For the past few weeks I've been listening to new albums by bands that I listened to incessantly throughout high school. Most of these experiences were disappointing at best. Disturbed's Asylum? Boring. Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns? Losing focus. Mindless Self Indulgence's Heart? Entirely out of tune and overprogrammed. Stone Sour's Audio Secrecy? Generic and safe.
I came into Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies with tempered expectations. After all, he was the lead singer of one of my top 3 bands in high school, System of a Down (SOAD). However, I am pleased to report that he has managed to create a truly interesting and enjoyable record here.
The album ranges from merely competent to truly phenomenal. He takes Elect the Dead and takes it in it's logical direction by focusing more on the use of orchestral sounds and a greater focus on programming throughout. Vocally it is very much like SOAD was; a little out of tune, but harmonically competent. Most songs on the album start slowly and layer on instruments as it progresses. A very well-paced album, as well. The 52 minute album only feels like it takes about 30-40 minutes to listen to.
The best and most consistent aspect of the entire album is undoubtedly the awesome destruction that takes place on the drums in every track. Serj manages to inject an almost unbelievable amount of energy into his songs using drums. Listen to “Borders Are...,” Left of Center,” and “Electron” for some perfect examples.
In summation, if you enjoyed Elect the Dead or any form of melodic/symphonic rock (Apolyptica, you should pick this up. The songs range from hectic and loud (Elecron, Left of Center) to soft and melodic (Deserving?, Peace be Revenged), but overall it is a truly enjoyable record.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
REVIEW: Weezer - Hurley
Hey man, do you like Weezer? If so, you'll probably like this album. Pretty much everything you've come to expect from them over the years. Simple instrumentation, sort-of to really dumb lyrics, moderate attempts at genre shifts from one album to the next. One thing I don't get is I why I found this under “indie rock.” While it's certainly more indie than “Raditude” was, by no means does that make this indie. The album is pretty mediocre, with the exception of one song: Time Flies.
Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.
Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.
Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.
Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
30 Second Album Review: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy
Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Corey Taylor's vocal style. Good register, decent screaming, decent singing. Just soothing to listen to in any capacity. It's a good thing I like his voice because it's the only interesting thing on this whole album. The instrumentation, with the exception of the drums in the intro and chorus of Nylon 6/6, is very simple throughout the album. Whenever there was a guitar solo it oftentimes completely finished before I realized it was supposed to be a solo.
The album sounds like if you added an extra guitar to Daughtry's outfit and replaced him with Corey Taylor. Unfortunately, this leads to fairly generic tracks. Most tracks go a little something like this: acoustic lead in, half band with growly verses, “epic” full band instrumentation with melodic and catchy vox in the chorus, bridge with screaming, repeat the chorus a few times. It gets a little tedious in a 14 track album. At least they try to do interesting things with the chords and key changes, I guess. Musically the album is fine, it's just a bit boring.
The worst track, by far, is Miracles. Seriously the sappiest, most melodramatic emo crap you've ever heard in your life (at least moreso than the usual Stone Sour/Slipknot fare). It was almost unbearable. Definitely drifting more towards pop rock, rather than the pop metal range where they've been sitting since their creation, with this album. The main problem with the album is the overabundance of programming and multi-track vox. It just gives me this feeling that it's all just artificial; its really unsettling.
If you're really into radio rock/metal then give this a shot. Otherwise I can't say I'd recommend it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Disturbed - Asylum review.
I have been following Disturbed pretty closely throughout their 10 year careers as one of the top dogs in the nu-metal/modern rock scene. I think that this album is their least interesting or inspired. While the songs have plenty of variation within themselves, I just can't help but feel that they have lost the hunger to push themselves in new directions. Believe, Ten Thousand Fists, and Indestructible were all revelations on their sound; Asylum just sounds like more of the same. You have songs that mainly comprise of staccato growling intertwined with stretches of growl-singing. Nothing that they haven't been doing for the past decade. I honestly could barely tell the difference between tracks 2-6 on the album. If you really, really like Disturbed and just want more of their sound but with different lyrics, then go for it.
Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.
Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Review: Ranbow Six: Vegas 2 (Updated)
*online gameplay may have subtle differences*
I was sitting in a friend's room one day and another buddy of mine came in and said, "Hey, wanna come play Vegas 2 with me?" To me the answer was simple, "Most definitely." While I have never really been all too interested in any of the Rainbow Six games that were previously released, I decided to give this game a try. I found myself enthralled in the gameplay mechanics and some unique features, but then all of a sudden the euphoria I was feeling was prematurely aborted.
The co-op storyline lasts all of three and a half hours. While I'm sure that the single player storyline is a bit longer, I don't understand why the co-op game's length was so short. Me and my friend had a great deal of fun with Army of Two (we even played through the game again) and that game took a good 6-7 hours to complete. That's a good length for a co-op experience if the game has enough content and variation in gameplay to fill it. Based on my short time with the game, it definitely could have included a full 6 hour co-op story. Another thing that made me feel unfulfilled was that by the time we had played through the story mode, neither of us had unlocked many guns.
*SPOILER ALERT* THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. HIGHLIGHT THE DARK TEXT TO READ.
On top of the brevity of the story, the level design and story didn't make a whole lot of sense in some portions. In one level in particular you start off in a library, then you go outside and just across the parking lot there's a residential area. Makes sense to me so far as libraries are often near residential areas. However, here's where things get weird. The residential area turns into a junkyard that is full of broken pieces of neon signs and old structural supports. Then, without going up in altitude, you are on the roofs of buildings and a helicopter comes to pick you up from a heliport. What? Also, the graveness of certain situations are not fully realized it seems. Late in the game it is discovered that your old colleague has betrayed you and the terrorists have the personal information of you and your teammates. this includes address and addresses of immediate family as well as credit card numbers. After the final "Boss fight" though, everything is happy go lucky. You get a promotion and everyone pretends that nothing bad ever happened.
One of the somewhat unique features in Vegas is that when you kill guys you get experience and as you gain levels you unlock new articles of clothing, armor, and camo patterns. You unlock guns by getting kills that are categorized in one of three categories Marksmanship, CQB, and Assault. Marksmanship points are earned by getting kills at long range, getting headshots, or killing running opponents and they unlock sniper rifles and accurate assault rifles. Close Quarters Battle (CQB) points are earned by killing enemies that are up close or that have their backs turned to you and unlocks SMGs and pistols. Assault points are earned by killing enemies with grenades or killing opponents through other objects and these points unlock shotguns and light machine guns. Each action gives a different number of points as well, so in co-op it feels like a competition to see who can do more difficult things. You don't really feel like you're working with the other player as much as you're working against them at some points in the game.
There are also some really weird glitches that I experienced while playing. These may be due to a lack of split-screen optimization, but they are present nonetheless. The first glitch I encountered was one where enemies would glitch to and from cover. For instance, an enemy pokes out from behind cover and I shoot at him with my sniper rifle and he jumps back behind the pillar as the bullet is flying through mid air. This wasn't very prevalent, but it occured a half a dozen times to me over the 3 hour experience. Also, invisible edges of cover that prevented bullets from hitting enemies was a problem.
Second, there was a glitch where the game would freeze if both players turned on nightvision or thermal vision at the same time. This happened numerous times throughout the game and really broke the flow of the game. It basically prevented us from using the "Throw smoke grenade and use thermal vision to see enemies through it" tactic unless we staggered our activation of thermal vision.
Thirdly, there was massive framerate reduction in rooms that had a lot of color in them. When we ran into a room that had multicolored rock climbing walls the framerate chugged down to 20-30 frames per second. Also this same thing occurred in the boss fight of the last level. This made beating the level terribly difficult. Another indication that this game wasn't optimized for split screen play was the fact that anytime the game had a video it wanted to show you, a screen popped out of the upper left hand corner and took up half of player two's screen, thus neutralizing his effectiveness in shooting and seeing where he was going and forcing us to wait until the video was completed. I found this to be very frustrating throughout the game because theres a video shown at nearly every checkpoint.
The game was by no means horrid though, regardless of my gripes with the coding. The weapon customization was fantastic. You can put any scope on any gun with the exception of the 12x scope which is only exclusive to the sniper rifle. The clothing and camo options are pretty fun to fool around with too occasionally. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the team AI that you are presented with in co-op.
I still don't truly understand this addition in co-op besides the fact that these two yahoos are the only people that can defuse explosives or hack computers. Some of the levels feel very crowded having four guys there cramped against a single entrance to a room. One unique thing is that you can command your team to prepare to enter a room, then you have the option for them to throw a flashbang or frag grenade in the room before they enter. Most of the time this is only useful for distraction or incapacitation purposes because only the AI team have the ability to open doors and throw a grenade in without being noticed. Sometimes though, the AI refuses to enter a room and you end up running in and have to attempt to take out 7 enemies with only you and your friend.
EDIT: In single player these guys are very useful and the AI works better as long as you always have them with you and have a decent semblance of military tactics.
Even though the game experience was greatly compromised for the split screen aspect of this game, it was still time well spent. If only the game was longer, less glitchy, and more comprehensible would it be a truly great co-op experience. As long as you and a friend have coordination and are familiar with tactical shooters, you should enjoy this game.
I give Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (UPDATED w/ SP) 2 1/2 stars out of 5
UPDATE: Single-player also has a few of the glitches above. I got about halfway through the SP game and the game froze as well as the cover issues I stated earlier. The game is also not any longer in the single player and all of the guns of the same type feel exactly the same when you shoot them. I have updated my score to reflect these new discoveries.
I was sitting in a friend's room one day and another buddy of mine came in and said, "Hey, wanna come play Vegas 2 with me?" To me the answer was simple, "Most definitely." While I have never really been all too interested in any of the Rainbow Six games that were previously released, I decided to give this game a try. I found myself enthralled in the gameplay mechanics and some unique features, but then all of a sudden the euphoria I was feeling was prematurely aborted.
The co-op storyline lasts all of three and a half hours. While I'm sure that the single player storyline is a bit longer, I don't understand why the co-op game's length was so short. Me and my friend had a great deal of fun with Army of Two (we even played through the game again) and that game took a good 6-7 hours to complete. That's a good length for a co-op experience if the game has enough content and variation in gameplay to fill it. Based on my short time with the game, it definitely could have included a full 6 hour co-op story. Another thing that made me feel unfulfilled was that by the time we had played through the story mode, neither of us had unlocked many guns.
*SPOILER ALERT* THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. HIGHLIGHT THE DARK TEXT TO READ.
On top of the brevity of the story, the level design and story didn't make a whole lot of sense in some portions. In one level in particular you start off in a library, then you go outside and just across the parking lot there's a residential area. Makes sense to me so far as libraries are often near residential areas. However, here's where things get weird. The residential area turns into a junkyard that is full of broken pieces of neon signs and old structural supports. Then, without going up in altitude, you are on the roofs of buildings and a helicopter comes to pick you up from a heliport. What? Also, the graveness of certain situations are not fully realized it seems. Late in the game it is discovered that your old colleague has betrayed you and the terrorists have the personal information of you and your teammates. this includes address and addresses of immediate family as well as credit card numbers. After the final "Boss fight" though, everything is happy go lucky. You get a promotion and everyone pretends that nothing bad ever happened.
One of the somewhat unique features in Vegas is that when you kill guys you get experience and as you gain levels you unlock new articles of clothing, armor, and camo patterns. You unlock guns by getting kills that are categorized in one of three categories Marksmanship, CQB, and Assault. Marksmanship points are earned by getting kills at long range, getting headshots, or killing running opponents and they unlock sniper rifles and accurate assault rifles. Close Quarters Battle (CQB) points are earned by killing enemies that are up close or that have their backs turned to you and unlocks SMGs and pistols. Assault points are earned by killing enemies with grenades or killing opponents through other objects and these points unlock shotguns and light machine guns. Each action gives a different number of points as well, so in co-op it feels like a competition to see who can do more difficult things. You don't really feel like you're working with the other player as much as you're working against them at some points in the game.
There are also some really weird glitches that I experienced while playing. These may be due to a lack of split-screen optimization, but they are present nonetheless. The first glitch I encountered was one where enemies would glitch to and from cover. For instance, an enemy pokes out from behind cover and I shoot at him with my sniper rifle and he jumps back behind the pillar as the bullet is flying through mid air. This wasn't very prevalent, but it occured a half a dozen times to me over the 3 hour experience. Also, invisible edges of cover that prevented bullets from hitting enemies was a problem.
Second, there was a glitch where the game would freeze if both players turned on nightvision or thermal vision at the same time. This happened numerous times throughout the game and really broke the flow of the game. It basically prevented us from using the "Throw smoke grenade and use thermal vision to see enemies through it" tactic unless we staggered our activation of thermal vision.
Thirdly, there was massive framerate reduction in rooms that had a lot of color in them. When we ran into a room that had multicolored rock climbing walls the framerate chugged down to 20-30 frames per second. Also this same thing occurred in the boss fight of the last level. This made beating the level terribly difficult. Another indication that this game wasn't optimized for split screen play was the fact that anytime the game had a video it wanted to show you, a screen popped out of the upper left hand corner and took up half of player two's screen, thus neutralizing his effectiveness in shooting and seeing where he was going and forcing us to wait until the video was completed. I found this to be very frustrating throughout the game because theres a video shown at nearly every checkpoint.
The game was by no means horrid though, regardless of my gripes with the coding. The weapon customization was fantastic. You can put any scope on any gun with the exception of the 12x scope which is only exclusive to the sniper rifle. The clothing and camo options are pretty fun to fool around with too occasionally. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the team AI that you are presented with in co-op.
I still don't truly understand this addition in co-op besides the fact that these two yahoos are the only people that can defuse explosives or hack computers. Some of the levels feel very crowded having four guys there cramped against a single entrance to a room. One unique thing is that you can command your team to prepare to enter a room, then you have the option for them to throw a flashbang or frag grenade in the room before they enter. Most of the time this is only useful for distraction or incapacitation purposes because only the AI team have the ability to open doors and throw a grenade in without being noticed. Sometimes though, the AI refuses to enter a room and you end up running in and have to attempt to take out 7 enemies with only you and your friend.
EDIT: In single player these guys are very useful and the AI works better as long as you always have them with you and have a decent semblance of military tactics.
Even though the game experience was greatly compromised for the split screen aspect of this game, it was still time well spent. If only the game was longer, less glitchy, and more comprehensible would it be a truly great co-op experience. As long as you and a friend have coordination and are familiar with tactical shooters, you should enjoy this game.
I give Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (UPDATED w/ SP) 2 1/2 stars out of 5
UPDATE: Single-player also has a few of the glitches above. I got about halfway through the SP game and the game froze as well as the cover issues I stated earlier. The game is also not any longer in the single player and all of the guns of the same type feel exactly the same when you shoot them. I have updated my score to reflect these new discoveries.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
DLC Reviews and Homestar Wii.
Review: Rock Band "Harmonix Pack 01"
*This review is based on Guitar, Bass, and Vocals*
Harmonix released a new song pack on Tuesday titled "Harmonix Pack 01." As you probably could have guessed, the pack include songs by artists who have been featured prominently in bonus songs in GH1, GH2, and Rock Band. These songs include "Shake" by Count Zero, "Sprode" by Freezepop, and "Rock Rebellion" by Bang Camaro.
I'll start with the worst song first. "Shake" is not a very good sounding song. The vocalist must be tone deaf. half of the song is this bozo screaming "SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE" to the tune of the guitar except about 70 cents sharp. The guitar part is alright. It isn't particularly hard. The bass part is easy as sin. This is by far the weakest song of the three and it really sticks out like a sore thumb considering how awesome the other 2 songs are.
"Sprode" is basically what you've come to expect from Freezepop. The vocals are pretty easy, just the same melody every line with different words (including "throw your undies on the stage, no wait you're underage"). The guitar part was cool. Nothing too fantastic about it. The bassline kills babies while they sleep. 90 percent of the song is G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B with occasional transitions to R, O, R, O, R, O, R, O. My hand was on fire by the end of this song. That doesn't take away from the fact that the song is awesome, though.
"Rock Rebellion" is by far the best song for people who like listening to rock music. The vocals are basic and easy. Just the basic Bang Camaro fare. The guitar is relatively easy considering how far down on the list it is. The solo is fairly difficult, but nothing too terribly bad. The bassline is the most rocking thing you've ever heard in your life. I can't do it justice in words it's so awesome.
All in all the pack is fantastic. even though one of the songs was a dud, the adage "two out of three ain't bad" definitely applies here. Also, each of the songs only costs a dollar but purchasing the whole pack at once doesn't give you a discount like most of the other packs do. So basically, buy Sprode and Rock Rebellion, but leave Shake on it's own.
I give the DLC 4 stars out of 5
Strong Bad Loves His Wii
The makers of the Sam and Max series are now making a game based on Homestar Runner's angry, violent co-star. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released on WiiWare this June. There will be episodic content released 5 or 6 times. I'm definitely excited for this. Look for a review of this once it is released.
*This review is based on Guitar, Bass, and Vocals*
Harmonix released a new song pack on Tuesday titled "Harmonix Pack 01." As you probably could have guessed, the pack include songs by artists who have been featured prominently in bonus songs in GH1, GH2, and Rock Band. These songs include "Shake" by Count Zero, "Sprode" by Freezepop, and "Rock Rebellion" by Bang Camaro.
I'll start with the worst song first. "Shake" is not a very good sounding song. The vocalist must be tone deaf. half of the song is this bozo screaming "SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE" to the tune of the guitar except about 70 cents sharp. The guitar part is alright. It isn't particularly hard. The bass part is easy as sin. This is by far the weakest song of the three and it really sticks out like a sore thumb considering how awesome the other 2 songs are.
"Sprode" is basically what you've come to expect from Freezepop. The vocals are pretty easy, just the same melody every line with different words (including "throw your undies on the stage, no wait you're underage"). The guitar part was cool. Nothing too fantastic about it. The bassline kills babies while they sleep. 90 percent of the song is G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B with occasional transitions to R, O, R, O, R, O, R, O. My hand was on fire by the end of this song. That doesn't take away from the fact that the song is awesome, though.
"Rock Rebellion" is by far the best song for people who like listening to rock music. The vocals are basic and easy. Just the basic Bang Camaro fare. The guitar is relatively easy considering how far down on the list it is. The solo is fairly difficult, but nothing too terribly bad. The bassline is the most rocking thing you've ever heard in your life. I can't do it justice in words it's so awesome.
All in all the pack is fantastic. even though one of the songs was a dud, the adage "two out of three ain't bad" definitely applies here. Also, each of the songs only costs a dollar but purchasing the whole pack at once doesn't give you a discount like most of the other packs do. So basically, buy Sprode and Rock Rebellion, but leave Shake on it's own.
I give the DLC 4 stars out of 5
Strong Bad Loves His Wii
The makers of the Sam and Max series are now making a game based on Homestar Runner's angry, violent co-star. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released on WiiWare this June. There will be episodic content released 5 or 6 times. I'm definitely excited for this. Look for a review of this once it is released.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Review: Army of Two
*This review is based on co-op play only. Single-player play may differ*
If you take Gears of War, mix it with gun customization and throw in a sprinkle of unique features, you get Army of Two. The plot is very much like Hitman: Blood Money where you get sent on a few missions by your employer, and then they turn on you and you need to find out what happened and why. The plot is far more intricate than I initially thought it would have been. It is also executed well, which is a big plus considering how many "unexpected" twists there are. The game is not overly long and it finishes right before the gameplay gets stale.
The one big, unique feature of the game is the aggro system. One person with a big gun shoots a lot and draws the attention of the enemies while the other one sneaks around and shoots them in the side of the head. Most of the levels appear to be designed for this feature to be implemented that way, so sometimes environments feel the same because you use the same strategy consistently. All in all though, the levels are in environments that are unique enough to keep things interesting.
Another unique feature is that you can buy new guns as you progress and customize them to fit your playstyle. The guns are rated in 4 categories: Damage, Accuracy, Ammo, and Aggro. The first three are rather self-explanatory, but aggro is basically the gauge that tells you how quickly you can gain aggro. Some things that attribute to this is mounting a shotgun or grenade launcher to the front of your gun, increasing the barrel size of your gun, pimping out your gun and plating it with gold or silver, or putting a suppressor on to lower aggro.
Every single upgrade drastically effects how the gun works and makes you really feel like the money you spent was worth it and allows players to customize the same gun for completely different tasks. For instance, Aggro guy uses a gold plated M4 with mounted grenade launcher that has 100 round clips and a shield on the front of it while stealth guy uses an M4 with a stock and suppressor the size of the gun itself. Gun customization is implemented well and is something I would like to see in future games.
There are some weird things that happen in the game though. In every firefight there is a moment where you see an enemy is hiding in cover but you can see either the top of their head or their knee poking out from behind cover. However, if you shoot at this exposed part while you are anywhere in a 90 degree cone in front of the enemy, you cannot hit that part of the body. Instead, it looks as if the bullet hits the cover and a puff of white smoke comes out of their leg or head. This gets annoying after you unload an entire clip of Deagle ammo at someone's shins to get no result about a dozen times in the first half of the game.
Also, the third-person viewpoint is very bothersome in some spots. This problem only arises if you are dumb enough to run up to enemies and engage in a close-range firefight instead of just punching them in the face. What happens is that if you are any closer than 10 feet away from a target, all of your bullets go a foot or two to the left of where the reticule is. While this rarely happens, it tends to happen at the most inopportune time. For instance, when you are healing your partner and someone runs up to you, the one getting healed cannot effectively aim and you have to go all the way back to the last checkpoint.
This is another minor gripe I have with the game. The checkpoints in some spots are spread out ridiculously far apart. At some points there are 4 or 5 firefights in between checkpoints, where in others there's simply a hallway to walk through to get another checkpoint. Many fights get very frustrating after beating them and then dying because of an unlucky grenade or a lapse in concentration.
All in all the game is good if you and a shooter-loving friend have 6 hours to kill and you both love gratuitous amounts of violence. Which lucky for me, I have both.
I give Army of Two 3 3/4 out of 5 stars.
If you take Gears of War, mix it with gun customization and throw in a sprinkle of unique features, you get Army of Two. The plot is very much like Hitman: Blood Money where you get sent on a few missions by your employer, and then they turn on you and you need to find out what happened and why. The plot is far more intricate than I initially thought it would have been. It is also executed well, which is a big plus considering how many "unexpected" twists there are. The game is not overly long and it finishes right before the gameplay gets stale.
The one big, unique feature of the game is the aggro system. One person with a big gun shoots a lot and draws the attention of the enemies while the other one sneaks around and shoots them in the side of the head. Most of the levels appear to be designed for this feature to be implemented that way, so sometimes environments feel the same because you use the same strategy consistently. All in all though, the levels are in environments that are unique enough to keep things interesting.
Another unique feature is that you can buy new guns as you progress and customize them to fit your playstyle. The guns are rated in 4 categories: Damage, Accuracy, Ammo, and Aggro. The first three are rather self-explanatory, but aggro is basically the gauge that tells you how quickly you can gain aggro. Some things that attribute to this is mounting a shotgun or grenade launcher to the front of your gun, increasing the barrel size of your gun, pimping out your gun and plating it with gold or silver, or putting a suppressor on to lower aggro.
Every single upgrade drastically effects how the gun works and makes you really feel like the money you spent was worth it and allows players to customize the same gun for completely different tasks. For instance, Aggro guy uses a gold plated M4 with mounted grenade launcher that has 100 round clips and a shield on the front of it while stealth guy uses an M4 with a stock and suppressor the size of the gun itself. Gun customization is implemented well and is something I would like to see in future games.
There are some weird things that happen in the game though. In every firefight there is a moment where you see an enemy is hiding in cover but you can see either the top of their head or their knee poking out from behind cover. However, if you shoot at this exposed part while you are anywhere in a 90 degree cone in front of the enemy, you cannot hit that part of the body. Instead, it looks as if the bullet hits the cover and a puff of white smoke comes out of their leg or head. This gets annoying after you unload an entire clip of Deagle ammo at someone's shins to get no result about a dozen times in the first half of the game.
Also, the third-person viewpoint is very bothersome in some spots. This problem only arises if you are dumb enough to run up to enemies and engage in a close-range firefight instead of just punching them in the face. What happens is that if you are any closer than 10 feet away from a target, all of your bullets go a foot or two to the left of where the reticule is. While this rarely happens, it tends to happen at the most inopportune time. For instance, when you are healing your partner and someone runs up to you, the one getting healed cannot effectively aim and you have to go all the way back to the last checkpoint.
This is another minor gripe I have with the game. The checkpoints in some spots are spread out ridiculously far apart. At some points there are 4 or 5 firefights in between checkpoints, where in others there's simply a hallway to walk through to get another checkpoint. Many fights get very frustrating after beating them and then dying because of an unlucky grenade or a lapse in concentration.
All in all the game is good if you and a shooter-loving friend have 6 hours to kill and you both love gratuitous amounts of violence. Which lucky for me, I have both.
I give Army of Two 3 3/4 out of 5 stars.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Review: Burnout Paradise
I remember the days when arcade racing ruled the genre. Games like Top Gear and Penny Racers that sucked out all of my time as a child. However, since Gran Turismo was released companies have tended to shift towards making simulation racing games. The arcade style racing genre is pretty much dead outside of the arcade, but Burnout Paradise gives console-based arcade racers a defibrillator shot to the chest.
Burnout Paradise is basically what you've come to expect from the series, but on a much grander scale. All the blistering speed you've come to love about Burnout games (as well as the glorious crashes) is still intact. The main difference in Paradise is that you drive around a large-scale world and pull up to intersections to do races. While I initially thought that this was a bad idea, after playing for an extended period of time it seems like this was the right direction for this series to go. The way that this open world differs from the ones in Midnight Club or other games that have open-world racing is the fact that they place tons of objectives around the world that you can achieve while not racing or crashing. There are 400 shortcut gates that can be collected, 120 billboards to smash, and 50 super jumps to find and this adds about 10 hours of playtime to the experience.
Most of the events are still intact even though some of them are hidden under different names. Race, Burning Route, and Road Rage are still intact and are just what you would expect them to be. Burning Route has a new twist though, where each car has one burning route and if you complete it, you get a version of that car that has more boost power. New events include Stunt Run, where you need to go off jumps and smash things to accrue points and meet the goal, and Marked Man, where you need to get from point A to point B while 3 or 4 opponents try to take you down. Crash mode is in the game under the name "Showtime", but now you can activate it at any time by pressing RB and LB. You flip and twirl down the road smashing into cars and getting money for hitting cars, multipliers for hitting buses, and more money for distance moved total.
You progress in the game from having your learner's permit to earning your Burnout (or Burnout Elite if you want to do every event) License. You get upgrades by winning events, and every so often a new car is introduced in to the game world for you to chase, take down, and add to your collection. These chases can get very frustrating at times, but you feel a wonderful sense of satisfaction when you finally take them down. Also, the difficulty of the Road Rages, Stunt Runs, and Marked Mans slowly increase over time.
One thing that bothers me in the game is how in any event if you get hit by an enemy car and then touch a wall anytime within the next 10 seconds, your car erupts into a giant fireball. Also, Having DJ Atomica/Stryker mocking you every single time you fail an event (Which happens quite often. I'm looking at you Manhattan Burning Route) isn't all that fun. Another thing is that a lot of the races take you up into the mountains where the event selection is sparse and can easily be completed in the first few hours of the game, forcing you to drive all the way back to the city to start another event in the later stages of the game.
All in all, the game is a fantastic representation of what arcade racing should be. Midnight Club: LA is gonna have to kick some serious ass compared to it's what it has done in the past in order to beat this great game.
I give Burnout Paradise 4 & 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Burnout Paradise is basically what you've come to expect from the series, but on a much grander scale. All the blistering speed you've come to love about Burnout games (as well as the glorious crashes) is still intact. The main difference in Paradise is that you drive around a large-scale world and pull up to intersections to do races. While I initially thought that this was a bad idea, after playing for an extended period of time it seems like this was the right direction for this series to go. The way that this open world differs from the ones in Midnight Club or other games that have open-world racing is the fact that they place tons of objectives around the world that you can achieve while not racing or crashing. There are 400 shortcut gates that can be collected, 120 billboards to smash, and 50 super jumps to find and this adds about 10 hours of playtime to the experience.
Most of the events are still intact even though some of them are hidden under different names. Race, Burning Route, and Road Rage are still intact and are just what you would expect them to be. Burning Route has a new twist though, where each car has one burning route and if you complete it, you get a version of that car that has more boost power. New events include Stunt Run, where you need to go off jumps and smash things to accrue points and meet the goal, and Marked Man, where you need to get from point A to point B while 3 or 4 opponents try to take you down. Crash mode is in the game under the name "Showtime", but now you can activate it at any time by pressing RB and LB. You flip and twirl down the road smashing into cars and getting money for hitting cars, multipliers for hitting buses, and more money for distance moved total.
You progress in the game from having your learner's permit to earning your Burnout (or Burnout Elite if you want to do every event) License. You get upgrades by winning events, and every so often a new car is introduced in to the game world for you to chase, take down, and add to your collection. These chases can get very frustrating at times, but you feel a wonderful sense of satisfaction when you finally take them down. Also, the difficulty of the Road Rages, Stunt Runs, and Marked Mans slowly increase over time.
One thing that bothers me in the game is how in any event if you get hit by an enemy car and then touch a wall anytime within the next 10 seconds, your car erupts into a giant fireball. Also, Having DJ Atomica/Stryker mocking you every single time you fail an event (Which happens quite often. I'm looking at you Manhattan Burning Route) isn't all that fun. Another thing is that a lot of the races take you up into the mountains where the event selection is sparse and can easily be completed in the first few hours of the game, forcing you to drive all the way back to the city to start another event in the later stages of the game.
All in all, the game is a fantastic representation of what arcade racing should be. Midnight Club: LA is gonna have to kick some serious ass compared to it's what it has done in the past in order to beat this great game.
I give Burnout Paradise 4 & 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Review: Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Sorry for the prolonged absence. I was having a kick-ass spring break and playing some new games; Condemned 2: Bloodshot being one of them.
Plot: In Bloodshot, you take control of former SCU agent Ethan Thomas. He is now a raving alcoholic and his former co-workers come to get him and bring him aboard for one more mission. Also, SKX IS BACK! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN! All in all, the plot ended up being alright, if not a little insane. I found it odd that even the characters in the game noticed how odd the plot points were and explicitly stated this to Ethan. "It's pretty far-fetched, to be sure." Yes, yes it is, but at least it's executed well.
Graphics: The graphics were good, but were glitchy at points. For instance, when you get really close to a wall and the game runs a smooth 60 FPS. However, when you back away from said wall, the frame-rate chugs down to 30 FPS. It's not a huge issue, but it bugged me a bit. All of the trippy psychological effects and filters that are the series' hallmark look really good. There are some very minor clipping issues that are odd at times, but nothing too serious. Overall, the graphics are very good.
Movement, animations, and actions are good for the most part. One gripe I have is that every so often I could only pick up a desired weapon when standing in exactly the right place and looking in exactly the right direction. Again, this isn't a huge issue, but something that bothered me. your characters movements seem natural and fluid throughout. However, looking into a mirror and pressing either of the punch buttons results in a raucous amount of laughter erupting from anyone who sees it.
Combat: The combat is intuitive and well executed. Each fist is linked to one of the trigger buttons, or a forehand or backhand attack when holding a weapon. There is a combo system that has been implemented where you hit an opponent with a series of punches, an indicator appears, you hit your opponent, and then that hit is given a multiplier based on the type of combo that was executed. This is a good idea in theory, but some of the moves that are required to be used in order to complete are nigh impossible to do. Apparently there is a way to throw a hook in the game, and this is necessary for most of the combos, but it is never explained how to do so. Also, apparently there is a way to kick a man in the testicles in the later stages of the game. Again, it is never explained how to do this.
"Chain attacks" have been implemented. These are short quick-time events that do massive damage to your opponents. As you do more of these, the attacks require more trigger hits and are more brutal. Also, environmental kills are good, but not a truly large part of gameplay. There are some really good ones (Pneumatic press, hanging rebar, face through arcade machine), but there are also some really bland ones (generic table smash, generic wall smash).
Multi-Player seems like an odd addition to the game. It feels a bit out of place. Most battles involve 2 players dancing around each other, then another guy coming and bashing one of them in the back of the head, then those 2 guys dance for a bit. also the Crime Scene mode is just blatantly one-sided. It pits 4 SCU players with guns against 4 hobos with melee weapons. If that wasn't enough of an imbalance for you, 2 of the hobos are forced to carry around "evidence."
These are basically boxes that prevent you from attacking and make you move slower. also, it's round based as well so it's always 2v4 with the 4 having superior weapons. All in all, it just seems like an unnecessary addition.
Overall the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Analyzing each portion individually brought my spirits down, but then I remembered how much fun I had in the 8 hour process of completing this game.
I give Condemned 2: Bloodshot 3 & 3/4 stars out of 5
Plot: In Bloodshot, you take control of former SCU agent Ethan Thomas. He is now a raving alcoholic and his former co-workers come to get him and bring him aboard for one more mission. Also, SKX IS BACK! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN! All in all, the plot ended up being alright, if not a little insane. I found it odd that even the characters in the game noticed how odd the plot points were and explicitly stated this to Ethan. "It's pretty far-fetched, to be sure." Yes, yes it is, but at least it's executed well.
Graphics: The graphics were good, but were glitchy at points. For instance, when you get really close to a wall and the game runs a smooth 60 FPS. However, when you back away from said wall, the frame-rate chugs down to 30 FPS. It's not a huge issue, but it bugged me a bit. All of the trippy psychological effects and filters that are the series' hallmark look really good. There are some very minor clipping issues that are odd at times, but nothing too serious. Overall, the graphics are very good.
Movement, animations, and actions are good for the most part. One gripe I have is that every so often I could only pick up a desired weapon when standing in exactly the right place and looking in exactly the right direction. Again, this isn't a huge issue, but something that bothered me. your characters movements seem natural and fluid throughout. However, looking into a mirror and pressing either of the punch buttons results in a raucous amount of laughter erupting from anyone who sees it.
Combat: The combat is intuitive and well executed. Each fist is linked to one of the trigger buttons, or a forehand or backhand attack when holding a weapon. There is a combo system that has been implemented where you hit an opponent with a series of punches, an indicator appears, you hit your opponent, and then that hit is given a multiplier based on the type of combo that was executed. This is a good idea in theory, but some of the moves that are required to be used in order to complete are nigh impossible to do. Apparently there is a way to throw a hook in the game, and this is necessary for most of the combos, but it is never explained how to do so. Also, apparently there is a way to kick a man in the testicles in the later stages of the game. Again, it is never explained how to do this.
"Chain attacks" have been implemented. These are short quick-time events that do massive damage to your opponents. As you do more of these, the attacks require more trigger hits and are more brutal. Also, environmental kills are good, but not a truly large part of gameplay. There are some really good ones (Pneumatic press, hanging rebar, face through arcade machine), but there are also some really bland ones (generic table smash, generic wall smash).
Multi-Player seems like an odd addition to the game. It feels a bit out of place. Most battles involve 2 players dancing around each other, then another guy coming and bashing one of them in the back of the head, then those 2 guys dance for a bit. also the Crime Scene mode is just blatantly one-sided. It pits 4 SCU players with guns against 4 hobos with melee weapons. If that wasn't enough of an imbalance for you, 2 of the hobos are forced to carry around "evidence."
These are basically boxes that prevent you from attacking and make you move slower. also, it's round based as well so it's always 2v4 with the 4 having superior weapons. All in all, it just seems like an unnecessary addition.
Overall the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Analyzing each portion individually brought my spirits down, but then I remembered how much fun I had in the 8 hour process of completing this game.
I give Condemned 2: Bloodshot 3 & 3/4 stars out of 5
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Infinity Ward returns to the Call of Duty series with a vengeance in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They took a break from the series for CoD3 (which was developed by Treyarch) and the game was vastly worse. It appears that the men and women at Infinity Ward were aware of this and decided to kick everything up a notch, run on all cylinders, and create a new cliche to describe how hard they worked.
Single-Player: The single-player in the game is fantastic. There are tons of memorable micro-events in the game that prevent the combat from ever getting stale. These run the gambit from having to snipe a terrorist while having to take wind and the Coriolis effect into account, to manning a helicopter-mounted grenade launcher in between battles, all the way to crawling out of your helicopter after a nuke goes off, only to die minutes later of radiation poisoning. Also, the fact that the SAS and USMC characters play so vastly differently greatly helps keep players on their toes. The SAS levels are played out in a more covert manner than the USMC levels, where you just need to go kick some terrorist ass. Although the narrative dwindles to a single perspective about half way through the game, it still manages to keep things interesting. Also, the narrative in the game is thrilling to say the least. you actually care about most of the characters you encounter, which is a great feat for most FPS games nowadays.
The only negative thing I have to say about single player is that Veteran mode with the 360 controls (i.e. NO LEAN FUNCTION) is fucking impossible unless you are made of lightning and Tahitian Treat.
Multi-Player: The multi-player function is wonderfully done. The level system that has been implemented is fantastic. Basically, as you play you level up and with each of these levels you can use a new gun or ability. This process can be repeated (otherwise called a "Prestige Run") up to 10 times in the console version. This adds some replay value to the multi player aspect of the game, unlike Halo 3, where at some points it felt like getting to that next rank was impossible. All of the levels are very well balanced and the majority of the game modes are implemented well.
However, there are a few modes that are, in my mind, an EPIC, EPIC FAIL. For starters, I'll just say that Old School mode (a mode where you have super jump, super life bar, and you have to go around and find your weapons) is very much unwelcome. Also, the Sabotage game mode is nearly impossible to complete without running the time limit and going to sudden death. Another, more minor issue in the console version is the fact that some people in the Search and Destroy playlist have grenade placements memorized and can easily thwart any rush by lobbing a single grenade the length of the level and killing 3 people.
Conclusion: Overall though the good far outweighs the bad. The controls are intuitive, the graphics are smokin', and it managed to keep me entertained for hours on end.
I give Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5
Single-Player: The single-player in the game is fantastic. There are tons of memorable micro-events in the game that prevent the combat from ever getting stale. These run the gambit from having to snipe a terrorist while having to take wind and the Coriolis effect into account, to manning a helicopter-mounted grenade launcher in between battles, all the way to crawling out of your helicopter after a nuke goes off, only to die minutes later of radiation poisoning. Also, the fact that the SAS and USMC characters play so vastly differently greatly helps keep players on their toes. The SAS levels are played out in a more covert manner than the USMC levels, where you just need to go kick some terrorist ass. Although the narrative dwindles to a single perspective about half way through the game, it still manages to keep things interesting. Also, the narrative in the game is thrilling to say the least. you actually care about most of the characters you encounter, which is a great feat for most FPS games nowadays.
The only negative thing I have to say about single player is that Veteran mode with the 360 controls (i.e. NO LEAN FUNCTION) is fucking impossible unless you are made of lightning and Tahitian Treat.
Multi-Player: The multi-player function is wonderfully done. The level system that has been implemented is fantastic. Basically, as you play you level up and with each of these levels you can use a new gun or ability. This process can be repeated (otherwise called a "Prestige Run") up to 10 times in the console version. This adds some replay value to the multi player aspect of the game, unlike Halo 3, where at some points it felt like getting to that next rank was impossible. All of the levels are very well balanced and the majority of the game modes are implemented well.
However, there are a few modes that are, in my mind, an EPIC, EPIC FAIL. For starters, I'll just say that Old School mode (a mode where you have super jump, super life bar, and you have to go around and find your weapons) is very much unwelcome. Also, the Sabotage game mode is nearly impossible to complete without running the time limit and going to sudden death. Another, more minor issue in the console version is the fact that some people in the Search and Destroy playlist have grenade placements memorized and can easily thwart any rush by lobbing a single grenade the length of the level and killing 3 people.
Conclusion: Overall though the good far outweighs the bad. The controls are intuitive, the graphics are smokin', and it managed to keep me entertained for hours on end.
I give Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5
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