The 5 Games I'm most looking forward to in 2010

Last week Bojeeva posted his Top 5 most anticipated games for 2010, and this week I’m posting mine, but to add a little interest, our Top 5s are going to go head to head. Essentially, we’ll be adding up the review scores from IGN, Eurogamer and Gamespot for each game, then adding the scores of all the games together. Whoever’s Top 5 scores the highest gets a couple of crisp notes.Why? Well, for starters I’m sick of being on the losing end of our seasonal Arsenal/Utd bet, but also because it adds even greater weight of expectation to the games as we buy them, and turns the normally mundane experience of reading online reviews into something with a rooting interest akin to Fantasy Football. On top of that, it will tempt us to review the reviewers, and, of course, it has the potential for upsets and reversals.
Just to be fair, I’m leaving Bayonetta off my list. It would probably rank as one of my Top 5 most anticipated games of 2010, and its not out yet, but we all know already how highly it’s going to score, so including it in my list would be a cheap shot, and I like to save my cheap shots for when nobody is looking.
So, in reverse order, these are my most anticipated games of 2010...
5. Mass Effect 2I’m among that small group of people who weren’t that impressed with Mass Effect. The story was great, as was the sense that your in game choices were having a sizeable effect on the plot and the broader game universe. On the other hand, the combat stank, the team mates were barely adequate bulletstoppers and there was no point in doing the dull, repetetive side missions. And couldn’t it bang on? And on. And on. It’s quite likely that Mass Effect 2 will also be all talk, but I can forgive that if Bioware makes good on it’s promise to tidy up the clunky cover and soporific shooting and make the galaxy worth exploring. Add to that the sense of a persistent universe created by Mass Effect 2’s promise to use your Mass Effect save file to bring the life changing decisions you made in the original into the sequel, and you’ve got a game that’s determined to build on it’s strengths and fix its weaknesses.
4. Heavy RainI’ve got an Xbox 360, a Wii, a Mac and a PC, and until I heard about Heavy Rain I’d never once regretted the absence of a PS3 from that list. Now though, I’ll either have to start saving or console borrowing, because I really fancy a bit of Quantic Dream’s conceptual thriller Following four characters linked by a serial killer, Heavy Rain has the potential to be a genuine step forward in gaming, one that puts narrative and character before action and interaction. Of course, it is possible that a game in which you have to brush your teeth and help dress your son for school might well turn out to be too close to everyday real life to be interesting. It is possible that a game that will continue to unfold its story regardless of whether you’ve managed to kill off one or more of your characters will consequently feel less like a game and more like a movie with button prompts. On the other hand, its also possible that the focus on human relationships and the finality of death will make Heavy Rain the most emotionally involving, high stakes game you’ve ever played. I’m choosing to be optimistic and expect a revolutionary gaming experience.
3. Alan WakeI love a bit of survival horror, be it early Resident Evils and Silent Hills, neglected gems like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, or even grisly, action-packed versions of the genre like Dead Space, but it has to said that survival horror as a genre seems to be in trouble these days. Silent Hill is a laughable shadow of it’s old self, Resdient Evil has become a shooter, and Dead Space was a bit of a one-trick pony, and more focused on shocks than suspense. So why am I so sure that the oft-delayed Alan Wake will buck the genre’s downward trend? Er…I’m not. It might stink. The reason I’m so excited about Alan Wake is because at least half the articles that mention it have name checked Twin Peaks when trying to describe Alan Wake’s look and feel, and anything that can evoke the stratospheric high points of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s patchy but brilliant early 90s drama/murder mystery/soap opera pastiche has to be worth a look.
2. Crackdown 2I was a late convert to the original Crackdown. Never a wholehearted believer in the wisdom of crowds, I tended to ignore the praise heaped on it from all quarters and instead trusted my own instincts, which suggested that the perfunctory, barely-there plot (three islands, three gangs, 21 gang leaders, go kill) would be too shallow and shapeless to provide the game with any sense of progression. So, I was wrong about that, eh? The urge to collect more orbs, to leap taller buildings, to drive cars faster, to aim sharper, to throw further, these ever improving attributes provided Crackdown with all the impetus normally granted by plot twists and changing environments, as well as making it completely addictive. To be honest, Crackdown 2 could be a simple retread of the original and I’d still be keen to play it, but the fact that it promises to add a day/night cycle that affects the type of enemies you face to existing template of running, jumping, kicking cars makes it a must have. It’s also the only game to appear on both my list and Bojeeva’s, making it the Wayne Rooney of videogame review fantasy football.
1. Red Dead RedemptionI can hardly tell you how much I’m looking forward to Red Dead Redemption. In fact, I can hardly tell you why I’m looking forward to Red Dead Redemption, but I am. Lets be honest, it’s predecessor, the slightly tongue-in-cheek Red Dead Revolver was good, but not stellar. The two Call of Juarez games were fun but felt a little like Call of Duty with a cowboy skin and some banjos, and much as I adored playing Gun back in the day, I can’t pretend that it was much more than a technicolour Saturday matinee of a western game with a slo-mo mechanic that was already starting to look unoriginal even back then. So why do I think Red Dead Redemption will buck the trend? For starters, it’s an open world game from Rockstar San Diego, the company (if not the particular division) responsible for open world gaming’s finest moments, The Grand Theft Auto series. In the best westerns the landscape becomes practically another character, so Rockstar’s ability to create living, breathing, endlessly fascinating open-world landscapes for you to explore looks likely to be a huge and fitting selling point for Red Dead Redemption. Add to that the good looks and evocative character designs currently on display in the trailer, what appears to be an intriguing plot concerning an outlaw becoming an unwilling agent for the law, and Rockstar’s promise of hitherto unseen naturalism in the integration of plot, side missions and environment, and you have my pick for the most exciting game of 2010.

Defending Bishock

Poor old Bioshock has become the Tiger Woods of gaming in the last few weeks, its formerly glittering façade apparently showing some signs of tarnish. Why is that? Because of the internet, of course. A digit in the year is about to change and consequently every real and wannabe journalist (and on the internet, who can tell them apart?) has decided to mark the end of the decade with a list. Personally, I think the end of the decade should be marked with an insightful and wide-ranging article full of relevant interviews and research that seeks to encapsulate and learn from the preceding ten years, but I haven’t got the time to write it and nor does anyone else, so lists it is.

Anyway, despite having praise liberally heaped upon it ever since its debut in 2007, Bioshock’s presence in the never ending stream of best of lists which we’re using to finally smother the noughties out of their embarrasingly named misery has got a lot of people’s backs up. “It’s not revolutionary enough.” “It didn’t change the way we play games.” “It holds your hand to much.”

To be fair, those aren’t inaccurate criticisms. At its heart, Bioshock is just another first person shooter. It’s easy to be a little underwhelmed by it, but seriously, don’t write it off the big lists just yet. This is the decade that saw the likes of Madworld and Far Cry 2 hyped to the rooftops. That’s what happens if you don’t keep a firm grasp on the concept of what a good game is.

There’s more to Bioshock than what Yahtzee memorably described as objectivist folderol, although it has to be said, the folderol is a huge part of the experience. Hearing a paraphrase of Ayn Rand’s self-serving philosophies dished up by the game’s Andrew Ryan in a voice that resembles Charles Foster Kane at his most contemptuous is a huge part of the game, as much of the Bioshock atmosphere comes from the contrast between the contorted justification of greed and selfishness with the horrors it has led to. While Ryan booms out Zeus like pronouncements from the tannoy and Atlas charms you over the radio, the reality of the situation is revealed by Rapture’s many audio diaries that paint the real picture of the city’s decline through the fears of its citizens. There aren’t many games that craft such a nuanced, layered story or unfold it with such perfect timing, and all with barely a cutscene in sight.

If the story isn’t enough for you, what about Rapture itself? All gilt and neon, art deco at the bottom of the ocean, Bioshock is one of those games that constantly makes you stop to just look around. Remember how you loved the wide open environment when you first played Halo, but it soon wore off? Remember the way the pre-rendered backgrounds of Resident Evil gave a real sense of place and progress, but they soon wore off too? In Bioshock, Rapture never wears off. Even after several hours of play you’ll still be stopping in rooms and corridors to marvel at the view

Ten there are the achievements. Few games ever get the balance of achievements as right as Bioshock does, and its responsible for my final conversion into a scorewhore. It’s almost as if Bioshock is grateful to you for playing it, the way it constantly drops little 15 and 20g gifts into your score, whilst holding in reserve some slightly tougher rewards designed to make you play more, and harder. Even Bioshock’s big achievements are perfectly balanced between not being instantly attainable, but not being so difficult that they ever reduce the game to the drudge of pigeon-hunting or ingot-collecting.

Sure, Bioshock does have it’s weaknesses. For all the nuance of its story, the games famed moral choice aspect is a blunt and unsophisticated either/or proposition, and don’t get me started on the difficulty. Having heard time and again how tough the Big Daddies were, how I’d feel amazing when I finally beat one of these dangerous behemoths, how they’re among gaming’s best bosses, I naturally erred on the side of caution and set the difficulty a little low for my first Bioshock playthrough. I spent the game with medical kits raining down on me like manna from heaven, got to the point here I was killing Big Daddies in a nonchalant, offhanded fashion (can you wield a rocket launcher insouciantly? I certainly can.) and only died once in the entire game.

Of course, that’s a minor complaint. When a game offers character development and plot material right to the very last, it would be a terrible shame to miss any of it by turning the difficulty level up to the level of a brain aching slog.

No, Bioshock may be ‘just another shooter’, but it’s a brilliantly realised one, full of wit and clever asides, set in a beautifully degraded environment. It doesn’t reinvent the way games are played, but it’s mix of inventiveness and excitement reminds you of why you play them in the first place.

Give them some money...

...it's for charity. You know, for kids! Besides, tell me you aren't jealous of the eye-bleeding fun they must be having while you're at work.

http://desertbus.org/

First Impressions: Left4Dead 2

If the enormous amount of lag was anything to go by, I wasn't the only one to download the Left4Dead 2 playable demo today. While 30,000 boycotters may still be keeping up the pretense that they're not going to play the game, the magically vanishing, twitching, reappearing state of play today suggested that a heavy load was being placed on the game by everyone who did want a go.

Personally, I've never been particularly bothered by Valve's decision to go for a sequel rather than DLC for the original game. Yes, the four campaigns in the original installment can't help but become overfamiliar very swiftly, despite the best efforts of the AI director.The recent addition of an extra DLC map didn't do much to compensate, as it's hard not to cast a grudging eye at the PC players downloading stacks of user generated maps such as the brilliant Coal'd Blood and feel that the console version is looking a little tired. More DLC would have been nice, but a sequel is just as good, its not like we haven't had a year to save up for it. The fear for me was never that L4D would be abandoned, but that the sequel wouldn't be able to create the same cinematic excitement offered by the first installment.

So, based on the demo, how's it looking? Well, the addition of melee combat has brought the expected mild whiff of Dead Rising, as you trade in your second pistol for frying pans, machetes or even a guitar. It works, and provides a comedic, ammo-conserving alternative to firepower, but it doesn't really seem to add that much to the game. Explosive bullets, on the other hand? They look pretty handy, not that I managed to lay hands on any today. The new special infected are pitch perfect, with Jockeys,acid phlegm and Chargers all providing new varieties of peril and creating new flavours of havoc, without being powerful enough to detract from the games uber-threat, the Tank. Yes, you'll still get dreadbelly when that distinctive roar and ominous music kick in.

Best of all, the environments seem to be greatly improved. While there were lots of side paths and rooms to explore in the original, they were always just bolt ons, you never lost sight of where you were going. In Left 4 Dead 2, however, it's easy to stray off the correct path, and should a team member become seperated and incapacitated, you'll embark on a heart-in-mouth trackback through lengthy, meandering maps to rescue them, expecting the horde at any second. It was at times like this that I began to feel like L4D2 might even surpass it's predecessors ability to crank up the tension. Having only had 'The Parish' to play so far, it's to soon to tell, but if the other levels are as good at forcing splits in the group, then L4D2 is going to exceed it's predecessor.

Wolfenstein Preview

Wolfenstein, from the hour or so I've played of it, is pretty much exactly what you're expecting of a Wolfenstein game: A mixture of Nazi's and Lovecraft that has just enough tongue in its cheek to excuse the combination but not enough to make you feel entirely comfortable with it.

It's glossily presented and has a very physical feel to the action. There's a time-slowing mechaqnic and a sort of green mist that can be used to see alternative pathways through the place.

It's extremely messy as well...a glancing shot, apparently unscripted during open play, took the arm off one opponent and carried on into the head of another. It's gleefully messy and violent, with some incredibly powerful weapons, both ballistic and sci fi, and opponents that are dumb as hammers but fast and accurate when they do find you.

Great fun. Nothing new or original, but I enjoyed it.

Yes, I had a lovely holiday...

...thanks for asking. Back to it now, and Wolfenstein previews is on the way.

I've played Batman: Arkham Asylum, who wants to touch me?

Surrounded by mannequins depicting a selection of gaming’s greatest characters, not to mention some preposterously breasted Lara Croft models, I started wondering if Batman has what it takes to join them in gaming’s pantheon. On the evidence I’ve seen it definitely has what it takes to impress Batman fanboys, thanks to endless visual and dialogue references to all parts of the Batman canon and a selection of script and voice talent from the popular animated series. So, as a massive comic geek I can say that I’m deliriously happy with the game. But the question is, what’s it like when you pick up the controller?

I’ve now had about two hours of hands-on time with a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum that’s so close to being finished that there’s little more than a bit of sound balancing to be done, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s really very good…but perhaps not perfect. I won’t review on the basis of two hours, but I’m guessing the finished game is heading for a very positive three stars or perhaps even four.

For starters, it’s beautifully presented, with everything from the strangely tinted lighting effects through to the rippling of Batman’s cape clearly showing the benefit of some painstaking work. Huge amounts of motion capture have been used, with the actor playing Killer Croc wearing weights on his legs to get a suitably lumbering, musclebound gait.

Combat is split between three buttons: Y for counters, X for strikes and B for ape sweeps that brush aside knives and batons. Dealing with hand-to-hand weapons is one thing, but Bat’s really doesn’t like guns, and if armed opponents are around you’ll need to use stealth to get above, below or behind them unnoticed, and then use the stealth takedowns you’ve unlocked to take them out. It’s a nice mixture of smooth, combo-based brawling and clever stealth that looks a lot smoother and less scripted in play than it does in the trailers.

You can see if opponents are armed using the game’s detective mode, a visor that scans opponents, walls, hostages and weapons to identify their conditions, weak points and grapple points. It can also be used to follow scent and chemical trails and to spot the question marks left around the asylum by the Riddler.

This mixture of scanning and swinging, combined with the need to re-traverse certain areas, gives Batman: Arkham Asylum the feel of Metroid Prime at times, albeit a Metroid Prime with added stealth and hand-to-hand combat sequences.

The script is excellent, and while there are a few dud moments in the delivery, the important lines from the important voice actors are delivered perfectly.

I have got a few reservations, mind you. The Detective mode is almost too useful to turn off, yet having it on all the time gets in the way of the gorgeous graphics. In two hours of play, I never came across a reason to come out of detective mode apart from my own desire to see the game properly. Without a cost, or a need to recharge it, Detective mode feels like it might become one of those game mechanics so ever-present that it becomes a distraction.

On top of that, the game seemed strangely room-based, having you progress along corridors towards open areas in which large brawls take place, in a fashion that feels more like an old-school beat-em-up rather than a modern action-adventure game.

Small complaints like that don’t mean its not one of the best games I’ve played for a long time, or that I won’t be buying it come August 28th, but they are enough to make me think that it might not get a full five stars.