PS3

God of War III

March 22, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The God of War series is one that has received a lot of praise over the years for its incredible presentation and visceral combat. God of War III, supposedly the last game in this trilogy, is meant to send off the series with a bang. Simply put, the game does not disappoint, and it shows off the power of the PS3 in a way that has yet to be seen, even in last year’s big hit, Uncharted 2.

The game picks up directly after the events of God of War II, in which Kratos has teamed up with the Titans to try and stop Zeus and bring down Mount Olympus for good. Kratos is in it for revenge, but you soon find out the Titans all have another reason to take down the king of the Gods himself. The story unfolds nicely, and is a lot less convoluted than the one found in God of War II. Best of all, the ending, while short-lived, is a nice end to Kratos’ journey. 

In terms of the presentation, God of War III is like no other. The opening moments where you find Kratos riding on top of Gaia, one of the Titans, as she climbs Mount Olympus, is pure eye candy. And shortly after, you are thrown right into the game, where many different things are all happening at once. Not only is Kratos fighting off enemies himself, Gaia is being attacked by one of the other Gods, Poseidon. You not only struggle to not fall off of the Titan, but you must protect her from the attack while trying to save yourself in the process. It’s one of those moments that will go down in gaming history as one of the best openings around.

The music is equally as enjoyable. As you make your way through the game, you are accompanied by an orchestral score that rivals that found in even the best of films. With songs that can be adrenaline pumping at times, and incredibly haunting at others, the music is as unforgettable as the rest of the experience is. 

Gameplay has remained relatively the same, but the combat has been almost perfected as you perform devastating moves and combos that really make you feel like you are Kratos. Each attack is satisfying, and it lends itself to the incredibly violent nature of the series well, with moments that may make even the least squeamish people cringe. 

The boss battles in particular are all incredible and truly memorable experiences. Some of these battles can last ten minutes, while others may last over 30, with many different parts to them, and many other enemies to fight in between these parts. Nothing is more satisfying than taking down some of these huge encounters as they continue to become more rewarding than the last.

You get a total of four weapons in the game, each with its own upgrades and magical attack. You can switch between the weapons on the fly, and even switch between them mid-combo for some deadly results. During the most intense fights later on in the game, the ability to switch between weapons so fluidly is essential to taking down the waves upon waves of enemies. 

As you upgrade each weapon, you gain new attacks as well as stronger versions of your magical abilities. These abilities can truly turn the tides of battle in your favor, as they become more and more of a priority during combat the further you get into this adventure. You also get other items along your way, including the Bow of Apollo that shoots flaming arrows and can take out enemies from afar, as well as the Head of Helios, which can reveal secrets in the game and blind enemies.

Also, in regards to upgrades, you can increase your health, magic, and item powers as you find different hidden objects around the game. For each three of a certain object you find, one of your three meters will increase, which can be crucial near the end of the game. You may not find it necessary to go for these hidden items, you will regret it if you miss too many of them.

There are some camera problems that may get in your way during some of the larger encounters and platforming sections, but this is a very small problem that should not interfere too much with your overall enjoyment of the game. And aside from the combat, which is the meat of the game, there are also puzzles. And while they are few and far between, the ones that are present are very well designed. They break up the action nicely, and add a few interesting twists to the gameplay, which might have become too repetitive without these small sections.  

God of War III has exceeded all of my expectations and has turned this series into one of the best in terms of action games. You will not find a more polished, well thought-out, and well executed game on the PS3, and that is saying a lot. 

Pros: Amazing presentation; incredibly satisfying combat; memorable boss battles; well designed puzzles; wraps up the story of the series nicely

Cons: Some camera issues

 

Heavy Rain

March 21, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Heavy Rain is a game unlike any other, if it can even be called a game. It does so many unusual things and follows a narrative that is found in the likes of a film more so than any game, so it is unusual, to say the least. However, what it does do, it does incredibly well. 

The story here focuses on four main characters, each tracking down the mysterious Origami Killer who has been responsible for the deaths of several kids and has left a calling card, an origami figure, on each body. All four characters have their own reasons for wanting to track down the killer, and soon enough, you find yourself caring about each and every one of them. 

The story has many twists and turns, and although the outcome of all of these events may change completely based on your actions and your decisions, the killer’s identity remains the same in every game. This big reveal will surprise most people, and the story in general will keep you hooked from beginning to end. 

This game is technically very impressive. Although there were some occasional clipping issues and a few glitches, the game is being patched, and even so, those problems do not ruin the game’s incredible atmosphere. The voice acting is fantastic at times, and pretty awful at others. Overall, it is great, but some of the actors (mainly the kids) are just plain bad. And finally, there is the excellent musical score, which completes the cinematic experience. 

The controls are one of the most important elements of a game like this, and they are generally great, but sometimes problematic. When it comes down to the quick time events that happen during the major action sequences, they work perfectly fine, but the walking controls (which require you to hold down R2 and use the left analog stick to direct which direction the character walks in) are a bit odd. On the whole, they are fine, and the game uses the Sixaxis controls better than most games.

Heavy Rain is full of plenty of intense action sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. These sequences, like a section early on where you are driving into oncoming traffic, are well executed and make you feel like you really are in that situation. This game does a fantastic job of making you feel like you are doing all of the actions, with button prompts that appear near where the main action is taking place, and how they simulate the real action. 

Fair warning though, this game does start out incredibly slow. I understand why the developers went this way, it gives gamers an opportunity to not only try out the controls, but also to introduce us to the story and characters more properly. Once you get past the first hour, things will really begin to pick up, and it becomes quite hard to put down. 

Heavy Rain is trying to be more than a game, and according to the developers, it fits the role of an “interactive drama.” In this regard, we have a game that relies entirely on quick time events and scripted sequences, but also a game that can have a completely different outcome depending on how you play it. Heavy Rain is an adventure every gamer should experience, and one that will not be forgotten for quite some time. 

Pros: Truly enjoyable story from start to finish; great cast of characters; innovative uses of the Sixaxis controls; some incredibly intense gameplay segments; high replayability

Cons: Some control issues; some spotty voice acting; occasional clipping issue and glitch

 

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

March 21, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Shawn Vermette Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Nearly a year after it was released on the Xbox 360, Star Ocean: The Last Hope International finally makes its debut on the PlayStation 3. It was received fairly well on the 360, but how does the new version stack up?

For those unfamiliar with the Star Ocean games, The Last Hope is a prequel to the entire series, so there’s no need to have played any of the other games to enjoy this one. The game begins after a nuclear war has destroyed much of the habitable areas of Earth and humanity begins looking to space for survival. Upon developing a warp drive that will let them explore space at speeds faster than light, mankind embarks on an exploratory mission for new worlds to colonize, hopefully ensuring the survival of our race. You are Edge Maverick, a crewman on the Calnus, one of the ships set to begin the first manned exploration of planets outside our solar system. Unfortunately, things go wrong from the very beginning, resulting in your armada crash-landing on a planet inhabited by big, ferocious bugs. From here you’ll embark on a journey across the cosmos, attempting to make the galaxy a safer place for humanity to expand. 

The story of Star Ocean is interesting and fairly unconventional for the JRPG genre. This adds to the game’s appeal, but the main reason to play Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the complex and enjoyable battle system that it employs.

Upon encountering an enemy, you will enter the battle screen with your party mixed in amongst the enemy’s party. All battles play out in real time, similar to the way Tales games work. It would seem at first that the way to victory is to simply mash the attack button until you beat the enemy. However, if you do this, you will die…a lot. I did this at first during the beginning of the game and I rarely survived for more than 9 or 10 battles before dying. The key to victory is to take advantage of two aspects of the battle system that will take time to utilize properly- Blindsides and Rush Mode. A blindside is performed by allowing an enemy to lock onto your character, then hitting the jump button to quickly move out of the line-of-sight of the enemy. This will allow you to perform a few critical hits on an enemy, greatly increasing the amount of damage you can do along with avoiding taking damage yourself. Rush Mode, on the other hand, is a result of taking and giving a lot of damage in battle. After giving and taking enough damage to fill up your Rush Mode meter, you’ll need to hit the square button to activate Rush Mode. Once you do, you’ll be immune to knockbacks from being attacked, benefit from increased critical hit chances, and you’ll also be able to chain together your special attacks and even combine your attacks with those of your other party members for even more damage. Learning to employ and take advantage of these benefits will make combat easier and more enjoyable.

In addition to Blindsides and Rush Mode, you’ll have a bonus board that you can fill with tiles by performing different action in battle, thus giving you bonuses to various areas. For instance, killing an enemy with a critical hit will net you a bonus of +10% to your experience and killing multiple enemies with a single attack will give you a bonus of +10% to the money you earn at the end of battles. These bonuses carry over from battle to battle, so it is possible to amass huge bonuses and keep them for long periods of time.

Unfortunately, the difficulty in The Last Hope International is very uneven. It starts off almost impossibly difficult, then becomes almost too easy for awhile, then gets impossibly difficult again. Additionally, in order for your party’s strength to keep pace with the increase in difficulty you’ll need to keep your bonus board almost entirely full of experience bonuses, doubling or more the amount of experience you get for each victory.

Graphically, The Last Hope International is a mixed bag. The environments and enemies all look great, but the characters look wooden and almost doll-like. They show almost no emotion and the character models just feel a little off.

As far as the audio is concerned, again the problem is with the characters. The sound effects and music sound great, but the voice-overs for the characters just don’t match with the rest of the game. They aren’t horrible, they just feel off.

Overall, Star Ocean: The Last Hope International is a worthwhile game for PS3 owners to pick up. If you’ve been waiting for a good action JRPG to play, this will definitely fit the bill. It does have some rough spots, but it is well worth a purchase for fans of the genre.

Plays Like: Tales games, previous Star Ocean games

Pros: Combat system is enjoyable, once you get the hang of it; Story is interesting and unconventional; Environments look great

Cons: Characters look like emotionless dolls; Voice over work needs some improvement; Difficulty needs smoothing out; Save points are few and far between

 

MLB 2K10

March 21, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Shawn Vermette Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Last year’s baseball offering from 2K Sports was disappointing, to say the least. However, since then Take Two brought in some of the people who worked on the MVP series for EA and promised to revamp the next iteration of the 2K baseball series to make it more enjoyable. Unfortunately, their improvements don’t deal with the biggest problems from last year, making MLB 2K10 feel like just another cash-in.

To be fair, 2K Sports did fix many of the gameplay imbalances rom last year. It is now easier to pitch and to hit than it was in years past, and games no longer devolve into either pitchers’ duels or home run derbies as regularly as they did last year. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the way you hit or pitch the ball- you are required to move the thumbsticks in specific ways and at specific speeds to pitch and hit this year. The lack of an option to use the easiest and simplest control method- hitting a button- is a huge oversight because it would make the game much more enjoyable. The thumbstick control has never been precise enough, and this year is no exception. Even upon completing a difficult maneuver with the thumbsticks perfectly fine, I often found it telling me I either did so too quickly or that I wasn’t precise enough. Perhaps the trouble with the controls isn’t imprecision, but too much precision. Either way, pitching is not very enjoyable when you are told pitch after pitch that you are doing it wrong. Eventually I simply threw fastballs, but even those I was told I did incorrectly fairly often.

The biggest addition to the 2K series is the My Player mode. This mode was present in NBA 2K10, and greatly enhanced the enjoyment of that game, and it does the same for MLB 2K10. While the franchise mode wasn’t much fun because of the controls, My Player mode added a new dimension to the game, making it a little more enjoyable to play the game. It adds a little RPG flavor to the otherwise frustrating game. Every time your created player does something good, he gets experience points in baserunning, fielding, or batting. It is then up to you how you allocate those points. You can turn your double-AA batter into the next Babe Ruth, or make him the next Rickie Henderson. You could even swing for the fences and try to become a combination of the two. Want to be the next Nolan Ryan or Greg Maddux? You can customize your pitcher’s improvement just as much as you can your batter. The only down side to the My Player mode is again the controls. The My Player mode could be an addictive addition to the game, but the controls drag it down like they do everything else in MLB 2K10.

The final mode in MLB 2K10 is the online mode. In this, you can play ranked or quick games against anyone else who likewise picked 2K10 instead of MLB ’10. This time the controls aren’t a hindrance because your opponent has the same problem you do with the controls. This mode is done in by lag. In order to reliably hit the ball when batting, you have to swing almost as soon as the pitcher throws the ball. This means you have no chance of deciding whether it will be a ball or strike and you simply have to swing at everything. When pitching, the lag effects the timing of your pitching as well, so you’ll never throw that perfect put-away pitch. You’ll be lucky to throw anything other than a fastball near the plate, even with the best pitchers.

Graphically, 2K10 is ugly. Everything looks like it could have been done as a first-gen Xbox 360 title or a last-gen Xbox game. The character models are blocky and unrealistic which is a huge contrast to even last year’s MLB ’09 game.

The one redeeming quality of MLB 2K10 is the wonderful commentators. Yes, I said they were wonderful. They have a large repertoire of comments to make, and all of them are placed correctly and timed well enough that the commentary almost felt like it was covering a real baseball game. Unfortunately the soundtrack is more of the same, annoying music that 2K has licensed for the last decade. 

If you want a baseball game but don’t want to spend $60 for it, you can grab MLB ’09 for less than thirty bucks. If you want a new one with updated rosters and modes, pick up MLB ’10. It is light-years ahead of 2K10.

Pros: The gameplay is much improved over last year; The balance is much better; My Player mode is fun

Cons: The graphics are subpar; Soundtrack is annoying; Batting and pitching controls are imprecise and frustrating; Online play is laggy

Plays Like: MLB 2K9

ESRB: Rated E for everyone

 

White Knight Chronicles

March 3, 2010

PS3 / Reviews / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Level 5’s first offering of the current console generation is stuck between traditional eastern RPG and MMORPG. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Final Fantasy XII was my favorite RPG of 2006, and it straddled the two genres quite a bit. So where does White Knight Chronicles go wrong? It is simultaneously aimed at casual RPG players and devoted MMO players, but neither group is going to be happy with the complete package. 

As White Knight Chronicles opens you’ll need to create your character. This is typical in MMOs and not uncommon in other RPGs. Oddly though, your created character is not the hero. He or she is the least important part of the single-player story and is not even present in the game’s cutscenes. Your created character makes sense in the White Knight Chronicles‘ online component, but that really only serves to divorce the single player from the multiplayer even further. It doesn’t make any sense for your summarily ignored character from the single player to suddenly be important enough to ignore the transformative abilities of the main characters in the online portion.

Regardless of whether the player-created character is the protagonist an RPG lives or dies by its battle system and story. White Knight Chronicles, sadly, features a story that leans on cliché from its tired “save the princess” opening leading straight into her predictable capture by the chief bad guy.

Even with a ho-hum story an RPG can be fun if the battle system is well thought-out. White Knight Chronicles stumbles here as well, though. Fights happen in real-time, and each party member has a charge time before another move can be executed. You can have three people on the field at any one time which is normal for the genre, but a bother nonetheless. If I have five people on the menu screen then why can’t I use them all at once? Balance the combat for five party members – just don’t make me bench two of them for no good reason. For a game with heavy MMO influences there sure aren’t very many people on my side at any given time. Combat balance is already a problem as normal encounters are terribly easy when you summon the titular white knight while boss fights are impossible without it.

Further, enemies don’t follow the same rules for combat as the player does. This is to be expected a little bit in order to ensure that the player is challenged, but that usually means that enemies have shorter charge times or access to abilities that you won’t see for several more levels. Enemies in White Knight Chronicles, though, just get to disregard the laws of nature. Their melee attacks land from across the room while yours are unavailable until you’re within the proper range, and their ranged attacks land even when you’re not technically in combat (at which time you can’t attack them).

White Knight Chronicles doesn’t really hit its stride until you take it online. Each player has a town to customize and call their own, and from the message board you can find a pick-up-group to take down monster, collect loot, and level up your created character. In the off chance you aren’t turned off by the single-player your experience and items transfer between the two so you have the opportunity to slant combat in your favor all the more by spending time playing online and then using your created character throughout the narrative.

At the end of the day, White Knight Chronicles doesn’t offer enough to warrant picking it up a year after Japan has already played it and a month before Final Fantasy XIII will be available. The narrative is predictable, the combat is unbalanced, and the story feels tacked on to what was supposed to be an online-only game. Unless you are really hurting for a Japanese RPG take a pass on White Knight Chronicles.

Plays Like: Final Fantasy XII without gambits

Pros: Online town customization, created character transfers between story and online

Cons: Unbalanced combat, cliché story

 

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