In Third Person

A personal look into video games, the video game industry and video game culture.

Some Thoughts On Crackdown

Posted by Jet
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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Back when this first came out in 2007, Crackdown was I think the first demo I downloaded when I bought my XBOX 360. I heard a lot of hype about its crazy GTA-meets-super hero gameplay and the demo of it was good enough to sell me on it...eventually.

I didn't pick it up that year. For whatever reason, I could not justify purchasing this game, making a note to myself every time I saw it that I would pick it up someday. Well, when the opportunity arose to get it for $5, I couldn't resist.

Is it worth more than $5? Absolutely. If you're the type of person that played Grand Theft Auto for the fun that comes with messing around with a big city, then this is right up your alley. In particular, the super powers of strength and agility make this game its own beast. The sensation of being able to jump to the top of a skyscraper and across rooftops is pretty exhilarating. It's this awesome gameplay mechanic that has left many a gamer scavenging the world for every last agility orb to maximize their hops.

Image from Chud

Compared to Grand Theft Auto IV, Crackdown is a much more "free" experience. The game gives you essentially only 3 types of "missions" (capture a supply point, kill a general or kill a kingpin) and technically, you can complete them in any way you choose. However, the lack of structure can be a downer to those looking for a good story. The game ultimately boils down to "kill dudes", and not much else. Which for the most part is fine, because for what it does, it does really well.

My only real beef at the moment is that the game isn't really as open as it hypes itself up to be. Players are kept away from playing the game "out of order" by making elements of the world physically unreachable or the opposition too strong and too vast to take out. I totally understand why this was done, but it did feel really cheap in implementation.

With Crackdown 2 on the way early next year, this game is still worth a look even after all this time. I'm almost done the game, and maybe see myself picking up Crackdown 2 a lot faster than I did with this one.

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Some Thoughts On Abbey Road DLC For The Beatles: Rock Band

Posted by Jet
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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Image from Game Spy

One of my initial concerns over The Beatles: Rock Band was the limited song selection. With Rock Band 2 packing over 80 songs on the disc and currently over 900 songs total available, 45 Beatles songs seems paltry in comparison. Even if the game eventually included every single Beatles song ever made, the catalogue would never catch up in terms of sheer volume of songs.

Since the game came out though, I've played way more Beatles than regular Rock Band, because most of those 45 songs are really, really awesome. Adding to that awesome this week was the release of Abbey Road as downloadable content. If you're familiar with The Beatles catalogue, you probably already know wheter or not you want this.

For me, Abbey Road is easily my favourite Beatles album, so buying this was a no-brainer. The moment I had a chance, my brother and I played the whole album front-to-back.

The joy I felt from playing through the entirety of Abbey Road may have only been rivaled by the first time I "got" Guitar Hero. Your experience will vary based on how much you like the music, but for me that is the best music game content to date (and maybe the best it will ever be).

Image from IGN

For all of the hyperbole, there are two caveats to this package. For the cost of completing the Abbey Road package, you're paying a lot for not much. Most of the big songs from the album came on the disc, so you're paying mainly for 2 full songs and the 16-minute medley. If you love Abbey Road then this doesn't matter. The pricing for individual tracks is a bit dicey as well. Would you pay $1 to get "Her Majesty", a 21-second song?

The only other beef that some may have is the inability to play certain songs from the medley separately. Due to te way these songs were put together, it would be weird to have "Polythene Pam" abruptly stop when "She Came Throgh The Bathroom Window". If you've played The Beatles: Rock Band, you've experienced this withthe first 2 songs off of Sgt. Pepper.

And in the end...if you're looking for more Beatles music for your Rock Band, this might be as good as it gets.

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Some Thoughts On Mirror's Edge

Posted by Jet
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Image from IGN

Released in 2008, Mirror's Edge was a game I was following closely. The concept of a game built around first-person parkour action in concept seemed totally awesome and totally un-doable. Most first-person games don't even let you see your own feet, control like you're a walking turret rather than a person, and platforming elements more often than not are a chore. How could a developer pull off such acrobatics from a first-person perspective?

Well, the game turned out good, hitting 79 on Metacritic, but a few of the flaws I found in the demo (as well as a limited budget and other games to get) prevented me from "jumping in" (sorry for the pun). I thought that the parkour action at its best was exhilarating in a way a video game has never made me feel before. However, I felt like I was constantly fighting with the controls and the combat systems felt clunky. I would die repeatedly because of the controls not doing what I wanted, which either caused me to fall off a building or get shot in the face at point blank range.

Image from Got Game

In spite of all that, I still wanted to give the game a chance. Today, I finally bought a used copy of the game for $5. At that price, I think I could take a chance on it. I also got Crackdown for $5, which was a game I waited even longer on to try out, but I'll talk about that another day.

I admit, I'm currently not that far into Mirror's Edge. From what I've seen so far though, it's kind of everything I hoped for (and feared) when I played the demo. The art style is awesome, the scenarios are exciting and the sensation of being a free runner flawlessly doing crazy stunts is incredible. But with all the awesomeness came dying. A lot. I must have died roughly 40 times in 60 minutes because I couldn't get a grasp of the controls. I feel that the buttons by default are mapped weird, and don't always respond the way I want them too. Also, the game really does fall apart when you're forced to fight, because the hand-to-hand combat and shooting engine are pretty bad.

I really want to love this game. I applaud Dice and EA for taking a chance on this and am glad that a sequel is on the way. I'll give the game more time and hopefully the game can change my opinion over the course of the game.

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The Day The Music Died (Again)

Posted by Jet
Saturday, September 26, 2009
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Image from IGN

After buying a whole new Rock Band 2 set just to replace my 5th broken drum set and my always-janky Rock Band 1 guitar, I am once again faced with another instrument setback.

My less-than-two-month-old guitar is broken. The strum bar has ceased to work.

Ugh. I've already gone through the process of RMA-ing it, but nevertheless I'm still extremely frustrated. I love the entire Rock Band series of games and actually prefer the feel of the Rock Band instruments over the Guitar Hero instruments. However, I don't want to put up with these hardware issues anymore. Do I go back to Rock Band instruments and hope someday they'll work properly or should I just try something else?

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Scribblenauts Is Racist?

Posted by Jet
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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Image from Joystiq

Over the last few hours, the video game blogosphere has been going insane over the inclusion of the word "sambo" in Scribblenauts.

Joystiq and Kotaku, just to name two outlets, have covered this topic, and I think blew it way out of proportion.

Kotaku in particular, went into a whole piece connecting the word "sambo" with the racist connotations while completely glossing over the other meanings of the word, even when they use the developers explanation in their own story.
Slaczka said that the word was included in Scribblenauts because it is an ingredient of the Ecuadorian dish Fanesca, which is listed, on Wikipedia, as including a "figleaf gourd," or "sambo".
- Kotaku

What they didn't do until hours later and until a user brought it up, was include an image of what that definition of "sambo" is. Take a look:

Image from Kotaku commenter DwarfP

I'll be damned if that doesn't look like a watermelon to me.
From Joystiq:
As for the watermelon-like appearance? "We reuse art," he said. "Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon. It's just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names."
I'm not ignorant to the racial connotations to the term. But I'm very disappointed in many of these blogs and news outlets that completely gloss over the reason the developers actually put "sambo" in the game. I don't think 5th Cell is wrong for putting "sambo" in the game if they intended it as the local term for fig leaf gourd. The problem is people looking for racism that isn't really there.


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Some Thoughts Before The Beatles: Rock Band Drops

Posted by Jet
Monday, September 7, 2009
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Image from Ohgizmo

As a music game enthusiast, there may not be a bigger day than 09-09-09, when The Beatles: Rock Band hits store shelves. A game based around the biggest musical act in the history of music made by the guys who make my preferred rock music game of choice is guaranteed to be "full of win". There isn't really much to be said other than it's Rock Band but with Beatles music.

As a Beatles "fan", my journey towards this game makes for a far more interesting story. Sure, I know all the hits, and I grew up in a house where I was taught from a very young age that the Beatles were the best band in the world. I never questioned it growing up.

But now I feel like I want to know more before I plunge into this game. I'm sure the game will do a decent job of starting off a person's quest into learning about the band, but I really wanted to form my own opinion about their music. So, I raided my dad's Beatles stash and ripped every album onto my computer. I've been trying to listen to albums front-to-back to try and get a sense of the full album experience.

It's really interesting to listen to this music and read the history behind each album to see where it was coming from. It's also really cool to see how they evolved musically. I'm not done my "vision quest" just yet, but my favourite album I've listened to front to back so far is Revolver. With the exception of "Love You Too", I thought every song on there was great, and does a great job of capturing the transition the group made from pop hits to more experimental and rock stuff.

Worst album? This one is easy for me. I think Beatles For Sale is awful. After reading about the making of that album, I could see why. They only had 2 weeks to record it, and almost half the songs on there are covers, and not necessarily great ones. With the exception of "Eight Days A Week", this album left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Image from Beatles.com

I feel really good being able to enlighten myself about the Beatles and form my own opinions about their music and to a point, their legacy. It's good to find great album music that never got any play on the radio. It's also a good feeling that I'm not going into this video game cold. 9-9-9 is only a few days away!

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Some Thoughts On the Batman: Arkham Asylum (Full Game)

Posted by Jet
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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Image from Game Spy

So much for not buying Batman: Arkham Asylum like I said I would. I'm glad I changed my mind at the last minute.

If critical acclaim couldn't make me buy the game, what did? Thanks to Wal-Mart, many retailers in my country were selling the game at launch for just over half price. For most people, Arkham Asylum is a fine purchase at full price. At half price? It's a steal.

A lot of my concerns about the game that popped into my head during the demo were quelled when playing the final game. It didn't get repetitive. I didn't get crazy lost. It wasn't a crappy licensed game. The experience didn't drag on too long, and only got better with time.

Take out Batman from this game and it's still awesome. I played it from front-to-back in a 3-day binge and loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute of it. I do have minor gripes with how it ends, but up until that point it just got increasingly awesome.

By far the best moments of the game featured the Scarecrow. It would be a crime for me to spoil any more than that. They are must-experience moments for any gamer, period.

Many people have said this is game of the year material. I don't think this will win it, but I would definitely say the game is a sure-fire honourable mention and worth your time. Go buy this game!

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