Prototype 2 Screens

The opening moments of P2.

*POP* Lollipop Chainsaw

Even before playing Lollipop Chainsaw, I kind of knew what I was getting into. Even without any fore knowledge of the title, aside reading press releases as the game neared release, the cover art acts as a perfect indicator of what will be found once the game boots up.

Titillation and craziness. Candy might be be involved. And a chainsaw that spews rainbows.

It's just weird. And that's even before I've played a second of the game.

Then it just gets stranger. More profane, too, but I'm not sure that does any favours for the game, which is mostly "hack, hack, pom-pom, slash" action from what I've played so far. Initial reaction is that I'm having fun with Lollipop Chainsaw because it is so weird and doesn't take anything seriously. I remember Bullet Witch being a little like that. For everything it did wrong, there was something unique about it -- mostly the locations. I remember one section where you faced off against a dragon while standing on top of a 747 in flight.

At any rate, my review of Lollipop Chainsaw should be ready this week.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare Screenshots

Just a handful of hi-res screenshots from the PC version of Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Playing through this version is much more enjoyable than the 360 version for a couple of reasons. The obvious graphical upgrade, but also aiming with the mouse! Review should be posted on ae-infinite.com this week. *WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead.*

Alan Wake's American Hair-Trigger Aiming

Alan Wake's American Nightmare was recently released for PC and playing through it again... egad, this game nails ambience and setting like nobody's business. And yes, it looks better than the 360 version.

It also has hair-trigger controls, especially in comparison to the 360 gamepad.

Even turning the mouse sensitivity all the way down, there's always the danger of overshooting the mark.

Imagine sneezing, opening your eyes, and finding that you've spun yourself 180-degrees and are looking at the floor. That's what it feels like. It feels a little strange to have to use such a steady hand. I didn't find this with Saints Row: The Third -- I made a minor adjustment and I was good. No further changes required.

This over-sensitivty comes in handy during fights with swarming enemies because aiming is so quick and accurate, but I so far I've felt like I'm walking a tightrope being quick and not knowing which direction I'm facing.

The full review should be posted on www.ae-infinite.com next week.

Kid "Hammerclaw" Icarus

I'm finally catching up with the latest Kid Icarus and I'm really having a hard time figuring out what some members of the enthusiast press have been saying about the controls for this game.
From the way some described them, the controls are enough to turn a person's hands into a bundle of arthritic, claw-like sticks. I'm a couple hours into the game and -- playing without the included stand -- I'm not experiencing any problems so far. And since the game hasn't deviated from the flying/ground/flying combat mix, I'm not anticipating any.

Of course, I'm not walking around playing the game. I've been sitting on the bus/Skytrain. It has presented no problems.

My only complaint related to the controls is that sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm dashing the direction I think I should be.

So far, it has been a fun experience! And I would agree with some commentators that this might have started its development life as a Wii game. The controls would translate favourably to the Wii Remote and nunchuck.

I'm Glad this Bullet Doesn't Have My Name On It

Sometimes it's cool getting game-related tchotchkes. Sweaters, t-shirts, mugs, letter openers, jelly beans, desktop cigarette lighter, cigar box... but I've never received a bullet.

At least not from a video game publisher.

The Door Is Raised On The Embargo Garage

So, my review of Prototype 2 is now live -- right here! -- and after re-reading the text, I'm struck by something.

I love writing, but after about midnight my desire to write drops off considerably and I was still writing well after that. "Sleep!" replaces "Write!" quite easily but I pushed myself through to get the review finished (more or less) and uploaded before the embargo lifted at 6:00AM (Pacific) this morning. The embargo was originally scheduled to end on launch day, which would have afforded me a couple of days to write the review. And catch some more of the grammar and puctuation issues, such as the "it's" error in the opening paragraph.

Stuff like that bugs the hell out of me. The "it's" will weigh on my mind all day. Something so obvious should have been ironed out before I uploaded the review. But as my eyes droop and the minute hand has started to swoop upward once more and the hour hand is sliding toward the "2", my ability to see errors and or other problems wanes.

And with no editor, or even an extra set of alert eyes to scan through the review, I rely on my own skill with words to communicate how I feel about a game. But running against the clock...

Maybe coffee would have warded off the worst of it, but when I was done I wanted to just drop into bed and fall asleep. I didn't want to wrestle with caffeine. I do, after all, want to be able to function during daylight hours. (I'm at an age, where I can't easily brush off fatigue.)

At any rate, the review posted and I'm tired. But not too tired do some more editing on the review. (The score still stands.)

Mass Effect 3 - Report 4

I'm definitely zeroing in on the final moments of Mass Effect 3 -- I've finally returned to Earth, which amazingly has not been completely obliterated (for a pretty limp reason) -- and it makes me realize how badly I miss space combat games along the lines of Wing Commander and X-Wing/Tie-Fighter.

There's this great scene between two massive assemblies of ships above Earth that made my gamer heart pang for the days when Hobbes was revealed to be a traitor and when transport #7 was that one that needed to be disabled with ion fire.

And now that I'm zeroing in on the final push, I realize just how hard I pushed through the story of the game rather than meandering around the ship talking to my squad. It wasn't but two missions before that trek home that I figured out where I could upgrade my weapons! And, man, did that ever come in handy. Suddenly enemies were turned into tin cans and even the toughest enemies, the Atlas mech, were hardly any effort with a Claymore shotgun upgraded to level 5. It makes me wonder what else I missed along the way. What other bit of space weaponry did I miss? Extra powers? Side missions?

Alan Wake: Played It, Finished It, Looking Forward to Playing it Again

Bright Falls has never looked so good.

As a game, Alan Wake really got under my skin. The combat wasn't always spot-on as Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (by Alan Wake developer, Remedy) but the setting, the psychological X-Files, Twin Peaks aspects sunk its hooks into me in a big way. If I wasn't playing it, I wanted to the be playing it. I burned through the two DLC "episodes" -- "Previously on Alan Wake" still makes me feel good -- and started playing the again from the beginning. Not on a harder difficulty or anything, but just to experience the game again. This wasn't something like Heavy Rain, where I've had the urge to replay but never followed through because I'm not sure I can stand the emotional roller-coaster again. Plus, I know "whodunnit."

I'm slowly burning through the entire series of X-Files -- I should write something about Netflix -- and there are a few episodes, particularly "Darkness Falls" -- Wikipedia describes the episode: Mulder and Scully travel to a remote area of Washington State National Forest after an entire group of thirty loggers goes missing. They soon discover that an unseen force that was lying dormant has been awakened -- which really made me want to stop watching and start playing again.

Alan Wake releases on PC today (in North America) and I finally have a bulletproof reason to dive into the lake again!

Shank 2 for PC

I've seen the Shank 2 death screen more times
than I can count. Stay away from keyboard controls!

Well, you can't say the developers didn't give the ol' college try but the keyboard controls for Shank 2 are horrible.

Horrible in a way that could induce keyboard pounding as you attempt to execute the kind of precision mayhem required of Shank 2. Even the simplest rolls and dodges become complex with the keyboard, which is exactly what you don't want if you're trying to stay a bullet or two ahead of the enemies. And there's this awful thing that happens when Shank breaks out the guns or knives. You have to use the mouse to aim the damn things! Because the switch between melee and ranged happens so quickly, the frustration caused by aiming with the mouse leads to a never-ending waterfall of frustration as Shank fires his weapons into the ground rather than the rushing enemies.

Plugging in a controller remedies the control issue, but it sure doesn't take away from the challenge, which ramps up pretty quickly. At least with a controller it comes down to a little bit of strategy rather than imprecise keyboard key mashing which allows appreciation of the production values.

Saints Row: The Third

So, I just posted Tazman's review of Saints Row: The Third and he seems to have enjoyed it quite a bit. Click the gratuitous cleavage shot to reach the climax of the full review (you know you want to):

I'm playing the Playstation 3 version between bouts of Battlefield 3, which is pretty damn awesome (outside the single player campaign which is merely so-so). Saints Row: The Third has some pretty sharp writing and never seems to take itself seriously. It's a game world, and the designers revel in it!