January 2009 Archives

This week, Funtown Mahjong was released on XBLA.  I freaking love mahjong.  One of my favorite anime is Mahjong Legend Akagi, and until now there hasn't been a good way to play mahjong on consoles (excepting maybe Yakuza 2 on the PS2).

The presentation is pretty straight forward, and it follows standard Chinese rules - no Reach here, Akagi fans.  The visuals include a three-dimensional mahjong table with cutesy anime characters surrounding it.  Including avatars here would've been awesome, and I've love to see a patch that allows that.

 

 

One issue I do have to take with the demo though, is a certain something it lacks.  Like, more than one hand.  What I mean by that is that every time you start a game, you're South (opposite the dealer) and you get the exact same tiles. I'm not exactly expecting to get the whole game in the demo, but it's hard to see what sort of computers you're playing against when you can predict what tiles you're getting.

I'll probably end up buying it because I'm a sad man desperate for a good game of mahjong, but here's hoping I don't get burned for my trust.

Yeah, that same wiener is there, saying the title, as goes the tradition.

My buddy and I played through both levels of the demo via the online co-operative mode and I have this to say: This is THE feature in RE5.  What little the game offers in terms of new mechanics it makes up entirely for with the online co-op, if the demo is any indication.

My friend hosted each time and to join up, all I had to do was - get this - click 'join.'

Whoa!

From there, the play was seamless - not once did we experience any lag.  It was pure, uninterrupted teamwork (or a stark lack thereof) from there on.

The demo comes with two stages - the town alleys and the shanty town.  My friend and I played the shantytown first.  The whole demo is essentially one encounter.  You walk into a small building and you find yourselves under attack.  Push bookshelves in front of the windows and take aim.  For a few minutes, it's just a matter of keeping the baddies out. This was especially fun in co-op.  You and your buddy are back to back, each watching an exit.  Eventually they bust in no matter what, but it's fun while it lasts.  Then you spend the rest of the stage running from a huge guy with an axe.  He's scary.  You jump from shack to shack, avoiding the RE5 equivalent of the ganados from the last game until your backup can get there.  Five bucks says someone blows him up 10 minutes after the end of the demo, right?

The town alleys give you a more enclosed environment but provide an additional opportunity for teamwork, where the other stage is meant to more convey the chaos possible - and the level of confusion and intensity really is a few notches up from RE4's constant stream of gated rooms.  This level feels more like traditional Resident Evil without giving up that more open feeling.

Where it shows off though, is right after Chris hoists Sheva over the gap so she can go down and unlock the door.  This is also where you'll learn just how fun co-op is.  As Sheva, you're right in the face of the infected, running and gunning - lucky you, you've got a machine gun.  Chris, back across the gap, is pumping rounds through a sniper rifle.  This separate-but-linked part of the gameplay, even more than running around together, makes it feel like a cooperative experience.  Chris can't get down without Sheva, and Sheva could easily be overwhelmed without Chris' rifle work.

There's been a lot of debate over the controls.  I'm sort of on the fence.  I played and adored the hell out of RE4.  I probably finished the game 8 times between the three versions (all of which I own, sadly).  I think, though, that I prefer the new control scheme, even if it's flawed.  Should we be able to run and shoot? A conscious decision was made to leave that out for the tension it creates.  You're forced to choose between saving your life or ending your enemies'.  I certainly understand the intention of it, but I can't help thinking that it' still feels a bit outdated.  I just can't seem to get 100% comfortable with the controls.  Here's hoping a few more face-to-face encounters with the ax-man will resolve this.

The one thing I WILL complain about without hesitation is the split screen.  Online co-op is great, but I was hoping to have a good time playing this with my wife.  I don't know if it's a technical limitation, or if the local co-op is just an afterthought - but words just can't describe.  Check out the screenshot.

 

What's with the  black space? We could almost fit a third person in that space! This is seriously irritating.  There aren't any options to made it a vertical split screen, either.  I wouldn't even mind just stretching the image across.  If it's a technical issue, then something needs to be done to alleviate it.  As it is, this just feels like a goofy consolation prize.

All the same, it's still RE and I still love it.

Right now, I'm playing GRID and the Skate 2 demo.  AT THE SAME TIME.

The most ironic thing about GRID is how many ways the game lets you get off the GRID.

What the Gran Turismo games offer in incredibly diverse car variety, they far, far less than make up for in variety.  In fact, there's so little variety, it's like spending a weekend locked in a car showroom--with no food.

Right off, the small touches that make GRID special start to show up.  When you put in your name, the game will present a list of names it has in its library that it can actually say.  Each time I boot up, the pleasant female voice says, “Welcome to your garage, Eric.” 

Everything about the presentation, in fact, is very polished.  The “Floating Text” motif manages to be one of the cleanest and coolest I’ve seen in a while.  The replays that allow frame-by-frame viewing are also quite cool, though I wish they would’ve allowed you to do things like follow other cars and take full control of the camera.

From a graphic standpoint, GRID stands well with Forza and PGR as a great-looking racing game.  Damage is modeled well, and seeing your wheels separating from your crushed axel in slow motion is I'm not sure if gratifying is the right word here – effective.  The car models aren’t quite up to the standards set by GT5 Prologue, but they’re more than passable.  The interiors get as much attention as the exteriors and the vehicles look good from every angle.

Where GRID really stands out though is the variety of options available for racing.  Top Speed runs, timed laps, standard lap races, downhill drift sessions, no-touch touge hill climbs, and more.  The sim-arcade hybrid style takes a bit of getting used to but it feels great with the controller.  I don’t know if anything will ever beat Gran Turismo with the wheel, but GRID manages a good balance that’s easy to pick up but feels real enough to be a challenge.

If you’re a fan of racing games at all, you owe it to yourself to pick up GRID – you won’t be disappointed.

 

Skate 2 isn’t something I’ve picked up yet – I’m not sure if I will – but the demo sure made it tempting.  Thing is, I’m horrible at these games.  It’s yet another case of admiration not translating into fun.  I remember being in my college dorm in freshmen year, playing Tony Hawk 2 with a couple guys down the hall.  One was pulling multi-million point combos, 900’ spins, and insanely long grinds.  The other was doing kickflips and ollies and having the time of his life.  Skate, I think, understands the skater much better than Tony Hawk Pro Skater ever has.  It understands the fun of just managing an ollie or a manual.  Combos are still the flavor of the day, but they’re more subtle.  The controls continue to baffle and confound me, but at the same time, the personal reward for pulling off a sweet trick is greater.  I’ll definitely be renting it, but a purchase is unlikely with my skill level.

If the last volume belonged to Kiyoharu, this one belongs to Tomomi and Hisanobu. After the first chapter, it's all up to the ex-Nishi High aces to carry the rest of the book. Which, by the way, they do with great skill.

Check out the full review.

One aspect of gaming that I suspect will always challenge designers - and sometimes gamers, ironically enough, is properly tuning the game difficulty.

Not all games should be easy, not all games should be hard. And not all games should be held to the same standard; different types of games demand different design.

Two recent games on opposite ends of the spectrum but well-tuned all the same: Mega Man 9 and Prince of Persia.

MM9 is one of the most punishing games in recent memory. The difficulty IS the game. There's nothing else to it, and that's what makes it so replayable. The game, like the best platformers, is very well thought out. No fat to cut off, just a hardcore, 2D platformer. The fun of the game is making it through a given level with nothing but your skill, and the spectre of death has to loom at all times for that to work.

Prince of Persia, on the other hand, makes it impossible to die. Instead of seeing "YOU DIED" pop up on the screen, you get a short scene of Elika reaching down to save you and putting you back at the last checkpoint. The flow and the story are more important than inserting some unnecessary interruptions posing as challenge.

On the other hand, some games appear to just be broken. Whether or not I am victorious in Valkyria Chronicles, for example, can sometimes seem to be left up to whether my incredibly inaccurate snipers can hit the broadside of a barn at point-blank range. (Protip: They can't.) Another problem that Valkyria Chronicles exemplifies rather well is the Trial and Error theory of game design. In a puzzle-style game, there's going to be a lot of that by its very nature. In VC though, you'll often get halfway through a battle to find something you couldn't have planned for and end up thoroughly trounced. That's the way of war, I guess! So you restart the battle with a slightly different lineup and move a couple guys around differently and you go from a pitiful loss to a total victory. The fact that my skill doesn't get a chance to make up for my lack of knowledge/foresight is frustrating - I have to go back and do it again due to circumstances that I was not allowed to plan for and unable to react to.

Another case is the third Katamari game, Beautiful Katamari. Previous incarnations had been rather relaxed for the most part, while offering greater challenges to those who sought them. This one though, made it difficult to accomplish even the simplest of tasks without extreme frustration.

I think a good general rule of thumb when looking at game difficulty is that often, the amount of story dictates the difficulty. Games that make heavy use of voice-acting, cutscenes, and exciting set-pieces are going to, at the very least, let you pick your difficulty, because they want you to see whole game and check out their hard work; if they don't let you choose, they're typically going to make it an easier game. In something like Xbox360's Geometry Wars, again, the difficulty IS the game, and the first screen you see is, literally, all there is to see.

So, here's what it comes down to: Every game isn't going to stomp on your junk and leave you out in the snow to die. If that was the case, no one would play games. It's okay to have varying difficulty levels. Some games are meant to stand as accomplishments and badges of honor. Others, meanwhile, are more like books - they might be epic literature or pulp, but they're meant to be consumed rather than defeated.

I'm a good chunk of the way into Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3, so it's time to talk about it a little bit.

From the moment I saw the art style of the game, the only word to describe my feeling has been "enchanted." Just like Prince of Persia, it's the type of game that has such a complete, coherent look, that it could even hold up a mediocre game if it had to.  The watercolor/cel-shading style is gorgeous, and the character designs reminiscent of my favorite Dreamcast RPG Skies of Arcadia (Vyse is even in the game!) both did a lot to pull me in.  The solid voice cast and the mix of humor and sadness keep the story from being something you want to skip, as well.


I've also been in somewhat of a battle - I like strategy games, but I'm not very good at them.  I especially don't have tolerance for a drawn-out sprite-based spreadsheet - much of NipponIchi's library.

Valkyria Chronicles gives me my strategy by mixing it with a bit of action and keeping it from being overlong.  It's very different from just about anything else out there and what works, works really well.

There are some things I'm not such a huge fan of; slogging through the slow menus comes immediately to mind.  You can't scan the 3D battlefield except from the point of view of characters.  The 20 turn limit on every battle seems really weird.  The lancers and the snipers are horribly, horribly inaccurate.  You can only crouch or crawl when the game says you can.  You can't pause mid-battle and there's no autosave. These all irritate the crap out of me.

Some of that stuff just seems to be what I'd call "relics of Japanese game design," something I accept as part of the deal - whether it should be there or not.

Regardless, my current recommendation on this game is buy, buy, buy.  It's horribly underselling compared to its quality as a game.  This is one of the best things to come out of Sega in a long time.

I think if any manga--or book for that matter--manages to make me cry, it's going to be Real. In a medium known mostly for magical girls, fighting robots and other wild but superficial imagery, true emotion doesn't come often. You might giggle, or wince--or, most of the time, deadpan--but rarely do you get tears. The title is completely apt. This story is as real as it gets. Just as I'd hoped when reading the first volume, the story doesn't head toward Slam Dunk territory (great stuff in its own right, just not exactly appropriate here), instead keeping with the solid character development established in the first volume.

Check out the full review.