Category Archives: Gaming

Prototype (Xbox 360, PS3)

Posted on by
2

Prototype has been in development for a number of years now. Every once in a while a gameplay video or some screenshots would find their way onto the internet, providing just enough fuel to the fires of anticipation for this game. For those unfamiliar with the game, Prototype is a free roaming sandbox type game set in post infection Manhattan. The city has been infected by a virus that, for lack of a better comparison, changes everyone into mindless attacking zombie like creatures. You control Alex Mercer, and infected human who, rather than become a mindless zombie type, has acquired shape shifting powers. You tear through the city fighting both military and infected in search of the truth about what has happened to you.

GRAPHICS 7/10

The graphics themselves are not very impressive at all. Many of the buildings have bland textures and others take a couple seconds to even show up onscreen. Graphics this bland are usually inexcusable in this gaming day and age, however, Prototype doesn’t really seem too hurt by this. While the graphics are bland, it is completely understandable due to the amount of chaos going on onscreen at any given time. Hundreds of infected, military, and monsters all run around causing havok at the same time. It is a bit disorienting to have so many characters on screen just running a muck.  The amount of action at any given moment is actually very impressive. With so much action, there is little time to really stop and nit pick the graphics.

STORY 8/10

The story is decent. There is nothing Oscar caliber about the writing, yet it is good enough to get the job done. What really works is the universe they have created for this game, which suits the main character and the surroundings perfectly.  There are a few plot twists in the game, but overall nothing spectacular.  The story is basically there to just give you a reason to run around ripping up the city, which is perfectly fine for this game.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

This is where Prototype really shines. The graphics are a bit ho hum and the story is decent, but all these elements do is set up the premise for you to run around causing mass destruction and chaos. Throughout the course of the game you acquire different powers and abilities. It is as if someone made a list of some of the coolest comic powers and found a way for a single character to utilize all of these powers. Alex can morph his body so that there are three razor sharp claws protruding from each hand (ala Wolverine) or he can increase his muscle mass to include huge fists to smash anything and everything (Hulk), or he can absorb people’s memories and knowledge and assume their appearance. These are just a few of the powers at your disposal in Prototype.  Nothing is cooler than leaping off a skyscraper to drop the people’s elbow on a tank below only to morph into your claw form and start slicing bodies in half.

Alex is not a super hero by any means, rather he is super powered. There are no morality choices in this game. It is simply destroy and kill on your way to the truth….and that’s it. It is just as much fun to run around destroying  and killing the crap out of everything as it is to follow the story missions. There is no shortage of new powers and abiliies. In fact by the game’s end you’ll most likely find that you have powers and moves that you haven’t even tried out yet.

The controls themselves are not exactly perfect and there are a few mapping issues as far as what buttons are assigned to what actions. Alex is not always as responsive as he needs to be when facing unrelenting armies of enemies where every movement and split second counts. However, there is no denying the fun in all of your gruesomely effective abilities.  Another major issue is the difficulty of the game, which ranges from ridiculously easy at times to unbearably cheap.  Sometimes you just spawn and the entire world is attacking you without giving you a chance to get to cover.  Not to mention the game doesn’t have the regenerating health that is often standard in video games nowadays. Instead you have to consume energy or people to repleneish your heatlh, which can prove to be quite difficult in the heat of battle.  Although it can seem really cheap at times, there is nothing you can’t handle without a good strategy and some quick reflexes.

REPLAYABILITY 7/10

The game does not have a multiplayer mode, therefore once you are done with the campaign there isn’t too much more the game offers, unless you are a completionist freak. The game starts with Easy mode and Normal mode. Hard mode is unlocked after completing one of the first two. There are numerous secret orbs and collectibles to be found around the city, however the search for these is often frustrating and I found myself only collecting things if they were accessible and in plain sight. I had no desire to go out exploring for more. There were rumors about a co-op mode being added to this game, which I think would be pretty awesome to rip ish up with a friend, however right now the game has nothing like that. Hopefully they will add this with a patch or something in the near future.

OVERALL 8/10

This is an awesome game. Could the graphics use more polish? definitely. Perhaps throw in a better story? of course. Is it still a blast to play? Hell yes. The beauty of this game is that you can pick up a controller and just go about decimating anything in your way. Friends, foes, neutrals, they can all be ripped apart just as easily. There is some relief in just being able to kill and destroy with reckless abandon. Most games have you kill enemies while avoiding harming the innocent bystanders. This game doesn’t care. Anyone and anything are fair game.  If you can see it, you can kill it.

I know the scores on this review are a bit low, but that is looking at each individual component. As a whole, the game works extremely well. There is a bit of repetition in some of the missions, but that is pretty common for sandbox games like this and it is nowhere near as repetitive as other sandbox games. I should have added another category for fun factor, which Prototype would get a 10/10. While it may seem a bit mindless, there is something exhilarating about running around causing mayhem with no regard for anything. Even better is being able to switch between different destructive powers on the fly in order to chosse the most destructive method for a given situation.

I know alot of people are comparing this game to inFAMOUS on the PS3. While both games feature a free roaming city environment with super charged main characters, the similarities end there. Infamous is a great game, although a bit PG. While not as pretty, Prototype is just no holds barred carnage. Sometimes the streets will be covered in red from all the blood being spilled on screen, which is just crazy to witness. Overall, Prototype is an awesome game that will definitely keep you occupied for as long as the campaign lasts. Its too bad it doesn’t have much more to offer beyond that.

inFAMOUS (PS3)

Posted on by
3

I didn’t know much about Infamous leading up to the game’s release, but once I saw a few gameplay videos and read a little about it, I was hooked.  The game is a mix between Crackdown, GTA, and Assassin’s Creed, combining the best elements of all three.  You play as Cole, a bike messenger who is in the process of delivering a package when the package detonates and levels the entire city.  For some reason, you remain unharmed and eventually develop powers of electricity.  How you decide to use your powers determines how the game will play out, with moral decisions presented to you regularly to determine if you are good or evil.

GRAPHICS 8/10

The graphics are solid. The city looks like it should after being wrecked by such an enormous blast. The character models are decent, but I wouldn’t have minded at least an alternate costume for Cole, as his look is a bit generic. The only problem with the graphics is that they tend to break up a bit when there is a lot of action onscreen at once.  There is also noticeable pop up  with buildings and other objects as you travel around the city. Overall though, the graphics are good and they do a great job of bringing this wounded city to life.

STORY 8/10

The game actually has a pretty decent story as you progress.  At the end, you’ll be stuck with some unanswered questions, but the story itself is pretty satisfying.  The premise is a bit of the generic “regular guy gets caught in explosion and winds up with powers” variety, but it seems to work sell within the confines of the game and it sets up the events that unfold nicely.  there is also a pretty good twist at the end of the game that makes the stroyline all the more rewarding.  What is also cool is that the events in the storyline play out differently depending on whether you are good or evil.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

The gameplay has all the mechanics of your standard 3rd person shooter. You can shoot, throw grenades, and even snipe. The trick is that these actions are all performed using your powers. When you snipe, you basically zoom in for a closer view and can pinpoint your lightning right between an enemy’s eyes. Grenades are charged balls of electric energy that you can throw which detonate seconds later. While all of the mechanics are similar, Infamous is unique in how they are all presented through your powers. Additionally, both good and evil characters have completely different sets of powers at their disposal.

Infamous takes full advantage of these power variations, as most missions require multiple tasks to complete. For instance, you may need to call a lightning storm to break down a shield, then use your snipe ability to take out a patrolling UAV plane, after which you will need to lob grenades to blow up a machine. With infamous, no mission is ever really clean cut and some improvisation is usually required to be successful. Things start to really heat up as cole gets more powerful and you seem to have more abilities than you can remember.

REPLAYABILITY 8/10

The game allows you to play through as both good and evil with each side having different outcomes. There are also numerous side quests found throughout the city that offer upgrades and experience points. While the single player experience is fairly deep, especially with the whole good and evil angle, there is no multiplayer in the game at all. I’m a bit ADHD when it comes to single player campaigns.  Once I complete it, usually the only thing that keeps me around is a solid multiplayer offerring.  Sadly, Infamous has nothing.  While it is a great game definitely worthy of at least 2 complete playthroughs, I don’t see it getting much more time after that point.

OVERALL 8/10

Infamous is a great game that you can easily become immersed in.  It combines different genres (sandbox, shooter, plat former) to give a unique gaming experience. The only major knock I have against the game is the lack of a solid multiplayer. However, for single player fans, there is more than enough to do in the campaign portion to keep you busy for a while. The PS3 was about due for an exclusive solid offering, and it seems to have one in Infamous.

UFC: Undisputed (Xbox 360, PS3)

Posted on by
3

MMA fans have been waiting for a game that would capture the excitement and depth of the sport they love.   Although PRIDE FC had released an MMA game a few years back, it didn’t even come close to capturing the details of such an intricate sport as mixed martial arts. UFC: Undisputed is the latest attempt to bring the sport to consoles, taking full advantage of modern gaming technology. So how does it measure up to the real deal?

GRAPHICS 8/10

The character models in this game are awesome. The fighters look nearly identical to their real life counterparts and they take some realistic looking damage throughout the fights. Developer THQ managed to capture most of the details of all the fighters featured, most notably their trademark victory celebrations. Nothing is cooler than winning and seeing Rampage howl up at the sky or GSP do a back flip then start trying to windmill in the middle of the octagon.  The only gripe I have with the graphics are some of the backgrounds. The people in the audience look like heads on sticks for the most part. While Im not expecting to be able to read the beer label in someone’s hand in the audience, a little bit more detail would be nice. There is a huge discrepancy between how great the fighters look and how slopped together the crowd looks, especially in the front row.

PRESENTATION 9/10

There is a ton of polish on this game, other than some of the background graphics mentioned earlier. The menus are all very streamlined, the voice overs from Joe Rogan and Bruce Buffer are spot on. Even Dana makes an appearance or two. There are also a ton of MMA sponsor found on banners, shorts, and the octagon floor itself all adding to the authenticity. My only complaint is that there are a million save confirmation messages that pop up everythime you save something. It gets a bit irritating at times when you just want to get to the next scrap but have to suffer all of these pop up save confirmations that plague the game. this is just minor though, as the game’s presentation is definitely top notch.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

This is what really matters in this game. It would be nearly impossible to truly capture all of the possibilities that could come up in an MMA fight, but THQ does a pretty good job.  There are a total of 6 different fighting styles – 3 striking and 3 ground styles. The striking styles are: muay thai, kickboxing, and boxing. The ground game has: wrestling, judo, and of course jiu jitsu.  Every fighter in the game has a combination featuring one of each type, i.e. muay thai and jiu jitsu for Anderson Silva.

At first, limiting it to these styles may seem pretty bare, as mixed martial arts is just that- mixed. Fighters are never really training in only two disciplines, but it makes sense in terms of the game.  The styles are relatively the same from fighter to fighter. For instance, Thiago Alves plays almost identically to Shogun Rua simply because they both specialize in Muay thai and BJJ. What is cool is that each fighter has enough of their trademark mannerisms to make you feel like they control completely unique to others with similar styles. For instance, when BJ Penn throws a jab he bobs his head to the side immediately after, just like in real life. It’s little details like this that add to the overall experience.

The striking gameplay is surprisingly rewarding, perhaps the best aspect of the entire game.  There are a ton of devastating strikes in each fighters aresenal, all of which look awesome to pull off. Nothing is cooler than blasting someone with a superman punch from a few feet away and seeing your fist just crush the side of their face or blasting a head kick to an opponent’s unguarded temple.  They even managed to capture the clinch game, as dirty boxing and the muay thai clinch are utilized numerous times in a fight.  Shoots and sprawls are well executed, with stuffing takedowns feeling just as rewarding as driving someone into the mat.

Unfortunately, the ground component is pretty bare bones. Jiu jitsu experts only have one submission in their arsenal. While I haven’t tried every single fighter, the only performable submission I have found so far is a kimura, which seems very limited. When you’re on the ground, sometimes your fighter will throw up a random sub attempt like an armbar or triangle, but successfully submitting someone is nearly impossible unless their energy is completely drained.  Also, a lot of the control inputs on the ground don’t always execute as they should. You will be inputting the commands to transition to another position and your character will wind up doing nothing more than a butt scoot. It gets frustrating at times and I found myself wanting to stand it back up, even if I was using a fighter who is normally a beast on the mat.

Its a shame that they couldnt find a way to better incorporate the grappling aspects of a fight into this game. I’m sure in future UFC games they will find a way to upgrade this.  Luckily, the standing and clinching more than make up for any shortfalls of the ground portion.

OTHER 7/10

The game also features a career mode in which you can take a created fighter up through the ranks of the UFC. This feature is a mixed bag for me. while it is cool to put yourself in the game, or whatever character you decide to create, it is also a bit of a pain in the ass. For instance, you have to choose the training regimen for each week. You can focus on strength, cardio, speed, or sparring.  the only part you actually control is the sparring portion. The rest is simulated once you choose what you want to improve. this seems a bit tedious to me, and I would have liked to just skip ahead to the scrap itself. Some people may actually enjoy this mode, and I admit it was cool seeing my name up there victorious over GSP and other top fighters, but overall the mode isnt for me.

The other option is exhibition mode, which allows you to choose a created fighter or a real fighter from the UFC. This mode is awesome, but I would have liked the option to choose a current fighter and bring them up through the ranks of their weight class. Something like this would greatly add to the replay value instead of having to choose a fighter and an opponent after every match.  Another cool aspect is the online mode. This works basically the same as exhibition mode, only you can fight against other opponents via xbox live.  I’ve only tried a couple of online matches, but the lag was narely noticeable and its cool to see how a human opponent reacts.

OVERALL 8.5/10

This is a great game and it is definitely a blast to play. You get the impression that there will be future installments to this game franchise, especially with the growing popularity of MMA. Hopefully the future versions can add more to the ground fighting component of the game. As it is now, this game is still unmatched in terms of gaming MMA action. It is definitely one of the funnest games to come along in a loooong time. If you’re a gamer AND an MMA fan, this is a must have.