Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Oh look, more shit to climb on.

STATUS: COMPLETED

RATING: 4/5

I'm going to make this short and sweet, since I'm on my lunch break.

It's a little overdue, but I played through Uncharted 3 a while ago. I'm a huge fan of platformers/adventure games, and the Uncharted series is no exception. While it usually takes me a bit to get used to the shoosting over-the-shoulder combat style, I really enjoy it. Naughty Dog improved on the combat system yet again in this game, focusing more on melee. Even though I didn't play through a ton of it, the melee reminded me a lot of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Drake is throwing and dodging punches, and finishes with a dramatic, slowed down knockout (or kill, since he's clearly a mass murderer at this point) blow.

The platforming felt the same as the other two installments. Don't know where to go? Look at the wall, there's probably some slightly different colored bricks to be used as hand-holds. CLIMB ALL THE THINGS!

I apologize for not remembering a ton of the story details, as I played and finished this game very close to it's release in November. It's been a while... Maybe part of the reason for that, other than my truly awful memory, is that the story just didn't grip me as much as Uncharted 2's story did. In that game there was all the adventure (duh), drama (both romantic and not), and the intensity of the journey Drake goes through to find his treasure. This title HAD the adventure, and a little bit of the drama, and yeah the intensity, but it seemed to be lacking something. I will admit that the desert part where Drake kinda loses his marbles was pretty cool, but I wasn't as into it. I honestly think that, and one other part (which I won't go into, for spoilers sake) were the only real parts of the game where I was thinking "oh god, this shit is crazy."

Once again, the graphics, and imagery in the game were stunning. The artists should probably get a medal, or at least a gold star. The environments and the characters were VERY well done. They even fixed Chloe's terrifying eyes. (Her eyes looked super weird, like she was some scary demon trying to suck your soul out.)

I'm running out of time on my lunch, so I think I'm done for now. All in all, I really did enjoy this game, I just think that Uncharted 2 was the best out of the trilogy.

TL;DR - Great, beautiful game, but not as strong as 2.

-KT

Uncharted : Drake's Fortune

INDIANA GATES!  ...OR BENJAMIN JONES.

STATUS : [COMPLETED]

RATING : [4/5]

KT has been playing wing-woman for this game for a few years now. Yes, I know, its exactly my type of game. It's a platformer, likes to adventure, charismatic personalities, lots of shooting things, likes long walks on the beach, and has a story somewhere between Indiana Jones and National Treasure. On paper, I could marry it.  And now that I've jumped into bed with it, I can say it wouldn't be the worst idea I've had.

I'm not 100% IN LOVE with the game. I mean, I like like it, but I dunno if I like like LIKE like it. I did rush it a little bit, and I have been going into mass overdrive with the games lately, so I feel like any hesitation I might have for it might be the worry that I'm pregnant from some other game.

Shit just got weird.

Anyway, the series might be on par with my love for the Prince of Persia series. Especially since there are some from that series that are just 'okay'. In any case, it can hang out in my 'preferred series' pile.

I'm obviously in an odd place to be writing right now (Whats that floating in my drink?) so I'll try my best to battle my pleonastic ways, and attempt a laconic entry. (Though I seem to be off to a bad start)

ART:

Well done, considering how long ago it came out. There were some obviously awkward bits, but that's to be expected. Environments are well done. People are a bit shiny though. I know, I know, 'welcome to early next-gen art'. Meh.

GAMEPLAY:

Platformer + 3rd person shooter.  Prince of Persia + Gears of War. 

I wish it was more platformer/puzzles, less shooter, but it was fun anyway.

They set up the achievements trophies pretty well; it was hard to ignore the clamour of my completionist side, attempting to coax me into a second playthrough on easy in order to obtain the missing ones... but since I'm trying to get as much PS3/Wii gaming in as I can before I leave, I'm going to continue on.

I was very pleased that among my very first trophies were: 10 Headshots, 30 Headshots, Kill 50 with Pistol, 100 Headshots.  *Gaston-ian Grin*

Anyway. Oh yes, of course, as with many/most platformers, I couldn't help but scoff at the utter convenience of it all. I realize that's something that's difficult to combat, don't get me wrong. It just makes me scrunch my nose a bit. I do my best to tell myself that there are billions of adventurers out there who DIDN'T have a convenient rope hanging down next to the convenient stone moulding that would be reachable but for a conveniently half-destroyed pillar... but obviously those poor suckers died of starvation, and no one wants to hear THAT story. So we're hearing the story about the guy who not only was a badass, but was SUPER lucky.

It helps a little.

DESIGN:

Good level design. They did a good job circling the environments and reusing the same rooms without getting boring. Some games don't pull that off gracefully, or they don't try it at all and just spend a shit ton of money making a linear environment that never doubles onto itself.

STORY:

Like the story. The main character is a little unbelievable, but if you just relax your brain and don't think about it too much, you can enjoy his delightful charisma. The 'partner in crime' reminds me of Bruce Campbell's character in Burn Notice, which isn't a bad thing.  The chick is spunky, but pretty generic.  

Plot is good. Follows your cookie-cutter tomb diving experience, but those are enjoyable, so no complaints.

Alright, I'm done. 

[TLDR] Good game. If you think you'd like a 3rd Person Shooter version of Prince of Persia with an Indiana Jones-esque story, go for it. Took me less than 8 hours to take down, so you're not betting much.

Heavy Rain

PRESS X TO JASON

STATUS : [COMPLETE]

RATING : [4/5]

For those of you that know me, that's NOT a reference to my boyo, but reference to a point in the game where you're looking for your son, and the only thing you can do besides wander around is press 'X' which makes you yell 'JASON'. And you do it a lot.  

You had to be there.

Anyway.

There are a few qualms that I have with the game, but let's start with what's good about it: the story. And, rightly so. Its pretty  much what the entire game is about.  This isn't your average videogame, where the gameplay is the point. Its a different take on what a videogame should be; its more an interactive movie than anything. Its like when you were a kid, reading those choose-your-own-adventure goosebumps books. Throughout the story, there are many decisions you can make, and things you can screw up that effect things in ways you wouldn't even think of.

The story is about a serial killer : the Origami Killer. It kind of plays out like an interactive episode of Criminal Minds. The serial killer kidnaps kids and leaves them to drown in rain water. You've got 4 characters: an FBI Guy with cool Minority Report toys, A dorky and possibly crazy father whose kid has been kidnapped, a chubby but likable alcoholic of a Private Detective, and an sexy insomniac Journalist lady whose personal boundaries are questionable. You don't know who the killer is, and I honestly had no idea until the end. Most of the time, watching shows or movies of the same genre, I like to pick out who I think the killer is. I'm generally pretty good at it.  I guessed a lot in the game. And, looking back, I have that begrudging respect for the game, as I realize how obviously it led me to false conclusions. It's a great story, and if you like murder-mystery type stories with a hint of criminal psychology, you'll probably dig it.

Many games have branching storylines. Unfortunately, with most of them, you can tell exactly when they're going to branch and what will happen when you make the decision you make. Heavy Rain does so well at hiding those branching points that its nearly impossible to tell what will and won't effect the storyline. And even when you do spot them, you don't know what effect it will have in the long run. They've done such a good job, I spent the entire game convinced that every single button I pressed lead down different path. It's probably not true... probably... but the point is, I don't know. It gave me the distinct impression that there are thousands of different branches of storyline. Hell, KT spent most of the game telling me how she'd ended up doing a bunch of things different, and how there were areas I'd gone that she'd never seen, and vice versa. 

They also implemented a pretty good game feature : no game over.  No matter what happens, you can't just go back to the last save and try again. There is no save, its all autosave. Whatever happens, the story keeps on rolling. You fuck up and die, that's part of the story now. If you're quick on the draw you can restart the console, but its generally more fun to just ride it out and see what happens.

The game is one big quick time event. There isn't much gameplay to speak of, aside from that. You walk around and wait for prompts. Then you follow the prompts. Sometimes you have to be quick as hell to pull it off, sometimes its frustratingly misleading. But that's just about all there is for gameplay. While I generally like more gameplay than that, it was still pretty enjoyable. Some of those quick time events got INTENSE.

Some minor complaints:

A lot of it is fixed camera.  While it might be nostalgic to be brought back to the days where a camera-switch results in me walking in awkward circles because down just became up, its not a nostalgia I necessarily ENJOY. Walking is kind of like driving a boat, instead of pressing right to go right, you press right to FACE right, and then hold a trigger to walk. Its awkward. I understand WHY they did it (looking around triggers many event options, so they wanted the ability to look without walking) but that doesn't make it less awkward. And last but not least, there are a lot of times when you've got a bunch of options in front of you. Unfortunately, instead of these options being spelled out, they're represented by a plethora of optional buttons. Sometimes these are obvious. An arrow on a glovebox probably means that if you press that arrow, you'll check the glovebox. However, sometimes they're MUCH more ambiguous, and you end up doing exactly what you were trying to avoid doing. About the time that THAT happens is about the time you remember that awesome 'no save' feature and glare at the screen for a while.

Oh yeah, and replay value up the wazoo.

[TLDR] You like Criminal Minds? Or Bones? Also those choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps books?  Give it a go. Doesn't take too long to beat.

Mass Effect 2

STATUS: COMPLETED (twice)

RATING: 5/5

After many of my friends telling me to play it, and being disappointed in me for NOT playing it, I sat myself down, and finally told myself that I was going to play through Mass Effect 2, whether I liked it or not. I say 2 because at the time, I may or may not have owned an XBox 360, and didn't care to attempt (for probably the 3rd time) to play through the first one. The PS3 version helped a ton with that, because they gave you an interactive comic that summarized the plot of the first game. So i made my choices in that, and went on with my first playthrough.

Playthrough 1 - Having little experience with shooters in general, (aside from my Uncharted 1 and 2 playthroughs) I went in being pretty terrible at the combat. Luckily I quickly got used to it, and started to greatly enjoy the game. Honestly, there wasn't a lot I DIDN'T like about it.

I decided that I was going to be nice-ish the first time I played the game, and while it made for some pretty good dialogue, I found that I usually wanted to make the "bad" decisions. I saved that for the next playthrough though. I definitely enjoyed some team members' story-lines than others, but I feel like that comes with any story-heavy game.

This was the playthrough that I obsessed over the most, even without my ass-hole conversation choices. I went to ALL of the planets to do my probing (hehehe), and did as many side-quests as I could find, minus the DLC (again, saved that for later).

I think the silliest part of the game, was when it came time to "romance" one of the team members. I love the shit out of Garrus, so clearly, that's who I chose, and it was the best. He was super awkward about it, saying things like "I'm going to do some research to figure out how this is going to work." I tested his reach, and he tested my... flexibility. I LOL'd.

In the end, I only lost one party member, and it was because I did her loyalty mission too close to another's, and she ended up hating me. But I thought "whatever, i'll just make sure everyone stays alive during my next playthrough."

Playthrough 2 - THIS was the fun one. I decided to be the jerk that everyone loves to be, and go full Renegade. Kicking people off super tall buildings, punching stupid reporters... Who DOESN'T love that?! I didn't get super obsessive this time, since I just wanted more. I DID, however, play the DLC, minus "The Arrival." (I'm still working on it... leave me alone.) While "Project Overlord" was fun, I was WAY more into "Lair of the Shadow Broker." The story was just more well done, and left you with something to work with when Mass Effect 3 comes out.

While I loved MOST things about this game, there was something that made me want to throw my controller every time. THE FUCKING HUSKS. I don't know what it was, but every time i came upon the buggers, I died multiple times. Whether it was just my lack of coordination, or the classes that I picked, the bastards killed me, over and over. Oh well. I still conquered them. :D

All in all, I loved this game, and will play it again, in preparation for the next one.

-KT

God of War

STATUS: COMPLETED

RATING: 4/5

Hokay so...

I've been putting off writing about my gaming adventures for a while, because I'm not really sure WHAT to write. But, I'm gonna give it a shot, and try not to sound less awesome than I am.

I FINALLY sat down and played the first game in the God of War series. A bunch of different people have been telling me that I should play these games for a very long time, and I just brushed them off like it was no big deal, and that I wasn't missing anything by NOT playing them. I was SUPER wrong.

Maybe I just didn't realize that this is a pretty typical platformer, with a bit of quick time stuff thrown in, or I just didn't want to believe what other people were telling me: OHMAHGAWD THIS GAME IS FANTASTIC.

I really enjoyed everything about this game. I mean, the story was fantastic, the puzzle element to it was challenging at times and made me want to rage-quit (but I kept going), and since i played the game in the "God of War Collection," even the visuals were updated, and made me happy.

There weren't many things I didn't like about the game. Like I said, there were a few times where the puzzle solving made me want to Hulk-smash my PS3, and I can recall a few fights (not even Boss-fights) that I got really frustrated with... (stupid dog things... *grumble grumble*) But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mind you, it DID take me a really long time to get around to beating the game *coughsixmonthscough*, but hey, I have a buttload of other games that I've been working on at the same time.

OH! I did also find probably the GREATEST bug in a game. EVER.
So I was in this big room, minding my own business (you know, hunting for relics and the like) and I got attacked by a shit-ton of harpies. So I'm like "alright, let's do this," and proceed with slicing and dicing them. I'm doing this for a while, and suddenly I notice that one of them gets stuck in the wall, and is spewing out the red orbs that level up all your spells and moves. I walk over to it, and let the orbs flow into me, while every now and then waving my blades a little bit to the side as another harpy foolishly darts towards me. This went on for a good 5 minutes before the harpy got un-stuck and I killed it. I was pleased.

For lack of being able to remember stuff, I'm gonna be done with this now. All in all though, fantastic game, and I'm pretty pumped to start playing the other ones... someday.

-KT