From visual quality and gameplay to audio, Mercury Steam’s first Castlevania experience was the best 3D game in the series by a few thousand miles and this sequel looks to be even better. If you haven’t played the original Lords of Shadow yet, go grab it and see for yourself that the combination of 3D and Konami’s storied vampire franchise can and does work well under the right hands. Of course, a little help from Hideo Kojima doesn’t hurt at all, but the game is definitely a nice surprise. The sequel adds some new elements and characters, but I’m betting the dev team isn’t mucking much with what worked in their last game. As always, we shall see.. but I predict this one will be as good as or even better than the first one.
Hideo Kojima has quite the unique sense of humor. There’s enough here from the “Moby Dick Studios” developed game to get Metal Gear Solid fans in the know figuring out what’s up and even the name is clever punning around on Kojima’s part. I’ve given up on speculation and following every rumor and screenshot around as if playing the worlds biggest hidden object game. I know for a fact that any new Metal Gear game will offer up enough entertainment and replay value that it’s futile to hop around scraping up images, movies and the often wild opining that goes along with them. Yeah, that’s right Konami – I surrender – just get me a release date and I’m a happy man. That and hell, I’m too busy to keep being faked out by Kojima at every turn. He knows he’s making games that will stand the test of time, so I guess he’s happy as well…
Of course, this could just be an all-new IP, but I kind of doubt it, particularly given Kojima’s penchant for offbeat humor and all sorts of oddball references in the trailers for previous Metal Gear titles. This one would be the strangest to date, as at first glance, you might not even know what the heck you’re looking at…
OK, quickly now, as I’m still buried under a few Wii and Vita games I need to review: Blades of Time for the PS3 and Thor: God of Thunder for the Nintendo DS, both picked up this week dirt cheap. The former is a sort of sequel/reboot/update to developer Gaijin Entertainment’s poorly received X-Blades, a perfect example of great (in fact, spectacular) visuals and gameplay that’s somewhat lacking in depth. Blades of Time looks better, has tighter gameplay, an awesome time winding feature for combat and puxzzles, some really cheap enemies and yet, scored low to average on nearly every site that reviewed it. Granted, lead character Ayumi talks WAY too much to herself for a good chunk of the game and for those expecting a simple hack ‘n slash, the game can be really tough about a third or so of the way in. Nevertheles, it’s worth a buy if you like fast-paced action games and ton of monsters to kill. Oh yeah, that compass you whip out to find your way around (and hidded treasures) is pretty sweet as well.
As for Thor on the DS? It totally SMOKES the PS3 and 360 versions thanks to developer WayForward Technologies being true gods of 2D programming. Parallax galore, a fun, fast combat system, upgradable gear and amazing use of the DS’ dual screen format (the best bosses are two screens tall!) makes this one an excellent buy for any fan of classic side-scrollers from the 8 and 16-bit era. It’s too bad neither game got the totalrespect they deserved… but I guess that’s one reason I’m still doing what I do here. Go check them out sometime!
Ah, Konami… how you tempt me so. Castlevania looks so lovely on the 3DS and I know core fans of the long-running franchise will be pleased as punch that the handheld is getting a great-looking game. Of course, unless both Lords of Shadow games come to a Nintendo home console (I’d say the Wii U can handle them just fine), those users aren’t getting the whole story. And THAT, ladies and gents is exactly why I’m platform agnostic.
I was instantly intrigued by Silent Hill: Book of Memories when I first heard about coming exclusively to the Vita. The fact that veteran developer WayForward Technologies got the gig was cool enough, but as soon as I saw early screenshots showing the game was a top-down action RPG hybrid, it went on my radar as something to watch. Of course, me being so stupidly busy trying to get DAF more noticed and generate some income (hey, I like being a taxpayer!) meant I’d forgotten to check in on things until recently when a demo dropped on PSN. Not too surprisingly, the team has whipped up an extremely addictive action-heavy blast that’s sure to draw in those who crave tightly focused dungeon crawlers in all their knocking off of monsters and gathering of much loot glory.
While the BoM demo isn’t as initially creepy or instantly unsettling as previous games in the franchise, it has enough going for it that promises plenty. In terms of gameplay, it rocks in the manner of the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath and Hunter the Reckoning series. Naturally, some Silent Hill fanatics are raging over this intensely all over the internet, but let me put some sanity into place here by saying the game not only looks and plays well, it works as a Silent Hill game once you get over the fact that it’s the most combat-focused entry in the series history. The game deviates from the SH formula in a few key ways, but it also taps into what makes the series compelling. If you’re familiar with the above mentioned titles and love this type of game, I’ll bet you’re grinning already…
Speaking of Silent Hill, I’d actually forgotten this new Vita game was coming out on October 16 oops), so now I’ll need to see how veteran developer WayForward Technologies did with this decidedly different take on the horror anthology franchise. My guess is given that Silent Hill is supposed to be made up of all types of stories, we’d see how things go when you end up with a bunch of people who aren’t all running from their fears or dealing with the usual personal issues made into freakish flesh. I trust WayForward enough to know they can make some mighty fine game experiences, so I’m not hating on them at all for changing things up here. Of course, if the game is “bad” I’ll pick on them where it counts with some constructive criticism. That’s how I roll, folks…
Well-made though it was, I actually didn’t care much at all for the first Silent Hill movie. Replacing the game’s Harry Mason character with a female lead and reworking some plot points made me think that the film’s writers and director had zero confidence in what Konami’s team came up with originally. Even though Rahda Mitchell’s performance was superb and the film had a few nice scares, to me, it didn’t have the impact the first two games did. That said, this “sequel” definitely piles on the game-related elements to such an extreme that the home video versions should do spectacularly well with those who want special features or some sort of extended cut, as it looks like we’re getting everything, the kitchen sink AND Pyramid Head. The good thing is, Silent Hill 3 is still such a great game that even if the film tanks (and it won’t, I’d bet), the original work will be a great backup plan for the disappointed.
Ah, I’d almost forgotten about this one, but here you go: the UK/EU launch trailer for the nicely intriguing RTS/RPG hybrid. I loved the first game on the Wii quite a lot (in my opinion, it’s one of the best games made for that console) and updated visual style plus all-new touch controls aside, the Vita game looks like it will be even more addictive and fun to play. Slowly but surely, the Vita is getting more great games – something it really needs with so much at stake for Sony this console cycle.
OK, I’ll bite (and hard, at that) – a new Metal Gear Solid game coming from Kojima Productions? With that proprietary Fox Engine making sure the game looks even more amazing as an anniversary present for fans of the long-running series, this one’s a no-brainer even if it was a Metal Gear tsuguroku. Fortunately, it’s not, as you’ll see in this almost 11 minute jaw-dropper. I’m in all the way on this one, feet first. Hell, I’ll even post the trailer twice here (one is English subtitled) just to show my love for the series. Hey, I’m still buying Revengeance, Konami – I’m not some fair weather fan who only wants the same thing over and over. Thankfully, Hideo Kojima seems to be the same in that each Metal Gear experience has some truly excellent reasons to play through multiple times…
As for the proposed Metal Gear Solid movie everyone seems to be raving about (n one way or another)? I’m really, really on the fence here. Why? Well, young’uns… the joke goes something like this: in every Metal Gear Solid game, there’s that loooooooooooooong cut scene where unless you’re prepared for it, will go on and on (and on), forcing you to commit to playing around with camera angles with your controller just to kill time as an important plot point is explained. At some point (if you haven’t fallen asleep), you can et up and go make dinner, go to the bathroom or even go outside to check the mailbox (sometimes all of the above) before things get back to being playable.
You can’t expect a modern movie audience to be in on this at all (maybe the art house crowd will go for it, though), so hopefully, the folks writing it will go light on the exposition. On the other hand, I don’t want a stupid action flick with explosions and Meryl boobing out all over and a story that’s thinner than the edge of a katana. If this isn’t in The Dark Knight territory in terms of tone and execution, I’ll be a sad clown indeed. But let’s see what happens with this project. With a Solid Script (ha ha), perhaps Solid Snake can rake in the green with a big surprising smash of a summer flick.
That said, success or failure at the box office, I’ll still respect you in the morning Mr. Kojima!
Edward Kienholz was an artist you may or may not have heard of (depending on your level of education), so if you know his work and happen to be a gamer, you’re smiling right now. For those of you who are scratching your heads, I’ll let you Google him and more of his work up at your leisure. Before that, take a peek at that image to the left. Go on, it won’t bite (I think)…
OK, maybe this should be ART Appreciation 101, huh?. It’s from Roxy’s, an environmental installation piece from 1960-61 (and the artist’s first large scale work) based (loosely, I hope) on the artist’s memories of a visit to a Las Vegas bordello in the 1940’s. Long story short, I’d seen this image years ago in an art book and it bugged the hell out of me for weeks. As in seeing that figure hovering around in a nightmare or two and maybe wanting to dig my eyes out with a cold spoon after waking up bugged…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 