Anarchy Reigns

Will do a full review a bit down the line, but for now:

The single player, funnily enough, might as well be Madworld 2. That sucks, because I didn't like Madworld, and a lot of the same problems are carried over. The campaign is short, but requires you to replay missions to get an arbitrary number of points to play more missions. It's unsatisfying and anticlimatic, and if you want every character without getting an obscene multiplayer rank, you have to play it twice over. Not recommended for solo artists.

The multiplayer is great, though. Pretty much brings Power Stone and a bit of Smash Bros. into the full 3D space. Wide variety of characters, hectic combat, a decent amount of depth balanced with a control scheme which is easy to get into, and a variety of modes. Netcode's solid, too. At half price, it's an easy deal if you're into unconventional multiplayer.

EDIT: So here's a review of Anarchy Reigns.

Spyro 2

Not quite as good as the first game, but still great. The extended scale helped amplify the satisfaction and scale of the collectionist aspect, which is more prevalent in this franchise than it was in Crash Bandicoot. The extra variety has its own focus, but also leads to some frustrating portions of the game. Had talismans been swapped for the more flexible orbs for the entire game instead of just the last third, it might have made things a lot smoother. But still a great game, and worth paying seven or so dollars.

Also found out that the franchise had its music done by, of all people, Stewart Copeland of The Police. I've always liked the more modernised soundtrack compared to its peers, but Spyro 2 adds just enough bombast to make it even greater.

Very late, but I still feel the need to say that Heavy Rain is a splendid game, glad I picked it up to enjoy over my last week freedom from professors and exams.

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Originally Posted by Mega-Tallica

Very late, but I still feel the need to say that Heavy Rain is a splendid game, glad I picked it up to enjoy over my last week freedom from professors and exams.

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Heavy Rain is more engaging then it has any right being. :)

DmC: Devil May Cry

If you can accept that the combat has definitely slowed down and is a little less fluid, you'll have a good time. Mixing combos between different weapons is still as fun as ever. The middle of the game ramps up considerably in terms of difficulty and flair, and the game starts to get really good. It gets hard enough that I can almost forgive the stupid flashing enemies/weapons to telegraph attacks.

The story had its ups and downs. Dante himself is fine as a character; he has enough of the old stylings while having a bit more heart this time around, and without any "I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with LLLAAAAAIIIIIGGGGHHTTTTT!!!" to mess up the heartfelt moments. The most tense mission of the game is one where you don't even fight for half of it. Brilliant.

However, the backstory is explained way too quickly, the internal logic regarding Limbo is a bit inconsistent and the final plot twist is both out of nowhere and stupidly telegraphed. There's also a part where Dante somehow messes up where he's meant to be going, which is one of the most laughable moments in writing ever. That it can go from great emotions to silly contrivances pretty quickly is a sign of how the development changed over time, I imagine.

It was fairly short, but at least it didn't repeat any bosses this time around. In fact, there needed to be more. The last two, which should have been climactic, were pretty underwhelming.

Still, overall, I liked it. The essence of the combat is still there, the visual flair is astounding and circumvents a lot of the old UE3 traps and the writing, while inconsistent as hell, works when it gets it right. I'd put it above the demeaning DMC2 and the obtuse DMC 4, but it's still a ways behind 1, 3 or Bayonetta, and it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in a month.


Devil May Cry 2

Clunky controls, clingy camera, insulting difficulty and very short. Not just bad for a DMC, bad full stop.

So, I got three of my friends hooked on Skyrim. Two of them bought it, but on PS3, so I keep mentioning things that are in the various DLCs, and then remembering that PS3 still doesn't have them. My other bud is always asking me to play his file on my Xbox.

I'm normally not big on shoot 'em ups, especially "bullet hell" games, but Sine Mora is hitting the right buttons so far.

We're probably gonna start the new Borderlands 2 DLC tonight. Based on what I've heard and seen, I'm expecting more disappointment and validation that 99.9% of the non-HMX DLC being sold simply isn't worth my time and money.

I've been playing The Ratchet and Clank collection... Well its more of a joint operation between me and some friends. We just kind of let the kids play together while we play Ratchet and Clank and relive our lost childhoods. This also reminded us we never used to be cool.

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Originally Posted by Gowienczyk

Heavy Rain is more engaging then it has any right being. :)

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I don't really agree, I think it has a superficial narrative and above all, poor gameplay. I'm not saying I hate it, but it's not a game I appreciate so much for those reasons.

The narrative is an unmemorable story of the investigation for an unmemorable character. It has no ambiguity, no depth and no originality. I'm repeating what many critics have said, but if this was a movie, it would have gone completely under the radar.

It's not a movie, however, it's a game, and therefore I shouldn't judge it the same way. However, the gameplay is so shallow and meaningless that it's hard to look at it as a game. The actions required from you are complex, as if the game simulated those actions, but they are only vaguely reminiscent of the actual actions. The gameplay itself tells nothing of the narrative except that it was meant as an interactive movie. Where the gameplay succeeds is when the scenario branches off when you make a mistake or when you do not succeed an action. However, giving the player a simple choice between a course of action or another and actually restricting the player to those choices with gameplay is limiting and makes the player aware of the underlying script; everytime you're given a choice, you realize that this story is not really yours, it's just one of the branches of a complex scenario. Of course that wouldn't be necessarily bad.

Cinema, theater, litterature and probably other mediums all have tools to make you realize that the medium is manipulating you into believing something and feeling a certain way. I know in cinema and theater they're called Brechtian devices. Those are very important and meaningful tools, but they rely on the asumption that the audience is completely absorbed in the narrative and therefore is not critical enough of it. A video game like Heavy Rain is not quite there yet, and I'd argue that the medium on a whole still has a lot of work to do before it reaches a point where Brechtian devices will be necessary.

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Originally Posted by BohemianMatt

So, I got three of my friends hooked on Skyrim. Two of them bought it, but on PS3, so I keep mentioning things that are in the various DLCs, and then remembering that PS3 still doesn't have them. My other bud is always asking me to play his file on my Xbox.

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I really hope your ps3 bros don't also have a 360 or PC that can play Skyrim because if they do they made a horrible decision.