Review – Rock Band 2 Game
Well, I finally felt like getting around to it and I am going to call it a rather large disappointment, at least from my perspective. Having already bought and player GH:WT, I looked forward to having another game to use these costly peripherals on. Turns out Rock Band 2 may not be the game I was looking for.
Firstly, the tour mode allows both band and single-player elements to blend seamlessly together, with any of the 4 instruments. All working to the same goal, you could always set more than 1 band up, one for single-player and 1 for when your mates are around, this wouldn’t be a problem, if the game didn’t expect you to play the same song half a dozen times through the whole tour mode!
The one thing I liked about previous guitar hero games was the simple jump right in and play, the focus was on the core gameplay. Yet in RB2, you have to deal with choosing which city and venue to play, whether you will accept certain random challenges (like 5* a song for 4x cash, but anything less and you get 0), choosing a manager who has extra effects on money and fans etc. This was all well and good but just got in the way of it all, I don’t care that I need 12 more stars in London and need the right manager and have to have x no of fans on the third Tuesday of a month with less than 6 letters in its name; Let me play the bleeding song! I much prefer GH:WTs set-lists, where playing a few songs in a row is simple and customizable, yet in RB2, I have to play the song on its own first. It’s just annoying barriers that are not needed, they add nothing to the experience and if anything detract from it.
Graphics I thought looked pretty good and customizing characters were easy, but seemed to be mandatory. New songs only cost 2/3 of what they do in World Tour and there is already an extensive library coming from RB1. Additional features such as challenges are actually a nice touch, but never seem to be anything beyond “play these songs and get x points at least on them.” I fear challenges had the potential to be so much more, but now just seem like an excuse to play some shitty wrist-slitting emo garbage another 3 times.
While on the subject of shitty songs, one of the greatest losses I find is how over a dozen or so songs are found on both games. What a waste, out of all the songs they could have had, why the hell copy each other! By doing this fans are torn between the two and when push comes to shove, I’d prefer GH:WT. Mainly as the drum experience is so much better (the two raised cymbals do a world of good here), the songs are better tracked to the notes (thats right, they may have identical songs, but have completely different ways of making you play them) and the guitar and bass experience have been thought through more. Basically GH:WT did copy Rock Bands whole band concept, but surpassed them for almost all instruments except vocals (but seriously, how could you do anything new and original with that!).
Trophies are a nice touch and will give some people a real run for their money, horrible trophies include endless set-list 2 on expert (play every song on expert and you can only move to the next after completing the current one) and bladder of steel, yet another endless set-list 2 based trophies, except you have to play all 6 hours without fail and without pausing.
Will I be keeping RB2 then. I am going to say yes, mainly from the lower priced additional songs and greater catalogue of them , plus an enhanced band experience (the saving falled band members is very useful). The on-line capabilities are greater and the trophies give me shomething to shoot for, I doubt I’ll ever get the platinum, but I may surprise myself. I do suggest that if you had to buy one, buy GH:WT. It is more rewarding and much easier to break out during drunken parties.
Guitar Hero: World Tour – 2 months later…
So, it’s been 2 months since I got GH:WT. I’ve already posted my initial 3 part review of it. But now, 2 months down the line, I just want to return to some areas I may have missed.
Firstly, the guitar experience is simply incredible, anyone who has played GH III and not World Tour is severely missing out. Not only is the choice of songs greater, but they are more challenging to complete. Not more challenging in the sense that Dragonforce is challenging because of its pure speed and has the record for most hammer-ons/min. But more challenging because of the tap solos and the touch-sensitive bar (which is pretty useless) which are cleverly integrated. There are also additions in the way the buttons can be pressed, which is more realistic than before. For example, during some songs, you have to hold one button down while playing on several other ones. This leads to a greater variety of skills that are needed and makes the game a lot more interesting and less repetitive for guitar players.
The drum kit has yet to be replaced. The shop (HMV) has agreed to replace it when they have stock in, but this was over a month ago. While not having a green pad is not much of an issue during medium and easy level. Hard makes much more use of it and I feel a lot more pissed off about not having it. Whether HMV have yet to get more stock is down to a simple lack of demand, or failure of supply. It would be nice if they got off their asses and just brought me one, I may just have to buy the set again, swap out the broken component and then return it and get my money back.
Finally, band play has not lost any of its charm, in fact, like whisky and fine wine, time has simply improved it. It is surprisingly much more satisfying to be able to play with the whole band on hard/expert than having a large variety. Working together more effectively also sees a larger score being awarded.
Downloads have improved, there is a much larger range and more decent songs available for purchase and even some good ones available for free. It does feel that some of these downloaded songs are simply not made to the same quality as those included in the game, they seem rushed. Some songs, while excellent songs ot listen to, just don’t work that well in Guitar Hero, either the beat is wrong or the genre, but there is some reason it just doesn’t feel ‘right.’
Overall, GH:WT has still managed to captivate me and others. It is still prime choice of party game, something which a lot of people enjoy and is easily accessable by even the most musically challenged. I can’t really compare GH:WT to Rock Band 2, since over here in Europe we have to wait until the 27th to get out hands on it (Why is it taking the them so bloody long to get it here?). I’ll be sure to write up a review and comparison as soon as I have gotten my greasy mitts on it.
Review – Tomb Raider: Underworld
So, here we are again with the next Tomb Raider game, yet another copy of the previous thousand with graphical updates and a few gameplay tweaks. Wheeeeeeeee! Well, actually, I wouldn’t shoot down Tomb Raider so quickly, what you need to understand is that not everyone has played all the Tomb Raider games, in fact, there are some who have never played one at all and Tomb Raider: Underworld may actually be the first one they are considering buying.
Of course it would be very easy for me to sit here and say how Tomb Raider is a dead horse being beaten just a little too much and should be left to die, but I actually think that there may be some life in this new game. While the idea may be getting stale, the gameplay is still rather rigid, the controls are a bit naff. Shall we consider this from the perspective of someone wh0 has never played a TR game before then?
Review – Guitar Hero: World Tour – Part 3
Vocal Experience
Well, what can you expect. It works exactly the same way as any other game with vocals in it. The words appear and there is a series of lines you have to keep within when you sing. Nothing really new here. The microphone is apparently a pretty decent one and can work without the game (it is just a regular USB mic after all), so it may have some use in other applications. I have no idea what the single-player is like as I have never gotten drunk enough or lonely enough to dare try.
Band Experience
This is it. This is where all those magnificent single-player parts come together. They are pretty good individually (well, I have no idea about the vocals) but together, they make what I think is the best game of 2009 so far. There is simply so much fun to be had playing as our fictitious band “Hedgeclipper.” It’s brilliant to just get some mates together get some booze, pizza and rock out all night.
Best. Band name. Ever.
When it comes to the individual campaigns, each one is trailered so that for that one instrument, the songs go in order of difficulty. In band, it’s a little different, it seems to assume that everyone with the same level of skill and on the same level are playing, so while you may have found the first few songs of a set very easy. The difficult may suddenly go insane on the last one or the encore. But since your success of failure is determined as a group on the whole, it doesn’t matter if one, or even two people don’t perform well, the others can help them through. The sharing of star power also helps this mechanic (everyone can build up a communal star power meter).
The ability to design your own character and customise them comes with the usual million and one sliders to adjust the way your player looks, or you can choose from a wide selection of pre-made ones. This character creation may help with single-player, but just becomes a hindrance in multi-player, it wastes time and honestly, your going to be too focused on whats flying towards the front of the screen then the graphics behind it.
There is an on-line aspect to Guitar Hero: World Tour, you can connect with 3 others to form a band and play as you normally would. This is nowhere near as good as doing it with actual people in your living room. If your going to complete the band campaign, get some friends together and just enjoy. The simple pick up and play mechanic of the game (on simpler difficulties at least) means most people who have never played before can join in and no more of this sitting around waiting for it to be your turn as it was in previous itertions of Guitar Hero.
Encore
Guitar Hero: World Tour is an excellent game, after 3 previous tries with the guitar and bass, these two aspects were guaranteed to be solid. The drumming and vocals are executed pretty well and everything works together. There are some aspects the game would have done better to leave out. Character creation and the music studio both seem too arbitary to deserve inclusion in the game. I personally don’t see the point, they are just not needed, they take up too much valuable space.
Next time, leave them out and focus on bringing an even larger catalogue of songs. It is worth noting that since the first 2 parts, some decent songs have started to appear on the store. It was just a matter of time of course before everyone could find something they liked. Overall, I’m incredibly impressed by this game and it has already made up for it’s ludicrous price tag. While we are on prices, I do think the price could have been lower as sales are really going to be dented by it, though don’t let it throw you off of buying it. World Tour is easily worth several fun multi-player games of other genres.
Review – Guitar Hero: World Tour – Part 2
Bass Experience
In previous Guitar Hero games, I was always under the impression that the Bass was always an after thought, it was there but simply never felt as finished as the lead guitar was. It was only there so if you felt like working together as opposed to playing competitively, you could. World Tour does a much better job of with the Bass than last time.
First of all, the single-player is excellent. It works in practically the same way as the guitar one, but it doesn’t have the battle parts where you take on a supposed legend like you did in GH III. I should mention something here as I forgot to do so in part 1. Each single-player section starts with a short animation and ends with another one after you become a star. I wish they would include many more of these 2D animations like they did in GH III. They helped to break up the single-player monotony and actually provided some-kind of story line and laughs.
Back to the Bass playing, World Tour has added so called ‘open notes,’ which require the player to strum with none of the fret buttons pushed down. This may sound like a very simple addition and not actually that revolutionary, but it has a real effect to the game-play. It’s is very difficult to expect to strum a regular note, then an open one and back to a regular note again, it needs an extra level of concentration. This addition is really needed for Bass, otherwise the game would be too easy and too boring. If it wasn’t for these ‘open notes,’ Bass would have sucked.
Best peripheral of the year 2009? Let's see Rock Band 2 first.
Drums Experience
So, onto what is probably the best instrument in the game. While guitar is great (and practically a game on it’s own), the drums makes World Tour worth so much more. Then again, they had better because of the price tag. The design of the peripheral is pretty simple, but it works. The cymbals are elevated, like in a real drum kit and the bass pedal is practically identical to a real drum kit. They are made from hardy plastic, so if you miss the actual pad, no worries, they shouldn’t break on you.
OK, so there are some problems which let you know that they are not real. Things such as the spacing between the pads, the foot pedal being made of plastic (Rock Band had a plastic one, kept breaking, the new one will be made from metal) and the horrid sound when striking. But they are still a damn good design. Minus the fact my green pad has decided to start working intermittently (worked fine when I initially got them), which is strange as songs barely use it gets used the most navigating menu screens. Hopefully this is just a one off problem and I can get a replacement.
The game part is superb. The developers always start by mapping a song note for note, which can make the song too difficult, even for an pro player. So what they so is simplify it until it is suitable for expert, then simplify it some more until it is suitable for hard and so on for the other difficulty levels. This means that on expert levels, most of the time you are playing the exact same way as the real drummer would be, only that you may not have as many drums as they do. This gives a really authentic experience (that felt wrong), unlike the guitar which is pretty far from authentic.
Finally, having experience with actual drums before meant that pretty quickly I recognised the patterns and actually getting to jam along to songs is very enjoyable. The peripheral can also be used as a set of electronic drums via a MIDI connection. All in all, they are a fantastic peripheral. Shame the bloody green pad of mine is being a real bastard about working.
Tune in again in a few days for the final part!
Review – Ratchet And Clank: Quest For Booty
Ratchet and Clank games have always caught my attention. I enjoy the return to the days of good ol’ fashioned platforming action. Sure, playing FPS games is fun, but nothing can beat a good Ratchet and Clank game. Quest for Booty is a short ‘episode,’ much shorter than a full game, but still gives around 4 hours of gameplay. With the wacky weapons we have come to love and more of the humour and story expected in a Ratchet and Clank game.
Quest for Booty is probably the only episodic game that will be made. It was made to just alleviate the wait between the previous full game and the next one, full games unfortunately take years to develop and so always have a large gap between them. Quest For Booty has been out for a while now and if you haven’t played it yet and are a fan of the Ratchet and Clank series, stop reading this now and go get it! The story seems slightly contrived, but it isn’t necessary to understand, or even know it, to maintain continuity between the story of the major releases. You end the story pretty much from exactly where you started. However, to fully appreciate the story in Quest for Booty, you need to have played the previous instalment.
Graphics are, as always, gorgeous. You simply don’t see games today that don’t look damn good. It is an expectation now, gamers want to see fantastic graphics and do not care to be disappointed. While this could be a problem for smaller developers. For Insomniac Games, this isn’t really a problem and with already having a game engine in place from the previous instalment, they took their time and improved the lighting a bit and went for improved texturing. Other small graphical improvements add up to give the game that extra bit of polish over Tools of Destruction.
The gameplay is well balanced, levels are paced well, much better so than the previous game. It is a real joy to play and you don’t have to have experience with other Ratchet and Clank games either. You do suffer the old Metroid problem of starting with all your weapons and kit, then lose them all and slowly get them back as the game progresses. The difficulty curve is intended for newcomers and yet can still provide a challenge to veteran players. At the start of a new game, you get to choose your difficulty level, which may not seem like anything new, but to have one in a Ratchet and Clank game, it certainly is.
Quest for Booty brings back some of the much loved weapons from Tools of Destruction, but not the whole collection and doesn’t include anything new. While not a problem seeing as all the weapons included are a sort of best hits album. The Cumbustor, Predator Launcher, Nano Swarmers and Tornado Launcher are just some of the weapons available. Each upgradable like last time through experience, but no purchasable upgrades are available this time round.
Basically, if you like Ratchet and Clank, but can’t wait until the next installment (around Christmas 2009 I should think), then this should tide you over. However, if you are new to the Ratchet and Clank series, then start with Tools of Destruction moving onto Quest for Booty when that is complete. All in all a great addition to an already great series and has certainly wet my appeite for the next game.
Review – Guitar Hero: World Tour – Part 1
Introduction
So, a few weeks ago (at least time of this post being published), I popped down to the local games shop and bought a little game called Guitar Hero: World Tour. I was incredibly excited, I never had a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game before (nor have I even played Rock Band, so I’ve only been able to play the guitar element) and just couldn’t wait to get it home. Even though having to look like a plank carrying the massive box with huge pictures of plastic-y instruments on it and promises of rocking out. Plus injuring myself several times trying to get the damn box home, I finally got a chance to see if the game lived up to the promises made by friends and the internet.
I wasn’t disappointed.
Review – Call of Duty: World At War
Cod 5, or Call of Duty: World at War is yet another in a long line of WW II games. As someone who has played through this war about a dozen times now, anything that does so again really needs to bring something new to the table. Unfortunately COD5 isn’t it.
Unlike COD4, World at War isn’t developed by Infinity Ward, but by their lesser other, Treyarch. It is an interesting cycle. Infinity Ward produce a new engine and an absolutely fantastic game. COD2 and COD4 have both been excellent games, yet COD3 somehow lets it down. COD3 and World at War have both been produced on the game engine that preceeded it, so in a way, two games are produced for the same engine, saving money and development time.
However, this system may sound like a good idea, but the odd games (Treyarch) always seems to be a slight disappointment. They seem rushed and just lacking compared to their predecessors. After having COD4 based in the modern era, going back to the Second World War was a disappointment. This is the main problem with the game, which is a shame seeing as all the other aspects are rather solid.
The game revolves around two main characters, fighting on two different fronts of the war. Either you take on the Japanese as the Americans in the Pacific, or you are on the Eastern Front fighting as the Russians. Like COD4, you jump back and forth between playing these two different tales, developing the story a bit more each time. Many famous battle are included, such as the Battle for Peleliu and the Battle of Stalingrad.
Mandatory vehicle, or mounted, levels are included in World at War and are probably the most interesting parts of the whole game. I also liked the short videos included before each chapter to give you a grasp of what was happening in the War up to that point. Little touches like this are an improvement over previous WWII based games, but not enough to truly make this one stand out.
Graphics are great and the game feels rather authentic. There is a rather high level of gore, especially when compared to the previous games. Peoples limbs get blown off, the wounded ragdolls, the screams; it’s all there. Just don’t play if your a little girl and have a weak stomach. Gameplay is good, though it does get a little rediculous at times, especially with taking down multiple tanks single-handedly. Veteran difficulty will give people a real challenge, but is still within the realms of possibility.
On-line is a disappointment, it’s simply the same as COD4, but just not nearly as refined. I would still keep COD4 just for the on-line as opposed to upgrading to COD5. Even the “NAZI ZOMBIE MODE,” doesn’t give on-line much to celebrate about.
Basically, if you fancy another whack at WW II, then by all means get your hands on this game. However, if you’ve done this damned war so many times now, it has nothing really new beyond that of a graphical upgrade. Just wait for Call of Duty 6, whenever Infinity Ward finish and release it.
Review – Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Motorstorm, the original that is, was a damn good game, it was challenging enough, gave a good number of hours of game-play and was worth it’s price. It also helped the justification of a, what was, a £400 games console. However it’s successor doesn’t really live up to it. A game of hard racing, big crashes and loud music. A good ol’ fashioned arcade driving game, that is easy to jump in and out of when you please.
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is that difficult second album and doesn’t live up to it’s original self-named debut title. Graphically and musically, it succeeds. The range of environments is a certain improvement over the previous installation. With 4 ‘zones,’ Earth, Air, Water and the unexpected Fire, each with 4 tracks with their own distinctive designs. The range of vehicles is now supplemented with a monster truck class, perfect for flattening the smaller vehicles if you can catch up to them!
The single-player has 96 events, broken up with speed events and eliminator. As you play you up your level and increase the number of events available to you. On-line is pretty basic, just you and 15 other drivers competing for one place at the front, there are some variations on this though, but they are all pretty much about who can get to first place and stay there.
So, why am I not a fan of this game. If Motorstorm was so great, then surely it’s next iteration with more tracks, more events, more vehicles, more of pretty much everything should be better? No, no really. Playing through 96 events which don’t vary much can get very boring, very quickly. The level of repetition is insane. Rubber band AI just aggravates the issue and when you get to the higher level events they almost become impossible to do. Just goes to show that more isn’t always better. Less races, on less tracks, but more well thought out should have been the order of the day.
The music is fantastic for this game, some really good tracks (and some bad ones too!). The likes of QOTSA, Nirvana, David Bowie, Fatboy Slim and Slipknot are just some of the artists. It has more than twice the number of tracks the previous game had, which did get very repetitive at one point.
While I don’t completely hate that game, I did enjoy it for a short while and may end up coming back to it at a later date. 4-player split-screen and a host of trophies helps to give this game some longevity, as if it really needed anymore. If you really enjoyed Motorstorm, or just like the idea of having a moderately good arcade racing game, then Motorstorm: Pacific Rift should tide you over, but you may want to consider the cheaper original (unless you already have it). But don’t feel like you need to stop playing other games to get around to it.
Review – Wipeout HD
So, Wipeout HD, a PSN title, available for the reasonable price of 15 quid. Thankfully it didn’t cost any more because I would be wanting my money back. A lot of reviews are claiming that this is a good game and for the price it is you can’t fault it, but I can.
While it naturally looks quite stunning at 1080p and 60fps, there is very little time to actually enjoy the views, with high speed racing, it can be a little overwhelming at first. Though you soon get used to it and when you do, you can truly appreciate the detail. On-line is good, though there does seem to be some lag issues and people are never where they truly are, so using weapons is a real hit and miss affair.
I am especially fond of the zone mode, many long time Wipeout fans will have great fun with this and it can be very challenging to even the most veteran player. The basic premise is that you take to one of the tracks and automatically gain speed, every 10 seconds your speed increases a little bit, oh and here’s the kicker, you can’t break, acceleration is automatic. It simply becomes a game of reactions and skill. It also gives you some time to enjoy the fantastic music selection the game comes with.
So that is multiplayer covered and arcade (racebox) style modes covered. But single-player is a real let down.
Remember back in N64 days, with Mario Kart, no matter how good you were, no matter how fast you drove. The AI was always behind you, ready to take you the instead you made the smallest of error. Rubber band AI it is called, the further behind you are, the worse they drive and the further in-front you are, the better they drive. This got very aggravating, especially in higher levels of difficulty where the AI stops being bad when you are behind and begin getting power-ups at impossible moments.
Well, Wipeout HD takes this to a whole new level. While on the easier difficulty settings, it is pretty simple to win, but on the harder dificulty settings, it becomes near impossible. You need to drive absolutly perfectly, hitting every corner and boost pad with precision. Miss one and you can’t win the race, also, if you do somehow end up in first place, expect to be hit with a barrage of weapons. I understand that this form of AI is to make the game more challenging, but always does so in a very unfair way. It completly ruins the game. It no longer becomes a racing game, it becomes a game about how to beat the designers themselves and is no longer about the game itself.
Rubber-band AI, especially the cheating kin, simply seems cheap, like designers cutting corners, all it is is a simple formula to calculate how much slower/faster the AI should go compared to your position in the field. How illusion shattering.
Overall, Wipeout HD is a pretty good game and apart from some AI issues on harder difficulty settings (which are needed to be done if you want to nail the achievements). It has great music and graphics (but then again, what doesn’t?) and the hardest trophy set to get. Thankfully the game isn’t full price, otherwise I’d tempt you away from this title unless you we’re a serious Wipeout fan (in which case why have you not bought it already?).
