Michael Walbridge

Section 8

October 30, 2009

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Michael Walbridge Make a comment! / Tweet it!

A lot of FPS’s go for some sort of gimmick. The genre is so solidified, saturated, and standardized that to have any sort of success it has to do something different or unique, and to do it really well.

Section 8 is actually very much a lot like other shooters; the fact that you are a space marine with two health bars, one including shields, is the first clue. But it does have some quirks. The most noticeable difference is respawning, something you’d never think would change or become awesome in any way, but on this point they have done very well. When you respawn, you come in on a pod and it feels like you’re inside a meteor crashing towards earth. You have your minimap on while you’re crashing towards the battleground and can see just how close your enemies or allies will be. Just before you land, you have a chance to hit the brake and exercise some control over where you’ll hit the ground. Crashing next to allies to heal them or next enemies to get right into the fray is always enjoyable, and the need to pay attention while dead keeps you in the game, instead of in and out of it like when you die in most other shooters.
 
There are some other unique features too, but their execution is a bit more flawed. Section 8 bears the strongest resemblance to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, where multiplayer consists of large group battles based around bases, checkpoints, vehicles, and deployable turrets. That game is good, though not spectacular, and one of its problems is that on many maps if you had no vehicle you had to either sit around waiting for one or you had to walk for 20-30 seconds, only to get sniped. Section 8 solves that problem by giving players the ability to run very, very fast, in fact, sometimes faster than many vehicles. You can get to where you want on large maps with ease. You’ve also got a short bursting jetpack that helps greatly with navigating around the large cliffs, boulders and buildings that are so frequent in the scenery.

The running feature is good for traversing the map, but not much else. The most annoying thing about it is that it is doesn’t control well when you’re trying to stop from starting or trying to start stopping. To activate it, you must walk continuously without stopping, and it seems like every time I was walking nearby the length of walking I wanted to do was just over the amount needed to activate it, making me dash right before I got where I wanted to go. There is a cooldown too, and it’s annoying to have it continuously be wasted. The jetpack is a little better, but when the burst runs out and you have to wait for it to recharge, your jumps are so tiny and pathetic that you’re practically a sitting duck. And if you have no run or jetpack, you’re done. Unlike Halo or Gears of War, you can’t charge in and get a kill or two before you go down, and unlike Unreal Tournament or Quake, you can’t run for your life to go heal or powerup.

It gives the feel of  all your kills and deaths more a matter of being at the right place and right time rather than being good at shooting or dodging, and this even if you’re a skilled FPS player.

Of course, the thing to remember is that it’s a large-scale team game with vehicles, turret and supply depot summoning, and coordinated strategy. But getting the strategy coordinated is difficult. Players actually sometimes invited me to parties—when I could find people playing. The servers are frequently empty and already there are not many people playing the game, unfortunately. A trip over to various forums confirms this. Incidentally, the forum of the PC players is much more active, so one wonders if the game community is superior on that platform. Voice chat comes more easily over there, anyway.

As for the single player campaign, it’s hastily pushed together. It’s mostly pretty easy (on medium, anyway) except for a couple of levels. You can respawn infinitely, and though there is supposed to be some sort of storyline, it’s very sloppy and confusing. It’s basically about “us vs. them” and the drama and acting is a little cheesy. It’s clearly a primer to prepare you for multiplayer and to get you accustomed to the vast customization you can give to your 6 loadouts (there are 6 classes, but you can ultimately change every single about them, so they are more like save profiles than classes). But the multiplayer lacks a community—to find some good games you will have to get online and seek out the loyal core that schedules games together.

Section 8 is flashy and enticing at first, but the vehicles and deployable structures have been done before. The super sprint, jetpack, and respawn are unique and thoughtful additions, but they aren’t major achievements that redefine the genre, or, for that matter, make the rest of the game fun.

ESRB: M for violence and a few naughty words. This is M in the way that Halo is an M, not in the way Gears of War is an M.

Pros: Cool respawning, big maps don’t leave you out in the boonies, classes are highly customizable

Cons: Boring single player campaign, hard to find people who play when it’s a heavily team-based game, graphics and combat are derivative

Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey

October 26, 2009

DS / Reviews / by Michael Walbridge Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey is a game about the difference between digital and analog. In the book, you have a list of characters, scenes, and objects to look for, all while enjoying the sights and scenery.

This isn’t the place for a deep discussion, but the point is important: Where’s Waldo? in video game form turns looking into Waldo into a pass/fail test with a timer, with access to future content in the game being relegated only to those who pass. The book does not do this; if you are tired of searching for something in one picture, you can simply pick any of the pictures from any of your books that you want. This is the smallest microcosm in existence that one can point to illustrate how poorly or awkwardly video games often attempt translate other mediums.

It’s clear that I’m on the side of the books, since that’s what I grew up with, but it must be admitted that there are some people who have a sort of preference for this thing.

The point is salient because the content of this game is solely based on the pictures in the book. The exact pictures are all here, but with a twist: Waldo is not in the same spot. In fact, he has more than one spot. That number is finite, but at least it’s more than one. When Martin Handford was creating his pictures of crowds, he stuck in Waldo as an afterthought, and Waldo then ended up becoming the public’s main interest. In software, it is surprising how easily and consistently Waldo looks like he naturally belongs where he belongs, even though he was stuck there randomly by the computer.

So far, so good, but the DS imposes limitations from which the game can’t escape. In every case, you must use the stylus to pore over the image. The entire image can’t be done justice in such a tiny screen, so you must scroll. Again, it just doesn’t seem as good as the real thing.

Each picture has three levels, and it’s odd to go back and look for things you’ve already seen the first time through. The “spot the difference” levels are quite challenging and a nice exception; they are actually pretty challenging, changes being extremely small and difficult to detect. The Odlaw levels, on the other hand, are extremely easy or difficult (usually the latter) because of the different color tones each level has. He places 15 animals, all which have yellow and black stripes, throughout the scenes, and they are tiny and don’t fit in as well as Waldo or Wenda do. I once found a monkey in the middle of some rocks and a snake just sticking out of the ground and jutting into the air at an awkward angle.

There is barely an ending to the game, and with the exception of some occasional animation of Handford’s work, there really is nothing here you can’t see elsewhere. It’s clear the game is designed for kids and Waldo-lovers, and if those kids would love the digital version of a Waldo activity book, there is plenty to do, especially with highly different difficulty levels. Otherwise, stick with the books.

ESRB: E for Everyone. Do the Waldo books offend you? It’s straight out of those.

Pros: You can turn the annoying voices off, cool to see animated art from the world of Waldo, easy to replay, doesn’t stick everything in the same spot every time

Cons: Software limitations become obvious quickly, practically no ending, either too easy or too hard

A Witch’s Tale

October 26, 2009

DS / Reviews / by Michael Walbridge Make a comment! / Tweet it!

A Witch’s Tale is for kids. Oh yes, it is for kids. Why is it for kids? Because it is the easiest RPG ever made. And how is it the easiest RPG ever made? You are invincible. The control scheme is completely 100% stylus, nothing else. Your party members are buff, you basically can’t die, and you simply plow through. If challenge or the puzzle of how to beat an annoying boss is your thing, look elsewhere. And you can run from random encounters. All of them. Every time.

So what else is there? There is that unique setting, theme, and art style, and A Witch’s Tale doesn’t pull punches with its flair. The lands are Halloween, Gothic, spooky and fairy-tale all in one, and the characters, combat, and story never stray in theme. Unlike other RPGs, there isn’t a multiplicity of worlds or a change of the cosmos or planet–just a romp through the woods, like a kid’s story should be.

But even as a kid’s story, A Witch’s Tale falls flat, and it’s a disappointment because the story is its best hope at being a quality original game. The main character, Liddell, skips school to snoop around a castle, hearing tales of untold power lying within. She wants to become the world’s most powerful witch and is willing to open a sealed tome that has held an evil witch for 1,000 years. A vampire, Loue, stood guard, but was asleep the whole time. So when Liddell opens this Pandora’s box, it’s like, the end of the freaking world right? Well, it should be, but Liddell also gains powers and becomes tutored by Loue, who tells her that she needs to fix her mistake in the tone a parent would tell a child to clean up spilled Kool-Aid.

The crazy thing is that a girl makes the mistake of releasing an evil entity that could destroy the world, but no one gets that upset, even though the kingdoms’ princesses will stay captured and the world will be conquered by a dark force, standard-RPG-doom-and- gloom stuff. But Liddell is a brat, the exact kind of child that makes you hate children, the kind that makes you wonder how loveable you yourself were as a child, the kind that makes you thankful you no longer attend the last school you attended. And she could be taught a lesson, many lessons in fact, and it could have been done with style and in a unique setting and in a video game instead of a movie or book. What attempts there are at lessons are shallow, and the twists are easily predictable to the adult mind.

The art’s fine, the world is unique, the characters are shallow and predictable (by RPG standards, if you can imagine that), the maps are extremely simple and squarish, and the combat is so simple (and protracted; why would your first random creature take 8 hits to kill?) that there is no fun in the grind. Kids who don’t know better will be enchanted by the world of A Witch’s Tale, but this is not one of those family-oriented title that will suck in adults.

ESRB: E. Only thing that might upset you is Liddell’s skanky getup, which you can see on the cover and in a screenshot.

Pros: Unique setting and theme, manages to not be too JRPGish

Cons: So easy it makes the grind even more grindy, shallow characters and writing, cheap lessons

Beta for Crimecraft available on May 12th

May 8, 2009

News / by Michael Walbridge Make a comment! / Tweet it!

In case you didn’t know, Vogster (I haven’t heard of them either) is working on an MMO called Crimecraft, featuring guns, clothes, and other GTA/Saint’s Row-style ruckus-making activities and equipment.

Vogster is making the beta available on May 12th through PowerUp Games. Sign up for a free account and you can see builds of other games, too.

The biggest and most recognizable one, though, is Crimecraft.

Snackbar Games will try to get into said beta and scope it out for you. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Big Bang Mini

April 1, 2009

DS / Reviews / by Michael Walbridge Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Big Bang Mini comes with plenty of soul and very little character—the art, the fireworks,  the mechanics, the price, and the variety of modes give it plenty of life. After you spend time with it, though, it feels like going to a parade alone.

BBM is an easily accessible shoot’em-up—you control a spinning or pulsing orb or square or triangle that must avoid plenty of projectiles and falling debris. To attack, you flick the stylus as you would strike a match in the direction you wish to attack, each strike sending up one shot. However, if that shot doesn’t hit (or isn’t absorbed by a cloud or shield or whatever), it explodes like a firework, and the debris falls back down and could kill you. You must also use the stylus to move the ship out of the way, so you must either attack or evade, but never both.

The main arcade mode features 90 levels, organized into ten sets with different locations, enemies, techniques (one section lets you make bullet-absorbing vortexes), and boss stages.

It starts off as easy, fooling you into thinking you are skilled with your stylus, but the game will brutally crush anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experience playing games where you must dodge projectiles. Each level is short, but it takes only one hit before you fail. Some of the enemies spray showers of 20 projectiles at once.

There are other modes, such as a mission mode that comes with 25 preset achievement-style challenges, a versus mode that allows you to play against other players (one cartridge only) and a challenge mode where you can post your high score online. There is a secret mode and a relax mode to unlock—the relax mode puts on a fireworks show and music for you while you watch and can appreciate the art. You have to clear all 81 bonus stages to do that.

The games’ furor makes you miss its soul; I found Paris and Abyss particularly difficult and kept losing to sheep, paper airplanes, black cats, fish, and underwater mines. I am an advanced gamer, and it only took me about 5 hours to clear the arcade mode, but there was a lot of failure involved. It will be much more challenging for casual or non-aggressive players. It requires a volume of attempts and requires persistence more than it does strategy or puzzle-solving.

The controls are easily BBM’s strongest feature–they are flawless and superb, allowing the player to savor Big Bang Mini’s unique features.

Still, Big Bang Mini won’t be for everyone. It’s good for bite-sized gaming, it’s a nice challenge, and shmup fans will love the unique spins it takes, but if none of those are incentives, the challenge and strict dexterity requirements may drive you away.

ESRB: E for everyone. Fireworks and psychedelic hippies, clouds, and superheroes abound.

Plays like: a shmup where all movement and shots are directed by stylus

Pros: Superb controls, unique, challenging, variety of modes and challenges, and quirky, memorable beats

Cons: Highly challenging, unforgiving, somewhat short; the experience leaves you forgetting what happened when you’re done, which is something that is rare and undesirable

 

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