There Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked

Today’s game is the infamous Borderlands, possibly already famous for its theme song by Cage the Elephant. This new release by Gearbox Software is an interesting FPS RPG (First Person Shooter Role Playing Game). Ordinarily RPG and action don’t go hand in hand, but there have been successful real time RPGs from past days (Kingdom Hearts).

In this story you take control of one of several bounty hunters newly landed on the chaotic planet of Pandora. Colonized by miners seeking precious stones and raw material, a recent warm snap has awakened vicious creatures that have driven off all but the rough, tough and insane. Each hunter has a different specialty whether it be brute force and artillery, toughness and shotguns or speed and marksmanship. You are instantly contacted by a mysterious Cortana-esque (Halo reference, look it up n00bs) vision to look for the Vault, a mysterious place of untold awesomeness. Now you have no choice but to go on quests, collect phat loot and generally save the day.

While I personally do not adhere to the RPG game type, there are several things I like about the game. First off, it doesn’t take itself super seriously. Creative RPG elements are incorporated into the real time shooting, like the amount of damage you do with each shot flies off in a different colored number from the victim. Secondly, there is a lot of room for personal characterization of your character, and you can literally sculpt your character to be completely different in powers and levels from the other players in the game. There are tons of customizable guns and lots of room run around and test them out. It’s a lot of action mixed with tedious quests that somehow find a good balance.

So if you’re willing to take a chance and try this bizarrely engaging game, rent or buy it now and go crazy on Pandora

An Ode to COD:MW

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or CoD4 was one of the best shooters to ever come out on the 360 in my opinion.  A first person shooter of truly epic proportions, Infinity Ward made a great leap in the CoD universe by introducing the first game to leave the World War 2 timezone.  The game offers a diverse array of tactical situations and shooter scenarios.  From covert ops aboard a cargo ship to sniping a target from a mile away to piloting a massive gunship, CoD4 does not disappoint.

Alternating between the British SAS and United States Marines gives the player alternate characters and missions and different equipment to keep things interesting.  There are very few glitches and the game play is smooth and engaging.  The one flaw that has plagued the whole series is the re-spawn rate.  Enemies that are killed don’t stay dead.  They continue to run in from every direction.  Only once the player crosses an invisible line in each scenario will they stop.  They game forces you to keep moving, which I suppose is only fair to prevent people from camping a mile off and never getting in harms way.  The problem is, for a game that claims covert op missions and stealth elements, you can’t really sneak around when you’re forced to run head long through a group of terrorists in order to stop their multiplication.

In addition to an intriguing storyline the game sported one of the best multiplayer games for the XBox Live.  With over a dozen different missions types ranging from 3 on 3 tactical matches to 9 on 9 super team death matches, CoD4 leaves room in between for all types of gamers.  There are no official clans (teams) online, but there is a spot for a clan tag.  This gives players a feeling of solidarity with their players when they face off online.  If you’re ever in the neighborhood and you’re feeling up for a challenge, my gamertag is Zhoungguo and I guarantee that myself and the (oRLY) clan will show you how it’s done.

So if you want to shake up your boring shooter collection, pick up CoD4 and be looking for the highly anticipated sequel this November.

Red Faction: Guerilla

Red Faction: Guerilla was released in June of this year and was produced by Volition, Inc and THQ.  This game drops the player behind the controls of Alex Mason, a demolitions worker newly landed on Mars.  He meets up with his brother who instantly suggests that he join the Red Faction, a group of resistance fighters attempting to liberate the terraformed Martian planet from the Earth Defense Force.  The EDF has gone become a tyrant, killing civilians and generally ruling with a harsh, iron fist.  Within 5 minutes, you go from new arrival to guerilla extraordinaire as your brother is killed and you vow vengeance.

The game is another openworld, sandbox type.  You can run anywhere you want in your current active center and destroy EDF property at random, save hostages, aid in guerilla insurgencies or complete the missions to the advance the plot.  It’s a third-person game which makes navigation more manageable.  The main point to the game that Volition flaunted was the completely destroyable environment.  Any building, any car, any crate can be annihilated with very satisfying effects.  This makes getting from point A to B easier because walls can simply be leveled with your trusty sledgehammer.  Your objectives are to make life miserable for the EDF by lowering their control of different areas and raising RF morale.

The kinks in the game are a very finicky driving system, a very aggravating weapons control system and a general slow paced nature.  On easy difficulties the AI is numbingly boring but any higher and they become killing machines.  While it is very enjoyable at first, the amount of time one can spend running through endless quests is limited.  Gameplay is repetitive and leaves no real room for strategy.  You run in, you drop a bomb, you run out.  No real thinking here.

This is a good game for beginners and quest fanatics.  It’s not a full blown shooter, so action isn’t it’s real calling card and it’s not  totally RPG either.  Overall it’s pretty solid gameplay, with a few hiccups here and there.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea,  but if sandbox games are your thing and you don’t care about it not really being a full RPG or shooter, then by all means, sign up with your local Red Faction group today.

Troopers, we are green and very, very mean.

Thanks to the generation donation from one of my friends, I was given the opportunity to play Halo: ODST.  This latest expansion from Bungie drops you back into the Halo universe as the alien Covenant forces threaten to destroy the last bastion of humanity: Earth.  Instead of taking the role of the genetic super-soldier John 117 aka Master Chief, you are now “the Rookie,” the newest member of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.  The Covenant are attacking New Mombasa for an undetermined goal…a goal that after completing the game…I still don’t know.  You and your team are separated in the drop to Earth and it’s now your job to piece together the clues left behind by the team.

The plot in this game runs more like a bizarre sci-fi soap opera.  Instead of non-stop heavy paced action, this game feel more like a GTA sandbox game.  You run from beacon to beacon, alone inside the city, alternating between flashbacks of the individual member’s experiences.  While those moments are fast-paced and more like the old games, when you go back to being the Rookie, it’s slow, boring and frustrating.  I’ve never been lost inside the Halo world before, but this game had me running in circles for a while.  There’s a love connection between the female CO and your team leader and the characters almost try too hard to be likeable, something left relatively unattended to in the past games.  I don’t care about the characters; everyone who plays Halo doesn’t care about the characters.  We sit down and flip on the 360 to waste alien scum, not to get sucked into the love story of the ODST grunts that always die.

Gameplay is mainly the same, with some new additions.  The ODST have “VISR” mode.  Basically a glorified night-vision, the VISR highlights friendlies in green and enemies in red.  VISR modes aides in finding extra ammo, guns and clues to your teams disappearance as well.  There are a couple new weapons, but nothing ground breaking.  The biggest change, for me, however was the health system.  The health system hearkens back to the first game.  If your shield is damaged, you begin losing health until your find a spot to hide and recharge your shield.  They improved this in the next two games by having your health recharge along with the shield.  ODST is a step backwards, returning to the frustrating element of looking for health and running away from fights right in the middle.  The health system was almost a deal breaker for me, as it changes all basic strategy.

All in all, the game is good, but not good enough to buy at full price.  If you must own it, buy it later.  A simple rental will suffice for this one.

No School Like the Old School: A Review of Dead Rising

Due to lack of availability and funds required to rent/buy Halo: ODST, this week I’ll be taking a big jump back in time to one of the breakthrough games for the Xbox 360 console: Dead Rising.  Released in August of 2006, this Capcom game broke down the preconceived limitations of what consoles were capable of doing.  It is a “sand-box” type game meaning that the player is literally turned loose in a vast, interactive world where there is a linear plotline, but the player is not forced to adhere to it.  The player can choose to either complete tasks and missions to advance the plot, or literally just play forever.

The plot revolves around Frank West, a photojournalist sent to investigate why the fictional Colorado town of Willamette has been sealed off by National Guard.  He’s flown through the roadblock on a private chopper to the town’s mall.  While en route, he notices that the population seems to be aimlessly wandering around the town.  After landing on the mall’s helipad, he makes plans to join back up with the pilot in 72 hours.  After this moment, the plot rapidly develops as it becomes apparent zombies have taken over the town and break into the mall.  Frank now has 72 hours to uncover the truth and save anyone he can, while dodging thousands of mindless zombies.

What makes this game so refreshingly unique is it’s style of gameplay.  Anything you pick up can be used as a weapon, with varying degrees of effectiveness.  Plates, benches, umbrellas, guitars and even the trust shotgun are at your disposal.  There are also several gag elements where you can place cones on the zombies heads and take a picture for extra points.  It combines horror with humor as Frank fights through endless hallways of the undead.  As simple as it sounds, you can have a lot of fun just meandering the mall, investigating different areas, interacting with different actors and just finding creative ways to dispose of the zombies

All criticisms of the game at this point are null and void because since it’s relatively old as far as a game goes, all comparison’s are made on a purely biased basis.  The graphics aren’t fantastic, the shooting element is weak, parts of the game are definitely glitchy.  For it’s day and age though, Dead Rising soared above the rest, pretty much defining the sand box genre.  Saint’s Row, Grand Theft Auto and Mercenaries all took a very large piece from DR’s genius.

So if you’re in the market to kill some series time, become a hero and destroy a few zombies, pick up Dead Rising and look for the sequel coming out next year.  It’s a game that’s truly to die for.