Tag Archives: Imports

Games, Impressions, Xbox

Lost Planet Impressions

Leave a comment

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Lost Planet is a game that I’ve been unsure about since the demo way back at E3. I liked it and everything; I just thought that the gameplay seemed a bit basic for a next-gen game. Having taken a gamble and bought it anyway (it’s an early frontrunner for box art of the year), I have to say that what could have been a detriment is actually what I like about it so far. Reminds me of stuff like Contra and especially Bionic Commando, only great looking.

Now that developers are actually developing for next-gen platforms rather than porting games across, hopefully we’ll see more games that look this nice. It can chug during explosions when there are a lot of big enemies on screen, but not enough to harm the effect because it’s very smooth the vast majority of the time. A suspiciously Parisian town in the second level looks extremely impressive.

As I said, the game plays like an old scrolling shooter in 3D. I generally mean that in a good way, but I suppose there’s a small amount of pejorative in there. The enemies are as braindead as their old sprite-based predecessors which detracts from the human foes, even if it’s bearable for bugs. And bosses, while formidable, are a case of avoiding attacks until you can attack the (conveniently glowing) weak point for massive damage. Nothing to break the game and quibbles at most, but they’re little things that will probably keep it from greatness. Multiplayer obviously sidesteps the AI entirely, and ends up being great, raucous fun, and seems like it’ll be played beyond the staid single player.

Capcom forfeited the right to make special editions after the pointless one for Dead Rising, but it’s redeemed itself here. The tin is beautiful, and it comes with art book, exclusive multiplayer map, and a disc containing the soundtrack in MP3 format and a ton of extra artwork, wallpaper, and trailers. It’s well worth the extra £5, which isn’t usually the case with these things.

Lost Planet is definitely worth a look. I’m not entirely sold on the campaign so far, although from what I’ve played the multiplayer could be what gives it the longevity it needs.

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

GOTY Late Additions

1 Comment

It’s always a risk when deciding on your games of the year before 31st December (and especially before 25th December) that something will come along that could or should have made the list, had you only played it a month before. So instead of going back and messing with the whole list, here’s a handful of latecomers that deserve a mention and had a shout of making the list:

  • Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) – The first of two Final Fantasies, and one from back in the glory years which FFIV began a year earlier (yes, they used to make one a year). RPGs and portables often aren’t the best of bedfellows, but couple this with a Game Boy Micro and you have a top combination. A machine small enough for you to forget that you have it and a deep game that actually lets you make decent progress on the commute go together nicely, and it helps that this is one of the stronger instalments in the series. Bring on FFVI Advance in February!
  • Final Fantasy XII (PS2) – FFXI aside, this is probably the biggest breaks from the formula for a major series that I’ve ever seen. At first I wasn’t completely convinced by the MMORPG influence (MMO combat is completely inane, and the only reason to do it is because it’s with real people – why would I play it with AI characters?), but a few hours in, once you have a party and the Gambit system in place, it just clicks. Had I played it earlier this could probably have made the top five.
  • Viva Piñata (360) – If I was doing special awards this would have been a shoo-in for both surprise of the year and best game nobody played. I certainly expected it to be rubbish, but quite the contrary. Playing like a cross between The Sims and Animal Crossing (neither of which I’m a massive fan of, oddly), it’s surprisingly addictive and paced well enough that you never go long without unlocking a new Pi?ata or other item, ensuring that you have an incentive to keep playing. Best of all, it’s an Animal Crossing-style game that doesn’t use a real-time clock, so you sidestep the issue of having to go back to a weed-filled garden after a few days of downtime.

All of those are worth a look. And I’m so glad that bloody feature is out of the way for another year.

Games, Impressions, PlayStation

A Very Final Fantasy Christmas

5 Comments

I trust everyone else had an excellent Christmas.

Shockingly, I got several new games. What was surprising is that all of them, with the exception of the free copy of Uno (oddly captivating) that came with the Xbox Live Vision cam that I also got, were Final Fantasy games: Final Fantasy XII on the PS2, Final Fantasy III on DS, and Final Fantasy V Advance for GBA.

Final Fantasies

XII is an unusual one when coming from the fairly orthodox FFX. Final Fantasy XI has become the red-headed stepchild of the series and I bet whoever decided to make it a part of the normal chronology rather than a Crystal Chronicles style sidestory is living in a cardboard box somewhere now, but it’s definitely had an influence on this. In fact it is an MMORPG…just without the MO. It has an entirely different MO, in fact.

I’m shocked by how much of a departure from FFI-through-X this game is. Random battles are gone (hooray!), enemies can be seen on the map and avoided entirely like an MMORPG, and combat plays a lot like Knights of the Old Republic. And if the whole thing didn’t play enough like what is traditionally a PC genre, you can get your hands dirty with what is effectively a scripting language to control the rest of your team. It sounds weird, but that’s one system that I really like, and one that proves essential to real-time control in a game like this.

This is another one of those games that shows how much life the PS2 could have had in it. The opening town is vast, and your view isn’t constrained by prerendered backdrops and fixed cameras because the right stick lets you look anywhere. The FMV is often spectacular, voice acting is generally very strong (Migelo is a particular high point), and even the facial expressions in real-time cinematics are better than many prerendered scenes that I’ve experienced. I can’t wait to really crack on with it. Continue reading A Very Final Fantasy Christmas →

Games, Impressions, Nintendo

Zelda: Twilight Princess Impressions

1 Comment

Link and Epona

That warm feeling that Ocarina of Time gave me almost exactly eight years ago? I’ve got it again. I can’t remember the last time I started up new game and then proceeded to sit there playing it for six beautiful, uninterrupted hours. There’s nothing like a new Zelda.

Lest this turn into a gushing account, let me get the controls out of the way first. These were my main concerns about this game, especially with the GameCube version out now, and at this point I’m about 80% won over. My first concern was that they wouldn’t work but they absolutely do. Movements like a flick of the wrist to draw the sword is natural and satisfying, and aiming with the remote is a quantum leap beyond fiddling with a stick. The ability to move your hands almost completely independently while still controlling things is an unexpected pleasure, neatly avoiding a lot of potential hand cramps.

However, it’s not all roses. Combat can easily degenerate into wild flailing of the nunchuck and remote which, I suppose, isn’t much different to wild hammering of the attack buttons, only this time you’re physically waving like an idiot. It’s something that can be worked through, though. Likewise the loss of the 3D camera on the GameCube’s C-stick can be an annoyance, even if it’s reasonably effective to just tap the Z button to centre the camera behind you.

That’s really the only criticisms I can give. Technically it’s obviously not next-gen – although I’d struggle to name more than a couple of 360 and/or PS3 titles that are so artistically strong – but when it comes with such a long and satisfying quest, perfectly-pitched puzzles, and intriguing storyline. And Nintendo have really raised their game with regard to the storytelling: although voice acting is missed (by all means keep Link as the silent protagonist but your games are on DVD now – use it), an ability to direct in a cinematic fashion has been discovered. It just makes this seem like possibly the most polished Zelda yet.

So I’ve had the game since Friday and have so far clocked up just over 15 hours. The marathon sessions haven’t abated yet, and I swear that they’ve somehow coded a time warp into it. Try to play for a few minutes without it slowly stretching into hours as the game exerts its inexorable pull. It can’t be done. And as good as Okami was, it’s been outdone at the wolf-adventure-with-annoying-sidekick thing by the very game that so patently inspired it.

Games, Impressions, PlayStation

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

4 Comments

Ever since Subsistence revived my interest in the Metal Gear series, this one has been high up my wishlist. It fulfills both the need to continue the excellent Big Boss saga and the more pressing requirement for something to play on the PSP. I got my US copy this morning and, after a couple of hours spent trying to get the 3.02 firmware emulated so I wouldn’t have to upgrade, I gave it a crack.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

The immediate concern when playing this game is the control system. One of my criticisms of MGS3 was the convoluted controls and although they still take some getting used to here and are overall inferior, Kojima’s team has done some much-needed pruning. The lack of buttons eventually stops feeling limited, and I hope that the lessons learnt here are carried over to MGS4.

The 3D camera obviously doesn’t control as smoothly on a D-pad as on an analogue stick, but is still a welcome transplant from the last game. The frustration of unseen enemies is further alleviated by a permanent radar/sound sensor thingy (no worrying about battery levels) and a full map of each area on the pause menu. I still got spotted by an enemy that I missed in the first room but that was my fault for not realising how the radar worked.

The fundamental change to this game comes with the recruitment system, where each mission can be played out with a squad of four allies. Almost any enemy in the game can be recruited into your little rebellion and then their unique skills can be utilised – uniformed enemies are less conspicuous when infiltrating a base, for example – in your efforts to complete the game. It even uses the wi-fi function of the PSP to generate random recruits, meaning that just stopping in a coffee shop can yield an S-class supersoldier. I’ve taken my PSP out with me a couple of times with the sole intention of visiting a known access point to see what I can get. Continue reading Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops →

Games, Impressions, Nintendo

Having a Wii

3 Comments

My Wii

That’s the last pun, I promise.

New console aside, I haven’t felt this excited about a new game (Zelda, in this case) since Ocarina of Time back in 1998. As much as I love my other consoles nothing gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling more than a new game from Nintendo when they’re on flying form. I think it’s that je ne sais quoi that the GameCube lacked and the DS restored for me.

But alas, although I have my Wii that’ll have to wait for now. Zelda and Trauma Center are in a separate order and left earlier, so they should arrive imminently, but the delay has given me some time to fiddle with the console and included software, which is nice. Every cloud, as they say…

While both the 360 and PS3 try to out-monolith each other, Nintendo deserves credit for making what is really the only one of the three next-gen consoles to have a lot of aesthetic appeal. They know it, as well, packing in a stand to sit it vertically rather than taking the obvious opportunity to leave it out and charge a tenner for it. Add in the nice luminous slot-loading drive – the first one I’ve seen that can handle 8cm discs – and the minimalist fa?ade which beautifully complements the DS Lite and, for the first time in a while, you have a Nintendo who are trying to make their kit look cool and desirable. No Fisher Price jokes this time. Continue reading Having a Wii →