September 2009 Archives

Simply advancing to the next generation of hardware doesn't necessarily mean that everything else will improve alongside it. Terrible movies made with megabucks still get out to theaters, anyone without two notes to rub together can still market themselves on MySpace in the hopes of landing a contract, and awful games occasionally land on shelves before the eyes of an unsuspecting audience.

Raven Squad's ideas sound good on the back of its box in blending both FPS and RTS elements together to create what could be a solid take on mercenary-led firepower in a hot zone. After all, that's one of the things that made Rainbow Six such fun on the PC for many would-be commanders. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter would also get into the act with its Cross Com tactical overview and squad command system which made anyone feel like an operator sitting somewhere deep within Langley before switching into the head of one of their own in the field.

With that kind of history already out there, Raven Squad seemed like it would be built atop the shoulders of giants. The bad news is that Raven Squad would manage to break that formula on every level.

At Tech Out, gadgets and goodies are often part of what we like to write about. But what happens when the need to build something new and unexpected takes hold? What happens when someone has to MacGyver a solution to a problem?

It looks like "There, I Fixed It" has the answer with extreme results. Check out a few samples below for a little inspiration if you're thinking of your own homegrown project...or reminder that not every idea is a good one.

WETshould be enjoyed with cold beer and leftover pizza at 3 a.m, in between the infomercials and badly dubbed kung-fu movies. It's that kind of game.

Bethesda's latest action shooter isn't the first to use a gun-toting or blade-wielding blood vixen, but it might be the first to realize how much silly fun it could be. While gamers are busy ogling the outrageous magical flash and exaggerated sexiness of an upcoming game like Bayonetta, the people at Artificial Mind and Movement hearken back to a simpler time, when bullets, blood and bad guys being killed in vicious fashion were more than enough. That was the "grindhouse" style of doing things, usually with an extreme hero leading the way.

Bad voice acting isn't a new problem, but the depths at which it can sink can always surprise even jaded players like myself that thought they had heard everything. Sitting down with a game shouldn't also require torture to the ears, but with the Xbox 360 game, Raven Squad, I have no choice if I want to finish it. Even if you had Tarantino onboard to write up some snappy dialogue, having someone with the pulse of an ice cube delivering the lines is just as bad as pulling the text off of a cereal box instead.

Seriously developers, if you can't afford decent voice acting and feel that you have to do something like draft your local office personnel or familial relations "that think it would be easy and cool", chances are, it will be a bad idea. Honestly, I'm not sure if that is what happened with Raven Squad, but I heard that it was what happened with another game, Chaos Wars.

If you have no choice but to go that route anyway, I would suggest spending some of your budget on acting lessons to ensure that your actors can properly pronounce words like "evac", "tango", and "beach". There's also something called "emotion", too, that I heard makes a big difference between simply reading the script and getting into character. I heard actors sometimes do that.

But if you did hire actual actors and they turn out to be terrible, sending them back to acting school might not be a bad idea anyway.

A little belated, but definitely worth watching. Rally driver, Ken Block, takes several unsuspecting gamers out for the real deal during a Jump Jam session at Codemaster's Dirt 2 launch event.

Dirt 2 - $60
Subaru WRX STi - $35K or more
Look on a gamer's face when racing for real - priceless

Snark blog Gawker reveals that President Barack Obama is a nerd.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is an art lesson disguised as an action game. If most of my schooling was this enjoyable and simple, I'd probably be more cultured.

The Nintendo Wii has become something of the local art house for video games, as designers compensate for the system's lack of obnoxious graphic horsepower by putting out titles with a unique visual spin. Before Muramasa came MadWorld and No More Heroes, a pair of games that stood out as much for their creative look as much as the gameplay. Okami also earned a lot of praise for its artsy vibe.

Muramasa bobs and floats along the same artistic river, making the player feel as if they are performing within the confines of Japanese paintings rather than the standard levels one would see in most action games. Adding to the mystique is the fact that Muramasa functions as a classic side-scroller, which makes it instantly accessible to practically anyone who plays it. This approach also enables the player to immerse himself or herself in other elements, such as story.

When evaluating art that really matters, The Beatles are among the real miracles and artistic touchstones for western music and pop culture.

Their musical legacy is arguably without equal, with a talent, genius, influence and popularity that will be appreciated long after most forget about 90 percent of the artistic and commercial product produced in this century and the last. They are among the likes of Mozart, Shakespeare, or Dylan, in the virtuosity of their lyricism and musicianship.

With that said, it was an honor for me to see one-fourth of the legendary band perform at Coachella this year -- losing my voice in the process after singing along with Beatles bassist/songwriter Paul McCartney to his hits "Hey Jude" and "Paperback Writer" -- among my favorite songs of all time. I didn't think my Beatles experience could be equalled this year after seeing Paul live, singing "Can't Buy Me Love" while he jammed on his original Hofner Bass guitar.

I was wrong.

With the release of The Beatles Rock Band last week, in addition to their remastered album recordings, I was again lost in the heavenly bliss of the Fab Four's three-part harmony, in ways I hadn't experienced before.

With recreated Hofner bass in hand, and microphone on mouth, I re-lived the Fab Four's deliriously fast rise to the top from the working class docks of Liverpool to playing sold-out American arenas filled with screaming girls, and back home to the hallowed halls of their Abbey Road recording studio in London -- all through a quality product that should not only please to no end existing Beatles fans but also introduce their music to a new generation. I shared this experience with friends and strangers, all happilly united in the goal of recreating truly amazing music.

As a guitar player, I was at first skeptical of a video game that cheats one of the real experience of creating real music, or actively listening to an actual record. Playing a real musical instrument, I still believe, is far superior than pushing colored buttons on something that looks like a Fisher-Price toy guitar for toddlers, in the safety and security of one's living room.

There's something about rock music that shouldn't be living-room friendly. There's something weak about rocking out with a light plastic guitar with plastic buttons instead of the delicate picking of steel strings, executing knuckle busting chords, and pulling off sonically seductive riffs after years of practice and experience.

But the new Beatles Rock Band game still proves a revelation in the way one can experience, appreciate and truly understand The Beatles' art. There's quality in the production here and fans and non-fans alike really get an opportunity to appreciate and have fun with some the truly remarkable songs. The new medium of video games are truly evolving into important works of art that not only captivate but allow the one to be able to participate.

Among the best bits:

- Art: The production art for the box, cut-scenes and the gameplay are all gorgeous rendered. From the beautifully riveting opening animation sequence to the psychedelic vibrancy of later song levels, the experience is a candy for the eyes and ears. Its nice to see band rock out the Cavern Club and Ed Sullivan's Theatre set in full Technicolor. The middle period of the game features famous Beatles venues such as Shea Stadium and Budokan in Japan. The Beatles last period is set in Abbey Road studios and the band's legendary final live performance on a London rooftop.

- Drums: The game actually serves as a real musical learning tool. The music educational value of the game through the software and hardware is top-notch. The game comes with an intuitive electronic drum set that authentically replicates the crash, hi-hat, toms, snare and bass of an actual drum kit. The player can use the hardware with the game's easy to learn tutorials on Ringo's actual drum lines that you can slow down and learn beat by beat.

- Vocals: Here players can either choose to sing lead or harmony and the microphone sensitivity to pitch and beat is spot on. The game should prove hit at parties, and might even serve to teach the tone deaf to sing on key.

-Online play: Hook up your internet cable to the console, test your skills and tour the world, literally. The game easilly finds you bandmates to sing or play along with from around the globe.

Criticism:

- My only beef is that the game needs more songs. We're missing several greats numbers like "Money," "I Should Have Known Better," and "Let it Be," among many other classics. The game should have been released with the Beatles entire catalogue, though I understand they will be available for download.

neil.nisperos@inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 483-9356

Photo by Neil Nisperos: Paul McCartney plays on his Hofner Bass, just like the one that comes with The Beatles Rock Band video game, at the 2009 Coachella Valley Festival of Music and Art

It's the game-winning Santonio Holmes touchdown from Super Bowl 43 - according to Tecmo Bowl. By the way, I haven't forgotten about Madden 10. Working on a review for this week.

Section 8, perhaps inevitably, is going to draw in comparisons to the venerable 1998 PC title, Starsiege: Tribes and its sequels for having much of the same gameplay. Tribes had set the multiplayer world on its ear with its blend of fast paced FPS action, a large selection of impressively vast maps, a wide variety of gametypes, weapon and armor loadouts, a commander option, and jet packs.

That, in itself, is a good thing considering the strong fanbase that the game and its legacy continue to enjoy in the PC world. Unfortunately, the odds that the audience on the console will even know what it is are pretty slim considering the dominance of COD and Halo within its multiplayer space in the years since, but it brings with it a number of interesting options to distinguish it from the competition.

If you took Nathan Drake from Uncharted and threw him into a more earthbound version of Metroid, you essentially get Chair's Shadow Complex, a joyful reminder that fun action doesn't always have to come in three dimensions. It's a game that makes you wonder why you spent $60 on another game that's either collecting dust or sitting under a choice beverage.

As an unsuspecting but extremely well-trained hiker who stumbles onto a terror group housing mechs and other world-bending weaponry, you'll find yourself crawling, swimming and running through a large base, slowly piecing together the story while trying to stay alive. If you remember Metroid from the NES days, you'll be right at home with the game's constant demand for exploration. You'll use a map that helps paint a path to your next objective, but you're also free to search every 2D nook and cranny of the base -- elevator shafts, ventilation shafts, large and small rooms filled with an assortment of bad guys, and of course, machines that fire missiles at you.

Perhaps my favorite part of the game is how you fight back. Jason (that's the name of the aw-shucks, who-me protagonist of the game) scrambles around the base finding any weapon he can. First, it's a pistol and his considerable melee skills (with the B button serving as all-purpose pain-bringer). Eventually, he stumbles onto pieces of the ultimate battle armor with features that include: boots that make you run like the Flash and enable you to charge through breakable objects, a Batman-like grappling claw, and thrusters.

You also have weapons that serve certain purposes, like breaking open the right doors. There are no keys in this game, only the right kind of firepower, which could be applicable to real life in some countries. The game tells you what the right kind of weapon for the job is via a color-coded system that hinges on the use of Jason's flashlight. You can turn the light on, shine it around, and eventually find a passage, panel or door that turns purple, red, yellow or green.

Enter the weapons, another part of the game I enjoyed. You've got your typical firearms, but you've also got grenades, missiles and foam charges. Yes, foam -- as in you fire a projectile, it hits, and expansive foam emerges. It's extremely useful and creative. Most of the time, you use it to gum up machinery so it breaks. However, you can also use this foam of the gods as an adhesive for the otherwise bouncy grenades you launch. Very handy against irritable, railgun-bearing machines of death.

There's also an whimsical, puzzle-like quality to the game as you figure out how each tool and weapon works, how one passage leads to another part of the base, how access is gained with the right combination of weaponry and skill. The visuals aren't bad either, giving the impression of a much larger world but managing to keep you focused going left to right. The only time the 2D plane is really broken is when Jason fires at enemies in the background.

I didn't find too much to pick at in this game, other than Jason almost seems a little too good at what he does. He's got Jack Bauer-like accuracy with any gun he has, and he also wins all of his melee battles. In other words, the game seems a bit on the easy side for the most part, the battles with choppers and mechs notwithstanding. While there's a map and plenty of enemies to play with, some might find the game's penchant for backtracking annoying. The game also sometimes magically replaces doors, panels, fallen objects or enemies in some rooms just for the hell of it -- I call it the magic maintenance crew, who was extremely popular in 2D gaming days of yore.

Overall, Shadow Complex is the most enjoyable Xbox Live Arcade experience I've had to date. It's simple, smart and slightly addicting - all the qualities an arcade game should have. Plus, it's the most fun you'll have with foam that won't get you in trouble with the law.

We've all read, seen, or heard the reports about the Wii, albeit indirectly, breaking televisions and turning living rooms into obstacle courses. That strap on the control isn't just a gray tassel that you can hang your keys on while boxing Wii avatars, after all.

But what not a lot people may know is that it has also helped others as a part of their physical rehabilitation. The Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Nebraska is using the Wii as a part of their program in helping brain injury patients get back onto their feet as you can watch in this clip below:

They're not the only ones doing this, either, as a rehabilitation center in Norfolk has also incorporated it into their program. "Wiihab" seems to be catching on as hospitals and other medical centers are using Nintendo's console to help their patients.

Seeing the Wii used for something more than simple gaming is a refreshing twist to the stereotype that games are just for fun and with Microsoft's own full motion system for the Xbox 360, Natal, on its way, it will be interesting to see just how it might be put to similar use. Peripheral interfaces have come a long way since R.O.B. and the Lightgun for the NES, and so have the ideas that people have come up with in using them to heal as well as entertain.

I just caught this browsing around on the 'net for news and can only think that 2009 is turning out to be the Year of the Leaked Game.

Halo ODST is a standalone expansion to the Halo series casting the player as an ODST trooper sent in to back up Master Chief with their own mission. The leak was already reported earlier as having come from France with Microsoft making the magnanimous decision NOT to ban early recruits, especially when they claimed that only about a hundred copies had actually gone out.

You can catch some of the footage below (which is all in French with English subs). It probably goes without saying that if you don't want to be spoiled before the September 22nd release date, don't watch it.

But now it looks like there's an actual distro out on the 'net as reported by several sites such as fan-based halo.bungie.org. It was only a matter of time before this happened, but you can bet that Microsoft won't be looking at this particular incident in the same way as the accidental release of legit copies above.

Funcom has updated its site promoting their new PC MMO-in-the-works, "The Secret World", with a test to see which of the three secret societies you might be best suited for. It also gives you a chance to be a part of the upcoming beta which should be more than enough of an incentive for fans familiar with writer Ragnar Tornquist's work with "The Longest Journey" and its sequel, "Dreamfall".

If you don't know what it is about, "The Secret World" takes place in real world locations such as New York and London as it pits players in a secret war against the forces of darkness. Those myths that go bump in the night? The Boogey Man? Atlantis? Cthulhu? They could be real. The question is, will you fight to keep these secrets buried? Use them towards your own ends? Or sell them to the highest bidder as part of a secret agenda? That's about what this sounds like. It sounds pretty intriguing, especially when they say that the gameplay is classless without leveling.

Think about that one: no leveling, no classes. My RPG sensibilities had to chew on that for awhile. It sounds almost as welcome as when 4ed D&D rid itself of Vancian magic memorization, but I need to see how it could work first before I get too excited.

Anyways, I took the test which was a mix of unique visuals and odd questions making it feel as if I were being grilled in the backroom of a fortune teller's shop in Chinatown...the kind that Eddie Murphy in the Golden Child might have visited.

As for the faction it picked out for me, well, I'll be keeping that as my own secret, but it's not fixed. At the end of the test, would-be beta testers can opt to pick from the three societies offered: the Templar, the Illuminati, or the Dragon. Once you do, you'll get an e-mail and a kit that you can download to show off your affiliation. The layers are finally peeling away from Funcom's latest game, adding a bit more detail to what was teased in the trailer below.

Update 9.4.09: The second trailer has been added below. It looks like the trailers are covering each of the societies in turn. The first looks like it's showing off the Dragon. The second one, I'm guessing, is for the Templars.

I'm Batman.

Not the most eloquent thought, but there it was in all its unshakable glory as it kept racing through my head while I was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. Rocksteady's take on the Caped Crusader not only faithfully emulates and represents its subject matter -- it practically bleeds it. Many hero games promise to "immerse" you in a character's world, but this is one of the few that actually pulls it off.

One of the reasons Batman stands apart from so many other superheroes is because we think he is one of us. He wasn't blessed with the ability to fly, or with claws coming out of his hands -- his defining trait is a tragic memory which he has used as the driving force behind everything he does. He's trained his body and his mind to their absolute peak, and the result is, really, our very own American ninja.

Devout fans of the comic mythos already know this, but for the masses who know Batman though mostly movies, games and television shows over the years, you can find more than a few mixed signals. That's led to confusion, and the result is a range of work that paints Batman with various brushes: He was a campy detective (the early '60s show), a brooding, silent crimefighter fighting a circus of crime (the Tim Burton movies) and in the best examples, the ultimate badass with a brain. He would be noble enough to support wholeheartedly, but also have enough edge to satisfy any darker needs we have for our heroes. In other words, Batman has way of making us feel that a simple beatdown of a serial rapist and killer is enough.

To me, the bodies of work that best emulate the ideal are Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. And now, I want to add Batman: Arkham Asylum to the list.