Sin and Punishment: Star Successor Review - Punishment Achieved

Sin And Punishment: Star Successor for the Wii is the answer to the cries that Nintendo does not make games for the hardcore anymore, aiming to only please the "Wii Fit" crowd. The sequel to Sin And Punishment: Successor Of The Earth (which was only released in Japan, but carried a cult following in the U.S.), players assume the role of Isa or Kachi and mow down enemies as Isa attempts to protect Kachi from a group called the Nebulox, who were sent by The Creators to kill Isa for betraying their wishes (who sent Isa to kill Kachi). The focus is not the story, but the insane amount of action that happens on screen.

Loved:
+Bullet Hell/Rail Hell At Its Finest - Although Cave is considered the company that sits on the throne of the bullet hell genre, Treasure is responsible for creating what is widely considered to be the golden child of bullet hell games with Ikaruga (plugging it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j94vB5hf28w). Now, admittedly, I never played the first Sin And Punishment, which was released for the Nintendo 64. And after playing this, I knew that playing the original was not needed in order to understand how solid the sequel was. The game has you controlling Isa or Kachi, both of which have various styles of firing their weapon. Like in Star Fox, you shoot towards the back ground as enemies come at you, firing insane amounts of bullets. There is never a feeling like doing the impossible in a bullet hell game, when somehow you are dodging every single bullet shot at you with 2% health remaining. Take note to that feeling, because this game is absolutely punishing. Very few games make you want to throw a controller at the wall like this.

With that said, Treasure really outdid itself making the bullet hell transition to 3D seamless. You never get the feeling that you misread the depth of a shot because the game had "tricked you" as to where it was. The game creates a world that realizes the insanity of a top down bullet hell shooter pulled off in multiple dimensions.

+Dynamic Styling - Every now and then in the game, the perspective of the camera will switch and have you attacking the level as a side scroller, or even as a Gyruss style shooter. This shakes up the formula pretty well and kept me from losing engagement with the action, which, for most people, ends up happening with most shooters by the 7th or 8th levels.

+Well Implemented Controls - I am usually opposed to the nunchuck combo with the Wii, but Sin and Punishment really implemented the style well, and I prefer it to using a classic controller for once. The nunchuck allows you to move and dodge, while the Wiimote aims and fires. Pressing Z repeatedly causes a melee combo, and A allows you to charge up your "special shot." Isolating the controls out like this allows for some insane micro-multitasking, which is required to survive in bullet hell games. Also - melee attacks need to be included in bullet hell shooters from here on out. This became one of the most interesting elements once utilized correctly, and added a layer of strategy to the game.

+Big, Bad, Burly, Buff Bosses - I gotta admit, one of my favorite moments in games is epic boss fights, and this game is loaded with them. Unfortunately, it's hard to me to expand on this without spoiling parts of the game, but what I can say is that the sheer size and scope of these battles amazed me - even the sub bosses give way to the feeling of a huge showdown.

+Environments - Never once did I play a level and wonder if I felt a sort of "sameness" to them. Each level is drastically different - one places you in a dark forest with nothing but a small shroud of light, another has you underwater, and each environment presented comes to life by the talents of Treasure's design team, whether through the usage of downtrodden buildings in a war zone or plant and marine left caught in the middle of a shoot out.

Hated:
-Weak plot - For such an interesting concept, they really did not take it much farther than a "survive and kill" plot. I was really expecting some decent twist, but I guess, with the bullet hell genre already lacking in real plotlines, I had my expectations set way too high for that.

Treasure created a great game to inspire the bullet hell transition to 3D, as most of the genre still sits in the 2D realm. Through patience and reflexes, the real reward comes from letting the game teach you how to beat it; and for the brutality that Sin And Punishment throws at you, the reward couldn't be sweeter. I can't recommend this game enough if you're into rail or bullet hell shooters like Ikaruga, Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, or Espgaluda.

Played through the game on Normal with Isa and Kachi separately, attempted to complete the game on Hard with Kachi.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Revisited.

For the past five nights, we have had Halo LAN parties. Not Halo 3, not Halo Reach, not even Halo 2.

Halo: Combat Evolved.

The idea spawned while I was reminiscing about my first LAN game - I had ran a 100 foot cable from one room to another at my dad's house, and we played a 2v2 Capture The Flag match on Blood Gulch. As more people started picking up the Xbox/Halo combo, more system link matches started happening. Soon, they became a weekly activity. 4v4 matches on Blood Gulch, Slayer matches on Hang 'Em High, Oddball at Battle Creek...

When Halo 2 was released, these stopped. No one wanted to do them anymore. We had tried it once or twice, but we were just not into it. LAN parties ceased to exist by the third release. So what happened? What made Halo:CE so addictive compared to the other releases?

-Speed: Halo:CE is the slowest game in the series. Players run slower, stay in the air when jumping longer, and vehicles tend to take more time to really pick up speed. This gives players the advantage to formulate strategies to really make a clean get away in CTF games instead of simply pulling a "speed capture" that games like Quake and Unreal were so famous for in the late '90s. Tracking players and aiming were easier thanks to the speed of the engine. Casual gamers who really sank their teeth into Halo:CE never seemed to be able to catch up in Halo 2 and 3.
-The Pistol: There is a weapons section further down, but the pistol from Halo:CE deserves its own section. If given the choice to keep one gun throughout the entire series, I can say with the utmost certainty that a vast majority of players would have kept the pistol from Halo:CE. They have tried to substitute it, retweak, etc. The pistol has never been the same - either the gun was weaker or the essential scope was removed, which made the gun so appealing to use in the first place. Most FPS's have the memorable gun - Quake 3's rail gun, Half Life 2's Gravity Gun, Doom's BFG9000 - and Halo's pistol tends to always make the list.
-Map Addiction: I can't even begin to figure this one out. Players have an attachment to the Halo:CE maps - even writing off the remakes as borderline bad. My group played one game of CTF on Halo 2's remake of Blood Gulch and immediately demanded a switch to the "real Blood Gulch." Despite the map being largely the same, it was not Halo:CE. This applied to the remakes of Hang 'Em High and Battle Creek. To me, there has to be a nostalgic factor being worked in. Most people remember ramping off the hills in front of the base with a Warthog and plowing 3 opponents at once and running off with the flag. These memories don't seem to be attached to any of the new maps.
-Weapons: This can be pretty debatable depending on your stance, but from what I have personally seen, players have an affinity towards the original weapons, even as misbalanced as some of them are, and call some of the newer weapons "cheap" - for example, some gamers that I associate with think that the energy sword in the second game is "cheap" (which, oddly enough, never gets brought up during Halo 3). I am in the Halo 3 camp when it comes to the weapons due to vast variety and my favorite weapon of the series, the Spartan Laser.
-Campaign: Halo has one of the most unforgettable campaign modes ever created for a console shooter. Halo 3 comes reasonably close, while Halo 2 is a long, long way down near the bottom (especially with the ending). Clever AI for the time, compelling storyline, well-implemented cooperative play, and a fantastic cast sealed the top honors for Halo:CE. Sure, flaws existed - levels were repeated and the Flood were beyond annoying - but these are less than minor when compared to the grand scheme of the game, and the Flood is easy to forget when you remember the first time driving the Warthog across the levels, or taking down your first Banshee from the sky with a rocket.
-Simple Nostalgia: Although this has been referenced many times in the post, I need to hit on it once more. Ever wonder why Perfect Dark sold only a quarter of GoldenEye's sales, despite being vastly superior? Nostalgia. People had attachment to GoldenEye; to try to shake them away from that and alienate them over to the successor was next to impossible. Similarly, Halo 1 has a similar problem. While each Halo sold better than the last, most people reference the LAN parties that they had with friends from the first one and how deadly that pistol was.

In relation to this, I have a lot of hope in Halo: Reach. There was a lot of the feel that Halo:CE had that definitely felt retained, while adding a lot of new elements to experiment with; with armor that allows for usage of invisibility, jetpacks, etc., new modes outside of your standard CTF, Oddball, Slayer, etc., and a slower pace, I'm starting to have faith again in where this series is headed. LAN parties may not be able to happen once every week like they did, but as long as the magic is still there, I can't be disappointed.

BioShock 2 Review - The Reaping Of Rapture Ideals

Loved:
+Atmosphere and Design: Rapture has made some changes in the ten year span between the predecessor and the sequel, and while there are familiar locations and the sense of new discovery has worn off, there are environments and characters that just spill creativity all over the game. Ryan Amusement's Museum comes to mind immediately, as Ryan narrates Rapture history with the same snarling tone from the original Bioshock through a prerecorded message box.
+Adam Gathering: Saving Little Sisters can grab you some ADAM, but you can take it a step farther and gather ADAM off of dead bodies by sending the little sisters to harvest the corpse full of ADAM. Once she starts, the game turns into a first person tower defense game - you set up a defensive parameter with turrets, traps, and bombs while enemies come streaming through multiple doorways attempting to kill you and the Little Sister. Some of these standoffs are the best firefights in the entire game.
+Big Sister Fights: I would argue for this reason alone that Bioshock 2 must be played with headphones. The shriek of the Big Sister is one of the most terrifying noises in any game ever created. They have successfully created a successor to the suspense and intensity of the Big Daddy fights, which now feel like second nature.
+Better Conclusion: Let's face it; the ending of Bioshock was a let down of an ending. The conclusion of Bioshock had nowhere near the pacing that the rest of the game did, and the final boss felt like a forced, cliche "overgrown antagonist" battle, which went against the design that the game laid out beforehand. Bioshock 2 wraps up the story well, answering most of the questions from both games while never feeling like the game truly went out of the zone that it created.
+Storyline: Bioshock 2 puts the story into a microscope, looking at the family of Rapture as a family and the relationships between the Big Daddies and the Little Sisters, instead of the society of Rapture as a whole. As the first prototype Big Daddy revived from the dead 10 years later, you are looking for the Little Sister that you had lost before you were killed. The Little Sister happens to be Eleanor Lamb, the daughter of Sophia Lamb, who is the leader of Rapture. One of the most interesting aspects of the story is that Bioshock 2 uses the same roles and settings as Bioshock 1, yet tells a completely different story.
+Characterization: I would argue that Bioshock 2 has a better cast this time around. Subject Delta, Eleanor Lamb, and Augustus Sinclair are characters that feel real and affected to the chaos of Rapture, and help add a lot of depth to the growing Bioshock universe. What needs to be mentioned, however, is the absolutely stunning job that 2K Marin did with Sophia Lamb. I have no problem saying that I consider Lamb to be a superior character than Andrew Ryan was. Lamb focuses on what the community of Rapture can do together, instead of Ryan's philosophy that man should value his work as his own and no one else's. Because of this, Lamb's dialogue is much more personal than Ryan's and much of what she says hit home with my own thoughts and feelings on the human condition. Which leads me to...
+Dialogue: Fantastic, outstanding, unbelievable, etc. Just like the original, this game is a thinking man's game when it comes to the conversations between you and the rest of Rapture. Eleanor Lamb's description of love near the end of the game is one of the most memorable lines in gaming that I have heard in a long time.
+Multiplayer: Like anyone else, I was skeptical about the decision to add multiplayer to Bioshock 2, given that the original was so story driven. Bioshock was one of the rare cases where it never actually needed multiplayer. You can imagine my surprise when I realized how much fun the multiplayer was. By no means am I calling it amazing - there are some balance issues and lag problems that need to be taken care of - but the result that was a guaranteed disaster turned out to be quite a fun diversion. The rank system, although not as deep as other FPS's (Modern Warfare comes to mind), definitely adds some incentive to continue playing. Little Sister Grab is an extremely well done mode for this type of game, and Civil War (Deathmatch or Slayer in other games) allows you to don the Big Daddy suit.

Hated:
-Big Sister Fights: As much as I loved them, they came at the same time, every time. The realization of this diminished the fear by quite a lot. I wish that they would have been sudden, and if they must be scripted, then at least make the revealing of the battles a little less obvious.
-Nothing shocking: 2k said that Bioshock 2 would come with a massive plot twist equal to the two in Bioshock. So, where was it? At first I thought I had missed it, but it turns out that many forum users were also wondering what the huge twist was supposed to be.
-Conclusion Timing: I thought I had at least 6 or 7 hours left in the game, until I got the achievement for dealing with all of the little sisters. The conclusion is sudden, which makes me question the pacing of the story somewhat.
-Boss Battles: None. You will never fight a boss in this game once, unless you consider the Big Sisters bosses. While it could be argued that it adds to the atmosphere of the game, I'd contend that it sometimes makes the game feel sluggish, that there are no true antagonistic obstacles to overcome.

When I completed Bioshock 2, I was confused at what I had just played. I had many questions, many uncertain feelings, and doubts about how I felt about where they took Bioshock 2. Over time, the game kept itching at me. I kept being reminded of situations, dialogue, and the breathtaking atmosphere. Once I started to see the game as a whole, I realized how brilliant Bioshock 2 actually was. Bioshock 2 is ultimately a better game than the original - something I never would have expected to say. Games like this are proof that games can be considered art - there is simply no reason to ever pass on this game.

Pop Culture's Time Travel Theories: Lost And Primer Explained With Pokemon

Today, I had a discussion about the movie Primer with a friend over Facebook. I had watched Primer for the first time last night and, while enjoying the plot, I was even more intrigued by the time travel theory presented throughout the movie. My friend was confused with how this was different from the time travel theories of Lost, so I decided to not only explain the differences between Lost and Primer, I'd also throw in Star Trek and Heroes and explain it using Pokemon action figures.


Lost - Whatever Happened, Happened

Daniel Faraday, the time studying physicist of Lost, explains to the characters that "Whatever happened is going to happen and we cannot change that." Further, Daniel explains that you can go back in time, and the past you are experiencing as your present is their present. You can die going back in the past because you are experiencing the present. However, characters in the past cannot die, because that all has already happened, unless it was supposed to happen. Here, we have Charmander meeting Jolteon in a battle. We are currently in present time, 2010. Then...

Bam! The superior Venusaur kills Jolteon. Jolteon is dead, he is no more. Since Jolteon was the friend who always came over when you did not want him to ever come over, Charmander and Venusaur decide that they want to get rid of him in the past - 1980 - so that they never have to deal with him again. However, as Lost explains....

Whatever happened, happened. Even if Venusaur and Charmander were not born in 1980, Jolteon experiences them as his present. Jolteon will always survive this attack, because he was alive in 2010. He also experienced this in 1980. He experienced two time travelers coming back in time from 2010, before they were born, to attack them. Jolteon will always survive, he will always be friends with Charmander and Venusaur, and he will always be betrayed by them in 2010. However...

They can both die in 1980. 1980 is their present. "Time is like a string. You can move forwards and backwards, but you can never make a new string." For the duo, they will always survive up to 2010, they will always go back in time before they were born to 1980, and they will always die by the barbaric, teething feline.




Primer - Reverse Engineering A Perfect Moment

Primer suggests that time travel can only exist for as long as the technology has existed. Furthermore, you can only travel for as long as the box runs and you are in "the box" (noted as "Time Travel Box" in the picture). With this idea, the curious, mischief-driven feline puts the Pokemon in the box for 12 hours. What this means is, when they run it at 10 A.M.,  they will come out at 10 A.M. if they leave the box 12 hours later. Their original selves will exist in the normal timeline, but they will experience themselves as doubles 12 hours behind - in Primer, they use this to cheat the stock market and intervene on events in their lives, since they knew before going in the box what stock rose the highest and what happened that day.

They exist from the box, knowing what's going to happen that day. They are now "Charmander2, Jolteon2, Marill2, and Venusaur2." They experience themselves as they are at 10 A.M., as the devil cat intended. They know everything that is going to happen that day - they know that stocks will rise a certain amount, and they can see themselves going about their day. If Jolteon were to go home at 11 A.M., he would see himself playing Parasite Eve still. So...

Venusaur2, mad that he had to naturally evolve because Charmander lost the rare candy, uses a pair of screwdrivers and kills Charmander2 while Jolteon2 and Marill2 are too busy paying attention to playing SkiFree (yes, that really is SkiFree running). Charmander1 still exists. However, there's a twist!

Venusaur2 thought he killed Charmander2, but since Charmander2 wanted to kill Venusaur2, he baited Charmander1 into taking his place at the SkiFree competition and watched. Once Jolteon and Marill get distracted and start lurking in the 4chan forums, Charmander2 steps in...

...traps them inside a set of cups...

...kidnaps Venusaur2 with "escape rope..."

...and drowns Venusaur2. Since Charmander2 knew what was going to happen later that day, knew where Venusaur1 would be, and Venusaur2 is unable to warn Venusaur1 what happen since he inhaled water...

...Charmander2 ends Venusaur1's sight seeing trips and pushes him into the garbage disposal.










I hope this clears things up. Special thanks to the cat for cooperating.

RE: Video Games Were Invented By The Devil

http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/27/video-games-were-invented-by-the-devil/42149/

When I was only three years old, I taught myself to read. That's right. Guess how I did it? Video games. I had shared a room with my brothers and watched them play games all of the time. Eventually, I figured out that when I would manipulate the controller, the character would react accordingly on-screen. My brother had a subscription to Nintendo Power and he would leave the games he was playing on, as well as have a controller diagram in the issue opened up and laying out on the floor. I learned that A made Mario jump, and I learned to associate "jump" with leaping in the air. Obviously, there are many applicable examples to this, but the bottom line here is that my parents had to do little work in the teaching department, thanks to video games.


"Frumpy Middle-aged Mom," which is the safe term for "Soccer Mom," states, with a tall, tall glass of ignorance, that children cannot effectively think if they play video games. Any child who plays a video game turns into a zombie that cannot get away from the game.


I'd like to first point out the humorous - she states that Isaac Newton would have been playing a DS if he had one, and thus would not have noticed the apple falling from the tree. Aside from the fact that I am sure he would have noticed the effects of dropping his DS, her argument is false because the apple story is a myth. He discovered the laws of gravity by developing basic rudimentary laws of motion that coincided with gravity.


To toss a blanket statement on games is pure ignorance and faulty logic for someone writing for the OC Register. I have a good amount of gamer friends who are excellent problem solvers, analytical thinkers, and extremely social people. They seem to be doing pretty fine. I developed my interest in computer science because I was a gamer. I was fixing computers by the time I was 7, and wrote my first BASIC computer program by age 9. I know many stories like this where people had developed a fascination in their career because of video games - I'd go so far as to say that the people who wrote her blogging code likely had a gamer on staff.


Not only does she accuse video games of being problematic, but her research is clearly flawed as well. Has anyone ever marketed Grand Theft Auto to be a "socially conscious educational game?" Grand Theft Auto IV was never meant to be educational. The game uses crime as a story telling device, with themes of betrayal, greed, power, etc. Many stories before Grand Theft Auto were not only graphically worse, but contained similar themes. If the parent in the story that she cited is concerned that the child is playing Grand Theft Auto, here is some basic parenting advice: don't buy it in the first place.


Furthermore, she states that, because she read all of the time, she was able to "actually learning stuff about the world, in a way today's kids never will. I was also learning to think creatively, spell and build my vocabulary to the point that I was able to get a job as a professional writer, where people pay me to ride on fire engines, go on ride-alongs with cops and insult the makers of video games." I refuse to sink to her level and write her off based on stereotypes of people who read, but feel that her position needs to be attacked.


Kids playing videos games learn things about the world in a way you never will, Soccer Mom. They learned problem solving by figuring out one of the insane logic puzzles in the Professor Layton series. They developed teamwork by learning how to capture the flag effectively in Modern Warfare 2. They developed social skills playing Left 4 Dead. They were inspired to pick up the drums after developing their rhythm skills on Rock Band. They learned how to tell a story and learn the various philosophical viewpoints, hit the deepest emotions, and connected with characters in story heavy games like Final Fantasy, Shadow Of The Colossus, and Uncharted 2. A commenter even states that his daughter is a web design student because she learned how to write HTML because of Petz. I developed my love for writing because I wanted to tell a story that weaved so many parallel ideas together like Metal Gear Solid. I developed how to plan ahead and utilize available resources because of StarCraft. I was able to develop a quick mind because of hours upon hours playing Tetris. I, as well as many others, learned in ways you never will as well.


The problem seems to me that she, like many parents, love to take credit when they do something right (my kids play outside), but when they fail, they blame the external agents. Honestly, any parent who simply cannot evaluate what their children are doing and fail to step in to turn off a video game to the point where they resort to calling 911 needs to re-evaluate their methodology of parenting. Everything and anything can be abused to extremes. Alcohol, reading, internet, movies, sports, eating, television, sleeping, you name it, it is suspect to abuse. Blame the parent, not the agents. 


Change is also an agent of fear to parents of her type. Books were banned because people assumed that they were inventions by the devil - people were burned over this viewpoint. Books were looked at as nothing but propaganda by the devil, and anyone who read them diluted their own intelligence. Funny that, years later, books are seen as one of the highest mediums of educational intake. Change is brewing, and video games are becoming a relevant medium. They are the next rock and roll, the next Elvis Presley, the next violent movie - the current scapegoat to blame for bad parenting.


Soccer Mom, if you ever read this, I hope that you reconsider your position on video games. I highly doubt you will, but you must know that for every argument, you must research the other side. Many of your statistics are bloated and/or wrong, your research is faulty, and your arguments are built on faulty towers of paper logic. Learn to look at yourself and blame yourself for your parenting mistakes instead of other external items, and stop making blanket statements over subjects you have clearly put little research into.

Best Games of 2009

16) Wii Sports Resort

15) Torchlight

14) Plants Vs. Zombies

13) Dragon Age: Origins

12) New Super Mario Bros. Wii

11) The Beatles: Rock Band

10) Machinarium

9) Assassin's Creed II

8) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

7) Punch-Out!!

6) Shadow Complex

5) Street Fighter IV

4) Resident Evil IV

3) DJ Hero

2) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

1) Demon's Souls

I cannot speak highly enough about this game. Demon's Souls is now one of my all time favorite games ever made and I have no problem saying that statement. This game has given me hope in the RPG genre that I believed was near death. Demon's Souls is also one of the most difficult games I have played in my long gaming career (this is harder than Contra - I said it). Every battle in the game has meaning, and every enemy refuses to go down without a fight. Many times, I have caught myself thinking I could whisk through parts of the game, only to find myself dead at the hands of enemies I believed to be "easy."

Demon's Souls rewards patience and offers zero compromises to the player. You will die in this game, and you will die a lot. When you do, you start all the way back at the beginning of the level. No checkpoints here. You also lose all your souls, which is the game's currency, and all of the enemies that you killed are repopulated. The game does not fail when you die - all of your deaths are your fault and your fault only. But if you stick with it, you will literally be trained by the sheer amount of attempts taken to defeat the level, and the experience of defeating just a single boss is extremely rewarding. If you're connected online, you might find a note that a player left behind that gives you tips on how to pass through. You can even summon others into games to co-op a boss battle, or even have someone end up on the other side of the battle as a Black Phantom.

The game plays like an action RPG, but feels so much more like a survival horror game - dark dungeons and hallways are illuminated only by the light around your avatar, silence leads to a swift death moments later, and sounds in the distance alert you that you are probably facing death when you enter the next room. The world of Boletaria is bleeding with death, certain to remind you that you will be part of the blood that pours out of itself, but given time, the bleeding becomes beauty, and the 30 attempts you give one level goes beyond compelling. Repetition, in the negative sense, does not exist in this world; only death offers up negatives, and if you can surpass death, the reward is far greater than any game can offer this year.

I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone who is willing to push through the pain, because once you do, you unravel one of the best gaming experiences you'll ever have. Atlus, be proud for creating one of the best games in a long time.

Didn't play, but wish I did (and will, in 2010): Little King's Story, Flower, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Might And Magic: Clash Of Heroes, House Of The Dead: Overkill