Above the Sea and Fog But Still Perpetually Obscured.

Can you guess where I am in terms of story?

Click for larger!

Yep!

Well, I haven’t posted in a few days. Hell, almost a week!
Quick update: Started and finished Mass Effect purely so I could have a save (that is my own) to transfer onto Mass Effect 2 this thursday.
Since finishing ME1, I’ve gone back to Dragon Age: Origins with my dwarf. Got a long way to go.

Really, I wanna see how many games I can finish before going back to Uni. Yes, this includes all my programming as well.

Well after a very rocky start with some annoying problems, Darksiders finally proved itself and continued to do so for the next 9 hours.  It turned out to be an awesome experience despite its several technical flaws.
Like most people that have played this, you just can’t help but think of Zelda, especially once you acquire the hookshot abyssal chain and Epona Ruin.  Let’s not forget the one syllable named protagonist, Link War.

Gameplay:
Pretty simple style of play with a few little variations thrown in.  Much of the time you’ll be hitting the X-button as it swings that monster of a sword about but combos and finishers help freshen that up.  Soon into the game, you’ll get a second weapon which helps change the style of play unless you’re like me and barely use anything your sword.  I was hoping that is was going to have multi-button combos (a la Devil May Cry) but you really only combo buttons with themselves or RB.  Little disappointing but it does keep you away from random button mashing and helps you focus on the awesome amount of carnage that War deals out.

There are a few set pieces such as flying a heavenly beast, fighting with one style in a locked arena and shooting with giant guns.  These help bring some more variety into the game but they mostly disappear after the halfway mark.  I personally found that the locked arena battles more of a tutorial or really extra practice on using a technique.  Quite handy for later in game.

What good would an action game be without puzzles? Well, that depends on the puzzles and luckily Darksiders has lots of pretty simple but enjoyable puzzles.  They kick up a notch once you get a hold of Voidwalker, which is basically the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device but with a tiny little difference.  You can have strong portals or weak portals.  I won’t go into much detail but it makes one of the final puzzles very long but very fun.

Story/Presentation:
The story is just awesome. Plain and simple. The story starts with a bang and pretty much the whole way through is intense.  A couple of awesome twists and a wee bit of emotion makes for a very memorable story but I don’t think it would be as memorable if it weren’t for the cutscenes and acting.  Not too many cut-scenes in the game, I personally would have liked a few more minutes worth but it did the job just fine.

Sound/Music:
Ok, these were the stand out points of Darksiders.  The score is incredible and it really annoys me that they have showed no plans to release it.  What do reckon one would need for the soundtrack to apocalypse and its following events? Heavy orchestras? Check!  Large choirs? Check!  Dark-brooding low notes?  Check!  It fits almost perfectly with the game but I wish there was more of it.

The sounds throughout are exactly what you would expect but they didn’t really have much environment processing done to them i.e. large stone hall sounds should have a good chunk of reverb.  I’m assuming this is due to memory/CPU constraints.

The voice-acting is stellar.  War’s voice is deep and a little gruff and not over-the-top like many people would one of the four horsemen sound like.  He actually sounds human.  Well, a rather evil, menacing one at that.  The biggest part of the voice-acting is the voice of the character called “The Watcher”.  He just so happens to be voiced by Mark Hamill.  Just like all of his other voice roles, he is quite amazing.

Graphics:
From a technical point of view, they are pretty excellent if not a little dated, no more than a year though.  Both pre-rendered and in-game cut-scenes look amazing.  The overall visual feel of the game is not quite apocalyptic but close.  The main thing that makes it not so is the weird colour palette they chose.  It’s not that it is weird, it’s that it is rather plain, boring and way too bold.  My initial impression of was that they took the Kingdom Hearts colour pallet and for much of the game, that remained by opinion.  I personally think everything should be have been a little darker, ‘more evil’ and other such apocalyptic shades of colours but I imagine that it was a design point.  It certainly helps it stand out from the other action games on the market.  A minor gripe I had was with the camera which would stay glued to you while you go up and down stairs giving a slight bobbing effect.  Basically, the camera really didn’t enjoy level changes much.

My main gripes with the graphics were the insanely large amount of screen tearing and frequent pauses.  Screen tears occurred roughly every 1 – 2 seconds which at some points got really annoying.  It was basically this much the whole way through the game.  The frequent pauses were very apparent in the early parts of the game and died off later but still occurred.  For the first couple of hours, they were terrible.  Any time an animation would load, everything pause for a very short amount of time but it did get in the way.  After a while, it does go away so I’m attributing this problem the actual Xbox360 itself.  I’ve heard that the PS3 version doesn’t have these issues but don’t take my word for it.

Score:
Overall, it is a most enjoyable game with a few large issues and a few minor ones (like not being able zoom out on the map) but the story and incredibly visceral combat makes up for these 10 fold.

8/10

Well, this year is off to a great start with gaming. Bayonetta and Darksiders are excellent and its not even the middle of January!
Before April I have quite a few games that I must order and play.

The game I’m looking most forward to is Heavy Rain.

Why am I looking forward to this the most? Well, Farenheit (or Indigo Prophecy it was called in the US) is one of my favourite adventure games.  Such a compelling story and gameplay, so compelling in fact, I finished it in about 3 days.  The graphics look amazing from what I’ve seen so far plus the constantly changing story shall be interesting if not very, very stressful.

Release Date: 24/02

Another game I’m looking forward too is Bioshock 2.

As you’ve already seen, if you’ve read more of this blog that is, I’ve already pre-ordered this.  I’m really hoping it has the same quality as the first one plus the multiplayer modes seem pretty interesting, despite the fact that the only multiplayer games I play are WoW and Team Fortress 2.

Release Date: 9/02

Another PS3 preorder which is going to set me back the most is God Of War 3: Trilogy Edition.

I’ve really only played about 70% the way through God Of War 1 but that I thoroughly enjoyed.  In this country, the remastered editions of God Of War 1 and 2 aren’t being released (well, its not 100% known just yet) so the two ways to get it are with this massive pre-order or by ordering from overseas. Sure, the latter is perfectly viable and way cheaper but this pack is just too awesome to pass up.  Apart from the 3 games, the awesome packaging it comes with skins, postcards, an artbook and all 3 soundtracks.  Totally worth its nearly $AU250 value!

Release Date: Sometime in march.

One game I’m not that looking forward but thats mainly because I haven’t finished the first one is Mass Effect 2.  I’m quite sure it will be a top-notch game as everything Bioware does is amazing its just that I would feel kinda wrong playing it without finishing the first one.  I think i’ll probably wait until it hits Steam at a sale price.  Might give me enough time to finish the first one!

Release Date: 28/01

I almost forgot one, a very important one at that.  Final Fantasy 13.  There really isn’t much I can say apart from how awesome this should be.  Although I do wish Nobuo Uematsu would do Final Fantasy music again.

Release Date: 09/03

I think that’s about it for pre-orders for now.  Uni starts again on the first of March so game playing will be cut down severly But until then lots shall ensue.
I do believe that Mistwalker (Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon) will be making an announcement in the near future about a large project so I can safely assume that whatever they announce will be on my pre-order list.

Well, I’ve had a very mixed experience with this game over my fairly small clocked play time of 4.5 hours.

Initial: Marvellous graphics…until the intro cutscene ends then its WoW characters using the Kingdom Hearts colour palette.  Seriously?

20 minutes: Serious graphic glitches ensue. Pauses for half a second every 3 seconds. Uh-oh. Is it really this bad?

1 hour: Well, the story has picked up quite a bit and the colours are far better now. Not as many over the top bright colours. Bit repetitive gameplay though.

2 hours: HOLY SHIT, epic battles are epic! Keep running out of health way to easily. Story starting to get a little dragged out. This soundtrack is pretty top notch though.

3 hours: DIE GIANT BAT THING, DIE! *maniacal laughter as ripping wings off*

Sometimes, you just have to work at a game to realise that it’s bloody awesome.
I really hope that they release the soundtrack though, its quite amazing.

A couple of days ago, I picked up this game with pretty high expectations.  My last foray into the world of heavily stylised action games was in Devil May Cry 4, which is one of 2 games that I have played through twice.  I was hoping that Bayonetta, directed by the original Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya, was going to be just as good or better than Devil May Cry 4. It just so happens that I was in luck.  This truly is an amazing game.

Albeit it a bit short (took me 8 hours on easy), there is plenty of stuff to go back and do. As is typical with this style of game, there is a New Game + mode which gives you a head start on a harder difficulty. In my play-through I missed an awful lot of stuff and got a couple of very dismal scores on some levels, especially the final level.

The gameplay is very similar to that of the Devil May Cry series but I found that unlike all of those games, I actually tried to remember and execute combos instead of rapid button mashing. Sure, button mashing can get you so far but combos just feel so much more rewarding and of course deal far more damage.  The camera positioning is adequate although sometimes you have to press on the right thumbstick to fix the camera several times in a short space of time.

The graphics are quite amazing and for the quality of them, there are very little frame rate glitches or screen tearing and they mainly occur during a boss intro movie.  The overall presentation, the loading screens and the mini-cutscenes are excellent. Just like Bayonetta, there is a lot of red and black. The animations are quite excellent also, especially all the little sexy moves Bayonetta does and they show off the best of the movements until after the credits with an incredibly long dance sequence.

The cutscenes are longer and a bit more in number than other games in this genre and they bring the playtime/cutscene ratio to almost 50/50. Depending on how you view it, this is either a bad or a good thing. For me, a very good thing. Especially as the story requires an awful lot of fleshing out. It’s a pretty excellent story, granted it may have been done several times over.  If cutscenes bother you, you can of course skip most of them, the ones you can’t skip, usually will have a quicktime event.

The music takes a break from the Devil May Cry style and adds a lot of orchestral/choral pieces which are just stellar. Of course, there are the few techno induced tracks but the mainstay of the music and Bayonetta’s theme is a sort of jazzy, upbeat type of music.  The music during the bosses is just brilliant and helps build up the epic feeling of the boss fights.  I uploaded Bayonetta’s theme and you can hear it at the bottom of the post.

Overall, this is an amazing game, I personally prefer it over all the other stuff Hideki Kamiya has done and quite frankly, I want to play through it again and again and again.

9/10

One thing I haven’t touched on because I don’t consider to be part of the review is a bit of a touchy subject. That is, would you consider the character of Bayonetta to be sexist or empowering to women? I’ve seen a few comments around the place stating cases for one or the other.  I personally believe that it sits on the extremely fine line between the two.  But of course, I don’t think that my opinion on this matter counts.

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Well, a surprise for me.

This morning I got a call from my local EB Games saying that my pre-ordered copy of Bayonetta was in. I had completely forgotten about this but anyway, I picked it up.

I shall be playing this soon and adding it to my review pile which now consists of 5 games.

Yesterday I decided that I would have a gander in EB Games and I saw that they are taking preorders for Bioshock 2. Now usually, I play FPSs on PC because of obvious reasons and as such the majority of my PC game purchasing takes place via Steam. Like, a 98% majority.  But I couldn’t pass this one up. Why? Well, it has a whole heap of awesome extras.

Basically, it contains the following.

• 12″ Vinyl LP with BioShock orchestral score
• Audio CD with BioShock 2 orchestral score
• Three vintage Rapture advertisement posters
• BioShock 2 Art Book, 164 pages

Pretty cool, don’t you think?

It has a release date of 09/02, so not far off now.

Still have to preorder Heavy Rain.

Now safe for children!

This afternoon, the Australian Classification Review board overturned a decision on banning Alien Versus Predator. It has been taken from RC (Refused Classification) to an MA15+ (Not suitable for anyone under 15). This happens to be the lowest rating for the game in the world.  All because we still don’t have an R18+ classification for games.

It seems that it was also reclassified without demanding any changes of any sort.  Pretty intense decision don’t you think. It was so hastily banned and more so unbanned.
Of course, much of Australia is rejoicing, such as I, that this is now allowed to be purchased in this country. But also, I do think many of these people rejoicing are a little scared for the young ones that will be able to play it.  If judging by the picture that’s here, I do believe that it should, like several other games over the past few years, be funnelled into *shock-horror* an R18+ category.  Why would this work? Well simply put, items that are placed in the R18+ category in this country usually only get sold to people 18 and over because the sellers are forced to check.  I’m quite certain this would still stand if games got the rating option or would there be some sort of ratings anarchy.

Most people have heard about this country’s wonderful dilemmas when it comes to games ratings and the man behind them, Michael Atkinson, crusader for the extreme minority.  Because of him, and his power, Australia stands well behind other countries when it comes to logical classification.

Well, at least we have some good news this week after all the filter bollocks going on.

Yep. That’s right.  End of the year means top 10s galore and of course, I shall be providing mine, like last year.  Last year was a bit crappy but this year has been a real pleasure with awesome releases throughout the year.
Shall we begin? Excellent!

Top 10 Albums.
Obscura – Cosmogenesis
Immortal – All Shall Fall
Swallow The Sun – New Moon
Wolves In The Throne Room – Black Cascade
Alexander Rybak – Fairytales
Cain’s Offering – Cain’s Offering
Nile – Those Whom the Gods Detest
Clint Mansell – Moon OST
Dark Moor – Autumnal
Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions

No surprises there apart from the two non-metal albums, Alexander Rybak’s Fairytales and Clint Mansell’s amazing Moon soundtrack.
Dark Moor’s Autumnal started the year and Nile’s Those Who The Gods Detest closes it. Cain’s Offering’s eponymous debut album was mine (and I think my fiance’s) most anticipated of the year and it blew our expectations right out of the water.

Top 10 Games.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Braid
Trine
Borderlands
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Dragon Age: Origins
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena
Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood
Overlord II
Empire: Total War

Once again, pretty obvious but with some things missing and a couple of indie games in there. I’m quite certain Forza Motorsport 3 would be in the list but I don’t yet have it. Actually, I think Assassin’s Creed 2 would be as well.
I must say that Trine is easily one of the best small dev games I have played in a long time. Borderlands somehow keeps eating my time (still haven’t played co-op yet!!). Batman: Arkham Asylum was amazing. Why? Because it was classic, fucking, Batman and not the modern Nolan/Bale bastardisation of it. The rest of the list are just amazing games and I’m sure some people out there disagree with me.

Top 5 Movies.
Moon
Watchmen
The Hangover
A Christmas Carol
I Love You, Man

I could only think of 5 awesome movies this year. Moon is my favourite film of the year. It almost takes out 2001: A Space Odyssey at being my favourite science fiction film of all time. It also establishes Duncan Jones as a great director. For those who do not know, he is the son of David Bowie.

Well, there it is. My favourites of 2009.