Linky: Game Life

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Late to the Party: Final Fantasy IV Advance

Platform: GameBoy Advance
Publisher: Square-Enix
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Random battles suck and it's a good thing that they're going the way of the dodo. They were one of the reasons that I lost patience with Final Fantasy VII and they nearly led me to abandon Final Fantasy IV Advance.

I was in one of the game's first caves with no Ether to replenish my party's mana. I couldn't walk a yard without being waylaid by Yellow Jelly -- a beast who seems only vulnerable to Rydia's fire spells. Without her magic Cecil could only do one point of damage per round. A couple of times I attempted to soldier through these prolonged battles, but they seemed do go on for days. And if I did survive, I'd only get jumped by another squad of yellow goons.

It took several aborted attempts at exploring the cave before finding a place to camp where Rydia could rest up and use her magic again. Then miraculously, I never had this problem again. From here the game's story flowed nicely. As Cecil I met and fought alongside warriors, mages and summoners. I lost some friends along the way. One was eaten by the sea creature Leviathan. Yuck.

My good friend Jeremy wrote a walkthrough of the 1991 release of the game. The game I'm playing enjoys the benefit of a much-improved translation. Check out Jeremy's "Ah, The Power of Cheese" to see how much better things have gotten.

Thanks to the sharper writing in this release, I'm finally starting to understand the appeal of Final Fantasy's stories. Where I found Final Fantasy VII overly brooding and turgid, Final Fantasy IV Advance seems a tad more lighthearted. I like the way that my party shifts with the plot, introducing new characters at every turn. This may very well be the first Final Fantasy game I play to completion.

Recommended

Wii

Platform: Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Review Type: Looky
Version: Unveiling

This morning Nintendo unveiled the name of their new console, which until today has been known by its code name Revolution. The response from the gaming community has been largely one of outrage, anger, disappointment and pee-pee jokes.

It makes sense that gamers should be ticked. We're a pretty spoiled lot. We've had the luxury of three console manufacturers pandering to our very narrow demographic for years now. And when one finally breaks the pattern and opts to shoot for the mainstream it can feel like a rejection. The hints that Nintendo was cutting the cord were out there already. The purple GameCube was a warning sign that they weren't going to pander to the 18-35 crowd. And now this.

I'm not sold on this name, but I understand what Nintendo is up to. They're trying to develop a new brand. And while Revolution is a cool name that says alot about that their new console is setting out to do, it just doesn't work for non-gamers. Normal folks don't know that gaming needs a Revolution. They just know that they're not interested. Besides, Revolution suggests upheval, violence and disorder. In 2004 the American people opted for Bush over the unknown. The language of change isn't part of mainstream vocabulary right now.

Safe, connotation free nonsense like iPod and Wiki have already pierced the lexicon. I'm sure that Nintendo has armies of advertising agencies poised to push Wii into our mouths and massage our brains into feeling okay about uttering the silly syllable.

Until then, I'm thinking hardcore gamer support groups.

Check out the announcement here.

Kurayami

Platform: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown
Review Type: Looky
Version: Concept Art


Suda 51 (aka Suda Goichi) and his Grasshopper development team have a "Kafka-esque" title in early planning stages. Jeux-France has early concept art of the game. They also made the mistake of pegging Kurayami for the PS3, which Grasshopper has refuted on their web site. I know it's early, but after playing the team's Killer 7 -- one of the most unique and visually arresting gaming experiences in ages -- I'm hanging on their every word.

Some folks on the NeoGAF forums speculate that Kurayami may be inspired by Kafka's The Castle, if only for this visual similarity.

Gamefront.de is reporting another Grasshopper game, called Blood + One Night Kiss due for release from Bandai Namco this summer. When images surface, I'll be sure to give you a look.

Meanwhile, read what I had to say about Killer 7 on my Best of '05 list and take another looky at Grasshopper's Contact for the Nintendo DS.

Tomb Raider: Legend

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Eidos
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I'm not what you'd call a "graphics whore," but I was slightly disappointed to discover that my review copy of Tomb Raider: Legend was the version for the PlayStation 2. Sure, it would be nice to see the game rendered in a shiny, next gen fashion. But the first thing on my mind was the fact that I wouldn't be earning any achievements for playing the game. I didn't really get the appeal of these Xbox Live points until I started playing the games and seeing my Gamer Score slowly rise with every landmark in Oblivion or Kameo. It's a brilliant bit of psychology on Microsoft's part -- doling out semi-meaningless numbers as a way to create brand loyalty.

But we're here to talk about Lara Croft.

Playing Tomb Raider: Legend is kinda like getting together with an old girlfriend -- one that I had some really good times with before everything went to shit. These kind of reunions usually happen in a familiar place, the neutral territory of a coffee shop or a Mayan ruin. I'm flinchy at first because she still has the power to really hurt me. The last time we met things got pretty ugly.

Its a relief that she's doesn't appear to have any ill will. Lara wants things to be like they used to be. And for the most part they are. There are treasures, hanging vines, killer felines and plenty of boxes to push around. It's hard not to feel a warm fuzzy the first time Lara executes her signature handstand as she pulls herself over the lip of a ledge. The move is completely superfluous, but its familar and it reminds me why I love her.

But things are different too. Lara's got new friends. Annoying friends with stupid accents who are always piping in on her headset with advice or "witty" bon mots. Like the motley crew on Solid Snake's Codex, they're essentially "narrative buddies" -- characters whose only purpose are to deliver important story information or act as a sounding board when the main character needs to express how they feel.

I sorta miss the old days when it was just me a Lara in stillness of the tomb. There was something calming about being there alone amongst all that old stuff. And also frightening. There was no buddy on the line to call in an airlift should Lara fall and break her back. It was either make it out with Lara's wit and skill or die alone in the dark.

The good news is that I can grouse about these slight differences. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness was a game so fucked with bugs that there wasn't time to think about how crap the story was. Tomb Raider: Legend improves the old, punishing control scheme by melding it with controls from the new gold standard for action, Prince of Persia. And the story is a personal one, revolving around Lara's mom (who died in what can only be described as a Fargate accident) and some old friends who perished in an archeological dig gone awry.

We've both gone our seperate ways. Lara's been in movies and seen her franchise crash and burn. I've gotten married and stopped trying to play action games with WASD controls. But I can totally see us hooking up again -- especially if I get my hands on a copy of Tomb Raider: Legend for the Xbox 360.

Recommended

The Fast and the Furious

Platform: PlayStation 2, PSP
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshot


Talk about late to the party. It took three movies to get The Fast and the Furious to Japan, where the current flavor of street racing was born. And they're just now discovering drifting. Meanwhile, games have been onto the trend for years. Heck, even Mario was down with drift as far back as Mario Kart 64. And as far as street racing goes, Midnight Club, SRS, Inital D and a zillion other pretenders have the genre more than covered.

Either The Fast and the Furious brings something new to the table or it's doomed to be the so-so game that mom bought because she didn't look at your wish list.

Linky

Consolevania
The 1-Up Show
X-Play on Star Wars
Mega 64

Beatmania

Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Konami
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

Before the Xbox 360 took over my life I actually played multiple consoles. I'm sure I'll be making a booty call to my PlayStation 2 soon enough, but I've still got a stack of lime green boxes to tear open and touch.

A week ago I spent some time with Beatmania, the home version of Konami's music game. And while I love music peripherals and rhythm games, I can't say I'm too fond of it. Thing is, I've been spoiled. After the slick manga look and kooky story of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and the face-melting cock rock of Guitar Hero the bar has been forever raised. (Though, in retrospect, Parappa the Rapper set a bar in style and story that few have matched).

I guess what I'm saying is that Konami can no longer rest on its laurels with Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania. Now that there's some serious competition out there, it's time for a ground-up rethinking and overhaul of both games. The sucky music and late '90s rave look aren't going to cut it any more.

As far as Beatmania goes, I'd like to see the control scheme rethought to reflect actual music-making devices. The turntable can stay, but the pseudo-piano keys are spaced out too far to simulate a keyboard. Why not reimagine the controls as an MPC and turntable set up -- maybe a 4/4 or 5/4 grid of pads vs the standard 8/8. Beatmania's biggest triumph is that the player effects the music to a greater degree than most other games. Hit your button a half beat off and your musical cue will roll that much late. Imagine how cool an MPC controller would be for a game like this. Being good at Beatmania would translate directly into musical skills.

Then the next step for Konami is to really up the ante on the music. Forget throw away tunes from Timo Maas and Moby. They need to talk with Madlib or Coldcut and collaborate with these heads to make a music game that does for hip-hop and electronica what Guitar Hero does for rock.

And sorry guys, Amplitude and Frequency don't count.

FlatOut 2

Platform: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Publisher: Empire Interactive, Vivendi Universal
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshot


If I'm gonna drive a virtual car, I want to fuck shit up. Preferably, I'd like a cow catcher and a couple missile lauchers mounted on the chassis. But weaponry isn't a dealbreaker. Spyhunter, Destruction Derby, Twisted Metal and Burnout have all scratched that wreckless (ha!) itch for me at one time or another. I was privy to a hands-on preview of the first FlatOut game way back when and wasn't what you'd call blown away. I plowed through a level (pretty standard derby racing) and fooled around with one of the mini games (semi-morbid ragdoll driver launching). I didn't spend enough time to formally judge the game, but enough to know that I wasn't giddy with anticipation to play it again. This second pass at the game is said to improve on all the original's noted shortcomings. I most anticipate online play both for the satisfaction of hearing your opponant's muffled curses as you blow him off the road and for the potential hilarity generated from flinging corpses with online friends.

FlatOut is due this June

Kameo: Elements of Power

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I just realized that this year's E3 will be the first I've attended that won't feature Kameo: Elements of Power in some way, shape or form. Back in 2001, before Rare was scooped up by Microsoft, the game was on display at the Nintendo booth as a pre-launch GameCube game. It's been so long, that I can hardly remember what I saw. I recall more dinosaur-type creatures back then. Nobody seemed to be paying attention because Rogue Squadron II was looking so sexy.

Then the game popped up as an Xbox title, looking very much as it does today. I spent quite a bit of time with the game in 2003 (it's second year at the Xbox booth) and wrote a preview for Gamespy. What most impressed me with the game then was the deep combat. By hot swapping between elemental warriors, Kameo could tie attacks from each of her elemental warriors into crazy combos. Fighting was so varied and fun, that I felt compelled to go toe-to-toe with every enemy just to see how many varieties of pain you could inflict on them. (Luckily, none of this melee fun was lost in translation from Xbox to 360).

Last year Kameo was featured among the thin smattering of games for the forthcoming Xbox 360. You couldn't play the game. And it was running on an tricked-out Apple computer emulating the 360 architcture. This time they were showing off the game's "overworld" -- a huge battlefield full of trolls and soldiers clashing ala The Lord of the Rings. They demonstrated how Kameo, on horseback, could ride through the fray, bashing enemies with her steed as she made her way from level to level.

After all this time I'm quite surprised at how good the game turned out. I tend to feel that the longer something takes to make, the more opportunities there are to screw it up. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. But then there's The Phantom Menace -- the ultimate proof that delays make for mundane.

Anyway, Kameo: Elements of Power recreates the high-quality puzzle-centric action platforming that Rare delivered over and over again on the N64. Remember the intricate worlds in Banjo Kazooie? Kameo's levels dwarf those. In a way, the game is a sort of platforming grand guiginol -- taking the design of levels far beyond the call of duty in size, scope and intricacy. Last night, I steered Kameo (and her near complete collection of elemental warriors) to the top of of the Ice Temple. It was a long arduous climb that involved freeing chained cave troll creatures who bash doors and bridges down so that I may advance. My trek lasted to into the wee hours. Around three or four in the morning, I finally reached Queen Thyra -- an giant ice flea with a half-dozen green eyes. The boss battle was a knock down, drag out fight that finally ended in my tag team of 40 Below and Chilla blinding the beast, dooming it to impale itself on one of its own falling stalactites.

Two sticking points come to mind when searching for negatives. The aquatic character Deep Blue is a bitch to control in tight areas, making the water temple more difficult than it should be. Later, though, in a vast, water filled basin he becomes much more fun. Battling against iron-sided submarines and battleships with his Aqua Blaster torpedos almost makes up for his wonky handling.

And then there's the question of detail. I love the way the game looks. Here, somehow the plastic feel of next gen graphics works. The game sometimes takes on the feel of hand-crafted miniatures, like the fsculpted figures in The Nightmare Before Christmas or a Rankin and Bass special. But some areas, especially those that are particulary lush, feel like an overdose of detail. Like the new Star Wars trilogy there's too much damn stuff flying around, swaying in the breeze of whizzing past to really focus on one thing. Could be I'm getting old.

Overall, I'm quite happy with Kameo: Elements of Power (and a bit surprised at how much I had to say about the game). I can't speak yet since I'm still working though all of my Xbox 360 games, but I have a feeling it's going to wind up being my favorite of the system's launch titles.

Recommended

Table Tennis

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Rockstar
Review Type: Looky
Version: Trailer


Some people thought that the announcement of this game was a practical joke. Sure, Rockstar has cultivated something of a bad boy image. But they're not all about gangstas and guns. What about Red Dead Revolver? Wait, that one has guns. Okay, so maybe Rockstar's games are a tad exploitative.

But even the haters have to grudgingly admit that Rockstar has chops. Games like Grand Theft Auto 3 don't happen accidentally. I'm betting that these guys have something to prove with Rockstar Game Presents Table Tennis (that's the "official" name). They've got the sales and they've got the breathless perfect scores. But can Rockstar create a finely tuned sports game? Grand Theft Auto 3 and its sequels have a pretty loose feel, especially when gunplay was involved.

If anything, I'm jazzed to see where they go with the game's music. Rockstar's music supervisors are serious licensing ninjas -- the cratedigging equivilent of Ito Ogami. According to a sharp ear on NeoGAF, the track in the trailer is Quo Vardis by G-Man. A game soundtrack full of minimal techno of the Kompakt ilk would be pretty fresh.

Watch the trailer at IGN

Perfect Dark Zero

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I took an unexpected week off from posting -- needed some quality time with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Perfect Dark Zero was a little less compelling. I slogged through several missions this weekend, finding the game guilty of several of my next gen pet peeves. First off, Joanna Dark is ugly. She's probably the prettiest looking character I've seen in the game, but that's like saying herpes is the best venereal disease.

The game's second crime is that every damn surface in the game is shiny -- as if there's a coat of ectoplasm slathered across the pavement and walls. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the game's asphalt looks more like the aluminum foil they wrap around a Crunch bar. Kinda annoying.

On top of these "bad art" issues, the game also forces you into quite a few escort and objective-based missions, which I found myself failing several times before figuring out what I was supposed to do. Screwing the pooch in the first couple levels of game doesn't tend to give me the warm fuzzies. My last nitpick revolves around Joanna's third-person moves. Her roll move (one that makes you resistant to enemy fire) isn't too bad, but her "cover" tactic doesn't seem to have too many benefits. Grabbing shelter behind a box or wall does protect you from fire, but aiming feels sluggish and imprecise. There's also no good solution for capping attackers who approach from behind while you're in cover. So it's pointless to stick against walls unless you're absolutely sure that you've cleared the room or you've got some kind of camera or automatic gun to take out. Otherwise "cover" kinda blows.

There are bright spots in the game, though. When you're in combat, you can sense the Goldeneye DNA in the controls. Don't know if its the swift, gliding movement and aiming or the way the weapons swap, but a kernel of that goodness has survived the years of development and updates.

There are also quite a few well thought out touches in the overall polish of the game. In one mission Joanna is dropped on a dock in Hong Kong. Her target is in a danceclub slightly inland. As Joanna approaches, we hear the techno get louder -- but only the low-end. The music is muffled by concrete between Joanna and the deejay. My wife, who was in the other room studying as I played, assumed that the music was coming from our nextdoor neighbors. I'm sure there will be other moments like this one in Perfect Dark Zero. I'm just not really enthusiastic about hunting them down. Maybe if Rare wasn't so chinzy with single-player achievements, I'd feel a little more motiviated.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

I've assimillated World of Warcraft into my life pretty nicely. I play two hours a night with my sister and brother in law. I'm no longer compelled to play non-stop -- fishing for hours on end, collecting herbs or farming for Fulborg rep. Those days have passed.

I'm getting that obsessive feeling from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion now. Part of me just wants to play the game like Deer Hunter -- collecting meat for potions and selling hides. Working on my sneaking skills so that my prey doesn't bolt when I come within a hundred yards. Will I eventually be able to stalk a buck and kill it by hand with one nasty sneak attack? I'm eager to find out.

And like the Penny Arcade boys, I find my self obsessed with my loot. I swept through a mine, putting arrows in every bandit I could find. In the wake of my killing, I found way more booty than I could carry in one trip. It took me three go arounds to clear the place, and by then new bandits came as reinforcements.

And then there's the kind of unique experiences that such a world a vast, open world can create. In that same mine, I killed the bandit ringleader and his guards, then proceeded to rummage through their cave/headquarters. I didn't notice the sleeping bandit until I was on top of her. She didn't really have a chance. I put her down with my dagger. I was playing according to old gaming patterns; explore, kill, loot, repeat. But the game wasn't having it.

Right now, I'm calling Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion the Xbox 360's killer app. There's no guarantee that $400 worth of upgrades is going to bring your PC up to speed for this one. I didn't realise I was buying Microsoft's console for this game until after the fact. Sure, I've got a stack of other 360 games (reviews coming!). But, damn. This one's tough to tear myself away from.

Recommended

Late to the Party: Xbox 360

Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail

The stars were aligned this morning and I finally nabbed an Xbox 360. The main reason I didn't jump on the bandwagon sooner was that I couldn't justify the cash. Best Buy's offer of six months with no interest or payments was enough to push me over the edge. It helped that they actually had Premium packs in stock. The salesman did try to sell me on a bundle that was $200 dollars more. I'm not exactly sure what all they were trying to pawn off on me, but I discovered that I am missing one vital peripheral that the Xbox 360 Premium Pack doesn't offer. The Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit is a bit of cable that charges your wireless controller by plugging it into the system. I'm gonna need to grab that gizmo or buy a couple packs of rechargable batteries.

I plan on giving you all butt-loads of in-depth impressions as I spend more time with the machine, but right off the bat I'll give you a quick rundown of how I spent my first couple of hours with the machine. I played two games Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Kameo: Elements of Power. Opinions to come, but both in their own way look nice on a HI-DEF monitor. I quickly and painlessly converted my old Xbox Live membership to a Gold level account (My tag's Phantom Mare). I spent a bit of time exploring Xbox Live Marketplace, finding many of the games there very tempting. The demo of Geometry Wars lived up to the hype (again more later) and Hexic looked to be pretty engaging as well. I'm betting Alexis is gonna dig that one.

I checked out some video content in 720p, just to see how it looked on my set. The Red vs. Blue trailer, while funny, didn't look all that hot. But the Pirates of the Caribbean Teaser looked very crisp and clean, much better than the pixely image my cheapo DVD player produces.

So right now I'm on one of those big ticket buy buzzes and am incapable of really judging the machine with any kind rationality. It's smaller than I expected. The console looks dwarfed in the spot my old Xbox used to inhabit. I'm still trying to figure out if I did the right thing in buying the two-year service plan. I'm usually against such scams. But the way these things were rushed to press, makes me more than a little nervous. I guess now that I've joined the herd, I have nothing to worry about.

Bad Day LA

Platform: PC, Xbox
Publisher: Enlight
Review Type: Looky
Version: Trailer


Perhaps I'm a little partial to Bad Day LA because the look of the game is based on work by my friends Kozyndan. Unlike the The Urbz box cover they contributed artwork for, you can actually see their style, attention to detail and their signature linework all over this thing. Props, though, to American McGee for the game's great concept -- a shit-hits-the-fan catastrophe where no end days cliche is left unexploited. Double props for his willingness to go against the grain in the look department. The game also appears have a nifty undercurrent of snarky social commentary. Why should Rockstar have all the fun, right?

Watch the trailer at Eurogamer.

Check out concept art and screens at Primotech.

(My faves: Kozyndan originals Crenshaw and LaBrea)

Paradise

Platform: PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Review Type: Looky
Version: Screenshots


North Africa is a pretty classic locale. The wife and I just watched The Man Who Knew Too Much. It's easy to see how Spielberg was inspired by Hitchcock's flick (and Casablanca for that matter) when he shot the Cairo sequences in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Morocco, especially the romanticised movie versions of it, has a permanence to it. The streets, markets and buildings seem to say, "The way you Westerners do things is fine, but this is how we do civilization and this is the way we'll continue to do them long after your civilization is gone."

Benoit Sokal, creator of Syberia, found the locale of Marrakech so inspiring after a visit two years ago that he decided to build one of the settings of his forthcoming adventure game, Paradise, around his rememberings of the town. According to an Ubisoft press release Sokale used his memory, art books and the painting of Delacroix as source material for the locales.

Lush, lovingly rendered locations are a trademark of adventure games. In addition to the puzzles and the stories they deliver, they have an almost secondary purpose of creating post card quality images, then granting us the magic to walk amongst the scenery.

Paradise is due in April.

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day

Platform: DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Review Code

It's been a long, long time since I've thought very deeply about math. I was just finishing community college (be nice) and had one credit left to satisfy my mathematics requirement. I could have gone for the home run, but decided to take Calculus, just to prove to myself that I could. In high school, I'd bombed the class -- mostly because I was a lazy, longhair who thought he knew everything.

I got an "A" in Calculus and haven't exercised that side of my brain since. Now, ten years later I discover that I've allowed the analytical side of my brain to atrophy. I'm awful at small, quick mathematical calculations. Even more scarily, I've discovered that I don't really care what 8x7 is. I know that it's a constant that can easily figured out with a couple seconds of thought, but long gone is my ability to reproduce the figure in a breath.

My first Brain Age test charted my noggin at about 60. Embarrassing. Within a day, I was able to bring my age down to a more reasonable number. And now, I'm working on the tricky part -- getting my brain age down to the optimal 20-years-old. It's no easy task, at least for me -- a person who's been living the writer's life for a decade.

I'm betting, though, that even the sharpest whips will get a bit of challenge out of the many puzzles and memorization tests the game throws at you. The game does have some limitations. My closed "4" doesn't read on the touch screen. And I've had problems with voice recognition of the word "blue." So, on top of brushing up on my arithmatic, I'm also polishing my handwriting and elocutions skills.

I'm also finding myself won over by Sudoku. At first, I was reluctant to try these puzzles, but I'm finding them stimulating in a robot-mind sort of way.

Recommended

Linky

Summoner Geeks
8-Bit D&D
The Dead Alewives
Take Down the Grand Master