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Categories: Review
Tags: fighting, soulcalibur, star wars, xbox 360

Soulcalibur IV
Developer: Project Soul
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform: Xbox 360
Released: July 29, 2008One of my frustrations with fighting games is pulling off special moves. That makes me a fan of Soulcalibur IV because every button I hit does something cool. Yes, I’m an unabashed button-masher even though it brings me endless shame online.

The difference between Soulcalibur and other fighting games is its emphasis on weapons-based combat. It makes sense then that it’s easier to unleash an awesome nunchaku combo by stumbling across the correct buttons than summoning whatever power you need to perform a Fatality in Mortal Kombat.

With its roster of over 30 characters — each with their own weapons and fighting styles — Soulcalibur IV has a deep fighting system. Most of the characters are well-balanced with obvious benefits and disadvantages. Rock is slow, but his mace packs a whallop. Taki, the ninja, is fast and deadly, but you don’t want her to get cornered. Adding player-created characters, the game takes on a new dimension.

While on the surface, player-created characters are just reskins of existing characters, the variety of faces, equipment, and color options creates a real sense of originality. When you start outfitting them with the special weapons and armor you’ve unlocked — and add offensive and defensive abilities — you wind up with a new character with their own identity. Then it’s all about trial by combat.

Soulcalibur IV has three single-player modes: story, arcade, and Tower of Lost Souls. Story and arcade are standard modes, although some story stages will throw multiple enemies against you. Tower of Lost Souls is the standout mode. You can either ascend to the top of the Tower, a punishing 60 floors of increasingly challenging enemies and restrictive conditions, or descend and face a survival mode. For multiplayer fans, where the real challenge lies, Soulcalibur IV is the first online-ready entry and there’s the reliable offline vs mode.

From lush landscapes to bleak dungeons, Soulcalibur IV offers a diverse selection of stunning levels. Character models have never looked better and combat animations are marvelous. There’s nothing like connecting with an enemy and watching their armor shatter. Soulcalibur IV is rounded out with the expected pre- and post-battle posturing and sweeping musical themes — including those of John Williams.

Yes, Star Wars has invaded Soulcalibur. Microsoft got Yoda, Sony got Vader and everyone got The Apprentice (The Force Unleashed). This sounded like unrepentant fanfic until Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was announced. Now, it almost makes sense.

A fanboy since I first saw Empire back in 1980, I have to admit that adding Star Wars to the series piqued my interest. I’m also amused that those who are the most annoyed probably geeked out when Link appeared in Soulcalibur II. However, you don’t walk away from Empire wanting to be Yoda (I’m still hoping for Vader as DLC). The Star Wars characters, Yoda and The Apprentice, are more fun to play as then to play against. Yoda can’t be thrown and high attacks pass over his head. The Apprentice has devastating Force attacks and lightsaber combos. As characters, they’re entertaining, as opponents they’re frustrating.

However, there’s one move that acts as the ultimate counter. It’s not the Critical Finish, it’s not the crafty Ring Out, it’s the humble throw. Throws are far too easy to execute — even for me. Throws aren’t a game breaker, but they are a game changer — a minor weakness in an otherwise solid game.

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Categories: Commentary
Tags: boll, dvd, movie, uwe boll

Postal
Directed by Uwe Boll
Starring Zack Ward, Dave Foley, and Jackie Tohn
Movie released: May 23, 2008
DVD released: Aug. 26, 2008
Also on Blu-rayIn explaining Uwe Boll, critics often summon the spectre of Ed Wood. Postal lays Wood’s ghost to rest, but Lloyd Kaufman better watch his back. Boll’s Postal, the movie adaptation of Running With Scissors’ game series, is clearly on Troma turf.

Postal starts on 9-11 with terrorists in the cockpit of one of the World Trade Center bound planes learning that due to the increased number of martyrs, fewer virgins are available in Paradise. If that’s not too soon, then you’re definitely ready for the Nazi-themed Little Germany park (an annexed Little Holland) run by Uwe Boll in a self-referencing cameo. In a deleted scene Boll reveals that his grandfather died in Auschwitz. He fell from a guard tower.

Weaved from convoluted plot threads, Postal follows a day in the life of Postal Dude (Zack Ward) and his run-ins with Osama “Sammy” bin Laden (Larry Thomas), cult leader Uncle Dave (Dave Foley), and Verne Troyer. Incredibly rare and valuable Krotchy Dolls provide the motivation for a series of chase scenes and shootouts resulting in a narrative which, while messy, allows Boll to skillfully skewer a number of targets.

Consider a job interview where one of the questions is, “Imagine you’re in a box. How do you think outside it? Wrong!,” or a massacre in a welfare clinic where the survivors check the dead bodies for lower ticket numbers.

Postal, filmed in the part of British Columbia which looks exactly like Arizona, is intentionally offensive and intentionally funny. As a satire of business, government, and religion, Postal is on equal footing with Office Space, Team America, and South Park. Maybe it’s that, at this point in his career, Boll doesn’t have anything left to lose — or maybe he feels like he no longer has to prove anything, but Boll crosses so many lines here his work on Postal can only be described as an act of bravery.

Postal hasn’t made me reconsider House of the Dead or Alone in the Dark, and I still have grave reservations about Far Cry, but I am comfortable calling Postal a success.

DVD Special Features: “Raging Boll” — Uwe Boll boxes his critics, Behind the Scenes in Little Germany, Verne Troyer calls out Harrison Ford, Commentary by Uwe Boll, and PC game Postal 2.

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Categories: Commentary
Tags: power up

This week at Power Up:

Put an Elf in it
I ask Paulie where he’s taken Michelle. He tells me they’ve been bowling a few times and they’ve been to the cabaret once. I ask him if she’s said anything about his clothes. She said it was brave of him to keep wearing the same outfit. At this point my mom asks us what we’re talking about (Paulie doesn’t go bowling with people named Michelle) and I tell her Grand Theft Auto.

She says, “Grand Theft Auto… isn’t that that game…” (read more)

The Video Game Defense
After being charged earlier this month with firebombing cars, three Milton, GA teenagers explained where they learned to make Molotov cocktails. Nope it wasn’t YouTube or Wikipedia - although both sites contain the information - it was America’s favorite scapegoat Grand Theft Auto.

Now this is dumb. Grand Theft Auto doesn’t teach people how to make Molotov cocktails - it doesn’t even teach you how to pick a lock or force a car’s ignition. So why blame GTA? My bet is that they are setting up for the video game defense. (read more)

No Virtual Apartments for Rent
I cannot find The Sims 2: Apartment Life in Palm Beach County!

Apartment Life is the latest in a series of expansion packs for the 2004 game The Sims 2. Previous expansion packs have sent the player-created virtual humans off to college, made them entrepreneurs, and given them pets and IKEA furniture for their homes. Say what you will about EA, but the Sims franchise is well supported. (read more)

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Categories: Internets
Tags: Soulcalibur IV, star wars

StarWars.com is hosting “Star Wars: Visions of the Blade,” a webcomic which shows that Soulcalibur IV is true SW Expanded Universe dammit.

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Categories: Commentary
Tags: Cory Doctorow, whuffie

Video games need gimmicks be they reflex time, aggro, or spirit walking. Good gimmicks go beyond New Super Mario Bros’ giant super-shroom Mario and change the nature of the gameplay (like the Sands of Time). And that’s why video games need Whuffie.

In Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Whuffie is an ephermal, popularity-based currency based on the actions of individuals. Down and Out is a near-future novel set in Walt Disney World. Like Star Trek, everyone’s basic needs are met, but people with higher Whuffie can get reservations at better restaurants, nicer hotel rooms, and faster transportation.

Whuffie is added and subtracted by public opinion, so if you create a work of art, excel at your job, or perform an act of kindness it increases. Road-ragers, shoppers with more than 10 items in the express lane, and owners of yappy dogs would see theirs shrink.

Final note about Whuffie is that it is gained/lost in realtime and it’s completely public, like your Xbox rep.

Incorporating Whuffie would revolutionize most genres of games. Entire MMOs could be structured around a Wuffie-based economy. It would drastically change the nature of Sims-like games, RPGs, and even some FPSes.

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Categories: Review
Tags: army of two, xbox 360

Army of Two
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Xbox 360
Released: Mar. 4, 2008Watching the gold and the glory go to a mercenary after a mission in Somalia is enough to make Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem ditch the Army Rangers for the Security and Strategy Corporation — a Blackwater-esque private military company.

If that’s not politically relevant enough, consider later missions that put Rios and Salem in Afghanistan, Iraq, and China. Then add a plot thread about a bill to completely privatize the American military and Army of Two becomes another in a line of politically charged shooters.

However, Army of Two pulls it off successfully – unlike the ham-handed BlackSite: Area 51 or the meandering Frontlines: Fuel of War. Army of Two is a thoughtful shooter — one that successful integrates narrative into gameplay and blends strategy into third-person shooting.

Army of Two’s combat is Aggro-based. I’ve read about Aggro before on the WoWWiki, but Army of Two condenses it into – if you’re shooting at the enemy, the enemy is focused on you and not your partner; if you are both shooting, the enemy will concentrate on the bigger gun.

Aggro is an effective gimmick which enhances the co-op (split-screen or online) or you and an AI gameplay. Say you’re controlling the slightly paranoid Rios; you lay down cover fire pulling Aggro to yourself while the smart-ass Salem flanks the enemy and opens fire. Yes, staying in cover and taking potshots at the enemy while your AI-controlled partner launches a stealth attack is a valid strategy. And doesn’t it make Gears of War’s Dom seem even more useless?

Aggro balancing (shown in the HUD) is just part of the teamwork necessary for completing Army of Two. Rios and Salem boost each other up to reach ledges, drag each other out of the line of fire to heal their wounded partner, and share parachutes so one can steer while the other snipes. Army of Two is a buddy movie through and through.

Since the former Rangers have taken the mercenary route, most of the mission objectives are tied-in to cash rewards. Money can spent between and mid-missions to buy new weapons or mod existing ones – yes, you can have a gold-plated AK-47. You can also purchase different skins for the fierce facemasks the guys wear.

Army of Two is built on the Unreal 3 engine, so graphics are crisp. Each of the game’s six main levels are unique and highly detailed and each mission has multiple main and secondary objectives. Army of Two is built for replay, with weapon and armor load-outs following you through subsequent playthroughs.

And with intelligent cover-using enemies, heavily armored gunners, well-defended turrets, and suicide bombers – you’ll definitely want to replay this game to see how the enemy fares against the more expensive minigun and rocket launchers.

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Categories: Commentary
Tags: power up

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m the newest blogger for The Palm Beach Post. At least I think I’m the newest blogger.

Anyway, I’ll now be writing about video games for The Palm Beach Post which doesn’t mean Game Couch is going away. Reviews, Blog Banters, and other content will still appear on GC. Power Up will have completely different, but equally good content.

So please read Power Up — although I just have a short intro post today.

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Categories: Commentary
Tags: blog banter

Welcome to the latest installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza created by bs angel and coordinated by Game Couch. Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

From Crazy Kinux, Does every game need to be a grade-A blockbuster title? Would you be willing to play more average games or should every game shoot for the 10.0 rating?

And my answer is a decisive “it depends.”

I have a PC, but I have a complicated deadbeat Dad relationship with it. It’s a great PC and I love it like anything, but I only spend time with it a few times a month – if that. I like to think my PC and I have fun together, but there’s a lot of baggage because I barely make the effort – and really, the PC belongs with its mom because she loves The Sims 2 so much.

So that leaves me gaming with my Xbox 360 and my DS. Now here’s my observation about gaming: there are great games you’ve never heard of, but they aren’t for the 360. Have you ever walked into GameStop and seen a 360 game you’ve never heard of? I mean, even you aren’t refreshing Kotaku every five minutes, I’m guessing you still have a generally high awareness of Xbox 360 games. And I’ll carry that assumption over to the PS3, also.

However, I’m routinely surprised by the amount of games – the sheer diversity of games – available for the DS. And the Wii to some extent. And there’s a whole universe of awesome Windows/Linux/Mac games that no one’s ever heard of – except for those MobyGames guys.

So here’s my point: every game doesn’t need to be a grade-A blockbuster title and I would be willing to play more average games if they were great in their own unique way. But games like that aren’t coming out for the 360. Honest to Cthulhu, I never need to play another average shooter on the 360. Every shooter on the 360 should be a grade-A, 10.0 blockbuster title. But I would be willing to play rougher, less graphics intensive adventure games, RPGs, flight simulators, strategy games, etc. And that’s what I love about my DS.

Participants : Zath!, Delayed Responsibility, Silvercublogger, weblog.probablynot.com, Crazy Kinux, Gamer-Unit, Unfettered Blather, MasterKitty, XboxOZ360, Omnivangelist, Lou Chou Loves You, Game Couch

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Categories: Internets
Tags: ea, tiger woods, youtube

Comments: 2 Comments (Go to Comments)
Categories: Review
Tags: fps, frontlines, xbox 360

Frontlines: Fuel of Wars
Developer: Kaos Studios
Publisher: THQ
Platform: Xbox 360
Released: Feb. 25, 2008Frontlines is set in 2024 — a bleak future where oil is scarce and the last remaining wells are a source of global conflict. Food riots, blackouts, and rampant disease are now part of the American experience. Players, however, are far from America. Frontlines follows the Stray Dogs’ (the Western Coalition 125th Combined Arms Strike Force) fight against Red Star forces from Afghanistan into the heart of Russia. Which is part of Frontlines’ problem.

For all its “ripped from the headlines” story, Frontlines is the same old Red vs Blue, with Red being a Sino-Russian alliance and Blue, a joint American-British coalition. In an oil scarce world, Kaos could have drastically reshaped the look of warfare, but oil-hungry tanks, helicopters, drones and armored four-wheelers populate the landscape. The story, conveyed in cutscenes by an embedded journalist, explains that all the oil is going to the war effort — the end result being an elaborate back-story which merely serves to explain why the West is at war with the East.

In the single-player campaign (a short 7 missions), players assume the role of one of the Stray Dogs — an anonymous character who doesn’t have any dialogue. Each mission revolves around capturing and holding checkpoints, in other words advancing the frontline of Western Coalition controlled territory. In addition to holding checkpoints, players will also have to destroy specific military targets: like taking down a Red Star tank factory or placing bombs on AA guns.

While other Western Coalition forces are around, the lion’s share of the work falls on the player’s shoulders. Capturing a checkpoint often involves taking on Red Star forces single-handedly and suddenly — when the checkpoint is taken — Western Coalition forces appear while Red Star forces retreat. In terms of gameplay, you’re advancing the frontline, but population density of WC and Red Star forces almost seems morale-based.

Western Coalition forces are well-armed having every weapon you’d expect to see in a modern war game and players can also jump into vehicles — assaulting Red Star forces from the safety of an unwieldy tank or reigning down fire from a helicopter. You cannot lift weapons from the dead, but there are plenty of pick-ups along the way and running out of ammo was never an issue for me.

What was an issue is the effectiveness of said weapons. Frontlines carries a Teen-rating, so I expected bloodless combat, but I was surprised at the lack of locational damage. If I have the crosshair of a sniper rifle trained on someone’s head, there’s only one thing I expect when I pull the trigger — and it isn’t them running for cover after taking a headshot. It’s utterly amazing how bullet absorbent Red Star forces are.

Frontlines’ single-player campaign isn’t terrible, it just seems out of place in a Call of Duty 4 world. If you die, you have limited “redeployments” which means you respawn a few hundred yards behind where you died. There’s no sense of coordination, either between WC or Red Star forces — it feels like a bunch of people doing their own thing while shooting at the other side. In other words, the single-player campaign feels like a warm-up for multiplayer.

Frontlines has one multiplayer mode: Frontlines. But with a wide array of maps and support for 32 players, this is more than enough. Multiplayer splits players into the Red vs Blue teams, with players picking classes before launching (or respawning). Classes include typical heavy gunners and snipers, but are keyed into roles. Need to take down a helicopter or focus on ground units? Want to send in the drones or disrupt the enemy with EMPs?

If Frontlines has one major problem it’s that it isn’t a AAA title in a genre full of AAA titles. At every level: gameplay, story, sound, and graphics, Frontlines is servicable. But is that enough? Maybe to warrant a rental.