Sonic Unleashed
It’s pretty alright. It still has the usual problems of overly sensitive control and moving too fast to explore, but at least most areas are fenced in to prevent many accidental falls. Still, there are some annoying missed jumps and oops-you-went-a-bit-too-far-to-the-right moments. Still, at least it’s not endless suicide like the first Sonic game of this generation. The majority of the cutscenes are rendered in the game engine, and there was plenty of effort put into the production. The animations are animated, and they spent the time and data to create plenty of single-use animations. And up until Tails showed up, the voice work was fitting and expressive; Tails sounds like bad anime. There’s some framerate issues, but it’s not horrible.
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
There’s a pretty nifty combat system with well-telegraphed evade/counter actions, but you’re often surrounded and the default camera doesn’t automatically rotate to follow you. (This is especially annoying when walking toward the screen.) There’s a surprising amount of tweakability to the camera, including custom distances, but if the default options sucked, I didn’t want to bother with doing the designers’ jobs of tweaking. While the requirement to evade/counter is well-telegraphed, what isn’t is the multitude of hidden things that pop-up out of the ground. So far I’ve run into spears and giant bear-traps (woman-traps?). Technically you may be able to spot the bear traps, but they’re buried are varying depths, and you can mistake their teeth for grass. All games have hidden traps, but they shouldn’t be literally hidden; there’s always to tell-tale sign. What makes matters worse is the large collision boxes that make navigation a chore; there was one sequence where magic pop-up spears made a hallway and I had a bitch of a time piloting my slow and slow-to-turn beast through. Also weird is that all the other women in the amazonian tribe my character are totally topless; and my character isn’t. Apparently what my character is wearing is some training/ceremonial outfit…so…nipples have to go bye-bye or something. Overall, I felt pretty blah about this one; it’s moreso tedious than super-bad.
Fable II
I didn’t have the opportunity to play the first one (though it’s on my shelf), but this one’s sucking up my time. I’m making a point of being the best boy-scout ever, but it’s so tempting to go stealing stuff from peoples homes ala every other RPG. Do I get nega-points even if I’m not seen? Also, I inadvertendly made a baby with the bisexual town-whore…who I married… Yes, I had bought a condom. No, I didn’t use it. For some reason the option for “protected sex” just kept beeping and wouldn’t actually let me select it. Is that a bug?
Soul Bubbles
Download the DS demo from the Nintendo Channel on your Wii. This is a Toys R Us exclusive game and published by one of the crap shovelware publishers, but don’t let that scare you off. It’s a very ambitious and nicely designed action-puzzle game. I think that’s all I can really explain without you just trying it. Please, try it.
Lips
Boy, do I need to have a karoke party. This is totally a party game. The menus are super-fancy and animated, you can’t fail, a second (or first) player can jump in at any time, audience members can grab a controller and play tambourine/cowbell/etc., and it encourages goofy dancing. The wireless mics feel great, and I hope they patch in support for Rock Band/Guitar Hero because wires suck. Unfortunately, the lyrics are displayed ala SingStar (versus Karaoke Revolution) but it seems to give a better sense of position. I still really hate that you don’t have a consistent measure of time/duration. Despite my hatred for mechanics of SingStar, I still appreciate its great party modes; I have yet to test out Lips’ offerings.
007: Quantum of Solace
It’s perfectly alright, I guess. When I played it, I just didn’t feel like continuing through it. I can’t say it really does anything wrong.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Great sense of speed and chaos. What’s super-lame is that when you get a phone call, the graphic covers up your radar. Unfortunately you always get a phone call right after you choose a destination. So I spend 20-30 seconds just idling before I can figure out which fucking direction to start driving. Also, unlike Need For Speed, I can’t figure out how to lose the damn cops.
Need for Speed: Undercover
Soooooooooooooo disappointing. NFS: Most Wanted was my game-of-launch for the Xbox 360, so I was eagerly anticipating this spiritual sequel. Graphics are mysteriously smeary and not sharp, getting into the next race is as simple as pressing down on the d-pad, I have no context for why things happen in the store, and I’m not given enough cheesy FMV sequences. Even though I like that you don’t need to roam the map to find your next objective (as you need to do in Midnight Club), I do not like that they’re essentially spoon-fed to you. Still, the basic gameplay is as dependable as ever.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
A couple questions: 1.) Why do people like this series? 2.) Why is this game SO MUCH LOUDER than any other video game?
Pure
It’s fun. The tricking system is sort of limited by nature of its ease of use, but I have a tendency to be pressing too many buttons than I need to. Graphics and presentation are awesome, and ATV-upgrading and design should please with its RPG elements.
Resident Evil 5
Maybe it’s the endless swarm of non-zombies, but I don’t remember the RE4 control scheme being this slow and unwieldy. Also, due to co-op, inventory management is real-time. Unlike Dead Space, there’s no one-button insta-heal, so that gets tense.
And that’s all for now. I’ve played many other games, but I don’t feel like writing or thinking any more tonight.
After a whole battery charge and a half–which translates to about ten hours–I’ve yet to feel truly engaged by Puzzle Quest Galactrix. Sure, it’s still plenty addicting, but I don’t feel as if I’ve really accomplished anything. I’ve only engaged in about a dozen or so battles, unlike its predecessor Puzzle Quest Warlords where the roads are littered with enemies interrupting your travels.