Roger Helgeson

Microsoft’s Crackdown Smackdown

May 10, 2007

News / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

As if Crackdown, the game everyone expected to hate, wasn’t already a bundle of fun, the Xbox Live team just announced that in addition to the Halo 3 beta finally opening up next week, Crackdown is finally going to get its mysterious update with the additional achievements worth an overall 100 gamerpoints.

Of course, that’s what everyone thought. It turns out that Microsoft Game Studios, Real Time Worlds, and the Xbox Live team were hard at work at a truly massive overhaul that exists on three separate but intermingling levels: there’s the required update, the free downloadable content pack, and the additional “premium” downloadable content available for 800 marketplace points. Each of these three things promise to deliver a lot of very fun and interesting changes to the game in different, interweaving ways.

While you can find the entire list of updates at Major Nelson’s weblog, here’s a quick rundown. The required update will allow players to finally reset all the gangs, allowing players to replay the game from scratch, though it is unclear if you can choose to abandon your acquired skills or not. This was the most annoying aspect of the original game: once you beat a boss, that boss was gone from your main campaign, and you could only face him again in Time Trial mode. Additionally, orbs have a greater “sound” radius after you’ve collected a certain percentage of each type, making it much easier to grab those last few as you scour the city. Targeting is getting a “priority” update, meaning your player will target live enemies over corpses and the like. There are many more features as well, such as a new ground slam attack, various camera and visibility enhancements, some better driving physics and PvP targeting, and so on. And that’s just the patch.

The free downloadable content pack has less added features, but comparable impact to the overall game. For one, there is a new “keys to the city” mode, which is the one thing in this update that I find most intriguing. Microsoft lists this as the “ultimate cheat mode” but it really seems to be more of a massive debug mode. You can spawn a ramp truck or an agency vehicle anywhere, set character skills to anything desired, or activate the accelerated skill growth those that played the demo experienced. Super Agent Agility and Super Agent Strength will allow players to swim faster, run quicker, jump farther, and throw harder than the ridiculous speeds and distances already granted in the non-debug Super Agent Strength. Add in infinite ammo, and build a pile of explosive drums atop the Agency Tower for some fun with physics – just don’t stand too close when blowing them up. But that’s not all. Now you can also impound your favorite non-Agency vehicles and store them at the Agency by driving them back, a new feature that goes hand-in-hand with a new achievement. Also, co-op trophies have been added as well as a Psychotic difficulty Time Trial leaderboard.

As if all that weren’t enough, and it really is, there is the premium content pack to consider which adds three new Agency vehicles, a Buggy, a Racecar, and an Armored Vehicle, four new weapons, including a harpoon (and one of the new achievements requires you to harpoon five enemies to a single vehicle), and a cloaking device, as well as various competitive multiplayer sports, like new Max-Agility Races and a rocket-arena type game mode, though the arena is the entire city.

In addition, 350 new gamerpoints have been added, rather than the 100 originally promised, and these 350 are spread among the various content packs. New goals include the aforementioned, plus completing all the Time Trials in Psychotic difficulty and completing all the street races with every vehicle. That last bit sounds particularly daunting as there are about forty vehicles per this last update. If that wasn’t enough, though, players are able to try this new content out without actually purchasing it: that’s right, the premium downloadable content pack is temporarily inherited by non-owners via co-op if they connect to someone who purchased that pack. Of course, it can only be played while connected to this person and will not be usable in single player or with someone else until they purchase the pack themselves. This alleviates some of the downloadable map problems seen in various shooters that have had map packs released over the last year plus.

While too much of already existing content is broken (optional DLC that doesn’t work and a plethora of unachievable achievements spread across the Xbox Live Arcade and even some retail titles), this update does, at the very least, signify that the Xbox Live team and developers close to Microsoft are paying attention to what gamers want. It’s hard to see this as anything other than “fan service,” but, looking at that laundry list of amazing new updates, I really don’t care at this point and welcome being pampered to by Microsoft in this fashion.

Crackdown was already mindless fun, and this update won’t change that at all, but with all the new ways to experience the mindless carnage, and the ingenious new ability to essentially try the premium content before buying it by hooking up with a co-op partner who purchased it, this update is nothing short of promising to anyone who owns an Xbox 360, Crackdown owner or not.

Lost In Blue 2

April 24, 2007

DS / Reviews / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Lost in Blue was my pick for Game of Show at E3 2005. The Nintendo DS was finally coming into its own at that point and Konami was right in the mix, pimping out some very promising NDS titles, with Lost in Blue as the most interesting. The concept was simple: a boy and a girl wake up on an island after their boat sinks and they must help each other survive while exploring the island, solving its mysteries, and trying to find a way back home. The concept isn’t exactly new; in fact, Lost in Blue is the spiritual successor to Konami’s own Survival Kids franchise from the 8-bit NES era. Regardless, I was immediately captivated by the natural, serene beauty of the game.

Looking back at the first Lost in Blue, it must have been a feminist’s nightmare: the woman stays in the home (read: cave) and cooks, while the man goes out and hunts for food and brings water and firewood and other necessities back to the home. This is explained away somewhat by the girl being mostly blind (after the male character inadvertently steps on her glasses), but it becomes painfully obvious three minutes into the sequel. The relationship between boy and girl character is the most notable difference in Lost in Blue 2, and the roles are much more even. For starters, players can choose to be either the boy or the girl from the very start of the game, either of which have only slightly different abilities – for instance, while both the boy and the girl can both gather firewood and food and build and even cook in this game, the boy can climb higher ledges while the girl has a superior jumping ability. This provides slightly different avenues of travel while exploring solo.

The island is larger and much more robust than in the first Lost in Blue, which is likely why the male and female roles were individually expanded. Even so, the game is quite a bit more brutal. Earthquakes now send players scrambling, while tsunamis make it impossible to travel anywhere until they pass. So, even though players can ask their male or female live-in to gather firewood or food or to craft rope and smoke fish, ultimately a lot is still left up to the player. It is rather important, for instance, for players to do their own cooking as it usually yields better results.

Some may find this monotonous and repetitive. The nature of the game, though, is survival. The key is in gathering enough supplies to enable the characters to go out and explore the island. Eventually players will be able to leave the cave and set up a new headquarters while yet digging deeper into the mysteries of the large, strange island. While much of the gameplay is admittedly rote, Lost in Blue 2 does a better job than the first game of offering new options and discoveries to the player while still compelling them to explore and making the game increasingly more difficult.

A few complaints are in order, though. The graphics are exactly the same as the original title, though it’s worth noting that they still suit the game style just fine. The aesthetic nature of the game is improved by the expanded scope this sequel offers but admittedly not by any evolution of the graphics themselves. The musical score is fine but not as noteworthy as the original Lost in Blue, but that’s really a minor point. The last real complaint is the artificial intelligence of the player’s partner. For some reason, they don’t take very good care of themselves when the player goes exploring, unless the player lies and tells them that they will be gone for days. Sometimes they do eat, though. Newcomers to the series may be out of their depth just a tad, and even veterans might have trouble in some parts.

The best new feature of Lost in Blue 2, though, is the full stylus control. Taking a cue from Grasshopper Manufacture’s Contact and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy III, Lost in Blue 2 now allows players to perform everything – except for switching status screens with the shoulder buttons – using nothing more than the touch screen. This includes movement which was only possible via D-Pad last time. Stylus control is absolutely preferable to D-Pad control, but for those unwilling to make the switch, the original Lost in Blue control scheme is also present. One note: if the stylus is calibrated properly, players should have no trouble controlling the boy or girl in their pursuit of survival, though at the corners of the screen it can be a little touchy. For instance, occasionally my character would move if I hit the A

Pok

April 23, 2007

News / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Gotta catch A

Sam & Max: Episode 5 – Reality 2.0

April 17, 2007

PC / Reviews / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Sam and Max: Reality 2.0 marks the penultimate episode in this first season of new Sam and Max adventures. Fifth in a series of semi-connected cases – the connection becoming more and more apparent with each episode – Reality 2.0 is also, by far, the best of the bunch, and is perhaps one of the very best point-n-click adventures ever conceived.

To give that last comment some context, I should note that Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders are some of my first gaming memories. I helped Sir Graham and his kin overcome great perils; I weaved many a tune with Mr. Threadbare; I have endured many a trial with April Ryan; I have lived beneath a steel sky; and so on. The point-n-click genre is one of the oldest and one that has suffered a great many hardships along the way and so has Sam and Max. LucasArts’ cancellation of the sequel to 1997’s Sam and Max Hit the Road was so very painful to endure for many as Hit the Road signified the pinnacle of comedic gaming at the time. When Steve Purcell was able to wrest control of his own creation back from LucasArts many were relieved, I among them.

I was also worried. A

Sam & Max: Episode 4 – Abe Lincoln Must Die!

March 26, 2007

PC / Reviews / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Sam and Max are now into their fourth episode – Sam and Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die!. Those that have been following the series should know what to expect by now: lovable Sam and Max quipping at each other and to others about every culturally significant and current topic under the sun as they make their way through yet another variety of puzzles which are, again, mostly conversation-driven. Thankfully, the dialogue in this series has been so robust, it alone is reason enough to keep gamers coming back, and this latest episode is no different, though perhaps a bit better.

The only real complaint I’ve had regarding the previous episodes has been that the puzzles were relatively easy and that the game is fairly repetitive in some respects. This fourth episode tries to distance itself from that somewhat by beginning at the White House itself, but it is a short-lived glee, unfortunately, as this episode still requires players to drive back toward their office and interact with Bosco and Sybil. Nothing against these characters, but it is getting tiresome that they are so often integral to the puzzles, but often have little to do with the plot. Without spoiling, though, fans should enjoy their involvement this time around, and even through my general unwillingness to entertain their antics again, I felt their inclusion this time around to be a bit more respectable. Oddly, though, the office itself plays more of a role than in previous episodes.

I suppose that is understandable at this point as, though the episodes certainly work individually, the puzzles do occasionally rely on knowledge of the previous episodes (and there really isn’t much of a reason to not have played the earlier episodes anyway). This six-episode season has a common arc running through it, and though each episode is self-contained, items discovered in a previous episode often carry over to the next. The bug (literal and in the spytronics sense) is perhaps my favorite and the way it is used in this episode just adds to the hilarity.

Overall, there’s not much new to say about the series: it is classic Sam and Max. Abe Lincoln Must Die! strikes all the right chords, and tickles the funny-bone expertly. For fans, this episode will probably be your favorite. New folk that just want to try the series out might want to start here as it is the best example of this season. It does make me wish for a new venue – the distortion of the White House, and the colossal Abe Lincoln statue that Max must campaign against (yes, indeed), are novelties that Purcell and company are expert at.

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