazing tutorial

Cons: Very similar to Tropico 3, sound track is way too short for a game with many hours of play

4* out of 5

3

iOS Review: Zombieville USA 2

By
Don Parsons
– November 4, 2011Posted in: Mobile Gaming, Reviews

When a new App takes the top selling game position on the App Store, I usually buy it. I also usually don’t play it more than once, so I never write a review for it. That cycle finally changed a few days ago when I purchased Mika Mobile’s newest release, Zombieville USA 2. I took an interest in this developer with their Battlehearts title, a fun little RPG with a simple combat mechanic that worked. And while Zombieville USA 2 was addicting at first, it has its flaws.

I can’t compare this game to the first one, as I was never overly interested in buying it. But with Halloween coming, I couldn’t help myself. You start the game, and it gives you a brief tutorial, and then you are on your own. The first level is very simple, with one type of zombie coming at you, and never really many at a time. But half the point of the game is to collect loot in the form of cash dropped by both zombies and breakable items.

Each stage gets progressively harder, and has a timer. Once the timer reaches zero, a helicopter comes in to save the day. You are given a score, and told how much money you made. Common sense tells me that the higher the score, the more money you will get, but I finally put that theory to rest when I scored one of my highest scores on the second level, and only walked away with $200. So all those minutes trying to chain together as many kills as I could to get a higher score were a waste.

One of the fun parts about the game is spending cash to buy better guns, equipment, skills, and then upgrading them. Zombieville USA 2 is only one mechanic away from being an awesome little zombie-shooting RPG, and if they added a level up mechanic so that your now-useless score actually meant something, this game would take a whole new twist down an awesome path.

Upgrades inflate for both weapons and skills. This is fine, but when you are only bringing in $200-$500 a round, it gets to be painstaking to upgrade things. And for certain things, the damage increase doesn’t seem to have an effect that can be noted. It took the same amount of handgun shots with the first damage increase, and even the handgun skill, as it did without. But you can’t pick which weapon upgrade is next, so in order to get the “Extra ammo” perks, you have to soldier through and spend that hard earned cash on things you don’t want/care about.

The controls are probably my biggest gripe, but also a universal gripe. I think touch screen “sticks” are flawed in general, and one reason I fight that iOS games will not replace the 3DS/PS Vita (but that’s a whole different argument). At times, my left thumb would slide just a little too much, and my character would stop. Shortly afterwards, I was either severely wounded or dead. And the three buttons for your three preloaded weapons, I would accidentally click one of the other three because they are so close together. So in the heat of combat, tapping my handgun button rapidly would randomly bring out my fireman’s axe. It’s an issue I can’t ignore, but again, something all games that try to use the traditional approach to controls is going to suffer from. But, I’m sure it could have been worse; tilt controls anyone?

If you don’t want to play the generic redneck-style character provided, you can pay $100 to purchase a new one, but they don’t have any in-game effect outside of looking (possibly) snazzier. I, personally, chose a SWAT member which looked like a stunt double for Samuel Jackson.

The graphics themselves look great. As you can tell from the screenshots, it has a very cartoon aesthetic to it, which gives it more a charming appeal. Killing cartoon zombies with a cartoon incarnation of Samuel Jackson is pretty epic.

On of the plus side, this is a perfect little mobile game, much like other Mika Mobile titles I have played. When waiting on someone, or if I am the passenger in the car, I can play a few levels and be done with it. It does have that addictive quality in the beginning, but once I realized the score had little to do with my progress, it became much easier to put down. But for the mere price of $1, it is a solid app, and one I will continue to play off and on I’m sure.

Pros: Weapon upgrades, good mobile-style game with short rounds, charming graphics

Cons: meaningless score, money doesn’t collect fast enough, controls

Score: 3/5

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