A lot of things came to mind when I was trying to decide how best to describe the upcoming action game Wet. Mirror's Edge with weapons. A more polished, agile version of Bloodrayne. Kill Bill, starring Eliza Dushku.
But in any case a demo is now available on Xbox Live, so you can decide for yourself, and if you're at all into action games it's more than worth the download. The demo is broken up into three levels, each of which shows off a different aspect of the gameplay.
The first has you exploring the 1970s pulp-flavored world. And by "exploring," I mean doing slow-motion backflips while unleashing a hail of hot lead on a street full of enemies; wall-running through levels and dismembering bad guys; and running up people's chests, springing into the air, and unloading your dual pistols on them from above. It's almost impossible to be killed, so the emphasis is squarely on performing the moves with as much style as possible, which is a lot of fun.
The second level shows off the main character Rubi's Rage mode, which turns the entire screen into something resembling a really gory ipod commercial. When in Rage mode, you shoot and slash your way through more enemies faster - like some sort of blender of death - with blood and body parts filling the screen until it's almost impossible to see. Which isn't a problem since basically all you have to do when in this mode is mash buttons and watch the destruction unfold.
The final level in the demo lets you play through a car-surfing section, in which Rubi leaps from roof to roof as the automobiles swerve through traffic and enemies take potshots at her from passing cars. It's not nearly as difficult as it sounds: For the most part, it involves sitting perched on a car roof, firing at enemies, until you're prompted to hit a button to jump elsewhere, a la Dragon's Lair. As long as you hit the button in time, it's all good.
I was alread excited about the game, but after playing the demo it's easily one of my most anticipated titles of the year. Wet hits shelves Sept. 15.
If you're invited to a party, and someone happens to mention whipping out their copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 because it's a party game ... well, you better bail on that party quick. Inform them that you just learned that your aunt's second cousin twice removed just died and you must report to the family compound immediately or you'll miss out on your inheritance. Or just leave, fast, without explanation, move and don't leave a forwarding address. Because Fuzion Frenzy is just that awful.
This second installation of the Fuzion Frenzy franchise ensured that there would be no Fuzion Frenzy 3, despite game developers' love of franchise games. It was poorly received by a public expecting a fun, light party game because it stunk on so many levels. Here are some reasons you'd be better served reading "War and Peace" than taking up FF2, (besides a good book being better for your intellect, of course):
Main Quest. I can think of a few good adjectives to describe the Main Quest portion of this game. Unwieldy. Rigid. Sucky. Craptacular. But let's get beyond juvenile namecalling despite the fact that the Main Quest has very little in the way of redeeming values. The fun is just very hard to find here in this insipid pseudo gameshow. For instance, players have very little control of the flow of the tournament, just forced along a very strict path determined largely by the caprice of the emcee and the silly playing card sidegame -- a cheap and unnecessary barrier to success. Players also often find themselves playing some of the lousiest conceived minigames in the game, cursing their luck as well as the developers. Minigames like Ice Sculpture, which involves melting the ice around a sculpture with a water hose, were truly lousy and impossible to conquer, even at the lowest difficulty level. Other minigames like Don't Sink the Boat are just too insipid for me to give a flip.
Also, in order to unlock a couple of the more fun games -- like Sumo Paint -- you must win the Main Quest with all the characters. Like, ugh.
Art style. Gone is the Jet Set Radio Future art style of the first game in favor of some futuristic, planet-hopping theme, with battle armor, all of which just leaves me cold as Icicle, the ice planet. Yep, the developers were really creative on this one.
The Emcee. That voice. Those cheesy remarks, over and over. "Viewers across the universe are glued to this battle." No, they are not. So very not. Luckily, you do get the option to turn down the sound, but still, demerits for him even being in the game with his futuristic clown suit and pink pants. Next time they want an emcee with a futuristic yet flamboyant touch, I'd much prefer the annoying, whiny comedy relief guy from the Fifth Element.
POV. The POV makes the player feel like they are playing this game from a great distance away, so it's hard to get immersed in the game, even if you wanted to. And it's hard to succeed at the minigames because it's hard to see what you're doing at times since you are playing from such a distance away.
Gamespot has just posted the latest video developer diary for Champions Online, a game in which you create a custom super hero and go online to show off your super powers alongside other player-controlled heroes, World of Warcraft-style.
The game is scheduled to be released simultaneously on PC and Xbox 360 later this year. See more about the game at the official site.
Bomberman Live on the Xbox is a fun, family-friendly little game, if you don't mind your children talking about blowing stuff up. But right now I'm suffering from a bit of Bomberman overload because my son loves it so much.
Why it rocks:
Customizable. There's a great deal of character customization in the form of outfits unlockable through gameplay. You can make your bomber a princess, a cheerleader, a punk, a football player, a mage or a superhero Or you can be mental and mix 'em up, creating your own superhero cheerleader mage. Or football player cheerleader punk.
In addition, you have your choice of what powerups you can make available and what type of game you want to play -- including an intense zombie version in which characters are immortal, and whoever owns the most squares wins. Just when you think you have the game in hand -- boom! You die, all your colored squares disappear, and you are resurrected with the added disadvantage of being stripped of all your powers with the time ticking down.
Enjoyable gameplay. This is a direct result of the customization. It's a blast to blast your AI and player opponents in a variety of ways, aided by a variety of powerups, and in a variety of arenas.
It's not Fusion Frenzy 2. Hudson Entertainment, the creators of Bomberman 2, pretty much killed the esteemed Fusion Frenzy franchise by making 2 so incredibly lousy, with a ridiculous tournament mode that included a silly playable card system. But I shouldn't rant about that here. Bomberman Live is luckily not that game, though my son also loves Fusion Frenzy 2. What is it about Hudson Entertainment games that my son loves so much?
Cute art style and ambiance. The arenas and characters are very cartoonish, including a space level and an ice level, with environmental challenges specific to each arena. The experience is rounded out with cartoonish explosions and cartoonish powerups you gather up during the round. Watch out for the fully powered-up dangerous bomb! The fun retro synthy gameplay music adds to the spirit of the game. However, if you stay on the same arena for an extended period of time, the synth music can get stale, much the way it did back in the days of Mario.
What's wrong with it:
Playing it too darn much. After a while, planting bombs and running around like a mouse in a maze over and over and over just gets old. So very, very old. Like reality TV.
Each Wednesday for the past few weeks, I've counted down my favorite 25 titles from throughout the 30 years I've been playing video games. The rankings are more personal than objective - it's not just how well-made, fun, or groundbreaking they were at the time, but also how much nostalgia they inspire for me personally.
At first glance, the first NCAA Football game for Xbox was simply a way to immerse myself into the world of college football like never before. I could stage my own Iron Bowl any time of the day or night, complete with TV-style presentation, chanting fans, fight songs, and play-by-play from ESPN Gameday's commentary team.
I could also play as any 1A school like Troy, plus several of the smaller universities like Alabama State.
Then I got into prep athlete recruiting during the offseason. Everything's a blur after that - a blur of scouting and giving pitches to athletes until the wee hours of the morning, trying to land that one blue chipper who could turn my program around. And then excitedly trying out my new toys on my first opponent of the following season, watching my freshman RB run roughshod over their defense. No experience I've ever had in video games has been as addictive as recruiting in NCAA Foootball 2003.
I forgot what the sun looked like. And my wife.
4. Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - Jan. 2001
As the first online console RPG, everything about this game was magic, from the silky smooth, space-age interface to the trance-inducing background music.
One of my most memorable moments in gaming is the first time I met a longtime friend from high school online and hacked and slashed through the futuristic levels alongside him. There was no voice chatting in the game - only a keyboard interface, emoticons, and shortcuts to quick phrases like "Hi." But that somehow made people's natural personalities come through even more clearly. We met new friends, and shared laughs and adventures. We discovered rare treasures, explored the game world together, and formed bonds.
In the dying days of the Dreamcast, this game introduced the world to the best aspects of the social experience that people would become hooked on years later in games like Everquest and World of Warcraft.
3. Rock Band (Xbox 360) - Nov. 2007
I was skeptical when I read that a music/rhythm game would be released alongside a complete set of instruments - guitar, mic, and drums.
Thirty seconds into the first song I wasn't skeptical anymore. Two years later, not only am I still playing, my whole family plays the game regularly (see embedded video below).
Playing this game with a group almost feels like discovering multiplayer for the first time. It's an entirely new level of interacting with other players and with your favorite songs. You can even fool yourself into thinking you look cool while doing it.
How good is it? It turned us into the Partridge Family.
2. Hardball! (Commodore 64) - 1985
Hardball! for the Commodore 64 was fifteen years ahead of its time in gameplay and presentation when it came out in the mid-1980s.
It featured two full rosters, complete with bench players, that could be mixed and matched. The pitching and hitting interface felt impossibly perfect - better than some baseball games 25 years later - and the gameplay as a whole was perfectly balanced. You could play with a friend or take on the computer, and both were equally satisfying.
Even today I can watch gameplay videos of Hardball! and I desperately want to start playing. No sports game since has come close in terms of capturing my imagination the way this one did.
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox) - July 2003
The most well-written story in the history of the Star Wars franchise never appeared on the big screen. It was here, on this game disc.
This sweeping, epic tale of alliances and betrayals, romance and tragedy centered on you, or, specifically, the character you created at the beginning of this action/role-playing game. In the years before The Phantom Menance, you man a Millenium Falcon-type ship and journey across a series of worlds, train to become a Jedi, avoid (or battle... or join with) the Sith, and ultimately decide the course of the galaxy.
Gameplay plays out in cinematic fashion, featuring a revolutionary mix exploration, strategy, and real-time combat that is easy for anyone to pick up and play. You interact with other characters through dialogue choices that can change the story, and that dialogue itself plays out in some of the best ensemble voice acting in gaming history.
But the story is the star, and it features the perfect mix of poignant and moving subplots, truly smart and surprising twists, and hilariously irreverent comedy ("I did it all for the Wookies").
It's a game that's compatible with Xbox 360, and my wife and I are currently playing through again. I've lost count of how many times we've finished it, but I doubt this play-through will be the last.
Family Game Night: Your favorite board games look pretty good in pixels
My 5-year-old son and I are big Family Game Night fans, playing an assortment of famous board games on our console, much to the chagrin of the traditional gamer of the household, who thinks playing a board game on a video game system is buying a Winnebago and only taking it on short trips to the grocery store.
Boggle, Connect Four and Battleship are the games we’ve purchased so far, but others like Scrabble, Yahtzee and Sorry are also available. A few reasons why this is a popular game option in our household:
Small commitment. Depending on the settings, each game lasts only a few minutes.
No hunting for the games in a crowded bedroom closet. *Insert overly dramatic shots of a frustrated family member searching in vain for something in a closet, only to have an avalanche of books and clothes fall on their heads.* Games like Boggle, Battleship, and Connect Four are conveniently stored on your console’s hard drive if you have the XBOX 360 or on a DVD disc if you have a Wii or PS3.
Remember how the little plastic missiles would always get lost, one by one, in the board game version of Battleship? This was particularly a problem with the travel-sized Battleship board game, because there was a whole in the game that allowed the game pieces to slip out. Not a problem with the video game version.
More adaptability.You can customize the game experience to include different versions of the same game, which gives these classic games new life. For instance, Battleship’s salvo mode allows each player to shoot as many shots as the number of ships he or she has. This speeds up gameplay, enlivening the experience. Add some special Battleship bombs and torpedos, some superpowered chips in Connect Four, and it's not the same old game anymore.
Party mode. My son is a bigger fan of this than I am. Party mode is like a game in itself. It creates several minigames of widely varying quality based on the Family Game Night games you have. I wish we had more control over the kinds of minigames we’re given. For instance, there’s a Battleship minigame where you must match the ship layout given. Unless you're 5 years old, this is lame.
My Room.The My Room feature allows players to earn new furniture and accessories by playing the game, which they then display in their virtual room. While not revolutionary, it is still neat, although a bit buggy at times. The game has locked up quite a few times here. I’ve learned to wait a few second for it to load completely before advancing through the various knick-knacks.
Mr. Potato Head. He adds a bit more life to what could be a screen devoid of anything remotely humanish. Plus, he doesn't have a voice, so he's not like the annoying announcer guy in Fusion Frenzy 2. He does more physical comedy like Harpo Marx, celebrating when you win, falling asleep at various intervals, and looking shocked when something bad happens. And he has a cool bubble jetpack.
My one complaint: The Boggle interface is a little troublesome. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to direct the joystick to the right letters, which costs a little time. But it’s not a bit enough distraction to stop me from playing it --- over and over and over.
Each Wednesday I'll be counting down my favorite 25 titles from throughout the 30 years I've been playing video games. The rankings are more personal than objective - it's not just how well-made, fun, or groundbreaking they were at the time, but also how much nostalgia they inspire for me personally.
Nearly 10 years before Wolfenstein and nearly 20 years before Halo, this 3D role playing game for Intellivision pioneered elements that would help to create what's now known as the first person shooter genre.
It used the technology, which is impossibly primitive by today's standards, to create a convincing 3D world in which you could roam and explore at your own pace, fighting skeletons, giant scorpions, and so on with a variety of Lord of the Rings-style weapons. As you progressed, you would discover more valuable loot and more powerful and armor and weapons, which tapped into the addictive collecting vibe that would later become the lifeblood of games like Diablo and Everquest.
Looking back, you can admire it for its innovation, despite how basic it looks. But at the time it was released, it was magic - so much more than a video game. It was like entering another world.
9. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360) - March 2006
Quite possibly the most immersive game ever created, the scope and detail of Oblivion is just staggering.
You create a character and explore the lush fantasy world at your own pace, following the main storyline, or ignoring it altogether in favor of the hundreds upon hundreds of inventive side stories - from discovering long-lost antiques to entering a man's dreams to rescue him from his nightmares. There are hundreds of places to visit and thousands of people to meet, each with his or her own interesting and often surprising tales, mysteries, and quests to discover.
When combined with the amazingly convincing ambient audio, voice acting, and beautiful orchestral music, it creates a feeling not unlike reading a really good book. Except that here it's a more visual, visceral experience, and you can shape the story as you go.
It's also a nearly neverending experience. After 200 hours of playing, you're just starting to scratch the surface.
8. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (3D0) - 1994
It's amazing to consider all of the ways in which this epic space opera broke new ground: -Full-motion video that featured a Hollywood cast with some serious geek cred, including Mark Hamill ("Star Wars" trilogy), John Rhys-Davies ("Lord of the Rings" trilogy), Malcolm McDowell ("A Clockwork Orange"), Tom Wilson (Biff from the "Back to the Future" trilogy), and more. -Actors interacting in front of a green screen, with computer-generated backgrounds added in post production... years before movies employed the same effect -It was one of the first games ever to use 3D polygon graphics and incorporated voice work from the actors during the space action sequences -Dialogue choices let you decide how you want Mark Hamill's character act and, through that, change the events of the story
The acting was just the right mix of camp and earnest, compelling drama, and the space combat itself was very well balanced and felt urgent because of the way it was wrapped in full motion video presentation. If someone died during a mission, there was a full-motion video funeral for that character, complete with reactions from their crewmates.
As you might expect, it felt like less than a "video game" at the time and closer to the tagline of "interactive movie." You cared about the characters and the plot, and felt like every moment was important. It says a lot about the title that 15 years later, I've still never played another game that felt that way.
7. Mass Effect (Xbox 360) - Nov. 2007
It feels in a way like a descendant of Wing Commander III, but this more recent sprawling, epic sci-fi RPG was impressive in a different way. The sheer size, depth, and cinematic production quality is just overwhelming. After some time away from the game, it's easy to forget just what an experience it is.
Each time you create a new lead character - male or female, combat or tech focused, "biotic" power-infused or a jack-of-all-trades - it feels like you have an entirely new game ahead of you. The combat mechanics play out in real time from a third-person shooter POV but allow you to pause and set strategies at your own pace, which is unfailingly satisfying.
The production quality and level of immersion create a feel of "role playing" via dialogue choices and how you form (or destroy) relationships. And people. I almost want to create every possible character type and take each one through the game so that I'll have them all on hand, with their own look, background, personality and story, for the sequel. And because this game is just so deep and so involving, I feel like it would be just as fun on the 10th play-through as it was on the second or third.
6. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) - Oct. 2008
Bethesda followed "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" with this post-apocalyptic, first-person action/RPG.
It's a world full of burnt-out shacks draped in neon and Christmas lights, where mutated humans and animals battle over food and shelter while the remnants of government wage a larger battle for control of the wasteland. Your character roams this collision of 1980s movie concepts, armed to the teeth and ready to dispense justice - or injustice.
The game's wealth of subplots and people and locations and side quests, allow you to shape not just your own character but the future of humanity in ways that are creative and involving. It's a study in contrasts: A setting that is monsterous and twisted but somehow beautiful, stories that can be bleak but can also be surprisingly uplifting.
And it's almost impossible to stop playing.
Coming next Wednesday: The Five Best Games Of All Time
There are two things coming out this week: Madden 10 and everything else.
Some area stores plan to have midnight sales Thursday night for Madden fans who just can't wait to buy it Friday. What they're buying is a shiny new football title that features (among other things) online co-operative play and a new broadcast-style presentation with things like pregame ceremonies, trophy presentations, and a postgame show.
Not an NFL fan? The good news is we're roughly a month away from the beginning of the holiday release season, when an avalanche of highly anticipated games will start coming out every week across all genres.
Each Wednesday I'll be counting down my favorite 25 titles from throughout the 30 years I've been playing video games. The rankings are more personal than objective - it's not just how well-made, fun, or groundbreaking they were at the time, but also how much nostalgia they inspire for me personally.
This was the first real party game that I played on a home console, and it showed me just how fun it could be to play with a group of friends.
You and your friends could pick a "sponsor" for your athlete like Ocean Pacific or Santa Cruz, then compete in a series of events like half-pipe skateboarding, surfing, and frisbee. Gameplay was simple but immersive - a great formula for a fun party game - and the colorful presentation was inviting to new players. Sure it was simplistic, but that only inspired us to add our own personal touches in how we played, and invent imaginary signature moves like "The Totally Tubular" or "The Santa Cruz Missile."
As a young teenager in the 1980s, nothing could beat a summer night with a couple of friends, a Dominos pizza, and a copy of California Games.
14. WWF Smackdown (Playstation) - 2000
Let's face it, pro wrestling is basically theater meets video game in real life, particularly when it comes to the WWE, and this was the first video game to really capture that.
It was the first with all of the personality and bigger-than-life feel of the WWE, from the broadcast style to the perfectly captured finishing moves - even the entrances were thrilling. And it happened to be released at the height of "sports entertainment's" popularity, when characters like The Rock and Triple H were still young up-and-comers.
Its neverending season mode let you vie for the belt, win it, and defend it as long as you wanted; and unlike future games in the series, it allowed your imagination to fill in the gaps instead of forcing you down a linear path with overwritten plotlines.
13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Xbox) - Aug. 2002
Sure, it helps that I was a fan of the show, and this game perfectly replicates the feel and style of its early seasons. But that aside, it's simply one of the best action games I've ever played, seamlessly mixing addictive hand-to-hand and weapon-based combat with Tomb Raider-style exploration. Best of all, it comes wrapped in the TV series' trademark wit and tongue-in-cheek humor.
Presented as a "lost episode" from season 3 of the show, it features voice acting from all of the major actors as well as its spinoff, "Angel," minus Sarah Michelle Gellar (and, honestly, the Buffy voice actor who appears in the game is an upgrade in some ways). Zombie, vampire, and hellhound smackdowns are broken up by scenes in which you can trade hilarious Buffy-style dialogue with the other members of the gang.
Combat is innovative and evolving, allowing you to smash apart a chair and use its leg to stake a vampire, or snatch up a shovel and spin it helicopter-style to decapitate a zombie. That's mixed with some light puzzle-solving and platforming.
On top of that, a secret code allowed you to play through the story mode with up to three friends, who could take control of the enemies in each scene and try to kill the slayer. Few gaming moments come close to the time I used a pole to shishkebab three friend-controled vampires and dust them all at once as Buffy rattled off a one-liner like "Oops! Did I do that?"
Gamespot's Ryan MacDonald has an excellent and comprehensive video review of the game here. The game is backwards compatible, so you can play it on an Xbox 360.
12. Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs (Genesis) - 1991
These days sports gamers take things like accurate player performance and true-to-life rosters for granted. But it all started here.
When Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs was released (originally in 1989 for PCs), the idea of playing as Michael Jordan was still a dream. Not only did this game let you do that, it let you use a Jordan signature dunk as well as signature moves from other NBA players. Some were convincing; others were hilariously overpowered. The Phoenix Suns' Tom Chambers could not only consistently score from anywhere on the court, his signature move was a dunk from the 3-point line. My friends and I quickly banned each other from using him in multiplayer games.
It only included the playoff and all-star teams, but its arcade/sim gameplay, recognizable players, and broadcast-style touches like a halftime show with highlights from other games made this a glimpse of the future of EA Sports.
11. NFL 2K (Dreamcast) - Nov. 1999
One Saturday in late November of 1999, I walked into a local Electronics Boutique. I glanced up and saw that the Patriots and Colts were playing on a TV over the counter. I watched a minute or two then walked over and told the clerk that I didn't know there was a game on today. He said "It's a video game." I left the store with a Dreamcast and a copy of NFL 2K.
In a football game world that was dominated at the time by old-school Madden, it was a total revolution. It featured true broadcast-style presentation with convincing motion-captured animations, groundbreaking graphics, and a very entertaining and convincing commentary team.
The series would continue to break new ground by going online the following year, allowing you to play football against other Dreamcast players over the internet.
The 2K series survived the death of the Dreamcast, and within five years it would become a serious threat to the Madden series on multiple consoles, initiating a price war that led both series to sell for under $40... so Madden publisher Electronic Arts bought the exclusive NFL license, eliminated their competition, and again raised the price of Madden.
It's unfortunate for gamers everywhere that two of the top 25 all-time sports game franchises: NFL 2K and MVP Baseball were killed off by league exclusivity deals, and replaced by competing franchises (Madden and MLB 2K respectively) that were not as good.
Coming next Wednesday: The Top 25 - Games 10 through 6
Here's the viral video that's making the rounds for Wet, the Bethesda (Fallout 3) shooter starring Eliza Dushku. It is quite possibly the greatest thing I have ever seen. (The video, that is. Though the actress is way up on the list too.)
Bomberman Live on the Xbox is a fun, family-friendly little game, if you don't mind your children talking about blowing stuff up. But right now I'm suffering from a bit of Bomberman overload because my son loves it so much.
