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for the 360 and PS3. As stated before, we will finish up the review by talking about the various gameplay options and of course the all important final scoring for the game. Should you spend the money for updated rosters and ratings? I'll decide for you, because thinking for yourself is for squares!
Each character has a different special ability that is unlocked when your ball hits a green peg. For example, the pedophile dragon shown above makes your next two balls to catch on fire and burn every peg they touch; another extends the ball catcher so that it’s easier to get extra balls. This adds some very good variety and strategy to a game that is, for the most part, about pointing your cannon and letting gravity do its work.
After all the orange pegs are cleared, the ball catcher disappears, and a row of five holes with different bonus levels show up. At the same time, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy starts blasting through your speakers. Finally, when your ball lands inside one of the holes, rainbows and stars shoot out of it, and you move on to the next level.
Hi! I’m here to end you! - photo from kombo.com
-Eto
The short version of the story is that Tag wants to be a racer but he doesn’t have the money to race so his Mother fronts the money and finds a racing coach for Tag. After Tag starts to gain some recognition his car gets destroyed and Tag then has to race for the ModNation equivalent of “The Man,” his Uncle who works for Conservative Motors, a car company that makes really boring cars. After a couple races for Conservative Motors, Tag gets fed up and finds another way to keep racing. And, all the while, Tag slowly develops an arch rival in Espresso, the top racer in ModNation. This makes for a much more complex story than you get from most kart racers, in that the actual racing is the story as opposed to Diddy Kong or Crash Team racing game in which the racing is used as a method of obtaining things for the story. The story for ModNation Racers is just overall more realistic than the typical story of a racing game.
But story should not be the most important part of a racing game. The racing should be. And unfortunately this is a weakness in ModNation Racers. The weapons are somewhat boring in that instead of having a dozen different weapons they have just 4 weapons that get upgraded to greater levels of effectiveness. While this does make collecting weapons worthwhile it also makes first level weapons too weak to really be effective and top tier weapons so effective that getting hit by one of them can drop you from 1st to 8th in an instant. There is absolutely no insentive to use a 1st tier weapon, and once you get a second tier you may as well just wait for the third tier weapon upgrade because its just one more item pod. And during the eternity you have to sit waiting for your car to restart, they have already come out with 6 new games you should probably be playing instead of this.
And then there are the problems with control. Unlike Mario Kart Wii, where the controls are so smooth they could probably convince your sister to sleep with them without even getting her drunk first, ModNation Racers’ controls leave a lot to be desired. It is far too easy to take yourself out of a race for good. And when certain race requirements require you to spin or drift a certain amount in a race, you will often find yourself drifting to much on a turn and losing your directional control, or spin just a little two far while you are in the air, and land facing the wrong direction. The point is that they have you do too much personally and the controls become a little clunky, and in the end take away from the game experience.
However I have not yet spoken about the most unique aspect of ModNation Racers, the customization aspect. ModNation Racers goes to great lengths to give the user vast customizability in cars, characters and even race tracks. You have the ability to create your own race tracks using the same track creator the makers of the game used, or at least that’s what they claim. And though your car doesn’t go any faster based on how you design it, it does give creative players a chance to make their cars their own. Customizing your Mod (character) is a lot of fun too and even enhances the story a bit in that the Tag in the career mode, is whatever Mod you happen to have been using when you entered Career Mode. But if you don’t much care for customization and just wish there were some ready made characters for you to become attached to as your favorite like they have in every other kart racer, then you will be very disappointed with ModNation Racers because they have only one playable character that you didn’t personally create.
On the whole a good game, but if you are hoping that someone will have finally given us a kart racing game that will match the omnipresent Mario Kart, then sadly you will be disappointed. ModNation Racers for the PS3 and PSP gets 7.5 clever game references out of 10.
Every Star Wars game aims to make you feel like a Jedi, or at the very least make you feel like you are a part of that universe. Most of them fall drastically short of this mark. We are all holding out hope that The Old Republic MMORPG will be the Star Wars game to end all Star Wars game but until that comes out we still have to make due with the Star Wars Games that are already out there. If you want the best Star Wars strategy game, you should see about getting a copy of Star Wars Rebellion, it probably won’t work for your computer anymore but that was one hell of game. If you want the best Star Wars flight-based shooter, you should probably break out the old Rogue Squadron games for the 64 and GameCube. But if you want to be a Jedi you should probably choose between Knights of the
The Knights of the Old Republic takes place more or less in Star Wars pre-history when Sith and Jedi fought constantly over who would get to date Natalie Portman in the movies. The Jedi won, but the Sith, being the sore losers that they are, cheated and convinced Anakin to become one of them so that they would win anyways. The jokes on them though because Padme died giving birth anyways. Suck it Sith. Of course I just made all that up about KOTOR, the story is about the pre-history of Star Wars, but about a much cooler story, probably because George Lucas had very very little to do with it. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (or as I am going to call it, STFU…sorry, I meant SWTFU, which can only be a combination of STFU and WTF) takes place at an even more important time. SWTFU takes place between Episode 3 and Episode 4. This is a much more pertinent time to the real Star Wars story which is why I have chosen to review SWTFU as the more important Star Wars Jedi game.
I probably just lost half of the readers by saying that SWTFU is more important than KOTOR, but hear me out. Everyone can agree that the most important part of the Star Wars universe is the part displayed in the movies and since the events of SWTFU are more important to the storyline of the movies, it therefore must be the more important. So if you still disagree with me on SWTFU then to you I say STFU, WTF makes you the authority. I’m the one with a blog after all.
So now, we move onto the review. The Force Unleashed was received by mixed reviews in the gaming and Star Wars community. Many people criticized its gameplay for being too linear, and others criticized its lack of multiplayer. Some even criticized its cinematic features for being to abrupt as they often appeared rather suddenly in the middle of a fight. And by far the most prominent complaint I have heard is that while you level up your character the bad guys also get tougher. This last complaint is particularly funny to me because if you were playing a game about, lets say, a Knight in Medieval England and as your character got significantly stronger your enemies remained exactly the same, thus making your character roughly invincible later in the game, then these same people would complain that the game got too easy as the game went on.
And there is some truth to the complaints. The game is linear, there is no multiplayer, and the in-game movies do come out of nowhere sometimes. But all of these do not warrant the low ratings the game was given. This problem occurs all too often with games that take place in worlds that game reviewers are extremely familiar with, especially with Star Wars games. The reviewers expect each new Star Wars game to feature everything that the last one did and more. This is just a silly request to begin with. Its like going to a restaurant and saying “Hey, the last time I was here I had a Turkey Sandwich, a bowl of clam chowder and a piece of key lime pie, but this time I think I want a steak with mashed potatoes and a Caesar salad. You know what, why don’t you just put all those together in one sandwich and I’ll have that, for the same price as just the original sandwich.” If every game in a genre included every good thing from every other game in the genre then they would really all just be the same game. No one was happy when Avatar was the exact same story as Dances With Wolves and Pocahontas. Even with all the good things it did graphically it was still the same story and that gets boring, really quickly. So why would you want every Star Wars game to be just like every Star Wars game? And if you just want it to be just like KOTOR, then just buy KOTOR.
However, throughout all of these complaints, one compliment has always remained. The story and characters of SWTFU are just incredible. There is not one weak spot in the voice acting or with the storyline. The story follows the life of the secret apprentice of Darth Vader known as Starkiller. At the end of Episode 3 Anakin killed all of the Jedi in the temple, but several Jedi were not in the temple at the time. This is where the story of SWTFU begins. Darth Vader has gone to the Wookie world of Kashyyyk, a world known for lush jungles, hairy citizens, and an abundance of letters that are sometimes vowels, in search of a Jedi that had been banished from the temple. While playing as Darth Vader you begin to get a feel for the controls of the game. While following the path that leads to the Jedi you have the opportunity to hurl Wookies off cliffs, blast them with force blasts, and even use your light saber as a boomerang. When you finally find the Jedi and defeat him in epic combat you discover he has been hiding a son. Vader then takes the boy and trains him in secret as his apprentice, our protagonist Starkiller. I won’t go into the rest of the story but just so you have an idea, the game deals with Darth Vader’s subservience to the Emperor and the formation of the Rebellion, two ideas that are at the very heart of the Star Wars story.
I will however respond to some criticisms which are likely to come up eventually. The gameplay can be a little frustrating at times as you may have difficulty with defeating some of the baddies the first time you play through, and some of the powers have to be used in exactly the right place or in exactly the right way in order to progress through the game. But on the whole, these are very small problems and rarely actually get you killed, and when they do it is probably your fault in the first place.
And if your big complaint is that the game doesn’t have a really wide world for you to explore at your will, then I am sorry, I can’t help you much there. But the game does encourage you to explore the entire world that it does have. In order to change your costume, upgrade your character or upgrade your light saber you have to collect glowing boxes called holocrons which contain the various upgrades. These holocrons are located all over each level and sometimes in very hard to reach places that require you to use all of your various powers to their fullest extent. So while you not have hundreds of dime-a-dozen side quests, you do still have a highly immersive world to explore. Personally the lack of the side quests make this game more like the movies (the good ones that is). Luke only went on a side quest once to go fight Vader in The Empire Strikes Back and that ended with him getting his arm chopped off. Stick to what you are supposed to do and you will always have two arms, that's always been my motto.
You may dislike that the in-game movies come out of nowhere and seem to interrupt the gameplay, and again I can’t help you too much. Maybe, you should just stop complaining all the time. All I can say is that the scenes are really beautiful and even though the programmers could have probably made the transitions a little smoother, they are still really engrossing and you will appreciate the way they tell the story.
The only part of the game that I think is just plain bad takes place towards the end of the game. You have to defeat wave after wave of troops, each being more ridiculous than the previous, and if you don't kill things in the right order the next wave will come before you have finished the previous one. The guys you have to fight are just WAY TOO POWERFUL. Even the third time through the game with all my stats maxed out I managed to die several times at this part. That is until I figured out the easiest way to get passed this part. If you play it and want to know my secret, shoot me an email.
So that’s it. It’s not perfect but it is damn good. I give it 8 eviscerated jawas out of 10. It loses 2 points for the problems mentioned above, but they aren’t big enough to really hurt my enjoyment of the game and the story is a far better written Star Wars story than any of Episodes 1-3. Of course they are making a sequel, which I fear will not fit the real storyline as well as this one did, but it is sure to be a fun play. So if you are going to play the new one or just consider yourself a Star Wars fan you need to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. And if you are still concerned about the lack of multiplayer and remain unsatisfied with every other Star Wars game, then I again say “STFU, just wait for The Old Republic MMO to be released next year.”
And just to get your hopes up here are trailers for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and The Old Republic. Enjoy these videos courtesy of Gamespy.com!
So why are Microsoft and Sony even bothering? Sales for the Wii have continued to beat the pants off their competitors even though most people in the industry believe that the 360 and PS3 have the superior games. This is of course because the Wii has been attracting a lot of “casual gamers” or “people who play Wii Sports and Wii Fit and nothing else.” The point is that Microsoft and Sony desperately want to generate sales so what better way than to release something that has already been done before. Why waste time developing an original idea when we can repackage the same old gameplay with a prettier bow (good graphics).
So as I stated in the title of this article, why should we care? There is great potential for something new to come out of this, even though I don’t think either Sony or Microsoft has thought of them yet. Both Kinect and Move require a camera for their controls to work, whereas the Wii uses the sensor bar. This gives Sony and Microsoft an advantage in that they have the potential to do some things that the Wii just can’t in its current form.
I became really excited about Kinect because it doesn’t require a controller which allows you to have the full use of your hand during the game. Some people are complaining about the fact that they like having something in their hands while play. Blatant sexual innuendo aside, if you really want to have a stick in your hand while playing your new Harry Potter video game then go get a stick, spoon, dowel, or any swing-able object and use that as your wand. And the good news is you don’t have to pay 50 bucks to get a new stick when your stick-wrist-strap breaks cause you are swinging like you are beating a bear off of mauling a child who is holding a gaggle of baby ducks. Hooray imagery! As my friend Lee pointed out while we were discussing Kinect, the real potential is that you can be seated playing your new copy of Mass Effect 3 and lift one hand and wave one of your teammates over to hide behind a particular barricade. And Kinect would also allow you to yell audibles out loud to your players in the new NCAA Football through its voice recognition. The point is that I think the real potential for Kinect is not through games designed specifically to use it as the main control system, but rather as an accessory to be used to enhance your regular gameplay.
So the Move should have the same possibilities right? Well, I guess it does have a camera and microphone so it can do those things as well, and in point of fact, Sony had the camera and microphone since the PS2 days. So it does have all the capabilities that Kinect has, plus it has a motion controller. But what did Sony choose to focus on in their presentation? The fact that their controller DOES EXACTLY WHAT WII MOTION PLUS DOES! Almost their entire presentation on Move was a series of better looking wii games, except for when they discussed how it would be implemented into several of Sony’s already successful games like Heavy Rain, which is an awesome game as it is. They are going to use it for shooters like Socom, sports games like Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and all the other things that you can already use your Wii for.
Needless to say, I am mostly unimpressed by the changes in gameplay that you would get from either Kinect or Move. I was impressed by the way Kinect will be used to change the way you interact with your Xbox 360, and I am impressed by Sony’s efforts in 3D which could also be really cool. But I think we can all agree that Motion Control is nothing to get excited about. It makes sense for them to do it because it can level the playing field for all the systems, but it is by no means revolutionary. The more realistic they can make the controls, the less it will feel like the video games are an escape into a different reality where we can do things that we could never do before. This is because if you make it so the controls can only do the things you can physically do yourself, then why wouldn’t I just go out and do it myself. And before you say “Grizz, you are really over-simplifying and that will never happen,” first let me say “I know I am, but I am just trying to make a point,” and “we should really hang out more, I like our talks.”
So, why should we care about Kinect or Move? The answer is simple. since Microsoft and Sony have finally caught up to Nintendo in motion control, Nintendo can now move on to something else and continue coming up with all the new ideas in consoles and controllers.
DISCLAIMER: Just because the controls aren’t new or aren’t significantly better in theory, doesn’t mean they won’t be fun or worth purchasing, because the games that eventually come out for these various new controls will be good, so don’t be disheartened.
Although it is not quite as lucrative to be a completely psychopathic murder in Red Dead Redemption, you still get paid to murder people, but as a vigilante instead of just for fun. You also get the choice to just capture the baddies instead of killing them, which I guess is Rockstar’s way of saying “See, you don’t necessarily have to go to hell for this.” They even give you spontaneous chances to save hookers from being murdered outside of bars. It’s good to see Rockstar giving you the option of taking the moral high ground. However you do still have to shoot people…lots of people. Like almost everything you do results in your murdering someone or something. My first horse race resulted in me killing my horse three times before I had finally memorized where all the cliffs were. Granted I wasn’t supposed to be killing my horses, it just happened, way too easily. Horses aren’t the brightest animals in the world, but I believe in the real world the horse would not have galloped off of the cliff even if I was spurring it on. But I digress.
The point I am trying to make is that Rockstar is good at what it does. Red Dead Redemption has a pretty good story, relatively easy to pick up gameplay, and the all important aspect of any Rockstar game, gratuitous violence. But it’s not perfect, and it bothers me that so many other reviewers treat like it is something really fantastic. The fact of the matter is that Rockstar doesn’t have original thoughts anymore. Red Dead is fun, no doubt about that, but is it ground breaking in any way? Absolutely not. RDR is GTA in the old west. Instead of vehicles of 20 or so different types and colors for you to steal, you have horses, of one type with 4 colors. And I suppose you can steal some wagon’s or stage coaches, but all of these also rely on the 4 different horses for acceleration. You also have the wonderfully unoriginal mission format. You get the mission, go to the place, kill everyone inside and return home before you get caught by either the lawmen (police) or gang members (gang members). There is even a little map that tells you where to go just like in GTA. Like I said, its still fun, but it is far from original.
There is another problem with Red Dead Redemption which has carried over from GTA. Whenever you slightly nudge someone in this game they take a dive like they are playing soccer for
I can’t help it that the walking and horse riding controls aren’t perfect, so I shouldn’t fail a side mission where I am trying to help round up some criminals because the stupid lawman stands too close to my horse. And it’s not even like in Assassin’s creed where you kind of bump into people and they kind of shrug it off and keep going on their merry way. If you bump into someone in RDR you might as well just turn around and shoot them in the head because they are going to be really pissed at you like you had walked up and smacked a baby out of their hands. And thanks to RDR’s Dead Eye shooting system where you can slow time down to target multiple points on a person, you could probably shoot them 6 or so times before they finish calling you a jerk. I mean I get a little frustrated when people don’t make an effort to move to one side on the side walk but I don’t dive to the dirt screaming “Hey, watch it!”
This is a very small problem, but it’s the small problems that always bug me the most. Why not just take a little extra time and fix that mechanic of the game? I mean they thought to include a scoreboard that keeps track of how many of every thing I have killed, and how many times I chose to skip the waste of time riding shotgun in a stage coach, and which particular revolver I use most, which is particularly pointless considering that there is really no noticeable difference between each gun of a certain type as far as killing capacity.
It may sound like I have been complaining a lot, but that’s only because I am. But I want to reiterate, it’s a good game. I recommend it. It’s a lot of fun, for a lot of the same reasons that GTA is always fun. It even has a better story than most GTA games. My concern is that, with little problems like I have mentioned above, Rockstar is becoming too mainstream, and when game producers become mainstream, they never take the time to fix the little problems. These problems will then plague their games forever more. So while hoping that these are the last I see of this problem, I give Red Dead Redemption, available for the PS3 and Xbox 360, eight Dead Eye shots to the face out of ten.
All non-BBC photos from IGN and its affiliates
