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