Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

As a foreword to the readers, I really tried to like this game I was super excited that Lucas Arts came out with a game of their own and I really wanted to like this game. I came into the game thinking it was going to be a force-gasm; as you’ll read it ended up not.


Story:

You play as a young apprentice to Darth Vader, who kills your father and swoops you up so he can get his jollies on you, or train you, we still don’t know what happens there. You are then trained as Darth’s right hand to do all the dirty work, like finding Jedi and killing them.

The story of TFU is a great addition to the Star Wars lineage, and with amazing cut-scenes it does a great job of telling it. Also the Voice acting is amazing with perfectly synced actions and the characters really emote well. If Lucas arts is good at doing one thing, it’s making full digital movies that can/could be passed as real.


Game play:

Having the power of the force is one of many dreams of man, with TFU you get to experience all of it. When you first start the game you get to play as Darth Vader and yes he is as badass as you think he is. Darth Vader doesn’t run he walks with a shitload of hate in every step; you can tell that he’s rearing to tear someone in half. Playing as Vader gives you a glimpse of just how destructive and hateful you can make your game play; with strangling your enemies or crushing them into a suitcase size flesh packs. The hilarity that ensues during this initial mayhem is awesome and will make you laugh, but the evil twisted laugh, not that pussy giggle laugh. (thanks to IGN for the picture)

As the game progresses so do your skills and so does the amount shit stomping you do. I was initially playing as a Sith Warrior, which I recommend you not do until your second play through. The game will get really gay really quick if you decided you are already a badass, and at the beginning it might seem that way but shit hits the fan very quick. So just play as the apprentice which is what you are, and you’ll have more fun playing.

The game controls are pretty solid and really lend themselves well to wielding the force. Combos are not really all that exotic with 75% of them have the same beginning with a couple different ending schemes ( X, X, X, X, Y or B or what have you). I have heard some people gripe about how the targeting system is kinda garbage and sometimes you don’t pick up what you want. That’s true, to and extend; targets are selected with the direction of the character, not the camera, so it’s easy to select something you don’t want. There have also been some criticisms on throwing things at people, I so far have not had any trouble crushing imperials with boxes, rock, heaters, barrels, chairs, R2 units, Tie fighters, Tie Bombers, etc etc.

One important thing to learn, which will make your day much easier, is the quick recover. A simple tap of A will make you jump up and recover so you don’t get the HAVOCK engine’s typical, “I just jumped out of my car at 100 mph see how long I can flail” syndrome. No where in the tutorials does it give you this information, which is a damn shame because it is such a critical move to the game not sucking. Staying on moves, the force combo list is pretty decent except that there should be more awesome attacks. Because you only have one character and you have about ~25 combos where as a dedicated fighter games have A LOT of combos and a lot more characters, so I just think it’s a shame many more moves were not added.

Although a lot of this might sound like praise there were numerous things that I thought detracted from the game. Firstly the environments, however pretty, were notoriously glitchy. By that I mean there are a lot of clipping issues where you will get stuck on level planes and many items will fall through the level for no reason. The environments were way too slippery; you will slide off low inclined tank treads or easily fall off platforms. Speaking of platforms, some areas of the game that would seem like they would make perfect sense to jump on to acquire an item are too slippery to stand on let alone use for plat forming. It just really annoyed me that everything seems not well tested, I’ll get to this point later.

It is important to mention the new technologies of DMM and Euphoria that Lucas Arts has integrated into the game. DMM is Lucas Arts way of making materials behave with real world characteristics. Instead of the normal breaking of wood or stone at the same pre-defined areas the material will splinter or shatter in accordance with the stresses applied on it. This for me was the games best aspect because I totally geeked out on it. Euphoria is another tech infusion that allows your enemies to emote in accordance with how bad their shit is getting stomped. Euphoria basically makes the baddies react by trying to grab onto things when they are force gripped or shake like Michael J Fox when they are shocked. Really interesting to see these come together.

To wrap up the game-play section the AI in the game was kind of lacking in some situation the enemies would stand around and not do anything. Also some of the larger bosses, like rancors, would just stand in a dumbfounded state and not attack even when they had close to 1.1 gigawatts to razz them up.


Graphics:

As I have said before graphics are now a very important thing to gamers, if it looks like shit, it’s not fun to play. This is one area where Lucas Arts defiantly is a power house, being next door to Industrial Light and Magic TFU shines and glows in all the right places. Cut scenes are perfectly choreographed and are real a treat to watch.

Real geeks of Star Wars will defiantly geek out on a lot of the geometry used in the game. For me the Junkyard level was awesome, I saw the Millennium Falcon, escape pods, and just things that I “knew” what they were and I am sure that was exactly Lucas Arts intent.

Now Daniel thinks its cool when you get graphics slow down, because he is thinking. “Man I am a badass if I am doing this”. Which he can get pretty crazy at times but I am no where near that and I was able to slow the game down hard. Some areas of intense explosions and action really make the 360 come to a crawl and seem like you are watching a slide show. But the times where this happened was very few maybe three times. Thankfully the game show little to no graphical texture pop-in, something that seemed to plague Mass Effect.


Sound:

ILM has done a magnificent job giving TFU the Star Wars sound. Every sound has been recycled from past Star Wars games/movies/episodes so that when you play it you know it is a Star Wars game. They didn’t really introduce too many new items for the game but everything sounded great one thing ILM and Lucas Arts has always excelled at.


Verdict:

This game was supposed to be a truly epic game, and it is a great game. But unfortunately the game does lack a lot in my opinion. For being a multi-platform release I do not think that they play tested the shit out of the game like some other titles. Many little things plagued the game and made me curse and spit and throw controllers.

Having beaten the game through three times now it’s much more enjoyable; although some of the gripes about game play still stay the same. Until you are leveled enough you don’t get the full satisfaction of totally raping your enemies with the force. Thus the game doesn’t feel too fun on the first play through.

80/100

GRID

To start off GRID is not the super customizable Gran Turismo orgasm that most "racers" are use to. GRID is instead the newest installment from Code Masters that focuses on the actual racing and interaction on the course. So instead of having the only Daihatsu Midget with 500 horsepower you are equally matched up to 12 opponents who tough it out for the win.

Story:

First and foremost GRID is a driving arcade game, story is one of those little things that can be tossed away and forgotten about. The only real story is that you actually have rivals and people who are considered "good" and you have to beat them.

Your role is basically a driver for hire that takes what he/she can get. But let’s face it this is a racing game not Mass Effect.

Game play:

The first thing you will notice about GRID is that it doesn't approach you like a normal racing series genre, it presents itself as something different. GRID wants to focus you on your team and how your team will make money. If you are the type that likes to micromanage then you will like the game just for that.

But for someone that has religiously played the GT series, PGR and Forza this game is something fresh. You are never taken out of your garage when managing your teammates or your cars so it actually feels like you are a team manager. Instead of always coming back to the same boring "home" screen you go back to your lovely garage to drool over your ridiculous looking cars.

If you're one that loves the customizable aspect of most racing games you'll be sadly disappointed. The limit to your customization stops with your paint, no wheels, no engines, no fart pipes. This game is about racing not making a more ridiculous car than your competitors.

Most expect racing sims to be spot on representations of the cars that they are piloting, but suffice to say that 95% of people playing these games will never see 90% of these cars let alone drive them; there’s room for interpretation. The game does an amazing job of blending realistic diving physics with an arcade like feel that doesn't make you feel so disconnected with your car or so limited by your skill. The diving gives realistic feedback to the driver, you feel that car A over steers or car B plows a lot, there is a very palpable aspect to driving different cars. Although if you decide to drive with assists on you will drive better, where as in other games they feel like a hindrance.

Since GRID focuses more on better driving rather than eleventy billion horsepower modded out bean rockets the game is much harder than your average sim. One aspect that makes it much harder than any other series out there is the amazing AI that GRID employs. Take for example the GT series, the cars are slow and predictable and not really fun to race around. GRID on the other hand really throws the racing community a curveball, the driving behavior get more aggressive the higher you move up the field. Cars will block push and generally be totally dicks to you so they will get a better position. But the cars can also spin out by being too ballsy or careless, like the real world drivers crash.

GRID also offers many different driving styles to play around with so you can find your niche and really excel at it; personally I rock the drifting championships. Each graphical locale has a different name for the same style of racing, basically. Japanese have pro-tuned, USA has Grand Touring, same thing different cars different tracks. But a very diverse play arena and it gives a nice break so it’s not always come in first by racing around a track. Its go around and either be more stylized, or just more ballsy to nab first and the fat cash.

GRID is also not a racing game that focuses solely on being first in every single event. GRID will reward you no matter what position you come in, all you have to really worry about is pleasing your sponsors. Your sponsors will reward you if you come in first or make a podium finish, it depends on who is your sponsor. Even if you are an O.C.D. perfectionist the game is still fun.

GRID also brings a new feature to racing, its called flashbacks. Flashbacks are a feature that, when you fuck up, you can rewind to a moment where you aren’t all over the road to help you grab a better spot or win the race. It’s a great new feature that really goes for something new rather than just another racing game with production cars.

The cars in GRID are also very spectacular; GRID doesn’t fill the game with bullshit cars like Daihatsu midgets and 1970s Honda Life Step Vans that do absolutely nothing for you. It instead packs your arsenal with really badass cars that any race head would love to drive. Although not a sim with every car ever manufactured it takes a very diverse fill of cars from the world 43 cars in total from top USA muscle machines to top Japanese tuning cars. The models are superbly detailed and really let the driver know it’s a next gen title. Instead of having to beat a certain area with X:XX amount of time to unlock cars, you can just straight up buy them, like in the real world. It also gives you a chance to manage an eBay account to buy and sell cars so your garage isn’t so cluttered or just because you think the TVR is a horrible car.

Also unlike the GT series you can actually mess up your cars which will affect how they drive, in that race and not globally. So if you ram your opponent at 120mph then yes you will get some damage to your bumper, or yes your bumper will fly off if you hit a parked van. Its just another element of GRID that makes it a more cohesive package.

Interface:

Since GRID is not your typical racing game it approaches you in a different way, instead of a bunch of boring menus and aloof home screens it keeps you in your garage with the racing events sectioned out in a “tool box” fashion that looks natural to a car freak. The garage style of interface really feels homey to me and keeps emphasizing to me that, “yes this is a racing game.”

GRID also brings you into a race in a much more theatric fashion and shows you just who you need to fuck up beat in order to win.

The game interaction is just a total different experience for any seasoned racer.

Graphics:

In this day and age graphics are becoming more and more important

to the spoiled ass 1080p nut hugging teens and gaming aficionados. GRID looks beautiful, cars are modeled so well you might as well be looking at it IRL. Lighting and camera blurs and flares and just general environments look amazing and spot on. For someone that has actually raced in a real racecar and on a track the feeling you get from the cockpit view is like déjà-vu for me.

GRID also does an amazing job with the scenery, maybe not the highest priority on a racers mind but it just makes the whole experience that much more visceral. Having more interactive crowds and a variety of ambiance in the game is amazing. When you get on the Nuremberg you will sure as hell know it.

The replays that GRID offers make it feel like a big blockbuster car scene rather “just” another replay of me destroying the field. With dynamic camera angles and epic music the replays in themselves are treats.

One part that stands out in particular is when you get to do a midnight touge battle its pitch black with nothing but your headlights to guide you. You can’t see shit, but it’s not something to complain about it really makes you feel that you are barreling down some mountain road in the dead of night with an opponent hot on your tail. The effects are just plain amazing in the game.

Sound:

For a racing game sound is critical, the cars sound amazing and near to what you would expect. Although a lot of the cars tend to sound similar at higher speeds, my guess is to give the same illusion of going fast as shit regardless of the car.

It’s not just the sound of the engines themselves but it’s everything else in the car you can hear. For instance if I am driving my car over the rumble strips I hear that familiar noise, or when I hop over a bump I can hear my shocks compensate and squeak as normal race coil-overs do. The tire screeches are also very distinctive, not all tires are the same thus not all tires will sound the same. When in a demo-derby event the dry rotted junkyard tires both grip and sound different than your super sticky racing compound tires. When spinning out the noises are different; in the game I find myself listening to the tires to tell me when I will spin out rather than being backed into a ditch wondering what the fuck happened.

For games getting better and better all the components making a harmonious interaction really make a game great.

Online play:

Since this is one of the first games that I have reviewed with a definitive online section it does show where Code Masters spent there time; a hint, it wasn’t here.

Having played thousands of Halo 3 online matches I have been spoiled by a really optimized multiplayer hopper and ranking system. So I obviously felt let down when I played scrubs on the intarwebs. It made me feel like I was playing in an old school TCP/IP LAN game with friends; it wasn’t enjoyable to me and felt lacking. Games are set up by particular hosts and then the participants (up to 12) will vote on what they want to play. There are no default playlists or a particular area that you can play in, it is really up to the host and its party members to decide. Having played for a while it seems most everyone enjoys the drifting aspect in the game. My guess is that it isn’t that hard to do, and you can get pretty good at it. Yet only a few people can get massive scores and make it look easy.

This was one area of the game that I really felt let down in, I really wanted better ranking and more ways to show off and let everyone know why racing is the only genre I am good at. It might also be that there isn’t that large of an online following for the game, yet.

Verdict:

To say this game isn’t good would be a straight out lie on my part, to say this game is the best is also a stretch. But within its genre it is defiantly unique and has some things that really set it apart. Although having a lacking online component really made me bitter, the game is still by far the most enjoyable racing game I have played this year and in recent memory.

89/100

Assassin's Creed

I can't think of a more inappropriate game to review right now. As it stands Assassin's Creed is the highest new IP to date beating out Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001. This game is the poster boy of why a great game stands to be released as third party and doesn't have to be first or second party to gain back development costs. “Well of course games don't have to be released as first and second party to stand a chance,” you might say, but that isn't how the last twenty plus years of the gaming industry have run. But I’m not here to talk about the paradigm shift in way developers/publishers think in the 21st Century. The point- as elusive as it may be- is that with the cash that Assassin's Creed has been raking in (980,000 and 377,000 units for 360 and PS3 respectively in November, and 893,700 units in December for 360), the word is clearly out as to why this game belongs in your CD tray.

But you wouldn't think that with the reviews the game has been getting.

With an average rating of 83% at gamerankings.com the Creed sits with others like DiRT, Crackdown, and F.E.A.R.- great games all, but not in the same league as the Creed. 83% isn't even the problem; in going through the many available reviews we find that 20 popular sites/magazines didn't all review AC as 83%. Scores range from GameSpot’s 90% to Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 58.3%. Never before have I seen a more varied list of reviews. It’s clear that there isn’t a consensus of what this game is worth, how fun it is, how it ranks up with other games, etc...

So that’s why I’m talking about Assassin's Creed 2 months after it was released.

GAMEPLAY

In terms of equipment, Assassin's Creed starts like most action games: you may have had all your equipment at the beginning but due to a series of unfortunate clusterfucks you now have to recollect yours weapons and abilities. In that way it compares to Metroid, Zelda, Okami, etc... yet unlike those games you don't even need most of the gadgets that you recover. The game’s true obstacle is the environment, and all you need for that is the analog stick and the right trigger. As you enter these cities you'll quickly find that anything you can lock your eyes on can be climbed or scaled onto. This is where Assassin's Creed shines: the unparalleled freedom of movement within three massive cities. The ridiculousness of escaping guards down an alley with two small boxes to spring off of onto two hanging sticks onto a pole that you swing off of and into a merchant’ booth which you dart through (much to the merchant's distress). All of this can be done with the greatest of ease. Seriously, therein lies most of the game for me: maneuvering through this city that seems to be alive and busy. I think there lies the problem with most reviewers, that this may not be enough for them. It takes a certain attitude to take a moment and marvel on how fluid the animation is of Altair (the protagonist you control) or how the crowd reacts to what the hell you are doing to them or around them... an attitude that isn’t conducive to writing reviews for a living.

A lot of criticism has been leveled at the free GTA nature of these “eliminate the target” missions. Basically when you arrive at a given city, you must at one point arrive at your Assassin's Bureau to progress the story. Rather than pigeonhole you into a game that makes you assassinate on rails, the Creed allows you to discover the best way to take down your target Templar; be it through pickpocketing crucial maps, interrogating respected speakers, easedropping on vital conversations, or doing odd jobs for informers to gain their trust. All the while, each city has scattered throughout it numerous citizens that need saving from guards, viewpoints on top of high buildings that need to be surveyed, and collectible flags that are hidden in any dark alley you can think of. All of which adds to how you progress to what type of assassin you are. Sure, saving a citizen doesn't give you light points that accrue your character like in Fable or KOTOR, but it does help you out in dealing with the massive quantities of guards that these cities produce. In the same way, if a fat asshole brushes past you in a crowd or a retarded leper decides to shove you into a guard, you aren't penalized for f'ing their day up... with your knife.

COMBAT

Much like the demo played at E3, a lot of the combat takes place in the middle of a circle of guards that attack you mostly one at a time. As you start assassinating the targets your lord has charged you to kill, you gain vital pieces of equipment and skills that you will need in order to go apeshit on the guards. There’s the long blade, the hidden blade, your fist, or my personal favorite, the short blade (and with it are throwing knives). The system favors watching your opponents for times to strike, such as when one is limping or calling others to go attack you, you can dash over to them and stab them with your hidden blade. Or as they attack you can with all of your weapons counter their attack with some of the most brutal kills I've ever seen. Combat rewards the patient with killer finishers that aren't over-the-top, but still suitably graphic.

In combat you will find that as you go along it pays to constantly switch weapons as the situation demands. Starting with the long sword allows you to go for some easy kills before switching to the short blade to take out one guard as you turn around to lodge a throwing knife into the throat of a guard you just made distance from. Even the hidden blade is effective, as you are guaranteed a one hit counter kill (as opposed to the occasional counter by sword, in which you just push the guard that offended you). This ain't rocket surgery by any means, but it does have a certain finesse that as you go along you will come to appreciate as new counter/dodge/guard block kills are introduced.

Out of combat you will find that hidden blade is the tool by which you manipulate the world to your liking. Until you are all out wanted by guards you have free rein to be as subtle or as obvious as you want in accomplishing your mission. With ways of blending into the crowd if you just decapitated a guard, jumping in a pile of hay, sitting on a bench with some smelly old people, or mixing with a wandering group of monks, you can be as inventive as you want in getting away from the local toughs. As you go along it is clear that your enemies can't distinguish between you and the men of the cloth that walk the streets, in spite of the stockpile of weapons strapped to your body. The throwing knives are a lot of fun too; drive-by long-range guard murdering became a favorite hobby of mine, next to jacking shit from unsuspecting mercenaries.

GRAPHICS

The graphics in this game are nothing short of amazing. This is truly next gen level with these cities living and breathing, a metric assload of polygons on the screen at one time with the frame rate never dipping. But if the sheer amount of bulk you can see isn't enough to get you hyped, then how about the architecture that you experience first hand as you plant yourself on the side of dozens of beautifully crafted churches and castles. What takes the cake for me, however, is that fluid animation that I alluded to earlier. This game progresses the industry in terms of the most seamless transition of a character in how he interacts with his environment. Not only do you have a sense of full control over Altair, but you’ll swear that he has monkey blood (even if you’re a creationist!) in the way he scrambles up and down alleyways and building sides. Once you progress and gain grab ledge, it all gets even more ridiculous on how this man can dominate his surroundings. Yet none of it seems at all too far-fetched. In the realm of an assassin game that takes place in the crusades, I think it is fair to make your character a badass that seems more like an acrobat than an assassin.

STORY

The Da Vinci Code came out in 2004 beset with glowing reviews, an instant best seller spawning dozens of books concerning the Holy Grail and the Templar legacy. Yet aside from Deus Ex and the occasional RTS dealing with the Crusades, not much has been done video game wise on a very engrossing subject. Enter Assassin's Creed.

You play the role of Altair, a cocky assassin that botches up a mission that lands him in his lord's bad side. After the mission you have to redeem yourself to your lord as well as to the rest of the Assassin Order, as you violated all three tenets of the Assassin Creed (namely thou shalt not fuck up) and are just as arrogant as you were before. Soon you learn that really you are a bartender that has been kidnapped by a large corporation named Abstergo Industries (which was obviously modeled after Microsoft). Apparently, memories of past generations are encoded in DNA and can be retrieved through the use of a machine known as the Animus. This device allows the corporation to hijack people and force them to reveal their ancestor's memories, hence why you are so important to the company. You house Altair's memories- being his descendant- and he knew something that they want. Unfortunately for your captors, memories can't be jumped to the relevant information, but must be played out in a linear fashion. Thus the purpose of the game is for the bartender to play his ancestor's memories to the point that the corporation needs.

Personal characterization aside, everyone has a lot to say on how you go about your assassinations. The voice acting is spot on with believable accents and a lot of modern commentary about the machinations of a few men to control a larger population. A lot of the story is believable, although the leap of faith you have to make for the Animus is considerable.

The ending is one that is on the minds of many a reviewer. Gabe over at Penny-Arcade.com said it best, claiming that unless you show your gamertag along with your review, you have no credible way of commenting on the story's ending. You need to have the Visions of the Future achievement in order to talk about what the ending means, and after completing the game I tend to agree. So here:





THE UGLY

Let's talk about the ugly real quick. This game attempts to do a great deal in what seemed to be a short development cycle after the last Prince of Persia. This game can get glitchy, like some other games that didn't have their game testers test the shit out of them. There’s a plethora of structures you can accidentally fall through, some weird NPC, and the occasional touchy script break. That’s to be expected in my opinion and does not weigh down my review as much as it does a lot of others. It is like the reviewers take it as a personal slight that a game didn't got the extra mile to overtest before going gold. Yeah, it’s sloppy, but it is also the nature of the beast when you need to release your game to rake in the cash from Q4.

Some of the missions are a little lacking, but I am of the opinion that Ubisoft wanted you to explore more than anything, and that is how I played the game. I ventured forth into the wild blue yonder, and had fun doing it. I enjoyed eluding guards and cutting down 25 of them with my short blade before the man hunt was finished.

LASTING IMPRESSIONS

What's not to like in this game? It’s as fun as it is deep. The graphics are amazing for what it tries to accomplish and this gem seriously aims high in that respect. Not to sound trite, but I can't rationalize the lack of higher scores for this game as it doesn't play like any other 70 or 80 games I’ve played. With superior voice acting, decent replayablity, great story, amazing graphics, fluid animations, and a lot of fun to be had I can't in good conscience give this game less than a 91.

Score - 91/100

Gameplay footage