Mass Effect

I've come a long way on the notion of shooting things.  I really preferred my games with more slashing and less shooting.  Shooting requires precision, patience, planning... slashing a sword only requires - well, slashing.  But I've found that I have increasingly and increasingly been evolving to enjoy active combat and a weapon that can aim.

The Mass Effect series were the games that put Bioware on the map: a space opera series about Commander Shepard, human extraordinaire, and his ragtag group of adventurers.  Having finally been re-released for the PS3, the time was ripe to play and enjoy the series.

Car 11K - A Second Look at L.A. Noire



Main character, tortured hero dude, Cole Phelps.

 Upon ravishing the Catherine loan from my friend to the point in which I was having dreams about moving cubes around, I decided it was time to give L.A. Noire another run for its money.  I had great things to say about the game, but I wondered if they would hold up under the inflamed scrutiny of a replay; and to add to wanting to give the game a bad review, I decided to do so on a Platinum run.

Though it seems sadistic, my logic was this:

1. If the game was good even if I played it to its extremity, whereby doing everything, then I would feel vindicated in my earlier, positive review.
2. I like trophies, even though I don't understand why sometimes.

Well, looky-looky who has a cookie.  And by cookie, I mean a digital trophy icon representing my completion of the game.

But, did the game live up to its earlier success?  Find out, after the jump...

Catherine

I really want to like Catherine, Atlus' bizarre puzzle-platformer/horror/romance-sim game that was released stateside back in midsummer.  After an unimpressive demo back in July, I've recently given the full-game a shot, having borrowed it from my friend.  However, despite my interest in its bizarre gameplay, I simply cannot embrace the game.

Could it be its more-difficult-than-they-need-to-be Q-bert style block puzzles?

Could it be the hamby-pamby story of Vincent, the protagonist stuck between his overbearing girlfriend, Katherine, and his multiple-night-stand-may-not-be-a-real-person-since-she-doesn't-interact-with-any-other-characters Catherine?

Could it be the stumbly dialogue options via text message that you exchange with Catherine or Katherine?

Or is it simply the lack of gender role nuances that forces the thought that Vincent is afraid of commitment, like all men must be, and that the "right" path is to get over it and settle with your domineering (and possibly pregnant) girlfriend?

Whichever of these is the real culprit, I'll not be able to say.  Not simply because blaming just one seems too limiting, but because I can't bring myself to play the game again.

L.A. Noire

I'm always ashamed when I have to say something that betrays my nerd cred.  Like when I had to fess up that I never actually played Portal.  So, to add another log to that fire: I've never played a Rockstar game.  No Grand Theft Auto, no Red Dead Redemption, and no Bully.  I feel appropriate levels of shame, and am happy to announce that it is no longer true, for I've polished off my swapped copy of L.A. Noire this past weekend.

Title Screen, rocking the Noire Neon Treatment.

L.A. Noire tells the story of Cole Phelps, a returned war hero serving as a cop circa 1947 in the growing city of Los Angeles.  Phelps begins as a patrol officer and then works his way up (and then, down) the complicated command chain of detectives in the LAPD.  For the gameplay, the game is much more Heavy Rain than Fallout 3 - you have a firearm, but rarely resort to using it.  For the most part, you are in an interactive fiction, instead of being in a shooter game.  A happy surprise!

More happiness, and review; after the jump!

Old World Blues Follow-Up

Bethesda's first attempts at a roll out of DLC for smash hit Fallout 3 were pretty ill-received.  I happened to like The Pitt, which brought up some more complicated moral choices, but that can't be everyone's cup of tea, I suppose.

Giant Roboscorpion!

Old World Blues was, in comparison, an immaculate example of what I had expected from a $9.99 purchase of DLC.  It added approximately 10 hours of playtime, new enemies, new versions of old enemies, new weapons, new perks, new traits, and an engaging and hilarious story. 

I wrapped up the DLC last night, and have to comment that it stayed true to its foundation of quality deliverables through and through.  The story had poignancy and a twist, but not a twist in the way that the writers sat down and said: "we have to think of a twist so that the story maintains relevance.  All stories have unexpected twists!"  Actually, the "twist" is a natural discovery, and it's the exact kind of fun I wanted from the story add-on, and that I had come to expect from Fallout: New Vegas.

Crashes, of course, were an issue; I can't say I wasn't disappointed by the gripping thrust back into reality by watching my character's weapon half-holstered, frozen in time.  It would have made a nice picture had it not been so frustrating.

My recommendation of grabbing this DLC stands, but if I could enhance it - somehow add flavor to it, I would say this: as a male character with the Confirmed Bachelor (gay) perk, I was able to flirt with my brain in a jar.

Really, where else can you experience that?

The Balance of Good and Evil

I don't usually play games as an "evil" character.  My natural inclanation is to save people, heal others, and generally be a "do-gooder."  Games like Fallout 3, Bioshock, Fable, and inFAMOUS have greatly featured the morality/Karma/whatever system that can affect gameplay in subtle ways (slight differences in dialogue), to extreme ways (effects powers).  So it should be no surprise that my first playthrough on games like these is that of the good guy (with the exception of Fallout: New Vegas, on which it was difficult to determine the "good guy" path, and I instead treaded into the murky waters of the unknown - and also Fallout 3: The Pitt DLC, which had the same outcome).

Playing inFAMOUS on Evil (and on Hard mode, for trophy's sake) has actually been a bit more fun than my first playthrough.  I can't tell if it's because I'm now more comfortable with the game, or if the evil missions are more enjoyable, or if I truly have molded into a sadistic creep who enjoys zapping pedestrians with electricity before sucking their bio-energy out of their skulls to replenish my health. 

So today, I wanted to look at the ways in which games communicated good and evil, and my take on that dichotomy.  More after the jump...

Heavy Rain

One of four of the Heavy Rain characters, in titular rain.

Way back when, I had the fortune of picking up Indigo Prophecy for the Playstation 2, a gem of a game that was lauded for its interactive fiction and nuanced return of adventure gaming.  I really enjoyed the title, up until the writers all got slipped a substantial amount of acid and the game went from "what happens next" to "what the fuck is happening?"

I'm all about some weird shit happening in games, but Indigo Prophecy took it just a few steps beyond my comfort zone.  And then just kept going.

Luckily, David Cage and his company, Quantic Dream, moved forward from Indigo Prophecy's less-than-stellar conclusion and went on to make a much more normal adventure whodunit in the form of Heavy Rain.  Set for a PS3 exclusive release, the breathtakingly beautiful Heavy Rain was much anticipated, and the demand met the hype.

Firstly, the game is beautiful.  No one could play Heavy Rain and think: "this just didn't look very good."  You also can't go into the game expecting something (rain) and not get it (it rains a lot).  The problem - as is a problem with several adventure games and interactive fiction models - is that it feels less like a game, and more like a movie that wants you to hold the buttons of the controller in weird ways.  Which is still a hell of a lot better than a movie that wants you to push X every couple seconds.

Dragon Age II

I wish I could review Dragon Age II without putting up a spoiler-alert, but it's nearly impossible to capture the awesomeness I had for the game without going into at least some of its incredibly detailed story.  So if you want a spoiler-free, TL;DR version, here it is:  this game was fucking awesome and I'm a little upset that it was so awesome because I was borrowing it from a friend and now I have to buy it instead of buying groceries.

First of all, a non-spoiler thing: I don't often get eye-candy in video games, since I have less than usual tastes, but thank you, Bioware for Varric.  Handsome rogueish dwarf with wit and a super-spring loaded crossbow?  Yes, please.  Unfortunately, upon trying to flirt with him, he said I was too high maintenance.  Does this game know me or what?

Objection! Ace Attorney Titles

"Objection!"  The famous pointer finger thrust!

This past week, I got to spend a good amount of time playing the most recent Ace Attorney title, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.  The series focuses on titular attorney, Phoenix Wright (featured above), and his experiences (which, per its Japanese origins, unsurprising involve a half dozen under-age girls) in defending the innocent from vindictive, perfectionist, whip-happy, coffee-addled prosecutors.

The first three titles, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, start with a crash in the murder of Phoenix's mentor, Mia.  Phoenix defends her younger sister, Maya, who is framed as the murderer.  Framing is an intense motif with the series, whether it be Phoenix's best friend, Larry Butz, or even his rival (or friend?), Miles Edgeworth.

Detective Gumshoe, the cutest detective ever.

The series also greatly utilizes the notion of spirit mediums, particularly Maya and her young cousin, Pearl.  This fun supernaturalism really completes the overall un-seriousness of the series.  It's goofy fun at its best, especially when Maya channels her dead sister to enhance her bust in order to get a witness to spill the beans.  A story mechanism, the Magatama, also allows you to "unlock" the secrets of people's hearts to better find the truth.

The end of the initial trilogy is some of the best interactive fiction I've had the opportunity to play through.  The conclusion of each episode is incredibly dramatic and heart-warming.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney follows the series with Apollo Justice, a young new attorney who ends up working for the now unemployed Wright and his "daughter" Trudy.  Justice has an ability to sense people's lies using a special bracelet.  The story only briefly keeps with the original trilogy, but continues to be good fun.  This game in particular makes great use of the DS touchscreen by completing scientific tasks (finger print analysis, luminol testing, etc.).

Apollo Justice, a.k.a. Herr Forehead.

Another joy of the series is the music and sound effects.  During pivotal court scenes, the music becomes incredibly dramatic to the point of raising my heart rate, and both your character and current prosecutor will shout out "Objection!" to indicate a turnabout in the case.  The "voice acting," such as it is (the few one word shouts) is actually brilliant.

Finally, the most recent title released (and why I started this epic review in the first place) focuses on Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix's first rival prosecutor.  This game is a significant departure from the original games as you actually move Miles through third person crime scenes.  Also unlike the other games, there is no courtroom drama, instead rebuttals about Edgeworth's logic play out, requiring you to use evidence in order to find the truth.

Edgeworth, and his weird ruffle thing.

All in all, the series is a blast, especially if you're into interactive fiction.  The first three games are incredibly difficult to find, even at GameStop, but they are available on Virtual Console for the Wii.