We’ve also just added a new Watchlist feature, which helps you keep track of the movies and TV episodes you want to view later. You can add favorites and new discoveries to your list—then come back anytime to watch instantly. Try it on your Xbox 360, Kindle Fire, or your browser on PC & Mac … and Watchlist is coming soon to PlayStation 3 and Roku.
I’ve never really used Instant Video much on my devices, but after using the Xbox 360 Amazon Instant Video app, the Watchlist feature feels like it should have always been there. Now if they’ll just get an iOS app out…
– Posted on September 7, 2010Posted in: Video Games
Now this is what I’m talking about.
Sticklers may point out that this Portal 2 extended co-op gameplay footage from PAX doesn’t show anything mindblowingly different from the very short teaser a couple weeks ago, but they can go stick it somewhere else. Something about seeing the game in live action makes the whole idea that they’re making a sequel to Portal more… tangible.
Watching this video, my mind began to race with all of the devilishly clever puzzle solutions that could be possible with four portals to play with. Plus, hearing GLaDOS deliver its acerbic, yet oddly charming post-test comments just brings a smile to my face. Like I’m coming home again.
– Posted on September 1, 2010Posted in: Video Games
One of my favorite games from E3 2010 was Vanquish. I won’t rehash my E3 preview, but offer you this reminder: Think Gears of War but with blazing fast Japanese robot suits, mechs, and explosions everywhere.
The demo is basically the same demo I played at E3 with an additional tutorial component. You’ll get the beginning of a mission plus an incredibly epic boss fight. Seriously, if your heart doesn’t pump while facing it, you’re not alive. My only complaint with the game so far is that it’s really hard to tell how close you are to death at any given time. I do like to play fairly recklessly, though, so if you’re the conservative type, maybe this wont be a problem for you.
You can grab the demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace or Playstation Network and I implore you to check it out if you are a fan of action games or shooters. It’s a fun, original title that’s definitely on my list of anticipated games this holiday season.
A couple of days ago, Microsoft announced an across the board price increase for its Xbox Live service that will go into effect on November 1, 2010. You can check out the price increase for the US in the handy table above. Basically it means a $10 increase in the yearly price (because if you use your Xbox with any degree of frequency, it’s silly to pay the inflated rates for anything but the 12 month rate).
Now, get up in arms about it if you want, but there’s really nothing much you can do about it other than stock up on 12 month Gold cards if you see them at a deal. Diligent bargain hunters have never had to spend more than $39.99 for 12 months of LIVE. In days past, $29.99 12 month card deals were more common than not.
Maybe this whole thing is a stunt to get a whole bunch of people to pay up front for multiple years of LIVE because Microsoft has so magnanmously set up a page where you can lock-in a $39.99 rate through them directly.
There’s no two ways about it, it sucks. And having a price increase on Xbox LIVE isn’t exactly a good way to ingratiate yourself back in the good graces of the gaming community after the debacle that was the Kinect pricing announcement.
But at the end of the day it’s $10. We’ll have to just deal with it and move on. Maybe take some mental notes like Lebron James.
Multiplayer-focused games are a tough animal to “review” since the experiences are so intertwined with the playerbases. At the same time, you can usually tell within the first 30 minutes or so if a game is going to be fun for you or not.
I had a chance to spend a couple of hours with Monday Night Combat today and I’m here to tell you it’s something worth looking into.
In a nutshell, Monday Night Combat is a 3rd person class-based multiplayer action game. You can choose to be one of various classes (such as a sniper, support, assassin etc.), each of which has its own unique powers, weapons, and playstyle. Additionally, anyone can build or upgrade turrets around the map. Think Team Fortress 2 meets <insert your favorite tower defense game here>. There’s two modes of play: Blitz and Crossfire.
It wasn’t due to deficient game playing skills on my part or any bugs or faults with the game’s programming. No, I had a tough time playing through Limbo because I was genuinely unsettled by the hauntingly melancholy game atmosphere with its grainy black and white visuals and sparse, yet disturbing ambient sounds and audio cues.
You may think I’m talking about a new survival horror game, but I’m not. Limbo is a 2D platforming puzzle game.
“How is this possible?” you may ask. Just watch this short trailer:
I found it appropriate that the protagonist of the game is a young boy because a lot of what disturbed me in Limbo scared me as a child. I have a ghastly fear of spiders, insects, and man eating plants that crystallized in my youth somewhere between the piranha plants in Super Mario Bros. and the insects in Daikatana.
Death in Limbo is also an infinitely more powerful on screen event because it is happening to a little boy. My first death happened via running into a bear trap on the ground. The trap chomped my boy into an aerial concerto of bloody body parts which then collapsed limply to the ground. It quickly became obvious that I wasn’t going to be playing Rayman.
One particular scene early in the game has you walk by a white butterfly on the ground who flies off towards a tree that is clearly harboring a giant black spider lurking in the branches above. I must have spent a good five minutes sitting in my chair, paralyzed. I saw no obvious route around the tree, yet there was no fucking way I wanted to walk under three giant spider legs. Given that the game had established a precedent for grisly deaths by that point, I especially did not want to see what this spider was going to do to the little boy.
Eventually, I excruciatingly faced my fears and found a way past the spider situation. The game may “just” be in black and white, but the realistic animations of the boy and the world combine with the game’s desolate atmosphere to create a completely immersive experience.
Who are you? Why are you here? Where are you?
These are questions Danish developer Playdead want you to wonder about while playing through Limbo. And they did, in fact, linger in the back of my mind throughout the game’s first half, especially with the appearance of other humanoids (dead and alive). However, as the game progressed, I found myself caring less and less about these things and just focusing on what my next destination was and how to reach it. In other words, gameplay became the driving motivational force, not the search for greater meaning in the story.
A word about the gameplay: much of it is based on a “die first, figure out why after you respawn” paradigm. During your first playthrough you should expect to die often and die unexpectedly. This may sound like a frustrating nightmare, but for the most part isn’t, because there are bountiful checkpoints that place you close to your place of death. However, there are a couple of places in the game where I repeatedly yelled “Come on!” at my screen because I could not discern a certain goal and the death checkpoint forced me to play through a previous section before I could take a crack at it again.
Comparisons to Jonathan Blow’s breakthrough “indie” game, Braid, are bound to pop up due to both games belonging to a similar genre. I’ll take a shot at declaring a “winner” by saying that Limbo doesn’t quite reach Braid from both a gameplay and narrative standpoint. Overall, Limbo’s puzzles aren’t as elegantly designed as Braid’s. Many of the more difficult ones require precision timing and button pressing dexterity to solve problems, rather than imaginative and cereberal solutions. That’s not to say Limbo is poorly designed – there are some wonderfully devious puzzles that give a real sense of fulfillment once you figure them out. It just doesn’t feel as naturally rewarding as Braid did.
Braid’s narrative benefited from the use of prose in its introductory and ending sequences. These words really tugged at me emotionally and provided context for the story it was trying to get across. Limbo, on the other hand, does not have one word of text within the game. It relies solely on its greatest strength, its visual and audio atmosphere, to convey its message. Limbo starts off strong in this regard, but the sense of uneasy wonderment slowly peters out until the ending is reached. It’s an ending which I feel tries to capture the same level of existential meaningfulness as Braid, but ultimately falls short.
Having said all of this, Limbo still comes highly recommended if you enjoy playing puzzle platformers and/or delight in immersive and unique art styles. It’s unquestionably the best downloadable game I have played in 2010 thus far. Just be warned if you have qualms about viewing gruesome child deaths or have fear of giant insects.
One final tip: Don’t read the game’s description on Xbox Live Marketplace if you can avoid doing so. I think the game’s ultimate meaning is far more interesting and thought provoking were I not to have read the short premise on the description. For me, it was a throwaway fact that served to only narrow the possibilities of the game’s conclusion.
Limbo costs 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) as a downloadable title from the Xbox Live Marketplace. There is a trial version that encompasses the first two game chapters.
Warning: This game requires patience. If you have none, stay away. It’s not a straight shooter.
If you’ve ever wanted to be as badass, cunning, and ruthless as Jack Bauer in a video game, Splinter Cell Conviction is the game for you. Do you want to act out one (or several) of Jack Bauer’s famous interrogation scenes? Done. There are almost an excessive number of situations for you to brutally ask bad guys where stuff is. Conviction’s situation is a departure from previous games in the series. Longtime protagonist Sam Fisher is not ostensibly working with any sort of government agency. For most of the game Fisher’s only contact with “the good guys” is with a woman he used to work with in the government. Sound familiar?
I loved the way new objectives are presented to you in this game. Many have called the way the game projects text onto the game world “Fringe Lettering” (yes, referring to the JJ Abrams show). I’d say it goes a bit further, as the show’s lettering is limited to large block letters hanging in mid air introducing new locations. Conviction goes a step further andblends the text into walls and objects in the world seamlessly. More games need to do this.
Diehard Splinter Cell fans lamented the loss of certain gameplay elements such as hiding bodies. I found it refreshing. Hiding bodies always felt like a chore, rather than “ooh, this is cool because it’s realistic.” Fisher has a new trick called “Execution” where you can mark anywhere between 2-4 targets (depending on how much you’ve upgraded your gun) and can instantly kill them all with one button if you are within line of sight. It’s balanced since you have to “earn” the right to do this by successfully melee killing someone. While some critics may complain this cheapens the gameplay, at the end of the day, it serves to make the player feel like a badass. I’m ok with this. I want to be the action hero I see in the final cut of film. I’m ok with cutting out “realistic” elements for more fun.
Broken down into its core elements, Conviction is a sequence of situations in which Sam Fisher has to deal with bad guys who don’t know he’s there. Usually, I’d start off trying to take out everyone stealthily from the shadows. I’m not one for elaborate planning, so invariably I’d get seen, shit would hit the fan, and I’d have to shoot my way out of the mess. Oftentimes this would end in failure, but since I’m an above-average shooter player, I imagine I brute-forced my way through more than most players would. Generally, Conviction does a good job of preventing you from just run and gunning your way through the game, as a veritable clown bus of bad guys will swarm you if you try to do this. (Protip: There are always more dudes in the room than you think there are.)
I played through the single-player campaign through on “Realistic” difficulty. I usually play most games on normal difficulty, but I strongly recommend that you play this game on “Realistic” if you do. Playing through on anything less will give you far more leeway to run and gun your way through the game and I think that detracts from the experience. The most memorable moments you will have while playing will be the stealth kills and planned gadget kills, not the machinegun kills you get from playing Call of Duty style.
My favorite moment in the game was a planned attack where I planted a remote explosive on the ground next to a pair of armed guards. I scaled the building to their right, overlooking another guard from behind. Jumping down, I broke the neck of the hapless guard from behind. The original pair saw this and began to run towards me. Calmly, I pressed the button, detonated the explosive, and took out the remaining guards LIKE A BOSS.
The biggest complaint people have of Conviction is the “insta-fail” section well-into the game. I can’t defend this; it’s some bullshit. I’d like to think there’s a better solution to forcing players to act in a stealthy manner. However, part of the reason I got through it with minimal yelling at the screen was due to my Realistic difficulty training. By the time I got to the chapter in question, I was already used to basically “insta-failing” if I was detected (due to the immense swarms of enemies and inability to absorb much gunfire). It still sucked, though, because I could do everything right except for one tiny mistake, and I’d be forced to reload a checkpoint. Perhaps a better way of enforcing this would be to elevate the difficulty level to Realistic for everyone, regardless of what they are playing at. It’ll train the player to be more stealthy, but also give them the feeling that they could progress even if they make a mistake.
It’ll take a certain type of mindset to succeed and have fun with Conviction. You need to be prepared to be methodical and inconspicuous. If you can and are willing to do this, I guarantee you will have a great time with this game.
