PS3

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008

December 15, 2007

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Smackdown vs. RAW is back yet again for the 2008 incarnation featuring a bunch of new icing on an otherwise bland cake; for a wrestling simulator, SvR 2008 takes all of the flashy drive and determination of WWE but never feels authentic just like its TV counterpart.

Many of the previous years’ modes have returned, with the addition of the 24/7 mode. This year also adds some ECW personalities to the roster as well as two notable updates to the control scheme; the first is the addition of Superstar Fighting Styles, where each fighter has two different fighting styles to choose from depending upon their particular fighting stances. Whether you choose Grappler, Brawler, Showman, High-flyer, the power-up finishing moves are different and help switch up the gameplay to keep things fresh as you can try to master the hardcore finishing style. Where this breaks down though is that each style is not balanced against the others; a good example of this would be the brawler who gets immunity to body shots once his power up has been activated, which seems extremely unfair in multiplayer matches.

The second control enhancement is the Struggle Submission System, where grappling moves take on a completely different form as you have to balance the amount of pressure that you apply to your opponent; give too much and your grip weakens, give too little and they can break free. This proves to be a very nice addition as you constantly have to pay attention to what you are doing, and can’t just take submission holds for granted. But beyond that, the controls remain hit-or-miss as getting the awe-inspiring moves to work is just as difficult as setting your opponent up for the actual move. Overall the animations for the moves took precedence over the fluid control of movement making for a very slow action game. True when you can pull off a nice rope dive it is beautiful, but getting to that position is just as frustratingly tedious.

In addition to the regular matches and tournament fights you have the option to play legendary battles from wrestling’s past. These are actually quite entertaining as you are given the role of the underdog attempting take down the superstar, often given a certain criteria to meet. Completing such matches unlock additional players in the WWE shop. And if that isn’t up your alley then the next is sure not to be: 24/7. Possibly a good concept that just completely fails in the end, this mode cripples you for being prudent. As you set your player up for the year, you have several options designed to enhance your popularity and physical condition, but while doing one, you are getting punished for not doing the others. If your player gets hurt in a match then you are forced to take days off, therefore not getting paid, or suffer another round where you might be hurt beyond finishing the season and therefore not being able to meet your goals for the year.

On the Playstation 3 you can tell that the game is a multiplatform release as the graphics just don’t reach the system standard. In addition to that they suffer from some serious clipping issues as the superstar’s hair always looks funky and half the time body parts were melding between players and into the canvas. Sound with the intros really gets you hyped for the matches with each superstar’s defined songs, but after entering the ring the crowd and announcers become monotonous, with the blow-by-blow analysis frankly not being pertinent to anything occurring in the ring. Load times border on ridiculous considering for a single match you have three loads, one for each player’s entrance and finally for the match.

Overall SvR 2008 will fill that burning need you have to play a wrestling game although it doesn’t bring the full power and intensity to the game that it should have.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

December 13, 2007

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Nathan Drake, a modern day fortune hunter, raises the sarcophagus of his famous ancestor Sir Francis Drake from the bottom of the ocean only to find a coffin with a journal in it where a body should be. This discovery starts off a series of events that will go through the jungles of South America to an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean in search of the legendary gold of El Dorado. But as Nathan gets closer to his goal more questions arise as to what happened to the once populated island and whether it has anything to do with the curse of El Dorado.

Playing out almost perfectly, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune looks and feels like a well-conceived action adventure movie complete with memorable characters and enemies, and showcasing the production team who spared no expense to create a polished, good-looking game. Part of the draw of the game is the leading character, the archetype “everyman”, Nathan Drake strikes the right level of charisma, bravado and klutziness to make you identify with and ultimately root for him. Combine that with well written dialogue and crazy situations and you can’t not want to be this guy.

Gameplay focuses on two separate phases with exploration/puzzle solving and gun battles. Looking at the exploration you can’t help but compare the game to Tomb Raider as you enter a room and try to find the best path towards your exit. Usually this is accomplished with manipulation of levers, or by scaling around the room on hand ledges to get to your goal. The puzzles don’t ever get to the hard level, although there are a couple that will have you scratching your head. The true challenge of the game comes from the frequent gun fights, luckily you can always tell one is about to begin by all the extra ammo and cover scattered around the room. Here U:DF really shines with an involved third-person shooting system with effective duck-and-cover mechanics that can really turn the tide if used properly. Or if you choose, you can take a run-and-gun mentality by getting closer to your targets and shooting from the hip without holding the L1 aiming button while using more ammunition. Either way the battles are a high point of the game and the most dramatic difference between the optional difficulty levels.

The controls are mostly intuitive for the situations but took a little time for me to master, especially the duck and cover routine which left you exposed as you lined up your shot. Many times in the later levels this was the death of me as the enemy snipers didn’t take as long as I did to find my target. Interspersed throughout the game there are random cut-scene button prompt sections and vehicle levels that require different coordination as you pilot your jet ski and try to take aim and shoot at objects. Beyond that, there are a few interesting uses of the SIXAXIS motion sensing to ward off attacking enemies and throwing of grenades to get good use out of the controller.

Graphics are some of the best that the Playstation 3 has to offer; the maps are gorgeous and lighting effects are almost perfect. From the open jungle where the sun filters through the canopy and the grass sways in the breeze to the dark underground tombs where all you have to light the way is your flashlight, the graphics perfectly capture the details of the environment heightening the sense of realism in the game. Add superb voice acting and an orchestra score and you have a solid game all around.

Looking at U:DF you can almost tell that production team of Naughty Dog set out to prove something as they stepped up from cartoony games to more serious fare. And proved it they did, creating a fully formed and detail rich game that really makes you feel like you are playing a Hollywood blockbuster movie with all the fun, excitement and wit thrown in. In fact, I believe Naughty Dog has done the impossible to create the first must-have PS3 game that isn’t just necessary for PS3 consumers to buy, but rather, people without must buy the system to experience.

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground

November 28, 2007

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Marking the latest in the Tony Hawk series is Proving Ground, an engaging foray into the street life of the common skater who is trying to make a name for himself through 3 career paths designed to improve his skating skills and eventually earn enough cred to hang with the legends.

Detail is the key to THPG. Right from the character creation menu you get a sense of the complex nature and nuance of the customization available throughout the game. Clothes, hair, boards and accessories are just the tip of the iceberg as you build your skill arsenal to fit your unique play style. Whether it is grinding, air, or grabs, the more you use your tricks the more you level and unlock increased stats associated to pulling off these feats.

THPG gives you three paths to explore through missions and skill boosting trick pull-offs; namely career, hardcore and rigger. The career lifestyle has you complete tasks designed around capturing video and photos for various magazines–the better the shots, the more you get paid, and the closer you get to becoming a brand name. The difficulty here is being able to set yourself up for a specific trick and then being swapped to a separate photo shot to capture your picture. Hardcore helps you develop certain skating techniques, such as the new agro aggro? kick, which you will use to prove your worth cleaning out skate parks of rival gangs. Lastly you can develop the DIY skater mentality through rigging your own ramps and rails to build your own dream skate park. This is hit-or-miss because of a clunky rigging editor that is irksome at best and downright annoying at worst as you attempt to rig specific elements together to complete goals.

Control mechanics can be a little daunting as you progress your way through the game, and while they are not impossible to master, they are not for the faint of heart either. Simple combinations required early on require extreme precision to pull off and may deter some casual gamers from progressing, but once you understand the controls, the intuitive nature of their design becomes second nature and a joy to nail the different combinations. How you grasp the controls will ultimately affect how you fare online, as the online community for the game tends towards the hardcore crowd. Still, online play provides another awesome outlet to truly measure your skills and given the seamless transition between the story mode to playing online. Other developers should take note and aim for this design.

The area maps are great for people like me who try to constantly explore; there are always these hidden nooks and crannies that seem virtually impossible to reach until you figure out the right jump or grind spot. If you get tired of playing the story or even the online sections you can always lounge in your personal skate area that you can build and populate with items you gain through the main game. And if that isn’t enough you can focus on editing all of your game footage together into a movie; this video editor is an interesting addition to the series and a worthy waste of your time. Needless to say there is plenty to do in the game and beyond the game making the price completely worth it.

Graphics were another one of those hit or miss items; a lot of times I felt the graphics were a worthy contender for the PS3, but then I would come across these blatant design flaws with environments and character creations. As good as the modeling was, it is almost a slap in the face that my character had an unmistakable line across the back of his neck, or the almost comic A

Jericho

November 28, 2007

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Jericho (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) is an intense First Person Shooter from the occult mind of horror writer Clive Barker. In it you take charge of the Jericho squad, an elite seven man team dedicated to supernatural as well as conventional firepower, and when God’s first abandoned creation threatens to break its bonds and destroy the world, it is your task to stop the impending destruction. Each member of the team boasts unique powers and armaments necessary to quell the rising tide of demons and puzzles to get to the firstborn and lock away this abomination once and for all.

Gameplay

Justin: Jericho is trying very hard to be many different things. Is it an FPS? A tactical squad game? Maybe it’s survival horror? Had Jericho really focused on any one of those genres it could have been a success, but it just ends up doing multiple things poorly instead of one thing well. Weapons feel severely underpowered; unarmored cultists take multiple headshots to kill, and melee attacks are worthless because enemies aren’t programmed to feel pain. It doesn’t matter if you just hit that cultist in the head with the butt of your rifle, he’s going to keep slashing you with his weirdo tentacle thing, and then you will be dead.

Bishop: First off you have to be aiming at the head in order to get a head shot dude, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. I found one-shotting cultists in the head a perverse satisfaction, just to see them pop. I unlocked that achievement quite early, so I don’t know what you were doing wrong.

Justin: Maybe it’s because I’m not playing on easy? Moving on, squad actions feel like an afterthought. When your teammates spot an enemy they will stand rooted in their position, empty their clip, fire off their occult power, and then die. Rawlings will then run over to heal them and die. You will then run over to heal Rawlings and die. Then you’ll restart from the last checkpoint and repeat the process until you tire of the game and play something else. Ross’s command is made up of six people, and his commands are restricted to “Everybody follw me, Everybody stop, Alpha team take point, and Omega team take point.” That’s right. In the off chance that you hadn’t picked up on the game’s ties to religion your teams are Alpha and Omega instead of Alpha and Bravo. So. Very. Subtle. I get it Jericho squad; you’re God warriors. Can we move on now? It would be nice to be able to tell Alpha team to run around the right side of a building and flank the enemy while Omega runs up the left side and lays down suppressive fire. The levels are designed for it, and the game’s control scheme prevents you from taking advantage of it. Other sections just feel like they were designed for a single soldier, a team of two at most. There are lots of corridors in Jericho, and you will get stuck in them, and then die. And then you will restart from the last checkpoint. It’s just not fun. Scared and frustrated are not the same thing, Clive Barker. Guess which of those two things I am.

Bishop: I agree with you, mostly. While admittedly the developers bit off more than they could chew with all the enhancements, I think it makes the game more robust giving more people a chance to shine rather than focusing on a set gameplay.

Justin: Does robust mean overcrowded and not fun? Because that’s what CodeMasters’ “enhancements” add to what could have been a decent single-player experience.

Bishop: Just the fact that each squad member boasts different playing styles allows for several ways to approach the game, and arguably builds up the replay value. You can’t not pick a favorite; mine was Black, with her ability to snipe enemies long before they reach you, and her ghost bullet telekinetic specialty, she just plain rocked. I do agree that the squad commanding capabilities seem futile though–many times I would order alpha or omega forward and immediately the AI would overrule my decision 20 feet down the linear level. AI in general seemed hit or miss, both with foes and friendlies; many times my guys would take good offensive positions only to have the next bend being a complete 180 while my squad blatantly stood in the line of fire, but even the God of War inspired button sync cut scenes broke up the monotony of the FPS and blended almost seamlessly into the game.

Justin: I think my favorite was Rawlings. We seemed to think the same way. We’d fight yet another group of the same cultists (I swear, Jericho only has six or so enemy types), he’d mutter “Jesus H. Christ,” I know it’s quoting the guy, but make sure that comment is okay with Snowcone. and I’d finish his thought with “aren’t we done yet?” We really had a connection. I could tell he was having just as much fun in Al-Khali as I was. And he died a lot.

Plot

Bishop: Being a huge fan of Clive Barker I was thrilled to hear of his involvement with the title. While not the most involved plot, (gee, we have to save the world again?) it still manages to capture his signature style and feel with the devil really being in the details. Despite his prevalent Lovecraft-esque plotlines, the script and plot flow with small twists and turns to keep the tension mounting. The plot never reaches any sort of grand epic, but it kept me interested enough to keep playing. The real nuance, though, is presented in throw away comments during the game and unlockable additional material that fleshes out the characters. I even found the humor level dead-on with the caricatures of the squad (“Praise God and pass the ammunition”).

Justin: Plot is certainly the strongest part of the package here, but it really falls apart at the end. Setting up for a sequel and not finishing the story are different things. If anybody should know that it’s an established author like Barker. And as much as I wanted to know what happens next and learn about the firstborn I couldn’t bring myself to really care about any of members of Jericho squad. Characters aren’t developed well, they’re not fleshed out at all, and the game does little to encourage you actually switch between members of the team or actively remember each person’s talent. The only exception to this is Rawlings, Jericho squad’s second healer (the player character, Ross, is the first). So when you’re choosing a squad member to inhabit, don’t ever pick Rawlings; you’ll be down to one healer. Past that, members of Jericho squad may as well all be copies of the same guy holding a different gun.

Bishop: Yeah, the worst one being Jones, who seemed placed only in the game to manipulate puzzle levers with his astral projection. That and die a lot.

Graphics/Sound

Bishop: Graphics were decent on the PS3, not quite to the level of Resistance: Fall of Man, but they are nothing to balk at either. It really helps support the ambiance. Necessary flashlight use and the constant haze it pushes it closer to the Silent Hill level of feel, but not quite all the way to scary.

Justin: Gross out is not the same as scary. Jericho‘s environments are designed to make the player throw up a little. Sure, it looks nasty, but so does baby puke. And I’m not scared that baby puke is going to take over the world. I’m scared that it won’t wash out of my shirt. After playing Bioshock, it’s glaringly obvious that Jericho doesn’t create an appropriate atmosphere. I wanted to be scared; not amazed at how much red, gray, and brown could be jammed into one game. One bit of atmosphere that CodeMasters managed to pin down was sound. Weapons sound appropriate, and the characters overact in a way consistent with the prose found on the loading screens.

bishop – My nit pick would be around the linear level design and general bland nature of each zone. Each time era is a welcome change from the previous only because the previous eras become visually monotonous after so long.

Extras/Achievements

Bishop: Slightly adding to the replay value of Jericho is the unlockable material that is really more for completionists rather than casual gamers. Extra biographies, art and information are rewarded for certain feats. While the bonuses don’t really amount to a lot, they do bring nuance to the background material.

Justin: I played on the 360, and for those of you used to achievements, Jericho certainly doesn’t raise the bar. Melee 25 enemies, complete level X on hard, etc. The bonuses are nice, but they can’t save a lackluster game.

Overall Impressions

Bishop: I really wish I could give it more than a 3 out of 5, but it just doesn’t fully exploit the plethora of game mechanics it gives us, and truly become everything it should have been. I did enjoy this game though and am not sorry that I picked it up, though I wonder how long it will be in my collection.

Justin: 3/5 is pretty generous. From my perspective Jericho is a 2/5. Every concept in the game is a failure. Sure, Black’s occult power is fun to use, but you’ve got to remember that the game still features a useless Jones (why can’t I completely control my target?) and an always-dead-or-dying Rawlings. Environments are too cramped for seven people, and the story doesn’t end; it just stops. Assuming he could add an ending I’d much rather read Clive Barker’s Jericho: The Novel or watch Clive Barker’s Jericho: The Movie than play the game. Games, even horror games, are supposed to be fun, and fun is something that Jericho just doesn’t bring to the audience.

Folklore

November 16, 2007

PS3 / Reviews / by Paul Bishop Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Two strangers with seemingly separate paths are drawn to the mysterious village of Doolin where things are not what they seem. While one is looking to solve a murder, and the other is trying to find her past, both will be caught up together in the Netherworld where they hope to get the answers they seek.

I have a hard time calling Folklore a straight RPG as it has so many action/adventure characteristics that it has to be considered somewhere in between the two genres. There is experience and leveling but there is also a distinct amount of movement and tactical attacking that nicely balance each other out. In addition, the fights contain puzzle solving themes that take it beyond random button-mashing madness.

The game is played in two worlds; the real world, where you collect information and side objectives to further the story and the Netherworld, where you must fight your way past the Folk inhabitants. You must use the powers of captured Ids (spirits) to combat these enemies to gain more powerful Ids to fight with. Some Folk are like mini-puzzles as you attempt to find their weakness and exploit it to gain their powers. Others just take brutal beatings and still require a tug-of-war to release their spirits. Regardless, this mechanic is a valuable and rewarding aspect of the game.

I can’t emphasize enough how fun these battles became; testing different captured Ids against enemies, finding weakness and literally pulling the spirits out of them with an upward A

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