Battlestations: Midway
Battlestations: Midway is pretty much the most complete game that was released on the 360 in 2007. Lots of games did some of the stuff in it better, and some games did everything it did, but not as well. But Midway is the pinnacle of 3rd-person action blended with overarcing strategy and oh hey, howzabout some kickass multiplayer with a community that's as tight-knit as it is skilled. It says something when the demo for a game two years old still has lobbys filling up almost instantly.
There's a lot to like here. For the historical buffs, there's tons of pages of information about how the Pacific theater war was actually fought. For the strategists, plotting courses and commissioning your fleet's deployments just right is very rewarding. And of course the dogfighting/bombing runs are pure adrenaline. At its core, Midway is a strategy game; realistically the computer is as good or better than you at actually executing the attacks you request, but eff dat noize, bombing runs, bitches. The sparse, Horner-esque soundtrack lets the big war machines make their mark, and it's great fun listening to something as big as the Yamato rumble into life and start firing those big guns.
It isn't all nose art and sneak attacks, though. The learning curve can best be described as "up a greased brick wall," and the tutorial is well over two hours long - and necessary - as the sheer number of options weighs down on you. Skilled micromanaging players from days of Starcraft yore will have the full scale of choices baffling them with the sheer variety available. The controls, once you are used to them, never really feel comfortable, though they are more than servicable, and as noted earlier, the computer really is better than you at basic actions.
The controls aside, you really can't ask for more from a game. It's ambitious, unique and competent. If you're a history buff, the most famous battles are faithfully recreated for you to either win again or change the tide of history as the other side. I can't recommend it enough for anyone who has the patience for its difficult-to-master control scheme.
Graphics: The ships look great, though the water and skybox aren't the lush eye-candy you'd get from a true AAA title. Given the scope, that's acceptable. 3.
Sound: Great rumbles from engines, budda-buddas from guns and booms from bombs. 5.
Controls: They try and do a lot with just an XBox Controller, and succeed - but it isn't pretty. 3.
Tilt: Great fun, populous multiplayer, but the single-player campaign is quite short. 4.
Overall (not an average): 4
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Worms
Worms
There's good and bad in the Worms port to XBLA. Worms as a game in general is a Top Pick; its combination of adorable avatars, cutesy weapons and over-the-top violence are a winner for all-time, but this is a review of the port, and as a port, it's lacking.
The number-one thing it lacks is weapons. Many of the most-fun weapons are completely absent, notably the Holy Hand Grenade. Ninja Rope is present in all its glory, unfortunately, taunting you with the moves you can cheese out of its use. There is also no level editor, a common absence because MicroSoft hates user-generated content (a snide person would point out that UGC means selling DLC becomes harder), but Team 17 could've forced it through.
Graphically, it's a mixed bag. The worms are expressive, but unfortunately the backgrounds are chosen from only 4 or so locales, and the pregenerated maps have only 3 configurations, limiting the creative carnage possibilites. Sound packs to customize your wormsclamations are free and fun, and the weapons sound nice for the most part, so no complaints there. Porting a mouse-based game to the console has a unique set of challenges, but Team 17 nailed it.
Allegedly, a remake of Worms World Tour is in the works for XBLA/PSN, and nothing would make me happier, but until it arrives, for just five dollars you could do a lot worse than owning this version of Worms.
Graphics: Nothing great, but nothing bad either. 3.
Sound: Worms are cute, guns go boom. 5.
Controls: Servicable. Some buttons are a little unintuitive, and no option to remap. 3.
Tilt: You could do far, far worse than this evolution of Scorched Earth. 5.
Overall (not an average): 2
There's good and bad in the Worms port to XBLA. Worms as a game in general is a Top Pick; its combination of adorable avatars, cutesy weapons and over-the-top violence are a winner for all-time, but this is a review of the port, and as a port, it's lacking.
The number-one thing it lacks is weapons. Many of the most-fun weapons are completely absent, notably the Holy Hand Grenade. Ninja Rope is present in all its glory, unfortunately, taunting you with the moves you can cheese out of its use. There is also no level editor, a common absence because MicroSoft hates user-generated content (a snide person would point out that UGC means selling DLC becomes harder), but Team 17 could've forced it through.
Graphically, it's a mixed bag. The worms are expressive, but unfortunately the backgrounds are chosen from only 4 or so locales, and the pregenerated maps have only 3 configurations, limiting the creative carnage possibilites. Sound packs to customize your wormsclamations are free and fun, and the weapons sound nice for the most part, so no complaints there. Porting a mouse-based game to the console has a unique set of challenges, but Team 17 nailed it.
Allegedly, a remake of Worms World Tour is in the works for XBLA/PSN, and nothing would make me happier, but until it arrives, for just five dollars you could do a lot worse than owning this version of Worms.
Graphics: Nothing great, but nothing bad either. 3.
Sound: Worms are cute, guns go boom. 5.
Controls: Servicable. Some buttons are a little unintuitive, and no option to remap. 3.
Tilt: You could do far, far worse than this evolution of Scorched Earth. 5.
Overall (not an average): 2
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Marble Blast Ultra
Marble Blast Ultra
Some games are just brilliant in their design, and require nothing else. Marble Blast Ultra is such a game, and yet they added tons of additional features. The basic concept should be very familiar to gamers: You are a marble, and must get to the exit as fast as possible. Dodge obstacles and collect powerups to do so. There are gimmick stages, as well as stages designed for skill and stages that have a "trick" to finishing them in a flash. There are endless pinball bumpers situated on ice terrain that are controller-busting infuriating, and you'll love every minute of it.
The colors are bright, and your options for a ball include several fun options, as well as a few that show off their lighting engine in reflections. The music and sound effects get the job done, with subdued techno thumping and loud, brash sound effects that give audio cues when you use a power-up or 'blast' with your marble's ability.
Some of the puzzles require you to preform moves that aren't fully explained, and there isn't really a "practice zone" to try things without suffering through a long death scene, so it can be frustrating at high levels, but it's a minor complaint that is handled best by "play more, scrub."
But that's not enough. MBU also has comprehensive leaderboards and a pretty swank multiplayer component that features tense, gem-collecting, smack-talking elements while you compete to see who can knock their opponent off the edge the most (not the de jure goal of the multiplayer mode, mind you). They further kept their laurels un-rested by releasing even more DLC, more maddeningly-difficult stages to mess around in. Marble Blast is so good, I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
Graphics: Servicable. Bright colors and abstract landscapes get the point across, crucial in a puzzle game. 3.
Sound: Repetitive but non-annoying soundtrack and jarring (in a good way) sound effects. 3.
Controls: Responsive, but with enough play to make you keep going back to set a new best time. 5.
Tilt: Great puzzles, great action, great multiplayer, great developer attention. 5.
Overall (not an average): 4.
Some games are just brilliant in their design, and require nothing else. Marble Blast Ultra is such a game, and yet they added tons of additional features. The basic concept should be very familiar to gamers: You are a marble, and must get to the exit as fast as possible. Dodge obstacles and collect powerups to do so. There are gimmick stages, as well as stages designed for skill and stages that have a "trick" to finishing them in a flash. There are endless pinball bumpers situated on ice terrain that are controller-busting infuriating, and you'll love every minute of it.
The colors are bright, and your options for a ball include several fun options, as well as a few that show off their lighting engine in reflections. The music and sound effects get the job done, with subdued techno thumping and loud, brash sound effects that give audio cues when you use a power-up or 'blast' with your marble's ability.
Some of the puzzles require you to preform moves that aren't fully explained, and there isn't really a "practice zone" to try things without suffering through a long death scene, so it can be frustrating at high levels, but it's a minor complaint that is handled best by "play more, scrub."
But that's not enough. MBU also has comprehensive leaderboards and a pretty swank multiplayer component that features tense, gem-collecting, smack-talking elements while you compete to see who can knock their opponent off the edge the most (not the de jure goal of the multiplayer mode, mind you). They further kept their laurels un-rested by releasing even more DLC, more maddeningly-difficult stages to mess around in. Marble Blast is so good, I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
Graphics: Servicable. Bright colors and abstract landscapes get the point across, crucial in a puzzle game. 3.
Sound: Repetitive but non-annoying soundtrack and jarring (in a good way) sound effects. 3.
Controls: Responsive, but with enough play to make you keep going back to set a new best time. 5.
Tilt: Great puzzles, great action, great multiplayer, great developer attention. 5.
Overall (not an average): 4.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Carcassonne
Carcassonne
There's a certain subset of hardcore gamers, people who aren't quite to the point of detailed, Battle for North Africa-level wargaming but who refuse to play the standard fare available in the toy aisle of most stores. For this market, a small group of European companies full of creative folk basically invented and defined a genre almost a decade ago with the release of Carcassonne, which started the trend of "German Board Game" as a label for a style of play- highly conceptual math, bartering and trading, and a finite, usually tile-based system instead of moving tokens around a circuit.
Carcassonne is the granddaddy of this genre, and makes the transition to video game form flawlessly. The basic idea is to build castles with tiles that have either grass or castle edges, with the occasional road piece thrown in to mix it up. Your limiting resource is that you only have 7 "Meeples" to claim things with, and you get them back only when your road/castle/church is completed, forcing you to decide whether to finish the castle early to get your meeple back or try to expand it.
The music is typical, just generic middle-aged fife and bells, maybe a minute and a half long, and the sound effects are similarly cheap, but no one plays it for the graphics or sound design. With five-player multiplayer (including local multiplayer, though sadly no hotseat play.) the fun comes in politicking your cause, and enticing everyone else to try and screw their neighbors before they realize you've been playing them all along.
If it's even possible, the video game version is actually better than the original, since it eliminates all the bookkeeping and loose pieces that can make the game a bit of a chore to score at the end, though the as-you-go scoring makes it a little tough to build a commanding lead. The DLC for the game adds an eight-tile beginning set that puts a massive river through the middle of the board, but realistically it adds little to an almost-perfect experience. The learning curve on this game is steep, but highly rewarding, and since it was offered free last year for a week, online is suitably populated, making finding a game even today easy.
Graphics: Servicable. Zoomed in all the way, there's a lot of nice touches, but nothing groundbreaking. 2/5
Sound: You'll be plugging your iPod in for this one. 2/5
Controls: Simple, but the game makes few demands. High score for not trying to be too cute. 4/5.
Tilt: As a multiplayer experience, it eclipses everything that made the original the Origins Award winner for Board Game of the Year. 5/5.
Overall (not an average): 5/5.
There's a certain subset of hardcore gamers, people who aren't quite to the point of detailed, Battle for North Africa-level wargaming but who refuse to play the standard fare available in the toy aisle of most stores. For this market, a small group of European companies full of creative folk basically invented and defined a genre almost a decade ago with the release of Carcassonne, which started the trend of "German Board Game" as a label for a style of play- highly conceptual math, bartering and trading, and a finite, usually tile-based system instead of moving tokens around a circuit.
Carcassonne is the granddaddy of this genre, and makes the transition to video game form flawlessly. The basic idea is to build castles with tiles that have either grass or castle edges, with the occasional road piece thrown in to mix it up. Your limiting resource is that you only have 7 "Meeples" to claim things with, and you get them back only when your road/castle/church is completed, forcing you to decide whether to finish the castle early to get your meeple back or try to expand it.
The music is typical, just generic middle-aged fife and bells, maybe a minute and a half long, and the sound effects are similarly cheap, but no one plays it for the graphics or sound design. With five-player multiplayer (including local multiplayer, though sadly no hotseat play.) the fun comes in politicking your cause, and enticing everyone else to try and screw their neighbors before they realize you've been playing them all along.
If it's even possible, the video game version is actually better than the original, since it eliminates all the bookkeeping and loose pieces that can make the game a bit of a chore to score at the end, though the as-you-go scoring makes it a little tough to build a commanding lead. The DLC for the game adds an eight-tile beginning set that puts a massive river through the middle of the board, but realistically it adds little to an almost-perfect experience. The learning curve on this game is steep, but highly rewarding, and since it was offered free last year for a week, online is suitably populated, making finding a game even today easy.
Graphics: Servicable. Zoomed in all the way, there's a lot of nice touches, but nothing groundbreaking. 2/5
Sound: You'll be plugging your iPod in for this one. 2/5
Controls: Simple, but the game makes few demands. High score for not trying to be too cute. 4/5.
Tilt: As a multiplayer experience, it eclipses everything that made the original the Origins Award winner for Board Game of the Year. 5/5.
Overall (not an average): 5/5.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Alone in the Dark (360)
Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark tries to do a lot of ambitious stuff, and for the most part succeeds in doing what it wants to do. Unfortunately, what it wants to do isn't very much fun. The Alone in the Dark franchise was the progenitor of the entire "survival horror" concept, where a common man (Edward Carnby, in modern day New York City for reasons that are vague and best left undiscussed) once again battles back against forces of ancient, Lovecraftian evil. The game presents itself as several discrete, independent stages that can be selected like DVD chapters and played through in any order. Allegedly, you don't need to have played the game linearly to understand it, but that's bunk, especially in a game as convoluted as this one.
The game offers unparalleled freedom. Everything is a weapon, and you're free to find your own way (sometimes), shooting locks out of doors and bashing in the window and hotwiring any car you can find. Unfortunately, the game also wrests control from you and forces you into retarded jumping puzzles over and over again, or worse, forces you to drive anywhere. The combat controls are similarly unweildy, at once naturalistic with their pressure-sensitive "rear-back-and-swing" setup and idiotic with no lock-on and context-sensitive 'up' like the old tank-movement games from Resident Evil's ignomious past.
Edward Carnby looks suitably grizzled and unkempt, and the monster design is fantastic. The visuals in this game are top-notch, and the sound design is up there with any of its contemporaries, but the game is just... a chore. There's no other way to say it. It's less than the sum of its parts, which on their own offer a lot of good ideas, but just aren't put together well. One really nice touch that more games should do is subtle hints. In the first stage, you have to creep along outside a building ledge 20 stories up. At one point you're required to hop up and hang from your fingertaps and wiggle across a gap. Instead of a giant arrow, or a pop-up prompt (this is part of a long tutorial), when the scene begins the camera swoops in, and you can see a few rats running across this same ledge. It's an elegant, in-game solution that rewards careful observers. Unforutunately, this is also infuriating when the in-game hint is vague or you don't have the exact same thought processes as the designers.
Graphics: The character models are great, and the scenery lush (though not Silent Hill levels of creepy). 3/5
Sound: Equal to any of its contemporaries, though doesn't distinguish itself from the pack. 3/5
Controls: There's a button to blink your eyes, which you need to do when you're in a smoky room or just waking up from being drugged. Combat is a chore and doing all the things this game is capable of is just annoying. 1/5
Tilt: I keep using the word "ambitious" because that's what this game is. It overreaches and can't deliver, but there are repeated moments that make you go "Huh. That's sweet, I wish more games did that. 4/5.
Overall (not an average): 2/5
Alone in the Dark tries to do a lot of ambitious stuff, and for the most part succeeds in doing what it wants to do. Unfortunately, what it wants to do isn't very much fun. The Alone in the Dark franchise was the progenitor of the entire "survival horror" concept, where a common man (Edward Carnby, in modern day New York City for reasons that are vague and best left undiscussed) once again battles back against forces of ancient, Lovecraftian evil. The game presents itself as several discrete, independent stages that can be selected like DVD chapters and played through in any order. Allegedly, you don't need to have played the game linearly to understand it, but that's bunk, especially in a game as convoluted as this one.
The game offers unparalleled freedom. Everything is a weapon, and you're free to find your own way (sometimes), shooting locks out of doors and bashing in the window and hotwiring any car you can find. Unfortunately, the game also wrests control from you and forces you into retarded jumping puzzles over and over again, or worse, forces you to drive anywhere. The combat controls are similarly unweildy, at once naturalistic with their pressure-sensitive "rear-back-and-swing" setup and idiotic with no lock-on and context-sensitive 'up' like the old tank-movement games from Resident Evil's ignomious past.
Edward Carnby looks suitably grizzled and unkempt, and the monster design is fantastic. The visuals in this game are top-notch, and the sound design is up there with any of its contemporaries, but the game is just... a chore. There's no other way to say it. It's less than the sum of its parts, which on their own offer a lot of good ideas, but just aren't put together well. One really nice touch that more games should do is subtle hints. In the first stage, you have to creep along outside a building ledge 20 stories up. At one point you're required to hop up and hang from your fingertaps and wiggle across a gap. Instead of a giant arrow, or a pop-up prompt (this is part of a long tutorial), when the scene begins the camera swoops in, and you can see a few rats running across this same ledge. It's an elegant, in-game solution that rewards careful observers. Unforutunately, this is also infuriating when the in-game hint is vague or you don't have the exact same thought processes as the designers.
Graphics: The character models are great, and the scenery lush (though not Silent Hill levels of creepy). 3/5
Sound: Equal to any of its contemporaries, though doesn't distinguish itself from the pack. 3/5
Controls: There's a button to blink your eyes, which you need to do when you're in a smoky room or just waking up from being drugged. Combat is a chore and doing all the things this game is capable of is just annoying. 1/5
Tilt: I keep using the word "ambitious" because that's what this game is. It overreaches and can't deliver, but there are repeated moments that make you go "Huh. That's sweet, I wish more games did that. 4/5.
Overall (not an average): 2/5
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