system: xbox 360

one sentence description: extremely dark, extremely violent FPS survival horror meets fight club.

graphics: 10 | sound: 10 | playability: 9 | challenge: 9 | value: 10 | bias: 10

total: 9.7

the low-down

i never played the first condemned game for the 360, but now i’m going to. it was one of the first games released, and if i would have known that it was this interesting, then i probably would’ve made it one of my first purchases.

considering the reviews say this one ‘picks up where the last one left off’, i have only a vague idea of what’s going on. i read the wikipedia entry for it, but it’s not all that great. however, you are reprising the role of an agent named ethan thomas, and you appear in some pretty bad shape. you’re drunk and you get tossed out of the bar you’re in. and that’s where the trouble begins, what with really ugly dead things and cracked out drug fiends attacking you.

the game is very interesting in that the focus isn’t on guns. rather, it’s on melee combat, which is different for an FPS. your main weapons are your fists, and you can chain different attacks together to perform stronger ones. everything feels well put-together, from the way the controls pan out to the overall presentation. it’s very ambient, very dark and very, very violent. it’s a kind of raw violence only made moreso by the up-close-and-personal nature of the hand-to-hand combat. and just about anything goes when it comes to picking things up to use as weapons, from bricks to bats to toilet seats. if you can pick it up, you can use it to bash skulls. and there are guns, you just don’t use them all that often.

the other part of the game that’s interesting is the investigation mini-games that take place. it puts you in the role of a forensics investigator, making you take a look at blood patterns on a wall and determining if the pattern was caused by an exit wound or an ‘arterial splatter’. it makes you look at bodies and see what identifying characteristics you can find on them. if you get these sequences right, you earn a better rating, and better ratings get you better stuff by the end of the level. for example, i was just awarded a flak jacket which affords me better protection against firearms.

it’s worth noting that this is probably one of the most ’scary’ games i’ve played. there were a couple of points where i was playing it and i actually jumped. i think of the term ‘ceiling sacks’ and now shudder a little…

this is a truly great game. it feels a little like bioshock in the presentation and the atmosphere minus all of the thought and character building that was in bioshock. that could be good or bad, depending on your point of view. the story is engaging, and atmospheres are genuinely creepy and unique and the fact that it’s an FPS that focuses on melee combat is extremely cool. i rented this one, but i might end up buying it if it continues like this.

pros

• extremely high-end graphics. monolith has created an excellent game engine
• game atmosphere truly engaging and creepy
• pretty cool story (so far…)
• good voice acting
• robust combat mechanic focusing on hand-to-hand combat
• player ratings at the end + rewards based on those ratings give incentives to go back and play again
• very adult themed; this ain’t mario bros, kiddies
• surprises around every corner
• thoughtful mini-games

cons

• because the combat is so different, you may not like it
• combat timing is essential. if you don’t time it right, you’ll get pummled, and that can be frustrating
• the environments are all extremely dark and hard to see in
• navigating through some of the areas is hard and sometimes requires a little backtracking

My 360 is very much alive right now. I was like, “360, you seem like a pretty smart feller. So how about you go ahead and be like dad and start up a blog.”

And about 2 days later, after some intense Wordpress training, he did.

In all seriousness, this is kind of a cool little thing for those of you with a 360. If you have an Xbox LIVE profile, all you have to do is sign up for this little service called 360voice, and as you start playing some games, Mr. 360 (or Mrs. 360, depending on your preference) decides to start writing snarky little posts about your playing. He can be  a jerk sometimes, but that’s OK because it’s kind of entertaining.

You can see what kinds of mean stuff mine says about me here.

note: trying out a new game review format here. i think i need something more short-form if i’m going to feel inspired to keep up with doing them…

system: xbox 360

one sentence description: stylized japanimation third person action combat featuring characters with swords larger than themselves.

graphics: 9 | sound: 9 | playability: 9 | challenge: 9 | value: 9 | bias: 9 

total: 9

the low-down

if you’re familiar with the devil may cry series, then you know exactly what’s up. if you’re not familiar with it, it all started with DMC on the playstation 2. it was one of the first games on the ps2 that have owners a real glimpse at the power of the system. it was also one of the first games to introduce some serious style into killing. i could go through a pretty long breakdown of the storyline, but i’ll avoid that because wikipedia does it far better than me.

so…long story short…gameplay has been and still is about speed and quick-reflexes combined with style; specifically how you choose fight. sure, you can go through the entire game button-mashing and randomly hitting stuff. but you actually gain points for combos and chaining together different types of attacks with your gun and sword. it also helps that that the environments are beautiful to look at and the cut scenes are absolutely amazing.

pros

• amazing and unique graphics
• memorable characters
• great story expounded upon by cut scenes that’ll leave your jaw on the floor
• good voice acting
• simple combat system that yields high return with relatively low effort (i.e. you don’t have to be great at fighting games in order to pull off cool moves)
• good replayability
• interesting level design
• RPG elements help you mold the character to your gameplay style

cons

• control of the combat moves has to be very precise
• chaining together combos can get fairly complicated if you want to pull of big points
• combat can feel a little bit repetitive
• backtracking to get to some places is annoying
• cheeseball dialogue

system: xbox 360

one sentence description: fast-paced third-person shooter-meets-racing arcade-style-game with a touch of mortal kombat thrown in there for good measure.

graphics: 9.0 - fluid, fast and very stylistic. explosions look particularly nice, and the main characters have some pretty cool animations. the two full environments i’ve played through so far have been very cool and unique in looks and layouts, and the frame rates appear to remain very solid.

sound: 7.0 - everything is well-positioned and well recorded, but the overall design isn’t standout. the guns sound a weak. they lack the punchiness of the guns they are emulating (not that i’ve ever shot a gun or anything, but when you compare it to, say, call of duty 4 or something like that, you know what i’m talking about). the voice acting, so far, is pretty good on the part of ‘the secretary’, but i have yet to hear much from the different characters, which is too bad, because the characters seem like they need to be saying something due to their different styles and graphical personalities.

challenge: 8.5 - if you’re familiar with racing games, part of the challenge is choosing the right vehicle or vehicle configuration, part of it is ‘touch’ (i.e. the way you are able to control the vehicle) and part of it is track memorization. the same applies for this game. you’ll find yourself going back to the different levels/maps/challenges and trying to do better against the scores of your rivals. you’ll find yourself attempting to memorize where the enemies are coming from and how best to take them down so that you can maximize your combo meter. best of all, there are multiple gameplay modes to keep things fresh. for example, there’s your ‘time attack’ challenge where you’ll have to manuever through a maze of streets or buildings in a certain amount of time while stringing together kill combos and trying to stay alive. and if you’re good, you’ll find all of the secret stuff along the way. there are also a siege, find the exit, and timed-run challenges in each location.

the only complaint i have is that there isn’t enough different between how each of the characters play. speed, strength and stamina are the three skills you have attached to each character, but the only one you can tell a difference with is speed…and to be honest, that’s pretty essential. speed allows you not only to move through the levels faster, but it also allows you to string together your combos quicker because the enemies actually run away from you in some instances..in which case, if you have to chase them down and you have a slow character, you’re pretty well screwed. i wold have liked to have seen a bigger variety of attributes…at least aiming and perhaps dodging. that would have made the character play feel a little more unique for each one.

value: 7 - i’m sure you can guess that the gameplay is repetitive…but that’s to be expected when you’re dealing with essentially what equates to a run-and-gun racing game. the value shines through in that you’ll find incentive in wanting to increase your score against your opponents so that you can place 1st, 2nd or 3rd within each location. doing this will eventually unlock two more playable characters. but i feel like once you’ve memorized the flow of a level and where the enemies will spawn, you’re going to have an easy time of it.

the multiplayer sucks. it feels half-finished. that’s all i’ll say about that. if you’re looking for a good multiplayer game, here there be monsters…so go away…

bias: 8.5 - i like third person games. i like third person games that involve over-the-top characters running around and blowing away bad guys. i especially like third person games that try to innovate the genre, and i feel like this one actually does that by focusing on incorpating some elements from a traditional racing game. it really does feel like a nice little hybrid of the two genres. that’s no surprise, seeing that the game manufacturer (bizarre creations) created the ‘project gotham racing’ series.

total 8 - i probably shouldn’t have bought this. it’s more of a renter for sure in that it’s certainly fun, kind of different and provides quick entertainment, but it’s not worth $60.00. i’d love to see more variety in the mechanics of the characters and i think i’d be happier if the sound wasn’t so…lackluster. and i’m really dissappointed by the multiplayer, although i’m not known as the multiplayer guy or anything.

however, if you’re looking something fun, quick, and easy to get into, i highly recommend renting it.

.:be a solider. travel to far away galaxies. meet interesting new life forms. kill them:.

system: xbox 360

one sentence description: giant sprawling intergalactic RPG ala star wars: knights of the old republic game mechanics.

graphics: 9 - character details are some of the best i’ve seen. bioware really took the time to make every character believeable and life-like in both physical presence and speech. however…the only problem with this is that it makes the little flaws stand out. for example, you’ll see some lighting effects that don’t work quite right due to the fact that they don’t seem to ‘layer’ correctly. you’ll have a character speaking with a giant lens flare over their forehead from a light that is supposed to be in the background. graphic draw times are pretty slow on the details. you’ll be waiting at least 3-5 seconds for a scene to load all of the graphic elements. you’ll also notice that a lot of the character models, specifically the human females, are too similar. there’s a female dr. aboard your ship named dr. chakwas who you will absolutely swear you see all over the galaxy, the only difference being her hair color.

sound: 9 - whether it’s a ship’s engines firing up, an assault rifle spraying death at an enemy or the explosion of a fuel tank, the sound is crisp and positions well with all of the action. all of the voice acting is excellent…and it should be…seeing that this is a hugely character-driven experience. of note is the soundtrack. it’s very subtle and mood-evoking with nice transitions between sequences and scenes. on, it’s more of a background element. off, you definitely notice it’s not there. it’s not your typical ’space opera’-style track; rather, it’s used as a nice layer that adds extra dimension to what you’re experiencing at the time.

challenge: 8 - there are parts that are hard…but on the whole, it’s not that challenging. keep in mind, though, that the focus of the game isn’t necessarily completely action focused. it’s more plot focused. the secret is figuring out a good squad mix and sticking to that. you aim your gun and fire. you deploy your nifty talents. you deploy your squad talents. you work your way through very similarly setup maps and that’s about it.

value: 10 - the game is, quite frankly, one of the biggest and most ambitious that i’ve ever experienced from a scope perspective. depending on the choices you make, the game could turn out any number of ways for you. you can choose to follow the plot, or you can roam around doing little side missions for quite a bit of time. if you’re a patient person, i’d say this is a pretty darn value-packed game.

bias: 7 - while i like role playing games, i generally don’t see them all the way through because i start to get bored. this is the first one in quite a while that i think i will make it all the way through.

total 9 - the game, overall, is excellent. the characters are extremely believeable. the plot, the writing, and the overall attention to detail is astounding. the gameplay is real-time rather than turn-based like a lot of RPGs. but i have to say that for every amazing thing the game packs in, there is a minor annoyance.

the most annoying thing would be on the galactic map. the ‘zoom out’ button is mapped to ‘x’ instead of ‘b’. as you are aware, in most xbox control layouts, ‘b’ equates to ‘back’…thus the association (for me, at least) with ‘zoom out’. the result is that when you hit b, you exit out of the galactic map. you have to wait for the ship deck to load again, which takes about 5-7 seconds. then you have to re-enter the map, which takes another 5-7 seconds to load.

another glaring one is when you’re in the ground vehicle for surface exploration…the mako. first of all, steering it takes a little bit of getting used to…which is tolerable. but what’s really annoying is that sometimes when you aim the gun, it doesn’t shoot where you expect it to when you’re on an incline. you can place the reticle right on something, and it ends up overshooting your target because the trajectory is really based upon the angle your vehicle is at.

i have to say that if bioware skimped anywhere, they skimped on your squad AI. they simply do not listen to the commands you issue them. tell them to stay in a spot…and they will until you get hit by something. then they charge in like idiots. tell them to follow you, and sometimes they’re a little slow to come. tell them to take cover…and they do…but only until they don’t have a shot anymore…and then they go out into the open.

finally, if you’re not a patient person, this game is absolutely not for you. there is a lot of dialogue…so much in fact you’ll probably find yourself turning on the subtitles and skipping through a lot of it. but be careful; sometimes when you start skipping through, you’ll press the skip button at precisely the point where you get to decide what you’re going to say to the person you’re talking to. fortunatley, it defaults to a ‘neutral’ response most of the time.

let me repeat…these are minor annoyances and don’t detract enough from the experience to make it not worth buying. mass effect rates right up there with all of the other excellent games released on 2007, like bioshock and call of duty 4.

extra insight: