Rogue Warrior IMO

November was full new titles that kept me busy playing games and writing reviews but now we find ourselves in a small lull. There is about a week before the sequel to the critically acclaimed BioShock is released and I have found myself renting games to fill the void. Rogue Warrior is one such game. The main character is Dick Marcinko, the rogue warrior. The premise of the game is based upon the life of Dick Marcinko who was the founder of SEAL Team Six and Red Cell. This was one bad ass man, read up kids. Rogue Warrior is in theory a good idea for a game, unfortunately the execution is quite weak. 

As the game begins Dick is asked to assemble a small team for a simple operation in Korea. When the first mission starts your team is killed leaving you alone behind enemy lines with a mission that still needs to be completed. As soon as Dick started talking his "rough" nature came through right away. This game is quite vulgar in its language, which I understand is probably how Dick Marcinko actually talks, but I found myself playing with the volume nearly off because I could not stand to hear him speak. Rogue Warrior would be called a tactical First Person Shooter (FPS) but hardly stands up with other titles in the same genre. Gears of War and Rainbow Six 3 are two games who lead the way in the tactical FPS genre. Rogue Warrior does not bring anything new to the genre. Also, It is painfully easy. I walked through the game in about 5 hours barely having any troubles. The enemy A.I. is simple and easy to handle. There is a pitifully small arsenal to choose from and ammo is bountiful. The story is weak and lacks any depth. Rogue Warrior is predictable and uninventive.  

Rebellion is a fairly amateur game developing company so I need to be somewhat understanding, but Bethesda Softworks was the publishing company and they have earned their reputation by creating games which earn awards such as "Game of the Year", such as Oblivion or Fallout 3. Rogue Warrior was dry and boring, it needed something to drive its concept further than one mans life. It was a decent effort from a smaller company but Rogue Warrior falls short of expectation.  

Thank you for your time my friends.

Assassin's Creed 2 IMO

I loved the first Assassin's Creed. There I said it. Now it would be ignorant of me to say that it did not have its inadequacies but as a whole I still loved that game. Assassin's Creed was criticized for its repetitive missions, easy combat, and short gameplay. I have to agree with all those points but there were also reasons it deserved praise. Assassin's Creed was creative in its story telling, had beautifully rendered environments, was immersive, and had some great cutscenes. My biggest gripe was the ending, which came too abruptly. When I learned that Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) was due to be released in November I could not contain my excitement.  

Any game that can make someone anticipate its arrival has done well.  

I have decided to leave out any explanation of the story because I would love for anyone to play the games to find out or just wikipedia it. Instead I want to focus on the improvements. The repetitiveness of the first game was eliminated by creating a story that drives AC2's main character, Ezio Auditore, on a quest for revenge that takes him all over Italy. This change of scenery and ever-evolving story made for many different missions and side quests, I never grew bored. Another addition to the series are written profiles on characters, places, paintings, and buildings. AC2 uses real historic people as characters and has Ezio crawling over many of Italy's most famous landmark buildings as part of the deep story. All of this created a great sense of immersion. While I was playing my wife looked up from her knitting and said "Hey I've been there, I bought a scarf from a vendor just outside the front door." That is rad.  

Combat has improved greatly from the first one. There are new enemies other than the standard "guard" from the first Assassin's Creed. Brutes are large, strong guards who move a bit slower and cannot climb after Ezio but pack a serious punch. Agile guards are very quick, faster than Ezio, which means no more ditching on a fight. The Parano or Seeker carries a pole arm for their weapon and add another dimension to combat. Their long reach means the shorter weapons are useless, and these guards cannot be counter-attacked. They can also check hiding places by stabbing them in an effort to look for hidden assailants. Ezio can counter the poking by pulling the seeker into his hiding spot and assassinating him, which is hilarious. The killing animations of Assassin's Creed have always been well rendered and AC2 has added more to the already large number of finishing moves, check them out. Despite the new bad guys and added kill animations the combat is still relatively easy. It does not take long to adapt to the new strategies of enemies and to master the disarm/counter moves that make Ezio nearly invincible.  

It took me about two weeks to complete AC2 and find most of the bonus material. I am not sure exactly how much longer it was than the first one but I got at least 30 hours of gameplay out of AC2. The re-playability of AC2 is fairly low in the sense that it will not be different each time you play it. However, it is like a great book, you could read it many times over and love it every time.  

I am not going to say that Assassin's Creed 2 is the game of the year, but it is certainly one of my top three. With a new story, more complex combat, historical references, a bad ass main character, and knowing that the next one will bring closure to this trilogy all make AC2 a great game. If you find yourself bored of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 go out and spend your money on a new adventure which transforms you into an assassin taking revenge on the conspirators of renaissance Italy.  

Thank you for your time my friends. 

As a side note, AC2 is made by Ubisoft which happens to also make a phenomenal series of games know as the Prince of Persia series. This franchise has been a benchmark in adventure gaming. Ubisoft leads the way in great story telling coupled with great gameplay.

Left 4 Dead 2 IMO

Having recently reviewed Left 4 Dead on the 7th I was very excited to play its sequel, Left 4 Dead 2. The Left 4 Dead series is best played as a multiplayer and as such I had play the newest one with a good friend of mine. Jeffman and I both enjoyed the first one and squealed like girls all the way through it. Jeffman is an avid video game player not unlike my self and I respect his opinion greatly. I have asked him to guest review this game with me. So let us embark on our zombie killing adventure.  

It has been nearly a year since Left 4 Dead was released and changed zombie video games forever.  Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) definitely adds to its predecessors great game play. The first thing to notice about L4D2 are the characters. We have a new cast of survivors to take through five new campaigns. I complained about the characters from the first Left 4 Dead because they were stereotypical and uninteresting. Our new survivors are also kind of stereotyped (an over-weight black coach, a skinny loud mouthed red neck) but I found them very likeable. The survivors talk more in L4D2 and it provides quite a comical relief from the stresses of how creepy the environments are. Each character brings with them a hilariousness that was lacking from the first game. While Jeffman and I played we found that one the other survivors (computer controlled) had an unusual attraction to me. I was playing as Nick and Coach kept running over to me to "heal" me even when his life was lower than mine! All campaign he would not keep his hands off of me, he even some how managed to "stop" Jeffman from reviving me just so he could do it.  

There are new special zombies in L4D2, in addition to the ones from the original, that add to the game's overall creepiness. The Spitter zombie projects acidic green liquid on the ground at the survivors feet that does some considerable damage over time. The Jockey infected scuttles about the level seeking survivors to jump upon and "ride" while munching on their head. The Charger is quite similar to the Tank zombie from the original but is easier to kill and this one will actually pick you up and take away from the other survivors. There are other special infected who do not have such game altering abilities but bring with them a whole new terror. The Hazmat Suit Zombie cannot be harmed by fire, and to be honest when Jeffman and myself first encountered on of these it was blood curdling. We discovered a few more zombies that were wearing other things in different levels but by far the most scary zombie ever was the Clown. These clown infected lead hordes of zombies to your location. All these new special zombies were a great addition to the game, they change the entire strategy.  

Each of the five campaigns is horrifying in its own way. Valve has done a great job of making every moment in each campaign scary. Jeffman and I were both quite squeamish as we made our way through the carnival level. I did notice that the safe rooms were far less interesting than in the first game. They were missing the scribbled messages on the wall which added a great emotionally engaging touch.  

Melee weapons. The final touch Valve added to L4D2. These weapons replace the pistol as your secondary weapon. This was the only aspect of the game I was disappointed in. Granted it was very fun picking up a cricket bat and smashing some zombie heads, it just became unpractical when considering the strategy of the game. Pistols are the default secondary weapon. They have unlimited ammo and one can always manage to find a second pistol early on in the game. Zombies in L4D2 will die from one bullet from a pistol, so while it is fun to get "up close and personal" while wielding a crowbar, it makes much more sense to keep your pistols and take care of business before they even get close.  

I thoroughly enjoyed L4D2. It brings exciting new levels and characters, gives new threat by adding creative special infected, and has more weapons to choose from. If you loved Left 4 Dead you will fall for Left 4 Dead 2 as well. This game still remains to be one of the most fun group games of this year and has great re-playability. I do suggest that if you have purchased the first one, it might be a good idea to trade it in when you go to buy L4D2. The two games are so similar that maybe Valve should have offered the game for a lower price. Then again, we are all just mindless, groaning, zombies who will pay any price for a video game.  

Thank you for your time my friends.


From the ever clever Jeffman:

Released less than a year after the original, Left 4 Dead 2 felt more like an expansion pack than a new game. It added a few gimmicks, but left a lot to be desired. While the gameplay was just as thrilling as the original, I couldn't help but feel disappointed in more than a few ways. In my opinion, it simply does not pack enough to warrant the outrageous $70 retail price.  

The sequel brings us melee weapons, a few new guns, and a handful of new infected enemies to duke it out with over the course of five new campaigns. Shawn and I played through two of the campaign levels, first through a mall and then through an amusement park. Facing masses of zombies led by "special" infected who would pounce on us with alarming accuracy, the two of us shouted, shot, and burned our way through the obstacles set before us with relative ease.  

Entertaining? Yes. Epic? No. To be completely honest, the novelty value of the game wore off rather quickly for me - before the end of the first hour disappointment set in. It wasn't anything special, it wasn't anything new. If you enjoyed the first game, you'll enjoy the second - but don't get your hopes up. The melee weapons provided are funny to use during the calmer moments of the game, but completely worthless as soon as the shit hits the proverbial fan - which, as you can expect, is a regular occurance in post-apocalyptia. The guns added offer no substantial bonus over their predecessors, and the screams and gurgles of the new infected are learned and recognized very early in the game.  

One thing that I loved in the first Left 4 Dead game was the cryptic messages scrawled on the walls of the safe rooms. Notes left behind for loved ones possibly travelling the same paths mixed between woeful or witty quips about the infection - small bits of information as to what may have happened. A story in a game without a story, it gave a sense of realism to gameplay. Throughout the three or so hours that Boots and I played the sequel, however, we only saw two of said messages. Their absense took a lot out of the game for me, as small a detail as they may have been originally, the atmosphere generated by them was sorely missed.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 IMO

As I have said in a previous post, I have decided to stick to single player games and put multiplayer games behind me. I have made this decision so that I could play more games in my search for the next great epic. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a multiplayer game. There is a single player campaign but the game was designed to be a multiplayer shooter. I picked up Modern Warfare 2 on Tuesday when it came out and have been playing it since then. The campaign is only five hours long. I should have finished this post on Wednesday afternoon. Too addicted did I become to this game.  

I have a problem. I am a completionist. A completionist is someone who must explore every area in a video game. They just have to get every alternate ending, find every special weapon, or retrieve every animal orb. This disorder that I suffer from develops into a much larger issue when playing a game such as Modern Warfare 2. Let me explain. When playing online one receives experience points (exp) for killing enemies, killing enemies with certain guns, killing multiple enemies with a grenade, you get the idea. These exp are used to advance in rank, which in turn unlock more guns and equipment. Each weapon has about 7 attachments that can be unlocked by killing enemies with that weapon. All the unlocks allow for a completely customizable soldier. This alone is addicting but Modern Warfare 2 also tracks your stats with a progress bar. As a completionist I found myself saying "just one more round, I'm so close to being 90% complete!" I've spent the entire week just getting to the 19th rank and unlocking my ACOG Scope.  

Modern Warfare 2's campaign is about five hours long and is just as epic as it's predecessor. When I first booted the game up it asked me if I wanted to skip a mission that could be considered offensive or disturbing. I selected "No, I would not be offended" and started the campaign. It never actually said which mission would be offensive so I assumed I would be left to figure that out for myself. I find this interesting. I mean, why write a mission that could potentially be offensive or disturbing? Why is it necessary? Video games already get a bad rap for being too violent already, why must we push the envelope even more? During the campaign you play as Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson of Task Force 141. Roach eventually fights under the command of Captain "Soap" MacTavish (the main character from Modern Warfare) as they both try to take down a group of terrorists called the Ultranationalists. As the story continued to the fourth mission I found myself walking out of an elevator in a Russian airport fully armed with 4 other men. As the other men opened fire on an entire customs line I realized that this was the mission that could potentially be offensive. The mission continues with these men gunning down civilians as we walked slowly through most of the airport. A special operations team shows up after a while to "stop" us, this was the moment I finally fired my weapon. The mission is quite critical in the plot's development but stilled seemed rather avoidable. Could you not just write it into a video? Or even write another mission that achieved the same result? Either way as I continued the campaign shifts back to the heroic Force 141 as you search to eliminate the Ultranationalists.  

I have had a hard time trying to review this game. It is an excellent Shooter. Very smooth in its controls, flows really well into multiplayer, and has some really great cut scenes. The only thing it fails to bring, however, is innovation. Modern Warfare 2 is everything I expected it to be because I expected it to be pretty much the same as the first one. This elusive "next great epic" should feel exciting because it will be something we have never experienced. Modern Warfare 2 is just another great Shooter. I am not going to say that this game is bad, I would not be able. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a great game and you should all play it. I guess what I am trying to express is that it is not my passion. I love story-driven games, ones that innovate the industry, and move me emotionally and intellectually. I have been trapped too many times in the cycle of online gaming and have no desire to become that guy.

Thank you for your time my friends.

Dragon Age: Origins IMO

Before I dive into reviewing a game, I first look at the context in which the game was made. Often developers make a game to compete with another similar game being made. In this case you end up with games like Prototype and Infamous. Sometimes developers are just trying to make money off of a recent fad. After Halo proved how popular a space marine multiplayer FPS could be we saw games such as Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears of War come out. This doesn't mean all these games are bad, but it can be said that the motivation behind them certainly isn't creative. Still, some developers make games that are mostly unrelated to anything else except for previous games that they themselves have produced. Dragon Age is the most recent title from the incredibly brilliant BioWare. Electronic Arts purchased BioWare and Pandemic Studios in October of 2007 from the holding company VG Holding. They paid a pretty penny for it too. In an article on Kotaku it was disclosed that "EA paid up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding to get their hands on the companies." This little change hasn't stopped BioWare from creating some of the most amazing story-driven video games of the last 15 years. With a resume that includes NeverWinter Nights, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect games, and a few more it's safe to say that when I picked up Dragon Age I had a good sense of what to expect. Since BioWare started making their RPGs in a third person perspective they've all had the same general feel about them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because they've proven that they can handle this genre well. After all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  

Dragon Age is a classic Role Playing Game based in a fantasy world. When I started the game I was slightly disappointed by the lack of creative races that I could make my character. The choices were stereotypical: Human, Elf, or Dwarf. I read up on these and discovered that the humans were the dominant race in the game and seemed to be a dime a dozen. The dwarves were near extinction at the hand of the Darkspawn, the main evil force in the game. Lastly the elves were either forest elves or city elves. These city elves are the servant class for the humans. Elves are discriminated against by being made slaves, forced to live in alienage's, and general maltreatment. Now that's creative and interesting. After choosing a race you must choose a class for your character. There was a small selection of classes to chose from, warrior, mage, and rogue. I quickly selected a male city elf, made him a warrior, named him "Boot" and began my adventure. I was presented with a quick background of who my character was and what the current situation in my life was like. Now here is where I started getting disappointed. In your average RPG you're given a much more in depth background for your character. The idea is to understand who you are role playing. Make decisions how you think your character would make them. Dragon Age doesn't do that. We are given a bit of a summary of our lives and left to figure out who our character really is. At first I did not like this, I felt a bit lost and disconnected from Boot. After a short time I decided to play the game as though it was actually me as the character. Once I made this decision I found myself really enjoying the game.  

After creating your character you must play through a small section of the game that is unique to the race and origin you selected. These are all quite creative and give a great sense of depth to the game once you've completed it. I played a few of the unique intro sections just to see something other than the one I chose. My favourite story has to be the city elf campaign, the one I originally selected. It's quite redemptive and forces your character to grow at quick pace. Despite having fun and different introductions, the game still has a slow start. Even being an experienced video game player I still needed to learn the basic game mechanics. I found the combat to be relatively easy to pick up but the radial menu, which is used to provide more options during game play, is awkward to control and feels quite slow when in combat. Dragon Age certainly takes its time walking you through its mechanics and gives a healthy history to the world which takes up a fair bit of time at the beginning.  

Dragon Age has a very well written story arc. I found myself desiring to play more just to progress through the plot. It's also not a sandbox style game which is really nice for a change. This allows for great direction and purpose. When a user has purpose they are never left wandering. Despite the game having a slow start, there's a great sense of urgency throughout the game that almost made me never want to put down my controller. There's plenty of "literature" in the game that provides more depth in the form of history and lore. I never read any of it. Mostly because I knew I wouldn't have the game very long and wanted to get as far as I could before I wrote my review. BioWare has created some of the most interesting worlds for their games and it would be well worth the time to read the extra content.  

Now there's a trend in the video game industry to make games that present the player with morally challenging problems. It's a cool concept and has been used for many years, but it's been poorly done. Most games that have these morally challenging issues present them in a very black-and-white way. Fable was the worst for this. It was painfully easy to chose the right or wrong paths. Dragon Age, on the other hand, puts your character through a gauntlet of morally ambiguous situations that can leave you with some very tough decisions.  

This leads me to my favourite part of Dragon Age. The Non Player Characters (NPCs). Along my journey I met many of interesting characters that could join my group. Each one of them has a deep, well-written past that affects they way talk to you and how they deal with situations. Many of them have pasts that are dark and filled with deeds that they are currently seeking redemption for. You learn more about their motives and desires as you talk to them. I spent quite a bit of time building a relationship with each of them. Part of why I liked this so much is that I am pretty tired of followers who are just fodder for my enemies. One particular moment I enjoyed occurred just after I had made some decisions on how to save a boy from being possessed by a demon. As I entered my camp site to get some rest and repair my gear, Alistair, a noble and religious knight, grabbed my arm and lost it on me. He berated me for letting the boy's mother sacrifice her life to save her son and using dark magic to do it. I enjoyed being held accountable for the actions I made in the game. It brings a whole new dynamic to your average adventure RPG. Interesting NPCs made it fun to play the game while trying to keep them together and work as a team. Now, as you can imagine in a game that relies heavily on communication, the dialog between characters needs to be well written. For the most part it is, there were some dialog options that were awkward and didn't really fit. Nothing to get hung up on for too long though. BioWare has done a great job again.  

A few friends of mine asked shortly after I received the game my thoughts on Dragon Age. I told them of my wariness. I wish I had told them that a wise man takes time to truly observe something before making a decision but alas I was quick to judge and told them I was not very impressed with it. Dragon Age has a great story arc, fun dialog, and phenomenal NPCs. I put about 20 hours into it before this review and was captivated. I will say that the beginning is somewhat slow but it can be ignored as you learn more and become invested in the story. The graphics are not the greatest I have ever seen but this can be forgiven since, overall, the game is good (you all remember The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). This is my final thought on Dragon Age. If you find yourself sitting at home doing some menial task when you suddenly feel in your heart a strong desire for adventure. Look not to travel nor romance, my friends. Dragon Age will replace your boring, average life with one filled with battle, intrigue, romance, and magic.  

Thank you for your time my friends.

Retro Review: Left 4 Dead IMO

I have this fixation with zombie media and culture. I love it. It is also the most frightening thing in the world. I continually watch movies or read books or play video games and every time I am unable to sleep that night. There are many schools of thought on zombie lore, where they come from, if they are alive or undead, fast or slow. However they come, zombies are just the most terrifying creature ever conceived. Max Brooks wrote The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z which both define 'zombie' in the most complete way. These ghouls are the traditional slow moving, one bite and you're screwed flesh eaters. I think this type is my favourite. The psychological danger is just as great as the physical danger. I don't claim to be an expert but I have spent my fair share of time immersed in the zombie phenomenon and as such I feel like I can review Left 4 Dead with confidence.
Left 4 Dead has four campaigns which take roughly an hour each to complete. These campaigns are not connected to each other but are all very cool. The first campaign is my favourite. It starts on the roof of an apartment building and moves through the streets to a hospital and finishes in a climactic battle on the roof. The other campaigns include an airport and more rural backgrounds. Somehow the city back drop is more realistic (and battling zombies in the dark forest is just too terrifying). Each campaign is five chapters long and is divided up by having to get into safe rooms that save the game and load the next chapter. I didn't like a few of the chapters, they seemed a little unrealistic. I mean at one point I jumped into the sewers to continue our journey. Who knows their way around city sewers!? And why is it filled with zombies!? I liked the short campaigns, they were fun and high energy. That being said, I still found myself wanting a longer campaign and deeper story line. Maybe that's the epic adventurer in me looking for a long, emotionally draining, edge of my seat zombie survival journey. But, I understand that Left 4 Dead is a multiplayer survival game and the campaigns need to be short.
There are four playable survivors: Francis, Bill, Louis, and Zoey. To be honest I don't like any of them. They're stereotypical and lame. Although the game needed to have characters, and since the campaigns have no room for character growth, all the character types I could think of would be one dimensional too. There are five types of "boss" zombies ready to eat your flesh. All of them are quite creative, but the best of these is the "witch." I didn't like the "Tank" boss though, it seemed like I was fighting the Hulk. This isn't Marvel Zombies.
In my opinion, one of the most important factors in deciding if a game is worthy is its sense of immersion. To feel any emotion while playing a video game (other than frustration) depends on the ability to forget you're playing a simple video game. This is called immersion. Left 4 Dead has this uncanny ability to build suspense and dread in your heart, and when the situation really hits you, you'll be holding your breath. While I crept through a dark apartment in the first campaign I was so nervous. Immersion is what makes a great game.
There really isn't much to complain about in Left 4 Dead. A few things here and there but overall it was a really fun game, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Just remember: Left 4 Dead is designed to be played with other people. The more the merrier! That's why it's an amazing co-operative multiplayer game. Playing by yourself is kind of disappointing and leaves you wanting. If you do get a chance to play it make sure you have others to join in on the zombie killing fun.
Left 4 Dead 2 is scheduled to be released on November 17 2009 and looks incredible. It introduces 4 new characters and melee weapons. I'm looking forward to it; so should you.

Thank you for your time, my friends.

Brütal Legend IMO

Heavy Metal. There's an incredible sub culture associated with Heavy Metal. I mean we've all seen the images for band posters or on the sides of vans. Or seen a pack of metal heads just hanging out. I'm not a metal fan by any means but it's easy to see how a bunch of people all looking to express themselves can express it through an epically big movement such as Metal. The concept behind Brutal Legend was to take these metal images and create a world in which the Titans of Metal reigned supreme. To take us along this adventure Double Fine needed a hero worthy of this epic land. Jack Black is the one who will lead us on this unforgettable adventure by voicing the games hero, Eddie Riggs. At first I was wary of such a "gimmicky" combination. I mean I loved School of Rock and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny but eight hours of video game are going to need more than funny songs and JB being hilarious.

I didn't know anything about Tim Schafer when I started either. After I looked him up on the ever trustful internet I learned that he worked on some amazing titles as a writer. He worked for LucasArts and worked on The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango which were both critically acclaimed games. He then went on to start his own company called Double Fine where he produced another widely popular game called Psychonauts. I still have never played Psychonauts but close trusted friends of mine have told me how it changed their lives. Psychonauts is available for download on Xbox Live so a review may be coming your way in the near future. Brutal Legend is his next title and coming from an inspirational mind such as his, this should hopefully be more than just a gimmick.

The opening video explains the nature of Eddie Riggs, a build anything, fix anything, tough and experienced roadie. He explains that "A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good..." As one of the guitarists of the band is about to fall to his death, Eddie saves the day only to have part of the stage crush him. As Eddie lies beneath his own stage bleeding, some of the blood gets on his belt buckle summoning the eternal metal fire beast Ormagöden. Ormagöden then murders the rest of the band and transports Eddie to a fiery world of magic and metal. When Eddie wakes up he realizes that he's not in kansas anymore and begins to fight his way through demonic hordes of terrible enemies. As he's fighting he comes across Ophelia who is fighting with the human rebels against their demonic enemy Doviculus. Ophelia takes Eddie to the human camp where he meets Lars and Lita Halford, the leaders of the human resistance. Eddie can easily see that his job as a roadie is to put someone else in the spotlight and make them the hero. He tells Lars to rise as their king and lead his people to freedom. Eddie goes out to gather an army fit for a king and rallies together a myriad of different people to his cause. Doviculus has a human general named Lionwhyte, who is the epitome of bad hair metal bands. Once his army is formed Eddie takes his band of warriors on tour to fight their first target: Lionwhyte.

The game has an incredible environment that consists of a few varying climates. There are random structures and obstacles protruding from the ground that look like they're from a Megadeath album. They did look quite impressive regardless of their arbitrary presence. Some of these monuments were awe inspiring such as the "Screaming Wall" and "Bladehenge". The combat in Brutal Legend is a touchy subject. It's generally a hack-and-slash action game with a cool magic element. At the beginning of the game Eddie picks up an axe with which he uses for melee and his beautiful guitar Clementine, which by "shredding hot licks" can cast magic spells. Clementine is awesome and you know it. Part of me does wish that the axe and Clementine were combined to create a melee weapon that was also a guitar but I don't get everything I wish for and the axe plays a semi-important role for the end game. The combat is quite easy and repetitive because it is a hack-and-slash style game but the developers made up for it by making the levels short and sweet. One doesn't have to spend forty minutes hacking his way through hordes of the same boring enemies just to die and do it all over again, God of War 2!

This is where Brutal Legend's combat threw me for a loop. Halfway through the game it introduced stage battles. These battles take place in one area where Eddie and his crew set up a mobile stage and battle against an oncoming army. This part of the game is not hack-and-slash, we've now transitioned into a Real Time Strategy. At first I thought to my self "Hmm, this is kinda weird but I guess it fits with the whole band on tour thingy." These stage battles consist of building merchandise booths over designated fan pits. These "merch" booths then supply your stage with fans and then Eddie can 'spend' these fans to buy units in which to do battle. It's a neat idea but the execution is quite rough. RTS's weren't designed for console games and it's very obvious by how tricky it is to control units and order them around. I really felt that this new element lurched the sweet ride Brutal Legend was turning out to be. The transition into the RTS elements are harsh and these battles really drag the game on. I will say that the units are quite clever and well put together, even though they're not well balanced. Headbangers are the first of Eddies hilarious units, they use their thick skulls and strong necks to attack enemies as basic melee ground units. The Roadie unit was another favourite of mine. They are your standard stealth units who use the power of being a roadie to stay invisible to the human eye and use feedback from the stacks on their backs to destroy buildings.

I played Brutal Legend all the way through and was overall pleased by my experience. There are a few things to be aware of if you venture to play this game. It is noted that the RTS element puts a painful thorn in the side of a generally enjoyable game. The gameplay is simple and repetitive but worth dealing with thanks to the creative world, bad-ass characters, and hilarious units. Brutal Legend's story is a little weak, and unfortunately the weakness starts right around the middle of the game and doesn't get better. As cool as some of the characters act they are pretty shallow even for supportive roles. Eddie Riggs stays just as rad from beginning to end and really closes the game out nicely as you'll find out. Tim Schafer's dialog is well written and very funny. So to those who will play this game I warn you with this; make sure you approach this game with the same expectation as you would Spinal Tap. There are many awesome features, but beware: there are some lacking components that make Brutal Legend potentially disappointing.

Thank you for your time my friends.

Also, I found that Yahtzee's review of Brutal Legend really echoed my opinion, even if he was a bit harsher then I was.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising IMO

I walked into Blockbuster this week with the gleeful excitement of a young boy only to have my hopes crushed. On October 20th a game called Borderlands was released. If you have never heard of it check it out, the concept is quite cool and my interest was peaked. My Blockbuster location only orders four or five copies of new exciting games and will order twenty or twenty five copies of really bad games. When I arrived there on the 20th they were all out of Borderlands and had to settle on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (OF:DR).

OF:DR is a modern military first person shooter made by Codemasters. A great man once said "you can't judge a book by it's cover" and I usually try not to but Codemasters has never put out a game that I've enjoyed. In my own journey to become a wise man I decided to give OF:DR its chance to blow my mind. Now listen Codemasters, it's not an easy task trying to release a modern military FPS in todays market. There are plenty of great titles out there like Battlefield 2 or Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare just to name two, who handle this genre easily and successfully.

As soon as the game booted up and the menu music started I was pleasantly surprised to hear a soft chorus of female voices in a slow song that sounded quite epic. The dark silhouetted menu screen was well put together and quick to navigate. It all reminded me of Black Hawk Down. I selected "New Campaign" and began my new adventure. I was quickly assaulted with the opening video which looked like it was all done in flash. This was cool the first time I saw it in the opening video for Call of Duty: World At War. Nice try OF:DR but I'm going to need a bit more effort out of you. The video explained the history of a small island called Skira, which is based on the real world island of Kiska. Basically China and Russia have been warring over this island because of, you guessed it, oil. Russia and America are allies against the Chinese forces and the American army comes to the rescue.

After being briefed quite loosely on what my squad and I are doing on the island I accepted my mission and began my purging of the Chinese occupancy force. The screen quickly faded from black to the first person perspective I expected and I began to press buttons familiarizing myself with the controls when what to my surprise did I find? No jump button!? I'm supposed to believe that my United States Navy Marine can't jump? I understand as a developer you need to find a way to keep things realistic (so no bunny-hopping) but if I can't jump over small rocks and bushes how am I to believe my marine can survive everyday life? Putting aside my feelings over the whole jump button fiasco I pressed the "map" button and was actually impressed. Codemasters actually copied the terrain of the entire island of Kiska and gave it to us a sandbox and subsequently gives us a great sense of immersion. Excited by this idea I felt that my mission could wait a few minutes and began to explore the island. This quickly became uninteresting as the actual island is quite big and takes a fair amount of time to travel.

After turning back from my wayward exploration I decided to continue my mission and see what else OF:DR had to offer. The first thing I noticed was that I had to walk/run a long ways to get to my current objective. This is acceptable only because they based the terrain on a real island. It's also really frustrating as the game has checkpoints at which it'll save your progress. If one were to die for any reason before one of these checkpoints then the game reloads you at the previous checkpoint, leaving all that walking to be done again. As I neared my objective my soldier verbally stated "Target....Rifleman.....300 meters North". I quickly dropped to one knee and looked through my scope to check out the situation. Nothing. I couldn't see anything. It was all just trees, grass, foliage, and sky. No worries I thought, if I can't see them then they probably can't see me. I took a few more steps when I was hit in the chest by a bullet. I dropped back down and looked through my sights again and could see my target ahead, I lined him up and pulled the trigger. Nothing. I shot again and again, all perfectly aimed shots. Nothing. During this time I kept taking fire and eventually died. If I can't see a soldier from 300 meters then he shouldn't be able to see me, and if he can then why can't I hit him if he can kill me from that distance?

I grew increasingly more frustrated with OF:DR as I continued playing it. Your fire team is a bunch of badly programmed AI. It takes at least 4 bullets to even slow down an enemy while it only takes 1 enemy bullet to put you down. The tactical order menu is slow and out of date. What happened to voice activated commands? SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals did a great job and it was released in 2002. Once you opened a door it wasn't closable. There's too much that fell apart as I played OF:DR. Too many things were inexcusably bad. A good menu, potential for great immersion, and nice scenery isn't enough to make a good game. I felt as though OF:DR was trying to be a copy of some great military tactical FPS's but it falls short. So the next time you walk into a store thinking about playing a good FPS, skip right past any Codemasters game and pick a classic. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is not worth the time or effort of playing it.

Thank you for your time my friends.

FarmVille IMO

In between finishing my NHL 10 post and renting the newest game a few friends of mine suggested quite jovially that I start playing FarmVille. FarmVille is a flash game made by Zynga and is built on the foundation that farming is fun. I was extremely skeptical, but they zealously described their excitement for planting strawberries and buying buildings to adorn their farms and rescuing cute little pink cows.

FarmVille is a simple game that consists of plowing fallow plots of land and then planting seeds of various plant types. After a certain predetermined growth period you begin harvesting and selling your crops for coins. There is a bit of strategy as each seed you can purchase sells for a different amount and they grow at different rates. This is where the game ceases having depth. (Oh I almost forgot to mention that all of the things you can buy with the coins you earn from farming!) One may purchase all sorts of buildings, decorations, and vehicles. All of these things can be placed on your farm wherever you see fit. Although they do absolutely nothing for you, the vehicles don't make you go faster, the barns don't let you store more seed and the decorations are so trivial.

I started playing FarmVille one week ago today and decided to really play this game as best as I could. I started by using all the available land to place my plots down, to maximize the amount I could plant at one time. Then I chose the best seed for my goals, which were to make the most amount of money/experience by only checking FarmVille once a day, which happened to be Soybeans. I also decided I wasn't going to spend any coins on the useless items (anything but seeds) and just horde my coins to see how well I did. There is one other way to gain coins and experience points in FarmVille. By inviting your Facebook friends to play FarmVille they become your "neighbours". You can visit your neighbours farms once a day and help out. They always have one of four issues, and you just need to click "accept" to help out, there by receiving coins/exp. This is by far the best way to gain exp and grow in levels, and I really liked this about FarmVille. It is a new idea that you can visit other peoples farms and instead of negatively affecting them you can "positively" affect their farm.

In one week I managed to get to level 13 and have 37 885 coins. Nothing else has happened, my farm looks just like it did when I first started, my farmer looks the same, I'm not any closer to the end of the game. I was under the impression that games of any nature had an end, a point of completion, a way of measuring success. It turns out that I was wrong. Doing some quick research I discovered the definitions for Video Game and a great light was shed upon my life. The definition of "Video Game" from dictionary.com:

n. An electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen.

This definition isn't specific enough with out defining game. The definition of "Game" from the same website:

–noun 1. an amusement or pastime.

By these definitions I guess you could say that FarmVille is a "video game". People seemed to be "amused" by this series of clicks and flashing images. In fact I heard a stat from a source that stated "there are more people actively playing FarmVille than the population of Canada". That's a lot of people wasting a lot of time for no purpose other than to placate their own lives. Zynga was smart by adding a small button that simply states "+ add coins and cash" to the game interface. This small button then takes you to a screen where you may purchase coins and cash with a credit card. Now lets say 1 in 5 people are dumb enough to purchase fake money for real money, it happens and you know it (remember WoW). The population of Canada as of 2009 is 33,819,000. 20% of that number (or 1 in 5) is 6,736,800 people. Hypothetically speaking, that means that nearly 7 million people who play FarmVille are dumb enough to buy coins and cash. Lets do the math.

6,736,800 X $5 (minimum purchase amount on FarmVille) = $33,819,000 (ironically, the same as the population of Canada as of the 2009 statistic).

That's a lot of money for a simple flash game and I feel like these numbers are on the low side of reality. I did make the decision to play FarmVille for one week to try it out but I also found myself just needing to play it. It was oddly quite addicting, I just had to harvest and plant more seeds. FarmVille is not for the weak willed, if you find yourself easily addicted to mindless meaningless tasks then beware. For those of you who appreciate a great flash game, stay away! Do not be fooled by images of riding a tractor around your multicoloured hay bales while your hordes of cows and ducks cheer you on, its all a ruse. I would suggest to all who play this game: break your bonds to its slavery and if you still need to escape reality for even just 15 minutes maybe pick up reading again, or just visit my blog.

Thank you for your time my friends.

NHL 10 IMO

As we are all aware the hockey season is upon us again. With a new season of sport comes EA's barrage of new sports games that are just a little different than last years. Don't get me wrong I love sports games. Sometimes I just want to turn my brain off and enjoy watching/playing hockey or football or golf. Please don't fool yourself, EA has the sports video game world by the balls. While I normally hate this kind of fascist monopoly they do make the best games so in that respect, my hat is tipped gentlemen.

I haven't owned a hockey video game since Blades of Steel, and things are a bit different 20 years later. Last year I purchased EA's NHL 09 and thus was updated. Playing NHL 09 has given me the basis of which to judge NHL 10 so this is where all my opinions stem from. The first thing I noticed about NHL 09 was the "Be A Pro" mode where the user can take the role of a single player and thus live out his/her childhood dream of playing for the Calgary Flames. This mode has carried on into NHL 10. In Be A Pro mode I created Shawn Vogels who happened to play for the Abbotsford Heat. My career started on the third forward line for the Heat. I played 33 games in the AHL working my way through the lines to become a starting Right Wing until my dreams had become a reality; I was called up by the Calgary Flames. During my time in the AHL I managed to score 122 points, scoring 69 goals. OK so the difficulty was on rookie but I wanted to breeze through the AHL so I could get to the good stuff. One thing I do really enjoy about the Be A Pro mode is that you only play as your pro. Forcing you to play your position and to really effect the game when you're on the ice.

NHL 10 brought with it something new from 09. In all sports games as you create your fantasy player you get to choose what equipment they get to wear, this is purely for aesthetics and completely understandable. As I came to the equipment part of my player during creation I found a surprise waiting me. Each piece of equipment had an amount of "slots" in it, these slots were to be filled with unlockable boosts. Each Be A Pro player has stats that can be increased during the season by gaining experience points in each game. These XP can be spent in the "player growth" section of the Be A Pro Central menu.

WHAT!? Oh I can't believe that just happened! Someone spilled Diablo 2 all over my hockey! I mean look at it! It's everywhere!

Socketed items EA. Really? This is too much. Here's what I don't get; you need to build a skill up by 10 points to really notice a difference on the ice and each boost is only in increments of 1, 3, or 5. There really isn't any point in trying to unlock the boosts but lets say you really want to use them, there's a little catch. The game allows you to use a small number of already unlocked sticks, gloves, helmets, and skates; these have no sockets. There are a number of socketed items but they are all coloured in very odd ways. The worst of these being the helmets, I mean lets say I want to use these tiny stat boosts, you're telling me I have to wear a helmet that looks like it came from Canadian Tire. This whole concept is going too far EA, the equipment is supposed to make feel like I'm even more a part of the NHL not fighting in the Army.

Thinking about socketed items got me thinking more about this Be A Pro mode. I realized that I wasn't actually playing hockey anymore. I was playing an RPG on ice. I mean right from the beginning I chose my name, my position, and my team; or really my name, my class, and my alignment. I then got to decide what items to equip and embarked on my journey in the NHL. Every game/battle I gained XP depending on how well I preformed and I spent this XP on stats to raise my overall rating/level me up. Maybe this is why I really liked the Be A Pro mode, they totally played my fantasy RPG heart strings. Very clever EA very clever.

I continued on the road to the cup playing trying to put my resentment aside. The hockey was fun, it was fast, and EA has added some fun new additions from last year. I love the new "awareness" the players have for the puck. It's quite cool watching my players try bat in a bouncing puck as it's hip height near the net. On the flip side the first time Kiprusoff spun around and backhanded a puck away from the net I jumped out of my seat and yelled in victory. Another cool new aspect is the board play. Granted I never noticed it when it wasn't in 09 but I like that it's there, it helps in all the ways it actually helps IRL. Let's talk about the fighting. The fighting is a lot of fun, the first person view makes the fighting so good. I also appreciate the simple controls, nothing is more frustrating in a boxing game than hard controls. I love the sound byte for the impact of the punches, it sounds so old school gaming. As a creative new fighting system you can't have this issue; as soon as someone goes down there's only two video finishes. It's terribly repetitive and actually made it not worth having my pro sit in the box for five minutes. I'll need more incentive to fight other than two fight finishes and having my pro get face washed after the play. To wrap up the game play bash portion of this review I need to express how annoying it is that even if you turn off the "penalties after the whistle" option there's still a considerably long amount of time between after the whistle and before I get to play again.

Without Lord Stanley's cup in my hands I had to continue until I was victorious. As I played through the playoffs and eliminated each team I became increasingly upset with the video of a series end, they were all the same, just the jersey's were different. With a growing sense of uneasiness I worried that once I won the cup the video would repeat again I wearily started the final series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. As the final period of the series came to a close with victory so close I could taste the metal of the cup on my lips, Shawn Vogels scored the open net goal to seal the Leafs fate. The Stanley Cup celebration video started and what did my heart feel? A complete lack of surprise as the video repeated itself. The celebration video was only two minutes and thirty seconds long, and half of that was copy pasted from the series end video. Now you're probably thinking "Shawn, you over critical fool, why are you so hard on the cinematics when you've just won the Stanley Cup?" Good question, and here's my reply; I feel like the goal of playing a season in NHL 10 is to win the Stanley Cup. 82 regular season games, all of playoffs, injuries, a large number of fights, trades, hat tricks, and sweet retro jerseys all for one thing, hoisting that glorious trophy. Why wouldn't you make the final video for the game an epic one? I would love to see a fifteen minute video of all the players passing the trophy around, hilarious player interviews, highlights from the year and playoffs, maybe some shots of the players drinking from the cup in the locker room, and some sense of glorious longevity as my name is engraved upon that moment forever.

NHL 10 was a lot of fun. I could keep playing game after game and probably will continue to play it as I watch hockey on T.V. Play NHL 10 and have fun scoring goals and fighting your friends. Even though I can complain about many things, it's still the best hockey game out there and I'm going to continue to play it.

Thank you for your time my friends.

Halo 3: ODST IMO

First things first, I have never liked Halo. I guess for some reason I always hated Microsoft for just buying their way into the video game world. Halo: Combat Evolved was the flagship for the Xbox and I resented it. Just because you're bigger and have millions of millions of dollars you can't just push your way to the top of an industry. Oh wait, they did. Not only did Microsoft do it, they did it well. Halo was well received and even coveted by the self proclaimed "Halo Nation." Trying not to be ignorant I gave Halo it's chance to "wow" me and surprise surprise it didn't. Halo has a storyline. It's not a great storyline but it's also not terrible. What Halo does have though is a well rounded multiplayer. Ever since James Bond: Goldeneye came out for the N64 developers have been trying to raise the bar in multiplayer FPS's. Bungie has definitely raised the bar and Halo holds the new standard for multiplayer FPS's. Unfortunately for the Halo games I no longer get absorbed in multiplayer games and have come to judge their campaign.

When I first heard that a new Halo game was being released I simply shrugged my shoulders and passed the notion off as another kick to a long dead horse. This was my attitude until one day while at work I lazily watched TV as a commercial came on, the live action trailer for Halo 3: ODST blew my mind. Now THAT is how you sell me on a new Halo game! After work that day I went home and brushed up on my Halo history to see if this new game would have any potential for a great game. The Halo story follows it's hero Master Chief who is by all means a bad ass main character. Master Chief is a great main character only because of Halo's multiplayer aspect. What I mean by this is he's emotionless, faceless, and he takes care of bidness. It doesn't leave room for any emotional weight in the game. Because Halo 3: ODST stars an actual human soldier who is involved in a separate story arc from the original games I had a glimmer of hope for this new game.

Halo 3: ODST takes place moments after Earth is attacked by the Covenant. The Covenant has surprisingly attacked only one city, New Mombasa. Luckily I managed to read the game's instruction booklet and found out that the Covenant had discovered something buried underneath the city and the ODST squad was pulled from the front line for a special top secret mission. I was pretty excited to start the game so when I started it up I hardly noticed the fact that it never explained why my ODST squad was coming back to Earth and not fighting on the front lines. I waved that small oversight off as the opening video started, I watched as three soldiers talked about the attack on New Mombasa and then all of a sudden in walks Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, also popularly known as Captain Hammer from Dr.Horrible's Sing Along Blog. My jaw dropped to the floor as he argued with ONI agent Dare. Firefly is a favourite TV series of mine and Captain Malcolm Reynolds is a favourite character from the show, this game was developing nicely. The video explains that the ODST squad will be landing in the city and there will be combat. Not a lot of motivation for my character but I was pretty pumped about Nathan Fillion so I moved on.

The video ends with the squad hurdling towards the Earths surface in their HEVs but before they could land, an assault carrier makes some sort of "hyper jump" and sends all the pods scattered over the city. You play as the rookie of the squad who unimaginatively is named "rookie." As the game takes over from the initial video you find yourself stuck in your pod, where you partake in a little tutorial. The rest of the game flips between segments where you play as the rookie searching the ruins of New Mombasa for the rest of his ODST squad and segments where you play as other squad members doing very Halo things. The rookie segments have a great erie nervousness as you search for clues that lead you closer to the truth of why your squad is there in the first place. I really enjoyed the rookie segments. They have this sense of mystery and had the start to an emotionally rich game.

Here's where the game fell terribly short of my heightened anticipation. Our hero, the rookie, is a voiceless, faceless, emotionless soldier who we move through levels kicking ass and taking names completely relying on his supporting characters to bring any life to the game. I have never liked Halo and ODST had some serious potential to be something different and incredible, but the longer I played ODST the more I realized that I was just playing another Halo. Another episode in a series I don't enjoy.

Here's my final thoughts on Halo 3: ODST. For those of you who consider yourselves a part of the "Halo Nation" you'll love this game. That being said I'm sure you'll love anything Bungie slaps the Halo logo onto. Halo 3: ODST was well marketed, had great potential, powerful build up, Captain Hammer and still couldn't pull off a decent campaign. To bad Bungie, you lose again. Unless you're just trying to make money, in which case you win.

Thanks for your time my friends.

Oh and P.S. Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin also star as Mickey and Dutch respectively. AMAZING

Video Games IMO

Twenty four years have past since the day of my birth. Many events have shaped my growth. I feel as though one of the largest and most significant events being the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Albeit I was born the same year and too young to truly understand the impact of such an event; it was the start of a relationship that would take me through ups and downs throughout life.

I spent most of my early years playing NES and SNES games. playing all of the classics and learning the basic building blocks of gameplay mechanics. Everything changed again in 1996 when Nintendo released the infamous N64. The N64 brought with it legendary classics like Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye, and Super Smash Bros. The next few years were filled with exploration of the video game world. I delved into Sony's Playstation with it's more mature titles and it's own classics that I fell in love with.

As the years passed more titles came out and soon to follow were newer consoles. As I reached the age of fourteen I started getting into PC games and grew to appreciate their merit as well. I've tried to stay on top of my passion for the art of video games and as a result I've enrolled into the Video Game Art & Design program at the Art Institute of Vancouver starting April 2010. I'm quite excited to begin my studies and hopefully one day give back to the video game world by offering to it a game I've designed; and maybe, just maybe, I can create a legendary game that will influence someone just as games like FF7, Fallout 1&2, the Zelda games, and Resident Evil did for me.

I've been playing video games on a regular basis for a long time now and have spent time playing games in two ways. First I've spent time playing games online that have no end like World of Warcraft, Battlefield 2, Starcraft, and Warcraft 3. The second way is by playing console games as they came out like Assassin's Creed, Dead Rising, Fallout 3, Call of Duty, and Left for Dead. I found that playing games online was quite fun and challenging, like a faster, more visually stimulating game of chess, but it left me wanting. WoW never seemed to end and seemed more like work than fun. Battlefield 2 was always fun and the better I got the more I realized that I wasn't getting better, I was just spending more time playing than everyone else. The most important revelation I had was that I was missing out on playing shorter games that actually had closure. I was missing what I fell in love with, the next great adventure, the next masterpiece, the next incredible story. With my new found calling I ended my WoW account and started to focus more time into new titles.

The purpose for this blog is two fold. I went to Blockbuster and picked myself up a Game Pass. The Game Pass allows me to rent as many games as I wish and keep them as long as I wish, the catch being that I can only rent one game at a time. With my new Game Pass I've been playing anything and everything, just to sink my teeth into everything the video game industry tosses us. I've been making mental notes about each game in an effort to do some "research" for my aspiring new career. The first fold of this blog is to give me an actual format to write my findings down to keep track of them so I never forget how the environment in FarCry 2 was beautiful, immersive, and was such a vital part of the gameplay (having to be aware of where you're pointing your rocket launcher so you don't accidentally start a grass fire that inevitably burns you too). The second fold of my blog was more of a way for me to inform my friends (you) of which games are worth paying a penny for.

I've decided to call this blog "IMO" and it'll be based completely on my opinion. The format of the reviews will generally include a synopsis of the story, a critique of the gameplay, and my rating of the game. I haven't quite figured out a rating system that I don't think is completely bollocks just yet and may just be a yay or a nay. Anyway I hope you find it at least a bit interesting, and any comments are always welcome. If there's a game you think I'd like just email me, I'm always looking for the next legendary game.

Thank you for your time my friends.