E3 Quick Reactions

E3 is by far the biggest event of the gaming calendar.  I could compare it to a bunch of major sporting events - like the Superbowl, the Champions League final, the World Series, Wrestlemania etc - to make my point, but I don't think anyone would really appreciate that.
Every year the major companies gather to get a one up on each other and show us a load of trailers to give us more excitement for upcoming games than in a lot of cases we'll ever actually experience while playing them.

So this is my round up of the game trailers and information that really grabbed my attention this year. I've stayed away from any hardware announcements because in general they need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Assassin's Creed 3
I was hyped up for this game since I saw the first trailer a few months back, but this one here is just incredible. Assassin's Creed is one of my favourite new franchises this generation and AC2 would be in my top 5 games this gen. But the last couple of semi-sequels haven't changed a massive amount despite improving the core gameplay and introducing the most surprisingly great multiplayer since Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. With the huge shift in setting Assassin's Creed 3 looks set to feel like the proper sequel its title implies it is. Add to that improvements to the gameplay such as a much more fluid hop in hop out fighting system and the continuation of a fascinating story make this my most anticipated game of the year!

My only problem so far is our new Assassin's name. He's Native American and wears a hood, and judging by Altair and Ezio you'd expect a pretty cool, mysterious name. But no, he's just "Connor". Doesn't fit the character in my opinion!




Skyrim: Dawnguard
Skyrim was incredible. For my money it's the best game I've played in about ten years. Having said that, I played it too much and after 90 hours and four months of playing little else I just stopped one day and haven't touched it since. I didn't even finish the main quest! Dawnguard looks to be exactly the kind of offering to get me back on the addiction.

Featuring an interesting looking story tied into a group of vampires and the "Dawnguard" determined to wipe them out, a battle that you can choose which side you join, it has got me really excited. Join the vamps and you are promised new abilities that look to be very interesting, but if the Werewolf form is anything to go by I'm prepared to be disappointed by that! Whatever side you pick there are new perk trees, new weapons and new armour, all of which can be carried over to the main game as the expansion is directly integrated to the existing world. There promises to be new dimensions and dungeons to plunder though!

Much like I only completed Fallout 3 after playing through 3 sets of DLC, I reckon Dawnguard will inspire me to finally conquer Skyrim as soon as I've finished joining/wiping out (delete as appropriate) those brilliant/filthy vampires. This isn't just your run of the mill 2 hour DLC though as 15 hours of gameplay are promised!






Hitman Absolution
It's been so long since Blood Money that I wasn't paying much attention to this game, but a gameplay video released a few weeks back put it well and truly on my radar. The game looks gorgeous and the stealth gameplay looks like a very good option for people who long for the old days of Splinter Cell. The AI looks to be smart and you seem to have lots of options for attacking each mission.

But no one's talking about the gameplay following E3, they're all talking about the trailer posted above that seems to bare no resemblance to the actual gameplay with Agent 47 looking more like Ezio Auditore as he takes out half a dozen Nuns/Whores. Personally I thought the trailer was fucking awesome. No it doesn't represent the game that well but how many of these CG trailers actually do? It was designed to get people's attention and it did. It was slick, over the top and pretty gruesome. And it was pretty bad ass.

Some people complained that it was the most sexist thing they've ever seen, that you wouldn't see a trailer where men dressed as priests stripped down to suspenders. Maybe not, but that's society's problem and the blame shouldn't fall on Hitman for that. It's always featured sleaze and sex appeal but it is rated for 18 year olds. And let's not forget that these women he massacres have come with the sole intention of killing Agent 47. Self defence you could say!






Tomb Raider
The gameplay of this new Tomb Raider reboot looks to have given the series a new breath of life. The last couple of Lara Croft games were good games, but they did look and feel like old games. This one is built on a new engine and looks great so far.

My only problem here is the new Lara Croft they've given us. I get that in a reboot we're going to get a new take on the character but this is too much. Lara has turned from a strong independent leading woman into a whiny snivelling pathetic mess. If she was in a horror movie she'd be killed off before the title sequence.

I get what they're going for, showing the origins of Lara's story before she became the heroine we all know, but there's no way you'll convince me that this wreck of a woman will ever become the Tomb Raider of previous games. Not to mention that her accent is now incredibly irritating where it was once just posh but loveable. 

In my opinion this trailer is much more damaging to females in gaming than the Hitman one that caught so much grief.




Halo 4
Honestly I was preparing myself to fully ignore Halo 4 because as far as I was concerned Halo Reach closed the series out brilliantly. Watching the gameplay demo makes this a very hard beast to ignore! The first thing that's immediately obvious is that Halo looks waaay better than ever before. The jungle level looks amazing and the background looks more full of life than ever.

The demo starts off with Chief facing off against some familiar foes on this strange planet but soon we see some new faces. It seems like the main enemies this time around are a strange race called the Promethians. I can only assume they inhabit the world that Chief finds himself on.

The Promethian knight looks like a really interesting opponent with a few really class moves, including summoning a companion that will protect him with shields and catch and throw your grenades back at you. There are also a whole new set of weapons including the Scatter Shot which is basically a shotgun that has ammo which ricochets off surfaces.

So this basically looks to be the same great Halo gameplay, with the best looking environments it's ever had and a host of new and innovative enemy types and weapons.

Sign me up!




Splinter Cell Blacklist
Honestly it's hard to take much from this non-gameplay trailer and really it didn't excite me very much. It was all a bit blah blah explosion for me. I'm sure more details will emerge though and for now the fact that a new Splinter Cell has been announced is fantastic news. I loved Conviction despite it straying from its roots so I'm looking forward to this one!




Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
We haven't seen anything of this game in a year, but even the mention if it is brilliant. If you never played the original on the Gamecube then you missed out on a real gem. From what I can see this doesn't seem to stray too far from the first game but that doesn't bother me. I'd have been happy with a straight port to the 3DS!

One new gameplay feature is that you use the coins you collect to power your flashlight and Poltergust, which is sure to add a bit of a survival-horror style conservation element to it.




Resident Evil 6
Speaking of survival-horror, Resident Evil 6 doesn't seem to be showing much signs of featuring any. From the CG sequences I've seen this week it seems to have more machine guns than ever before. I'm keeping an optimistic mind on this one, because I love the series but I'm not too impressed so far




Pikmin 3
This is my surprise of the show and brought a smile to my face. Like Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin was originally on the Gamecube and a relatively low profile game. It was brilliant though, great fun, great puzzles, great character and a superb soundtrack.

Shigsy presented this game as part of Nintendo's main conference and pointed out that the high resolution of the Wii U makes the Pikmin easier to manage than ever before. Watch the short video for an overview of this sequel to a really joyful but intelligent game. Not sure it's enough to make buy a Wii U, but it's good to know that it exists!







South Park: The Stick of Truth
Not sure what to expect of this game, it could turn out brilliant, hilarious and fun or it could just be crap and hilarious. I like the approach they're taking though by making you the hero of this story. It'll be fun to play as a South Park version of yourself in this crazy universe. I'm not getting my hopes up too much but I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this.






Far Cry 3
Not much actually shown in the trailer for this game except for some great looking graphics and exciting island imagery, but this and the trailer released a few months ago have got me very interested. A lot of people were disappointed with Far Cry 2 so hopefully this can bring the series back to the heights the original reached!




So those were my E3 highlights, what were yours? Did I miss any of your favourite trailers? And what are you ready to pre order now? Let me know in the comments section!

Trials RAGE-olution

Anyone who recognises the part of the game shown in the image below will feel my pain - and there was pain, believe me! But after quite a few hours of trying I have earned my second Demon On Wheels achievement for besting all of the Extreme Tracks (like a boss).

Gold medals next?! Not likely! I'm going to retire from Trials Evolution and remember the good times it gave me for the first 8-10 hours or so rather than the last hour that made me feel like putting a controller through my TV.

The Tipping Point

It happens sometimes, you hit a certain point in a game and suddenly your whole aim in that game is drastically changed. It might be the moment you decide "screw it, I'm never gonna get 1000/1000 on this game" when you notice one irritatingly difficult/time consuming achievement. Or it might be the moment you've been stuck on the same puzzle in Zelda for 2 hours and decide the time has come for a quick trip to Gamefaqs.

Whatever it is, whenever it happens your self imposed rules are torn up. Once you succumb to a game guide for one puzzle, you'll be quicker to do it again when you hit another brick wall. Once you've given up on getting all the achievements, those daft little pointless collectables you've been hunting out so painstakingly for the last 8 hours suddenly don't matter at all (think Alan Wake and his Coffee Flasks)

I most recently experienced this while blasting through Trials Evolution, right around the time I started onto the "Extreme" tracks. My aim up to then had been getting a Gold medal on each track, and I'd been doing pretty well with only a handful of tracks so far still sitting on Silver medal status. The fact that some of those Golds took me an hour of effort to get didn't bother me at all, I enjoyed the challenge. It took about five minutes of the first Extreme track for that to change though. I knew I had absolutely no mission of ever getting Golds on all the 8 Extreme tracks. Suddenly the goal I had been striving for was seemingly unattainable, and in the blink of an eye my goal was now just to finish all the tracks and forget the Gold medals. And I was fine with that.

So, yeah, I pussied out and gave up on my challenge. I was a quitter. So why don't I care? Because in my opinion I'm not admitting defeat. I probably *could* get all the golds if I spent enough time, I just don't want to any more. It's reached that point where it just wouldn't be fun to me - it would be more of a chore. Above all else, gaming is meant to be fun. It's a hobby, it's something that you pay money to do in your spare time and it shouldn't feel like a chore. If it ever does, maybe you should remind yourself of that and change the rules, or change the game completely.

The completionist in me makes me want to beat every game I start, but there's so many amazing games out there nowadays that if I've completely lost enjoyment in a game I'm not gonna keep playing for the sake of it. Towards the end of Disc 2 of L.A. Noire I grew tired of the seemingly random nature of the interrogations and the old Rockstar trademark of dragging out a story with too much filler so I haven't played it in about a year. The beauty of it is you can go back to it any time you want should you fancy another crack at the challenge. In my case I've spent long enough away from the fantastic atmosphere and change of pace gameplay of L.A. Noire that when I go back to finish it off in the next few months I'll enjoy it a lot more than I would have if I had just ploughed through it back when I started it.

Every game comes with its own set of rules and gameplay constructs, but don't forget who's really in charge of your gaming experience.

Hint: It isn't Bill Gates and his achievement points.

Review: Sonic Generations (Xbox 360)

As you might have guessed given the name and theme of this blog I'm a pretty big Sonic fan. Or at least I was. I haven't actually bought a retail Sonic release in about ten years since I got Sonic Adventure 2 on Gamecube release day.

So what made me pick up Sonic Generations? It was a mixture of things really - I tried the demo but wasn't overly impressed but I heard a lot of praise for the game and the nostalgia factor definitely had me interested. What sealed it though was the chance to buy it for just £8.99 in an out of the blue flash sale (thank you hotukdeals.com!)

The story of the game is... not important. But basically we've ended up with two Sonics - one short and stumpy who doesn't speak and one a bit gangly who does speak and has a 'tude. This premise opens up a key gameplay feature,  as you traverse through the zones each Sonic takes a turn at it and each one plays very differently. Act 1 plays like a classic 2D Sonic game while Act 2 is a 3D stage more like the Sonic games we've come to know post-2000.

All of the stages are taken from previous games in the series, one from each "major" release, though sadly Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are counted as one game. This is both a gift and a curse to the game - obviously it appeals to players' nostalgia, but on the other hand there's always going to be an argument over the stages that were selected or more likely those that were left out.  Personally I would have loved to see Ice Cap Zone included ahead of Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  Another problem with this approach is that once what is undoubtedly the peak of the series has been covered - after the first 3 zones - the reveal of the levels is a bit less exciting.  That's not to say they are bad levels by any means, the last few were more challenging and engaging than any of the ones I was familiar with from previous games.

The gang's all here!  Thankfully you don't have to play as them.

Previous Sonic games have tried to switch up the flow of the game by introducing other characters (or Werewolves???) to have some slow paced levels to "compliment" the fast paced Sonic ones.  Common opinion is that these types of levels suck balls.  So you'll be glad to hear that although a whole host of characters return, their roles are firmly supporting ones.  As I said before, the change in pace comes from the switch between 2D and 3D levels.  This is where the game shocked me.

I enjoyed the 3D levels a lot more than the 2D ones.

There, I said it.  I'm not sure what it is, but the 2D levels just seem to drag a lot more than the 3D ones to me.  Part of the problem may be that after playing the 3D stages (which feature their own two dimensional gameplay sections) where Sonic has his homing attack, switching to "classic" Sonic without the homing attack just feels incredibly gimped.  To combat this the game designers have brought back some of the shields from the old games (Flame, Lightning and Water/Bubble), but in my opinion they aren't used nearly enough and feel more like an afterthought.

As has been the case with Sonic games since he moved to the third dimension, the camera can be pretty wonky at times and when the action slows down Sonic can be very tricky to control when jumping from one ledge to another.  Sonic's all about blistering through a level at high speed bouncing from enemy to enemy, but when he slows down it can seem like his legs have turned to jelly.  Most of the time I spent falling off platforms were at times when the action had slowed right down and Sonic moves like he's on ice skates and jumps like... an idiot. Obviously the game is meant to be played fast, but there are times where you've no choice other than to slow down.

Something that Sonic games have always done well is bosses. This game is no exception as the bosses and sub-bosses are mostly inventive and good fun to play.  I say mostly, because the very final boss is a real pain in the ass and one of the low points of the whole game.  It's a pity because the boss fight just before the end is fantastic and would have been a better ending point in my opinion.

From a technical standpoint, the graphics are decent enough without being mindblowing.  They do the job, but compared to games like Rayman Origins and even Mario Galaxy and Donkey Kong Country on the Wii they're pretty forgettable.   The soundtrack fits the game well with simple infectious tunes and remixes of classics that you'll be humming even after you turn the console off.   As a nice added bonus if you aren't feeling the music you can unlock classic tracks from past games and use them as the soundtrack while you play.  Admittedly the classics don't tend to fit the new levels as much as the actual songs do, but I had some fun with it.

If you plan to just blast through the game at Super Sonic speed - ahem - playing each stage and jumping onto the next one, you could be done with that in probably around 4-6 hours.  To help extend the game, somewhat artifically, once you complete a few zones you unlock a set of challenges - five for each act.  Most of these are based around replaying a section of the act with a twist that can range from specific enemies to a companion with their own unique powers to help you on your way. You only need to complete one challenge from each zone to move on, but if you want to beat all 90 of them it will extend your playing time a fair bit, with my final playing time probably somewhere around the 12 hour mark.  To be honest though I'm not sure I'd recommend playing through them all - some of them are good fun, but a lot of them are just fecking tedious.  They made the whole experience a bit of a chore for me in the end, but as I said before they're 90% optional so if you're not enjoying them don't be a glutton for punishment like me just to unlock a poxy achievement!

If it sounds like I've been quite harsh on Sonic Generations, well I didn't particularly mean to be.  It's a fun game that is well worth picking up for cheap.  Could I recommend it to somebody at full price?  Honestly, no.  But the way you'll get the most out of this game is if you treat it as a budget title that can be played as your "side game" rather than your main one.  It's perfect to play in bite size chunks when a two hour quest through Skyrim isn't quite what you're looking for.  It's light-hearted fun that can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages, especially if you spent hours of your youth fighting Dr. Robotnik on the Mega Drive/Genesis.  Many have said it's the best Sonic game in years, but it does have it's fair share of flaws that hold it back from taking Sonic back to the top level of gaming.  The 3D stages were a pleasant surprise while for me the 2D ones were a bit of a let down and to be honest I enjoyed Sonic 4's levels a lot more.

In conclusion, if you like fun, you will enjoy this game, just don't expect a world beater.

Phil

Games I Want - Part II: Trials Evolution (XBLA)

This is a bit of an unplanned blog post today, but I felt I had to whenever I realised that Trials Evolution is released tomorrow on Xbox Live Arcade!

Trials HD is one of my favourite titles this generation.  At its core this is a platforming game with a time trial element - except you're on a motorbike.  And you're traversing through a strange obstacle course in some madman's warehouse.  There's no story, no reason behind what you're doing.  You're just trying to get from the start to the finish as fast as possible.  The controls themselves are very simple - accelerate, brake, lean forward, lean back - but it's all about using these moves in combination and with near perfect timing.  The early levels in Trials HD were pretty simple, involving a few ramps and jumps to allow you to just have fun working your way through them.  As you get on to the harder courses the game gets tough - like hair pulling, controller throwing tough!  I'm proud to say I was able to complete all the Trials of the first game - though some of them took a lot of attempts.

So what does Trials Evolution bring to the table to up the ante?  To be honest if it was just more of the same I'd still be hyped about the game and would buy it in a flash, but surely it's not just called "Evolution" for a laugh?

As you can see from the above screenshot the action moves outside of the weird warehouse seen in Trials HD and into larger landscapes and some frankly stunning backgrounds.  If you look a little closer at the screenshot though you'll see something that has me really excited.  Yep, there are four bikes in that shot, all racing at the same time.  One of the most addicting things about Trials HD was the online leaderboards - completing a track, seeing how you stack up against your friends, and then doing your damnedest to beat them!  The feature was brilliantly integrated to the game as it gave you notifications during the level of how you were doing in relation to your friends and I'd imagine it will still be integral in Evolution, however the ability to actually race your friends in real time will be manic and a hell of a load of fun.

They also seem to have improved the level editor a whole lot making anything possible if the trailer is to be believed.  To be honest I don't have the patience to make the most of a feature like this, but for a lot of people this will be the main draw of the game.  If you're a LittleBigPlanet fan then this will interest you greatly.  And hey, even if you don't plan on making any levels yourself at least you can try out other people's creations!  

As this is just a preview I'm not sure of what else has been added/improved but I know I'll be spending hours finding out - check out the jaw dropping trailer below and let me know what you think.  Hopefully I'll see you on those leaderboards!

Phil

P.S. If you ever played Elastomania you will love this game.  If you never played Elastomania then go and download it right now!

Games I Want - Part I: Fez Preview

I have to say, my favourite "innovation" of this generation is downloadable games like those available on XBLA. They've brought back the kind of so called 'simple' games of years gone by that wouldn't have a shot in hell of being a success if you stuck them in a shop for £40, that's if shops would even stock them.

Fez is latest game to be released on XBLA, and it's got me very interested. At first glance it could be any old 2D platformer from the 8 bit era as the graphics are very simple, but the art style is fantastic and of course they've been HD'd up and as a result the game looks beautiful.

As was the case with a lot of NES era games the simple visuals seem to mask what is a much more complex game. The 'twist' in Fez is a literal one, as you can manipulate the 2D plane to give a new perspective on the environment allowing you to discover unseen items or find a new path to continue through the level. This gameplay mechanic has the potential to turn into a puzzle game nearly as much as a platformer.

Fez was released yesterday for 800 MS points so somewhere around the £6 mark, cheaper than I expected given that most high profile Arcade games come out for 1200 points. I've downloaded the free trial but haven't given it a go yet, if anyone has then feel free to post your thoughts below. I'll be sure to buy the full version once I get some points loaded onto my account and will have a full review once I complete it. That could be a while given my stack at the minute! Reviews for the game have been mostly glowing so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it.

Why not download the free trial and let me know what you think? It's free and you might discover a gem. Thanks again for reading.

Phil

Press A to Start

Hello,

I expect most people reading this will know me, but if not, Hi, I'm Phil.
I've been using the screen name bigphil2003 in various places for a long time now, even before 2003. Why 2003 then? I don't even really know now but it's not important. I'm taller than average, but by no means 'big' so none of it really makes sense so let's not get stuck on the details.
It might seem a bit self indulgent but I created this blog mostly for me, but it might interest other people too and if it does that's great. Everything I put here will just be my opinion so feel free to get involved with anything you agree with, or even better disagree with!

However long this venture into blogging manages to capture my attention I'll be making posts about games I'm currently playing, games I've recently completed, upcoming games that I'm looking forward to or games from days gone by that I just feel like talking about for some nostalgia induced reason. I'll probably cover some other topics like trends or standard features in gaming past, present or future. Basically I'm using this as a dumping ground for my thoughts, part of the reason behind the name "Scrap Brain Zone". The other part of the reason is that the Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Sega Mega Drive is one of my favourite game series ever and was a big part of my childhood.

I've always had a love for gaming ever since my cousin first passed on my first "console", a black box of some sort that came with two paddles attached by the same type of curly chord they use on telephones and about 20 black and white games, most of which were different variations of Pong. Ever since then I've always had some form of gaming machine and while I've certainly had some loyalty and personal preference to certain companies I've never been a 'fanboy'.

Currently I'm an owner of Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo 3DS. Of those three my Xbox definitely gets the most play but I'm a sucker for first party Nintendo games! You'll notice I don't have a PS3 so I'll not be covering an awful lot of Sony's exclusives but if you're a PS3 fan I'll still have plenty to interest you with multiplatform games. I'm not a Sony hater by any means and have been tempted a few times by the PS3, but I've a big enough play queue as it is. One thing I will say is that I hate the Playstation controllers, specifically the analogue sticks - seriously, what the hell is up with them?!

Anyway, I hope you'll find something of interest for you here, if so hit the comment button! If not, well, I'll enjoy it anyway. My first proper post (hopefully less wordy) will be coming soon and probably on either XBLA title Joe Danger or Sonic Generations (multiplat)


Phil