Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Darvin11

Originally posted April 4 2011 gameaday-ish.blogspot.com

Overstaying its welcome and tonally dysfunctional, Bulletstorm is a brash, crass and colourful shooter. Created by Painkiller developers People Can Fly and executive-produced/published by Epic, Bulletstorm attacks the dour grey-brown colors of modern military shooters with an explosion of environmental palettes. The Unreal 3 engine is used at its best with funnel driven corridors limiting player exploration to long pretty lanes swarming with berserk enemies.

Playing as alcoholic rogue Grayson Hunt, the story swerves from low comedy to “drama” in fits and starts, like a high school play staged by tourettes-laden epileptics. Hunt heads a squad of military assassins, who have be mislead into executing innocent voices of dissent rather than the criminal scourge they had been told. Forced to run, Hunt finds his crew and ship nose to nose with the ship of the man who betrayed them. Suicidally attacking the overwhelming force of the enemy, Hunt brings both ships down on a ravaged resort planet.

The rest of the story is essentially pointless as 45 mins into the game the mechanics become the only reason to finish Bulletstorm. Once planetside, Hunt is forced to search for power to save a crew member, and along the way picks up the leash. Coupled with a biometric HUD, the leash allows the player to grab objects and enemies and fling them into gunfire or environmental hazards. The HUD is a macguffin that allows for the scoring system that dominates the gameplay.

Scored on the creativity of combining gunfire with leash handling and the environment (called skillshots), the player is able to unlock various weapons and upgrades by nailing shots like “gang bang”, “rear entry” or “pricked”.

Juvenile and gory, Bulletstorm is tripped up by many of the tropes it attempts to mock. However, the snappy controls, colorful design and over the top humor help alleviate the pain of transparent plot points and trite tales of vengeance and redemption. At the point where the player replays an entire map 2/3rds of the way through the 8 hour playing time, the game has worn out its welcome and its charm.

Fun but empty, Bulletstorm is the fat-free popcorn of gaming.

Originally posted Feb 4 2011 gameaday-ish.blogspot.com

Many, many games make me wish for a “sigh” button, for a variety of reasons. Dead Space 2 makes me wish for a “sigh of despair” button.

Thrown into a startling and thrilling opening sequence, Isaac Clarke returns from Dead Space to once again dismember and destroy necromorphs. Arming himself in a plot-driven and organic way, Isaac also finds his voice, something that was missing in the first game. Spectacularly well written and well-acted, Isaac is no longer a silent avatar for the player, but a fully formed character whose destiny is to be plagued by waking nightmares.

Like a futuristic John Mclane, Isaac finds himself in a horribly familiar situation: running and fighting for his life through an industrial space maze, guided by remote voices. Unlike the errand missions and unending jump scares of the first game, DS 2 makes ironic meat of the first game’s formula with a half-way point reveal that is delicious. Replete with actual mood and atmosphere, DS 2 does have more than its fair share of jump scares, but makes up for it by honing tension to a bright gleaming point.

A few mid-to-late game set pieces tread dangerously close to vomiting all over the concept of over-the-top bad taste, but like any great horror experience makes the viewer squirm.

Caveats are few and far between, but like the overuse of jump-scares, DS 2 does milk its formula too much. Vacillating between random encounters against one or two enemies and endless swarms, DS 2 also swings heavily in difficulty level, especially in the late game. Combat and movement have been tweaked just enough to make the action quick and responsive, unlike the tank controls of the first game. While this makes the game move faster and become slightly more of an action-shooter, it makes the difficulty spikes more egregious as the need for accuracy ramps up beyond the speed of the controls.

Following the first game, DS 2 allows for a New Game+ mode, allowing the player to carry over any upgraded equipment from the 1st playthough, lowering the difficulty and increasing replayibility.

Satisfying in its resolution, DS 2 raises the bar beyond survival horror to become a truly cinematic horror experience and I can’t wait to play it again.

Originally posted Sept 15 2009 gameaday-ish.blogspot.com

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Arkham is not tied to any specific property other than the characters than have populated the Batman universe for over 50 years. Seeking inspiration in all of the media that has come before, the game references the Christian Bale movies, the Tim Burton movies, all of the animated series and the comics themselves, weaving these details into a claustrophobic, atmospheric story.

Penned by animated series and comic creator Paul Dini, the pitfall found in Wolverine is avoided by casting voices from the animated series, namely Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. As fully committed to the performances as Jackman, they create familiarity to fans of character without jeopardizing the verisimilitude of the presentation. Had Arkham been tied to Dark Knight, it may well suffer from some of the issues facing Wolverine.

The seemingly ubiquitous Unreal 3 engine makes a spectacular appearance, rendering large colorful worlds that appear open but are quite limited in scope. Once again, the decision to set AA on an island and solely within the facility grounds serves the game well, motivating the linear aspect of play.

I found it amusing that expositional scenes revealed through off camera radio transmissions are in full force in the game, as apparently that is a feature built into the engine. The animations for these sequences are identical to the ones uses in Gears.

What I found most striking in the difference between these very similar games was the presentation of the main character and their interaction with the environment through gameplay. Batman uses his familiar bag of tricks from his utility belt, resulting in a cavalcade of gadgets and upgrades. Platforming is restricted to using a grapple gun and a glide ability, referencing both the movies and the animated shows. Puzzles are integrated into a detective mode as Challenges left by the Riddler.

Combat is an integral part of the game and Batman’s combat is a far more nuanced and cerebral experience, playing much like a real-time Bruce Lee movie. Counters are used to intercept attacks, allowing the player to chain together attacks and build up multipliers, which unleash finishing moves. Strategy must be employed and it is a far more satisfying experience.

Against the odds, junior developer Rocksteady created a tour-du-force experience in AA, while Raven managed what appeared to be impossible prior to AA’s release: create a good comic book game. Wolverine is a very entertaining game but it pales in comparison to the masterwork that is Arkham Asylum.