I've always been dubious of Red Faction series. The original Red Faction was released on the PC back in 2001. I remember trying the demo and coming away thinking that the Geo-Mod terrain destruction/deformation was a tech demo and nothing more. It seemed like a great idea whose time had not come yet, certainly not in that game anyway. I promptly forgot about it despite the fact that a sequel followed one or two years later. Checking on Mobygames, I guess the PC version didn't have multiplayer support at all? Very stupid.
Let's let bygones be bygones however! Red Faction: Guerilla is a great game that could fly under the radar if more people don't check it out. This particular Red Faction game has been expanded into an open world game, akin to a Grand Theft Auto type of game. The main focus in Guerilla is not destructible terrain, but destructble structures within that terrain: radio towers, office buildings, barracks, security checkpoints, shipping crates, vehicles, chemical tanks, bridges, etc. etc. etc. If it was created by man, you can destroy it... by man.
That's really the focus of the game. It's not going to be the first videogame to make you cry (there's still the countdown to tears, after all) but it may just change the way you think about certain games.
This is a game that now gives you an extra way to interact with your character's world. Granted, it stills centers around the absolute destruction of an object as your primary means of interactivity, but it's nice that we're advancing the depth of that concept. The game forces you to think about the weapons you use in two applications now: efficiency of killing soldiers versus efficiency of destroying buildings. You now can cleverly use your environment besides just taking advantage of the new well-executed cover system. Take out the structural supports on a bridge and watch the army convoy get buried by your maelstrom of wreckage. Need to take out a satellite dish on top of a (seemingly) well guarded military installation? Find the biggest truck you can and drive through the support beams, taking out the dish objective along with a whole mess of troops in the upper floors. Need to lose an army pursuit force? Use a rocket to destroy the bridge the military was about to follow you over.
Another notable design decision that I like is that Red Faction: Guerilla is the first open world game I've played where I actually care about keeping the NPC civilians alive, not just during an escort mission of some kind. It actually makes me feel like I'm part of a rebel uprising. People go from being super pissed at you jacking their vehicles to gladly jumping out and letting you take it for the cause. Then they'll pick up rifles and other weapons and keep the military distracted while you set up elaborate traps of destruction with your explosive devices. I'm really impressed by the fact that their survival not only explicitly rewards me (with more salvage/money and new missions to undertake) but implicitly as well (they go from not wanting to get involved to laying down suppressing fire with their machine guns or grabbing a turret on your truck as you move out). It gets me as a player vested into their cause.
Check Red Faction: Guerilla out. It may just surprise you in its flexibility and interesting aesthetic. I also hear the multiplayer modes are a lot of fun, which I fully intend to check out as some point as well.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Maybe it's because I don't know a goddamned thing about golf
but I think I just got completely fucking robbed in Tiger Woods 10 for Wii. I was playing a game with my friend, and I had a BEAUTIFUL shot on a Par 3. Then a heartbeat sound started playing, and my ball landed on the green and started sloooooooooowly rolling towards the hole.
!
.... O. M. F. G.
Hole In One!
Fuck yeah! First hole in one ever, virtually or otherwise!
The game's response?
OUT OF BOUNDS
WTF?!?
Maybe one of you golfers out there can help me out, but when the HELL is a Hole In One out of bounds?!?!?!?
FWIW, we were playing Skins? Maybe that was it. Golf is hard.
!
.... O. M. F. G.
Hole In One!
Fuck yeah! First hole in one ever, virtually or otherwise!
The game's response?
OUT OF BOUNDS
WTF?!?
Maybe one of you golfers out there can help me out, but when the HELL is a Hole In One out of bounds?!?!?!?
FWIW, we were playing Skins? Maybe that was it. Golf is hard.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Directed Fun Versus Meta-fun
I had an idle thought while playing Prototype yesterday. A lot of reviews out there are complaining about how bland the world is and how your character has a variety of attacks and powers but no challenges that make you fully utilize the options that are available to you.
I wonder if I'm just finding fun in different places than a lot of reviewers out there, or if I'm just far more easily amused (could very well be the latter point!). One of my favorite things to do in Prototype thus far is to harass random pedestrians. If you slowly walk in Prototype, your character gives anyone near him a little push (a bit like Assassin's Creed, but more of a forceful push). Most of the pedestrians admonish you or flip you off while military-types will shove you back or start verbally berating you.
Which makes it all the more satisfying to grab them by the throat and have your way with them. >:)
Depending on how I feel, I may a) just absorb the overly confident pedestrian in a maelstrom of bone and blood, b) throw them at a car, often bouncing them off hoods and into other vehicles, or c) run away with them to consume them out of sight, like a predator which has just caught its prey.
This particular meta-game that I play is probably where I feel the most like a HUGE JERK in Prototype. If I'm just destroying the military or rival mutants during regular missions, I feel more like my character is a force of nature that harbors no particular malice towards NY citizens even if they (almost always) get swept up as collateral damage.
In this way, I feel like Prototype is not entirely unlike Assassin's Creed, where you have to make your own fun to really get the most out of the game. It's just that this game has the tools to make your metagaming interesting, unlike Assassin's Creed.
I wonder if I'm just finding fun in different places than a lot of reviewers out there, or if I'm just far more easily amused (could very well be the latter point!). One of my favorite things to do in Prototype thus far is to harass random pedestrians. If you slowly walk in Prototype, your character gives anyone near him a little push (a bit like Assassin's Creed, but more of a forceful push). Most of the pedestrians admonish you or flip you off while military-types will shove you back or start verbally berating you.
Which makes it all the more satisfying to grab them by the throat and have your way with them. >:)
Depending on how I feel, I may a) just absorb the overly confident pedestrian in a maelstrom of bone and blood, b) throw them at a car, often bouncing them off hoods and into other vehicles, or c) run away with them to consume them out of sight, like a predator which has just caught its prey.
This particular meta-game that I play is probably where I feel the most like a HUGE JERK in Prototype. If I'm just destroying the military or rival mutants during regular missions, I feel more like my character is a force of nature that harbors no particular malice towards NY citizens even if they (almost always) get swept up as collateral damage.
In this way, I feel like Prototype is not entirely unlike Assassin's Creed, where you have to make your own fun to really get the most out of the game. It's just that this game has the tools to make your metagaming interesting, unlike Assassin's Creed.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Hah, Called It
in my last blog post. Nate Fox, the Game Director of inFamous gives a shout-out to the Spider-man 2 game as being influential while they designed the game. Glad to see my observations were not just ramblings. :)
Good interview on Joystiq, give it a read.
Good interview on Joystiq, give it a read.
Monday, June 1, 2009
I might be playing a superhero in inFAMOUS...
but the "evil" poster some guy painted of me was too awesome. So I decided to let the artist plaster copies of it all over Empire City. Thus my moral standing took a dip because of negative propaganda that I put my seal of approval on. :(
This post isn't a review of any kind, it basically is just giving me an excuse to talk about inFamous (spelling the game's title canonically is already getting tiresome).
It all began with Spider-man 2. Technology had progressed to the point that someone FINALLY got the bright idea of "Hey. These Grand Theft Auto games are pretty popular. Should we make Spider-man screw hookers and then drop them off skyscrapers? WAITAMINUTE what if we took the other fun part of GTA games and apply the open world "sandbox" philosophy to Spider-man instead?" The result is the template that (any notable) Spider-man game has followed ever since. While they have seen various levels of success quality-wise, what it did do was inspire other companies with dreams of "Superhero" games to apply the sandbox design to their characters.
Then Crackdown came along. Crackdown stands out in my mind because it was a successful fusion of the Superhero's Sandbox and the Thug's Sandbox. In Crackdown, you can hijack cars, pick up all manner of conventional weaponry (handguns, machineguns, rocket launchers, grenades, etc.) and go on huge rampages commonly seen in GTA games. At the same time, Crackdown puts you in the shoes of a genetically modified supercop. Your cop can develop superpowers that are most manifest in the ability to leap incredibly high (jumping from building to building, and scaling up ledges are commonplace in Crackdown) which you can eventually develop into the ability to LEAP OVER certain buildings. Combine this with the fact that you can improve your character's strength, and soon you are kicking cars at gang members or lifting semi-trucks, jumping onto a roof, and taking out an entire gang at once by throwing the truck at them. The vertical nature of the game combined with the varied toolset of your abilities plus the many weapons at your disposal gives Crackdown an incredibly versatile sandbox for you to enjoy.
What Crackdown opened my eyes to is that I have the most fun in the Superhero Sandboxes though. Spider-man 2 couldn't nail down that preference for me because outside of the incredibly fun webswinging, the depth of gameplay wasn't there. I could start to see my preference start to develop in Crackdown and I'm happy to say that my preference for superhero sandbox games (hereafter known as Open World Fuck Shit UP games) has come to fruition with inFamous.
I'll say upfront that I don't think inFamous quite has Crackdown's versatility. You can't do crazy barrel rolls and flips in cars because you can't drive vehicles in the game. This game seems to focus exclusively on the Superhero sandbox versus the Thug sandbox. But oh how inFamous revels in its Superhero trappings...
Like any great character driven action-adventure game, there's a tried-and-true experience point based character progression system that allows you to unlock new skills or upgrade old ones as you play the game more. Your powers range from a simple lightning bolt (which you can use infinitely) to lightning grenades, shockwaves to push foes away from you or juggle them, concentrated electrical bursts that explode on impact and more. While there are many enjoyable way to murder evildoers (or civilians...) the game also has some great travel powers that make traversing the city a pleasure. Your character Cole can scale virtually any building as long as there's a handhold somewhere (much like in Assassin's Creed) and will learn to grind off of power lines and train tracks (which will allow him to leech electricity to fuel his powers after an upgrade, natch). A typical encounter in inFamous for me (as of yesterday) has me grinding a power line, using precision to counter-snipe headshot an enemy which will chain lightning to his buddies, jumping off the powerline and coming down in a huge thunderstomp to clear the ground foes from around me, chucking a few grenades at the stragglers or throwing some orb bursts into the air and painting the targets with my primary bolt. Get a quick recharge to my batteries from a telephone booth and then I climb an apartment building and find a new powerline to grind.
Some people have complained that Cole's superpowers mimic conventional weaponry too much to be truly interesting (there are electrical equivalents to grenades, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers) But the fact that you have access to all of these powers and can combine them with each other seamlessly goes a long way toward selling the concept of "superhero" versus "thug" to me. Even better, the powers can for complementary effects as well as being modified by your moral alignment. A basic example is that my Good Shockwave slowly starts to make anyone hit by it float away helplessly, whereas my Evil Shockwave will actually electrocute foes unfortunate to be in the eye of the shockwave.
Long story short: I wish I could be at home playing this RIGHT NOW.
This post isn't a review of any kind, it basically is just giving me an excuse to talk about inFamous (spelling the game's title canonically is already getting tiresome).
It all began with Spider-man 2. Technology had progressed to the point that someone FINALLY got the bright idea of "Hey. These Grand Theft Auto games are pretty popular. Should we make Spider-man screw hookers and then drop them off skyscrapers? WAITAMINUTE what if we took the other fun part of GTA games and apply the open world "sandbox" philosophy to Spider-man instead?" The result is the template that (any notable) Spider-man game has followed ever since. While they have seen various levels of success quality-wise, what it did do was inspire other companies with dreams of "Superhero" games to apply the sandbox design to their characters.
Then Crackdown came along. Crackdown stands out in my mind because it was a successful fusion of the Superhero's Sandbox and the Thug's Sandbox. In Crackdown, you can hijack cars, pick up all manner of conventional weaponry (handguns, machineguns, rocket launchers, grenades, etc.) and go on huge rampages commonly seen in GTA games. At the same time, Crackdown puts you in the shoes of a genetically modified supercop. Your cop can develop superpowers that are most manifest in the ability to leap incredibly high (jumping from building to building, and scaling up ledges are commonplace in Crackdown) which you can eventually develop into the ability to LEAP OVER certain buildings. Combine this with the fact that you can improve your character's strength, and soon you are kicking cars at gang members or lifting semi-trucks, jumping onto a roof, and taking out an entire gang at once by throwing the truck at them. The vertical nature of the game combined with the varied toolset of your abilities plus the many weapons at your disposal gives Crackdown an incredibly versatile sandbox for you to enjoy.
What Crackdown opened my eyes to is that I have the most fun in the Superhero Sandboxes though. Spider-man 2 couldn't nail down that preference for me because outside of the incredibly fun webswinging, the depth of gameplay wasn't there. I could start to see my preference start to develop in Crackdown and I'm happy to say that my preference for superhero sandbox games (hereafter known as Open World Fuck Shit UP games) has come to fruition with inFamous.
I'll say upfront that I don't think inFamous quite has Crackdown's versatility. You can't do crazy barrel rolls and flips in cars because you can't drive vehicles in the game. This game seems to focus exclusively on the Superhero sandbox versus the Thug sandbox. But oh how inFamous revels in its Superhero trappings...
Like any great character driven action-adventure game, there's a tried-and-true experience point based character progression system that allows you to unlock new skills or upgrade old ones as you play the game more. Your powers range from a simple lightning bolt (which you can use infinitely) to lightning grenades, shockwaves to push foes away from you or juggle them, concentrated electrical bursts that explode on impact and more. While there are many enjoyable way to murder evildoers (or civilians...) the game also has some great travel powers that make traversing the city a pleasure. Your character Cole can scale virtually any building as long as there's a handhold somewhere (much like in Assassin's Creed) and will learn to grind off of power lines and train tracks (which will allow him to leech electricity to fuel his powers after an upgrade, natch). A typical encounter in inFamous for me (as of yesterday) has me grinding a power line, using precision to counter-snipe headshot an enemy which will chain lightning to his buddies, jumping off the powerline and coming down in a huge thunderstomp to clear the ground foes from around me, chucking a few grenades at the stragglers or throwing some orb bursts into the air and painting the targets with my primary bolt. Get a quick recharge to my batteries from a telephone booth and then I climb an apartment building and find a new powerline to grind.
Some people have complained that Cole's superpowers mimic conventional weaponry too much to be truly interesting (there are electrical equivalents to grenades, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers) But the fact that you have access to all of these powers and can combine them with each other seamlessly goes a long way toward selling the concept of "superhero" versus "thug" to me. Even better, the powers can for complementary effects as well as being modified by your moral alignment. A basic example is that my Good Shockwave slowly starts to make anyone hit by it float away helplessly, whereas my Evil Shockwave will actually electrocute foes unfortunate to be in the eye of the shockwave.
Long story short: I wish I could be at home playing this RIGHT NOW.
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