Mini-Review Blast: Busy Gamer Edition

Once again it’s been another set of busy months for me on a number of fronts and so effort for writing full reviews for those games helping keep me busy has somewhat gone out of the window. However, here’s another quick review blast for those games that have been occupying my time recently:

WipEout HD: Fury

You’ve got to love the guys at Studio Liverpool, not only did they deliver one of the finest examples of a download game in the gorgeous form of WipEout HD, but then they went and effectively doubled the size of the game for ridiculously cheap price. WipEout HD: Fury is an expansion to the original game which adds a bunch of new game modes, a number  of new tracks, new crafts and a campaign just a few events shy of matching the original game’s own campaign mode. All of the new game modes play with the core mechanics in interesting ways and none of them is a letdown, with  Zone Battle possibly winning out as the best new addition. If you own WipEout HD then this is a complete no brainer, get it; if you don’t own the original, well now is the time to go grab both excellent parts for significantly less than a new retail game (you really would be a fool not to).

Quantum of Solace

This was picked up cheap, and you know what it’s alright. The story mode is reasonably solid, no utterly terrible missions, but then nothing overly fantastic too. For the most part it’s a solid shooter experience wrapped up in a nice bit of Bond setting, which is no bad thing. Certainly I’ll give them points for the stealth/spy type aspects of the game. You can pretty much ignore doing it that way and play all-guns-blazing, but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had from taking people out quietly. Can’t help but feel though that in a more capable company’s hands it could have been something rather amazing, but it was reasonably fun all told. One thing I will say though, I’m not quite sure what Treyarch did, but when you make scanned character models of Eva Green and Olga Kurylenko look ugly then something is not right with the world.

Trials HD

Trials HD is the absolute definition of ‘Just one more go’ gameplay. I’d never played any of the Trials games before, but this looked fun and after a dabble with the demo found myself picking it up, and subsequently finding it very hard to put down; up until the point where I got to the Extreme levels that is, and the frustration levels went from ‘tough, but fun’ to outright annoyance. Great little game though, that looks amazing too.

inFamous

I’m a bit of a fan of open-world games and I tend to enjoy myself messing around with the various toys the developers give you, and in inFamous you get some entertaining toys to play with. Sure at the base level it may borrow ideas from other good sandbox games such as Crackdown/Assassin’s Creed (with the scale anything/rooftop city exploration) and the weapons aren’t much more than standard gun/grenades/rockets dressed up in lightning form, but still it’s all wrapped up in a nicely stylised world and delivered with confidence. The comic book style cut scenes are especially well done, and there’s some nice little touches like the TV broadcasts and newsflashes that occur from time to time as you explore the city. All in all an ace little superhero origin game without being bogged down by an existing characterisation that makes for a rather fun open world game.

Mass Effect

So yes, I’m a little late getting around to this one, but I finally got around to playing Mass Effect and I rather loved the experience. I can see how certain aspects could be somewhat annoying, it’s certainly irritating that every non-story planet/moon seems to be built upon with one of three kinds of building each with slightly different crate layouts internally, or that the Normandy (bestest ship in the Alliance fleet) has the slowest-lift-in-the-world-ever to take you between decks 2 and 3, when you can run between 1 and 2 in a matter of seconds. But on the whole, this is a rather excellent game and one that makes me pretty damn excited for the sequel in early 2010.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Wow. I mean, wow. This game really came along and just knocked my socks off, and then some. I was reasonably excited for it, but even so I found myself loving the shit out of this game. Some people might complain about stuff like the boss fights falling back on old clichés, or were somewhat anti-climactic, but sod that, this game was excellent. I like the Batman character, but I’m in no way a fan really and have just cursory knowledge of his universe, but I was entirely wrapped up in this game. I loved the story from beginning to end, but more than that it was just a damn fun game. I felt like I was Batman fucking with dudes and wrecking their shit: there is nothing more satisfying that taking out a room full of armed goons one by one until you’re left with a nervous wreck of a dude who you can fuck with. The combat comes across as shallow at first, but the system is incredibly well thought out and actually rather challenging, as proven by the challenge rooms, which are also a lot of fun to tackle once you’re done with the main game (and all the Riddler’s challenges). I’ve heard “game of the year” mentioned in conjunction with Arkham Asylum, which is possibly going over the top somewhat with the praise, but it is an excellent game and one I’d happily recommend to anyone.

The Beatles: Rock Band

It’s no secret that I’m rather partial to the Rock Band, and it just so happens that I rather like the music of The Beatles too. So what do you know, turns out I rather like The Beatles: Rock Band. There’s a whole load of gems in the track list and really not a bad song in sight (though there’s definitely some slightly weaker tracks like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” that goes on a touch too long for its own good). The whole thing is wrapped up in a lot of love for the band and there’s some really cool little details in here, with the photos, info and videos providing a lot of nice stuff for fans to check out. It doesn’t really tweak the Rock Band formula too much, though includes a few nice interface updates, so it’s really all about the music: if you like The Beatles then get it, otherwise give it a pass.

Colin McRae: DiRT 2

DiRT 1 was an excellent little game that relished in all that was off-road and made it a lot of fun to muck around with. DiRT 2 takes what was good about the first game, pulls in some of the neat ideas from GRID (such as the excellent flashback system), ditches some of the dull, adds a little new and spices it all up with attitude and even more showmanship. DiRT 2’s focus on the X-Games is a perfect example of the slight shift in priorities for the series, though there’s still plenty of excellent rallying to be done. There’s also trailblazing, rally cross and a host of other disciplines, none of which are all that bad (though the Class 1 Buggy’s are far too all-over-the-place with their handling for my liking). If you liked the first game this should be a no-brainer, and same goes for you just like decent racing games with an off-road leaning.

Halo 3: ODST

Is a Halo game still a Halo game if you remove the Master Chief? The simple answer is yes, though it’s a subtly different kind of Halo experience. Halo 3: ODST’s campaign centres on an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) squad who’s attempt to land on a Covenant cruiser goes awry when the ship blasts off into space during their drop. In a departure from the usual linearity of the Halo you spend some of the game in a central hub level as the Rookie who’s searching for his squad-mates. As you explore you encounter items related to your squad’s time spent whilst you were out cold, which prompts a sort of flashback style mission as you take on the role of one of the squad. It’s a pretty short campaign all told, though it’s possibly the strongest of a Halo to date if you ask me and is a ton of fun. You can do the campaign co-op, though I’d highly recommend a solo play through first as the atmosphere is best experienced as a solo player.

Also included in the price is Firefight mode, Bungie’s take on the Horde-mode style game, though it feels like its own beast and is possibly the best execution of the idea to date. I’ve always found Halo’s multiplayer strength (and fun) has been in the co-op game and so it is with Firefight mode, which proves to be a good challenge and also hugely entertaining. I’d much rather stick in Firefight for a game or two than the regular Halo 3 MP.

The biggest mistake Bungie have made with ODST was announcing way back when that it was going to be a budget expansion. You should be able to pick the title up for a good chunk less than a normal retail game, but a lot of people seem to feel it was priced higher than they were expecting, with the amount of content being the only real argument against the game I’ve seen. Ignore that nonsense; no it’s not an overwhelmingly large game, but it’s not that much shorter than Halo 3 and the inclusion of both Firefight mode and the full Halo 3 + maps as an additional disk make it more than worth the price of entry if you ask me. Definitely worth grabbing, playing, then grabbing some mates for more playing.

Need for Speed: Shift

The quality level of the Need for Speed series over the few years has been somewhat skittish and the ups and downs would be enough to give even the most hardened thrill seeker a rough ride, with the last couple of years seeing some of the poorest entries into the series in the shape of ProStreet and then Undercover. This year it’s the turn of Shift, though the game bears almost no relation to any previous Need for Speed title, other than the fact it features cars. Shift is a pure track racer that sits somewhere between a sim and arcade racing and places a heavy emphasis on making you feel like the driver of whatever speedy machine you decide to throw yourself around a track in.

This emphasis is most notable in the absolutely brilliant dash-cam that puts you properly behind the wheel. I dabbled briefly with the other views, but this game is all about the dash-cam, and has a number of subtle effects that make you feel like you’re in the head of the guy flinging himself around the tracks (which even extends to the hugely disorienting effect that occurs when you crash). This is a game in which you really do feel the speed and get a little nervous as you hurtle along at 200mph. Unfortunately Shift isn’t quite there as a package; it’s the solid makings of the start of a series that could really do with a fair bit more spit and polish in certain places. There’s some really nice ideas and features, like the excellent dash-cam, the corner mastery, the driver profile concept, but there’s a lot of little niggles. The menus are really rather dry and lack any sort of personality, the AI could do with being less aggravating (overly aggressive AI and the lack of a flashback facility really starts to irk when some fuckstick of an AI driver rams you off the road on the last lap forcing you to restart all over again for the n-th time), the campaign lacks any sort of direction or real feel of progression, drift racing pretty much sucks, the invitationals are poorly utilised, and a bunch of other little bits and pieces, like the default controls being far too sensitive (hello massive oversteer).

There’s a rough gem at the core of this game, and I did enjoy my time with it for the most part (though it got just a bit repetitive by the end), but nestled between racers like DiRT 2 and the upcoming Forza 3 it’s really tough to suggest you splash you cash on this one. Don’t discount it out entirely, but perhaps wait for it to drop to budget prices.