Crackdown Impressions

As reported earlier, Crackdown is going to be coming with a free Halo 3 beta invite, I predicted that this game would now sell over 1 million copies. Tuesday, a robust demo was made available free via Xbox live and I dove into it for a couple of hours tonight.

This game redefines "freedom" in a sandbox game. Sure GTA gives you freedom, but it ultimately steers you in the direction of the story. Crackdown, on the other hand lets you do whatever the hell you want right from the get go. You start out at the agency headquarters where you can get a car and get used to the controls. After the boring stuff you are off in your police cruiser. You drive down a long tunnel Batman style and jump out at the end. You are now in the city [honestly, I don't even know what the city is called]. Immediately you are being shot at from all directions. Cops have a certain icon over their heads and gang members have a different icon. The object is to basically kill all of the gang members [it gets interesting with compounds and bosses]. Your character can take a LOT of damage, and you get a regenerating health/shield system, the exact system Halo created. This city in real life would not be livable because there are shootouts on literally every corner of the streets. There are even shootouts on a majority of the rooftops and alleys as well.


You will see a lot of Agency Police working next to you and to my surprise they actually do something. Unlike games like Resistance: Fall of Man where the AI doesn't do a damn thing but get you killed, these police take down quite a few gang members. But if you accidentally kill a pedestrian or cop, they will come after you, which can get annoying very quickly.

The best part of this game is the leveling system. Depending on how you kill gang members [beat downs, shooting, grenades, etc] effects how you level up. I went around kicking the crap out of everyone in melee hand to hand combat and my strength leveled up quickly. With increased strength you can pick up cars and other objects as well as send foes flying with a single kick. If you use explosives, your grenades and explosive devices create a larger and more spectacular explosion. If you run everyone over, your driving skill increases and agency cars morph into badass supercars depending on your level [car gets lower, tires get larger and you can also get machine guns added to the car]. Shooting everyone increases your accuracy and allows you to target victims a lot quicker and easier. [while locked on to a target you can pick if you want to shoot them in the head, chest, arms or legs]. The last attribute which you can level up is agility, this effects your speed and jumping height. To me this is the most fun. There are agility orbs located on most of the rooftops and hard to get to places. After collecting a few you will level up and by the time you reach full capacity you can jump 35+ feet in a single bound. It is very satisfying jumping from building to building and treating the city like a gigantic obstacle course.

The story is weak and the way they tell it makes me skip all of the short cutscenes but I still love the fact that you can level up and you really do feel like the ultimate badass playing this game. Look for a full review when the game drops February 9th.

Wii Are Also in Business

Along with Tom, I too have joined the club of Wii owners. I was finally able to get one last Tuesday at the GameCrazy that I work at, and I couldn't be more pleased. I'm not going to go into much detail as I will be writing a full Zelda: Twilight Princess review here in the next week, pending I can beat it; however, I am VERY happy with my Wii purchase.

I picked up the Wii, Zelda, component cables, and a classic controller. Unfortunately, I'm without a wireless connection in my house or nearby so I can't get online and scope out the Virtual Console and try out the trendy classic controller; however, I did order a USB to Ethernet adaptor online which should arrive next week and I'll be in business.

Though this is the first time I've actually owned and had a Wii in my own room, it's not the first time I've played one. I've spent countless [drunk] hours with Wii Sports and a little bit of time with Zelda prior to owning my own copies, so I knew what I was in for.

Let's just get this out there: Zelda is freakin' amazing! As I said before, I'm going to be writing a full review here soon so I won't go into the details, but I am having a second blast. Taking it slowly as I do all games, I'm on the second temple right now and just having a blast. And with the Wii controller, nothing gets old and the controls feel VERY fluid and perfectly fused with the Wii system (unlike GameSpot saying the controls feel tacked on).

Games don't seem to be as fun as they were when I was a kid playing Goldeneye and Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64... but Zelda: TP takes me right back to my favorite times as I kid.

One more thing here before I wrap this up and get back to beating this temple before I go to bed, I got the component cables for the Wii. Now, I don't own an HDTV, and I'd heard mixed reviews about the component cables, but in my opinion, I think they DO make a difference. On my TV they made the picture sharper and less blurry than my roommate's Wii running on an HDTV without component cables. But I have also heard that it depends on the TV, so you'll just have to find out on your own.

The Wii is worth it. Right now it's not a console that I see myself playing everyday or to replace my Xbox 360, but it is worth it just for the price, controller, unique gameplay, first party Nintendo games, and the Virtual Console.

Wii Are In Business

Finally! My household has a Nintendo Wii. It only took 10 weeks to finally get one, but it's under control now. I did not get to spend a whole lot of time with this little bugger, only about an hour's time. In that hour I quickly realized what all the hype was about -- yet, that all the media's concerns with the unit seemed shockingly true as well.

My very first impression was, "Shit, that's tiny!" Then, I got my hands on the Wii-mote and it all began. I'll admit it takes some getting used to, but the more you play with it the more you realized just how great it really is. I quickly tested my hands (and body!) by cruising through Wii Sports, which I must say is great for what it is. My girlfriend said the graphics sucked on Wii. Suck on this. While trying to explain that it's not to be known as a graphical powerhouse, I realized I was wasting my time and decided to keep playing Wii Sports. Tennis... fun, Baseball... fun, Bowling... eeeh, they were all pretty good really. I was pleased, and tired at the same time. I under estimated the physical aspect of this type of gaming. Good stuff really.

After playing Wii Sports I took a shot at the new Zelda game -- frickin' sweet, let me tell you. My impressions here were in line with every other Zelda game I've put my hands on in the last eight years -- just loved it. The controls again took getting used to, but are considerably familiar and easy to be accustomed to. Graphics - meh, in line with what my girlfriend was saying earlier while playing Wii Sports, less than impressive, but not horrible. It's a step up from GameCube, and a whole hell of a lot of fun to play. More on that as I actually get some time with it.

Speaking of time, good to note Wii is a great console for EVERYONE. I would say yesterday may have been the first time in the last, well, ever that I can recall being in one room with all three of my brothers (10, 15, and 24) and all having a good time together. The age gap separates the family sometimes, but having Wii and being able to enjoy it's offerings as a group was really key. Nintendo hit something very special with this one, and I think that's true for all.

2007: The Year of the Discriminating Gamer

Hope everyone’s Christmas was great and your New Year has kicked off to a good start. Mine turned out to be exceptionally satisfying and exhausting for more reasons that I thought apparent at the time. But with the New Year also brings along with it New Year deals from local retailers looking to unload merchandise at slightly cheaper prices than from the year before.

This fact led me to EB Games (where else, right?) where for a short time they offered double for what they usually give for those looking to trade in their original Xbox consoles. Frankly, my Xbox hadn’t been used in quite some time (made quite apparent by the amount of dust collected) and I wasn’t sure if another deal like this would ever show itself (regularly, EB Games/GameStop gives about $40 for Xbox consoles). So throwing away all better judgment I decided to plunge myself into the realm of Microsoft’s 360 machine, wondering if I was over saturating my media library with superfluous entertainment. What I’ve experienced in the days afterward has been something of a gaming anomaly.

I quickly realized that if I was going to drop serious money on a console, why not go all out? It already came with a free game (Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter) so I decided to pick up another, Gears of War. Gears of War led me to pick up an Xbox Live membership just to see what the online aspect was all about (the ‘Pro’ set does come with a headset, after all) and my likeness for the first person shooter produced the thought that I might not be so letdown from spending so much. Well…yes and no.

Let’s get the negative out of the way. The first time I put Gears of War in the 360 the game acted up. I was unable to start a new game in any of the modes available and doing so only led me to a loading screen that immediately jumped back to the story select screen. Inspecting the disc for any damage, I saw noticeable circular scratches that I’m quite sure I didn’t etch on the surface. Nonetheless, I felt supremely let down. A new Xbox console and already a game had malfunctioned. Nintendo and Sony had never let me down in such a way and already an hour into Microsoft's console I had experienced problems.

I tried searching message boards in an attempt to secure a solution to the problem. I quickly found other Gears of War gamers, who might not have experienced the exact same problem, but had definitely had worse things happen to their 360 consoles (the dreaded three-light syndrome seemed to pop up the most). Most who had problems contacted Microsoft directly and were met with a startling lack of response from the big M. Some were told that Microsoft was aware of the problem but could offer no short-term solutions, which inevitably led to plenty of pissed-off gamers clutching broken 360’s. I was afraid the same would surely happen to me and was already expecting the worst.

However, my problems were beginning to fade. Having saw many gamers determine a correlation between Gears of Wars malfunctioning and the Xbox Gamertag ID, I decided to sign out and see if the problem continued. It did not and I was soon enjoying Gears of War, well, about as much as I could before noticing that I could not save if I was not logged in with an ID. Yet, the next day, when I signed in and tried GoW again, the problem seemed to vanish. After the initial debacle I’ve had zero problems as I was able to create a new game and soon was playing one of the best FPS titles I had ever laid eyes on.

Despite the small setback in software, my reception of the 360 has been monstrously high. I never thought I’d ‘sell out’ to Microsoft but the 360 didn’t have to run long to win me over. The user interface is one of the friendliest aspects of the machine, with options galore to fine tune everything from the custom look of the background to playing music through an iPod…even while playing a game itself, it’s still possible to select music. Looking at all of the options available to the console itself, it certainly had me wondering if the Wii or the PS3 had any chance to keep up in the three console race for control of the market share.

I’ve tried looking at the problem objectively. Though I haven’t had the chance to play anything for the PS3, from what I’ve heard, despite free online gaming, the juggernaut of consoles has had enough setbacks to change many gamer's minds. Reports and opinions from dissatisfied gamers have seen some consoles being returned to various retailers (no doubt scratching their heads as to why). Of the user complaints I browsed, I always saw a mentioning of the lack of resources the PS3 have in comparison to the 360 (and though it probably wouldn't be fair to throw the PS2 in with this comparioson, truth be told, I've never liked the boot up screen the PS2 utilized). Should Sony see success in the coming years it might have to do with changing the user menus and trying to keep up with Microsoft’s easy-to-grasp interface.

Nintendo’s Wii, on the other hand, has an interesting quandary of its own. Having created the notion of ‘remote based gaming’, Nintendo is definitely looking at the industry as a whole and trying to change the way gamers (and developers) see and experience the titles they play. Call of Duty 3 showed tremendous promise with its ‘point and shoot’ tactics and I have a feeling Nintendo can build on CoD’s success with even more FPS titles (hopefully with much improved graphics), each fleshed out with a sense of individuality. The Wii-mote has so much promise that I’m sure Nintendo is more than up to the challenge.

Yet for all the joys that the Wii is sure to bring, I’m still not left with the same sense of awe I had with the 360 and can’t help but wonder if Nintendo is on the right path or merely creating old traps for itself. The television channel menu system has its perks but I still feel as if they’re more than a few steps behind Microsoft in terms of building a rounded console. Things like the free online browser and the Weather and News channels help to boost interest, but for me the deal breaker was getting to relive old titles through the Virtual Console. Having dealt with both the Virtual Console and the Marketplace, at the moment, I feel more inclined to buy old classic games on the 360 rather than the Wii. Surely, Nintendo will expand it’s library to include the kind of classics everyone grew up with in the ’80’s and early 90’s, but then here’s the problem: a good example can be made of Street Fighter II, which can be purchased on both the 360 and the Wii (the 360 has the ‘Hyper Fighting’ Edition while the Wii has the original SFII). However, Microsoft allows online gaming with some of the downloadable titles and have leaderboards that track every gamer who's played. Specifically for SFII, you can challenge others and be ranked accordingly. On the Wii you’re stuck to playing with another friend in the room and at which you won’t be ranked versus anyone (speaking of which, where does Nintendo’s online plans figure in Wii development?). So considering all of that, which version would you buy?

Though I'm positive the respective backlog of classic games will take a seat to latest and greatest, the deciding factor for a number of gamers (besides shortage of product) is price. Will you shell out a significant amount of cash for extra perks or spend half that for a genuine innovative gaming experience? Only now are we beginning to see the effects of the ‘HD Age’, at which Microsoft clearly welcomed with open arms and at which Nintendo has held at arms length. Having bought a new LCD TV (again with the help of the after New Year's deals) I can appreciate all the graphical perks a set of component cable (nicely included with the console, I might add) can afford. I’m still waiting to buy component cables for my Wii, but having played it on a HD set with just regular cables, the difference in graphical output is strangely depressing. I’ve never noticed the difference more. As more families begin to upgrade their entertainment centers, so too should the brands that produce such equipment. Not that graphics make the game entirely, but if you saw the difference in visuals I’m seeing now, you might feel more inclined to pick up a 360 as well.

Anyway, if it seems like I’m falling all over this machine it’s because I am. I’m too impressed with how Microsoft’s 360 has been built. However, not every family has the means to stay on top of three different systems, all of which have their own console specific games that claim to be 'must-own' titles. At the rate the industry is going now, most gamers have already chosen sides with their next-gen systems and things might only get worse because of price discrimination. Fortunately, Nintendo and Microsoft both have moderately priced consoles that will at least attempt to match every dollar spent in regards to entertainment experienced. Unfortunately, I now have a copy of Jet Set Radio from the original Xbox, currently functioning as a paperweight due to the somewhat limited backward compatibility. How many years will it be until it shows up in the Marketplace?

Super Mario Bros. Super Show Vol. 2

Remember those Nintendo-themed cartoons that were around years ago? The Legend of Zelda, Captain N: The Game Master, and, of course, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. I watched them all as a child, so when Super Mario Bros. Super Show Volume 2 was shown to me at Circuit City while shopping for Christmas gifts, I had to get it.

The DVD set consists of four discs, each having its own slim case. Each of the cases has a different main character displayed on it, starting with Mario and Luigi and ending with Princess and King Koopa (a.k.a. Bowser). The inside of each case contain a few sketches of the respective character on the outside of the case.

Enough about the packaging though, I didn't get this for the way it looks on the outside anyways. The discs contain six episodes each, plus a "bonus" episode, for a total of 28 episodes. There are bonus features on the discs as well, but I found them to be pretty lame. It seemed like they had some extra space to kill and just threw a few random things in to complete it.

For anyone that never saw the show, it consisted of a cartoon sandwiched in between a couple of live-action segments with Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells as Mario and Luigi, respectively. Please be aware that the dialog in both parts of the show is rather poorly done. Honestly, it's so bad that it's funny, and that's actually why I got this. Childhood memories, and laughably bad dialog. Oh, and the people they chose to do the voice-acting really didn't help either. You'll probably also want to skip the show's intro after the first time, too. A poor quality Mario Bros. rap just doesn't do it for me.

Despite the negatives of this set, though, I think it still warrants a purchase for gamers. I was able to pick it up for $19.99 at Circuit City, and I believe all Target stores started selling both volumes today for $19.99 as well. It's about 10 hours of content according to the box, so the low price is a steal if you like it and only a small loss if you end up hating it.

"Do the Mario! Swing your arms from side to side. Come on, it's time to go. Do the Mario!"

...Okay I'm done.

Xbox 360: Rainbow Six Vegas

Today for Xbox 360 owners, the demo for one of the most anticipated games on the console hit the Xbox Live Marketplace for download (along with yesterday's first Xbox Live Update). I've been eagerly anticipating this game since its development, and let me tell you, it straight up fucking rocks.

I was immediately taken aback by this game in every single way. Now this IS a demo, so there are things that just aren't up to par, such as some framerate issues here and there, slowdown, some control bugs, as well as some graphical problems, but Ubisoft has stated that this is JUST in the demo and this is the same demo shown on the E3 floor this year. In other words, Rainbow Six Vegas is due out November 20th, and these bugs will be fixed.

Anyway, time to get into the game itself. The short demo puts you straight into the action of a terrorist-seized casino in Las Vegas known as Dante's. Funny thing about the casino, it's not quite built yet. You'll descend 5 floors down through all sorts of construction mess and cells of terrorists to clear out. Sounds easy? Can be. But not always.

Rainbow Six Vegas is about planning. I've played through the demo about eight times now, and each time I discovered something new, or a different way to just kill ONE guy so he ultimately doesn't get to a spot that puts my guys in a crunch giving access to another guy to shoot my men who can lead to... blah blah blah, a mouthful, but you see where this is going? The game will reward you based on your planning and execution. Running into a firefight even on normal, you will die. It's not a matter of what your Halo 2 multiplayer level is, you will still die trying to do what you do in Halo in Rainbow Six Vegas.

You command a team of two other men who you can point and tell them to do things, nothing new here. As I said earlier, planning is key, but I did notice that for once, when I put my men in a situation where they SHOULD win, they really did win for once. I was kind of amazed to see AI that actually works. One of the coolest features I saw was when you are breaching a door. You can line your men up to breach, then you can go up to the door and with your snake cam (small camera letting you see inside the room) you can look inside. This may sound like Splinter Cell, but BRAND NEW to series and to any other game (comment on me if I'm wrong), but by pressing the Select button, you can select the enemies you want your men to shoot first based on priority.

For example, if you have a hostage situation, you want to make the guy with the gun to the hostage priority one, followed by the guy closest to you, and then the guy furthest away priority three. This plays an integral role in strategy, and you'll see just after doing it ONE time how much fun it can be. I've re-done several parts of the mission where I died or my men got shot, and through this planning, I have been able to beat this parts in merely seconds without any damage on my end. Also, you are able to select how you'd like your men to breach the door via mine, smoke, grenade, flashbang, or just guns blazin'.

Aside from some minor technical issues, this demo proves that Rainbow Six Vegas IS going to be a game to own this Christmas. Everyone's hyping up Gears of War, as they should be, it's gonna be fuckin' sick baby! But, don't overlook Rainbow Six Vegas. The game has a solid crouch and cover system putting you in the third person perspective, amazing graphics, great AI, awesome effects, and it takes place in the Sin City itself. I can't wait for this one, and my $5 is already waiting on it. Definitely check this one out.

PSP: The Godfather - Mob Wars

It wasn't long ago that The Godfather: Mob Wars for Sony's PSP was released. It also wasn't long ago that I picked up a copy of this little thug squandering adventure. I'm not going to lie and say I've spent countless hours investing my time figuring this game out yet, or playing it a whole lot for that matter. What I have done, though, is put my hands on it for some brief sessions, and have already begun to explore the wonders this little gem has to offer.

As far as keeping it real with The Godfather, this game does a good job. If you're a fan of the movies, you'll probably like this game based on that alone. Cinematics are a plus, and the music is good. My girlfriend actually couldn't believe this was a game on my PSP by the cut scenes, and between you and I, I think she has a little crush on the main character (due in part to fairly good graphics).

Mob Wars follows suit with much of the same that we've seen in the past with games like Grand Theft Auto. That's almost a game play standard these days. What I must conclude about controls is that they are not easy and do take some getting used to. When you're holding some punk by his shirt collar and slamming him into nearby walls trying to extort his money, it definitely hurts your fingers a bit. There's tutorials and training missions, if you will, which kick the game off. You learn to beat people up, you learn to talk the talk, you learn to pop off shots. There's no doubt about the "coolness" of this game. It's oozing cool-factor.

Even though I have not yet invested loads of time playing this game yet, my initial impressions are that it might be worth a play, for anyone with a PSP. It's fun going around beating people up, scaring patrons into cooperating, and so forth consistent with standard portrayal of mafia activity. It's just loads of fun.

There's also a strategy based game which is in essence a game within the game; which is actually called "Mob Wars". This comes in to play early on, and allows you to build up your own crew, run your own racketeering and smuggling rings underground, and overall just build up your status and respect. I'm not huge on strategy elements to games these days, I just want to go around and pistol whip people into giving me their money. That's what this game is all about.

The bottom line here is that it's worth a shot (oh, you like that pun!!) If you like games like GTA, and find the mafia interesting... this shit is right up your alley, hands-down. I'll try to get a review going after I really play through it, but I'd give The Godfather: Mob Wars on PSP a green light for anyone to check out.