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

How Long Is Too Long?

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/14/new-final-fantasy-xi-boss-could-take-24-hours-to-kill/

Remember, Final Fantasy XI is not like the other ones. The other ones can be paused, single player... FFXI is not. FFXI is like World Of Warcraft.

With that said, it's well known within the gaming community that FFXI is one of the more intense MMO's out there in terms of dedication, but when you start making players physically ill from having to slave away at one boss for 24 hours (they can't do shifts because the boss only allows 18 people in at once), then there's a problem, especially when the boss is on a server with elite players that are using characters with ridiculous stats. The irony of this is SquareEnix's message before logging into FFXI, essentially saying to not ignore family, friends, work, or school because of the game. When a boss takes longer than the average human is awake, you need to look in the mirror and face the irony of your log in message.

I understand epic boss battles. I've played games for ridiculous periods of time. Never, however, have I ever put myself into physical or mental harm because of a video game. If I was starting to feel like I was going to pass out from a game, I would turn it off. Simple as that. I'm sure that casual gamers are now scared off from even approaching FFXI (where most people consider 2 hours a long gaming time, that's a normal boss battle.)

SquareEnix has more creativity in them to come up with better ways to keep people drawn into FFXI (and thus making money off every players monthly fees) than to make a miserable, unhealthy time sink of a boss. The reactions of some people disgust me as well - although a majority of the people say that this is completely wrong of Square to do, there are those select few out there who just can't grasp it. Example: "I applaud them for doing this. Now, people will be able to not only experience a long battle inside the game, but a physical and mental battle that they've never seen before."

What's your take on the situation? Do you think Square Enix is taking it too far with the length of time on this boss?

Mega Man 9 Achievements, Braid Interview Soon

After getting my braces off and looking devilishly handsome, the Mega Man 9 achievements for the 360 version went up. When MM9 comes out in September, I'm sure I'll punch myself in the face, thus needing braces again.

http://inside.mygamercard.net/2008/08/12/achievements-for-mega-man-9-reward-the-hardcore/

Clear the game without dying? Beat the game 5 times in one day? Defeat 1000 enemies? Jeeze. Talk about hardcore.

I must say, I love that they are going retro with this, since there hasn't been a true Mega Man sequel in almost ten years. The NES look and sound is completely retained - you have to give them credit for doing that. They're even keeping the bus from the NES games, such as the screen flicker and inability to have more than 4 enemies on the screen (though these can be disabled).

Here's a gameplay video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V0tMTIXs9g

I'm going to be launching an actual blog soon, and I'll have Facebook feed the posts from there to here so you won't be missing anything, but I do suggest posting there when it is launched. The blog will contain my last two reviews as well as an interview I scored with David Hellman, who worked on Braid. He did all of the character/artwork design in the game. You can see some of his work at http://www.davidhellman.net/ If you have any questions for me to ask him, please let me know. I already have a few, but more wouldn't hurt.

Braid Review

Tim - character of the year.

Breathtaking.

To be able to write a review on Braid is like trying to describe those moments in life where you tell your friends that “I guess you just had to be there.” They don’t get it and they move on. Braid, in a nutshell, is exactly that situation. Based off of screenshots, Braid looks nothing more than a generic platforming clone. You run, you jump on things, you collect puzzle pieces, you fight boss, save princess. And then, you actually play Braid.

The best way to start the review is to describe all of Braid’s flaws before I can gush over Braid’s positive merits. For one, yes, Braid is $15 dollars, which makes it one of the more expensive Xbox Live Arcade games out there. Braid is also short. You will beat Braid in 5 hours, tops, making it a rather short game. You will not compare this game graphically to Metal Gear Solid 4, seeing as it is a 2-D platformer.

Braid, however, will make you think. Braid, however, will make you feel emotions that video game never has before. Braid is brilliant.

At the heart of the game is a platformer with a time mechanic. In Braid, you play as a man in a business suit named Tim. Tim is searching for “The Princess,” which again, at the surface, seems like your typical platformer game. However, The Princess is metaphorical as well as literal, and the story hints that The Princess may not even exist. The references in the nonlinear story make The Princess seem as if you can apply it to anything: dreams, ambitions, your own past relationships. We are always chasing our own Princess, and with a clever homage to Super Mario Brothers, the Princess is always in another castle. You will think of your own life as Braid directly asks you questions, such as “What if we could rewind and start all over again? Why do our mistakes have nothing but punishments? Why can’t they just be lessons learned?” These questions are the kindergarten stuff that the game asks (forums are going crazy about how to interpret certain parts of the game.) Braid’s story is a massive psychological mind game into not only the characters life, but your own. The story is a significant part of the reason that Braid will pay you back tenfold whatever you invest in it.

I need to dedicate a paragraph to the ending of the game, which, I promise, I will not spoil. The ending of Braid is hands down one of the best endings I have ever seen. I have been playing games for almost 19 years, ever since I was able to beat my older brothers at Gradius at the age of 1. I was emotionally hit by the death of Aeris in FFVII, the magnitude and epicness of Chrono Trigger, and experienced the amazing story of the Metal Gear series. The ending of Braid will forever be in my mind as in the same league as those games. You honestly will not know what to think when it hits you. Everything clicks in the ending, and yet, there's tons of room for interpretation.

Beautiful.

As Tim, you cannot die. You cannot fail. You can just rewind your mistakes and start over as far back as possible. “But wait, didn’t Prince Of Persia and Blinx do the same thing?” Yes, they did, but they used it more as a gimmick - if you failed, you rewound and started again. Sounds similar, right? Braid sets itself out by making it the core game mechanic. Certain items in the game are illuminated green, which means that if you grab it and rewind, you carry it with you. So, let’s say there is a pit with a key. Jump down and grab it, but wait, you can’t jump back up! Well, just rewind with the key in your hand and you’re set (and yes, this is the most basic puzzle.) In one world, when you walk to the right, time moves forward. Walk to the left, and time moves backward. Another world creates a doppelganger when you rewind that performs your last action before the rewind. Each of these unique ideas play into all of the puzzles in each of the worlds.

The game itself is non-linear, which really helps out on the difficulty. Can’t beat a puzzle? Come back to it later. Each world is entered by going to a different room inside a house. The puzzles in the game have a puzzle piece at the end of them. Each world has 12 puzzle pieces that you put together to form one big puzzle, and once you put together said puzzle, a section of a ladder appears inside the house. There are six worlds in the entire game, but you must complete the five in the lower portion of the house before the ladder is completed, which takes you up to the attic to the last world, which is the epilogue of the game.

Braid’s puzzles are frustrating, but rewarding in a sense of self-accomplishment. There are times where I thought that completing a certain puzzle was impossible. After giving it some thought and looking it over, I tried new ideas, and eventually was able to break down each puzzle and put it together to get a solution. No game in recent history gives you the satisfaction of completing puzzles like Braid does. None of them are trial and error puzzles. They all have solutions that make sense once you complete them. None of them put the wool over your eyes – they are simple, yet the solutions are hidden enough that with enough work, you will figure out what to do.

Donkey Kong reference for the win.

My review does no justification to this game. Look at Metacritic (a collection of various reviews around the internet combined into one score) if you need any more proof, where Braid is sitting at the 10th highest rated 360 game as well as the top Xbox Live Arcade game with a 92%. I loved Geometry Wars 2 and I think I made that pretty obvious in my last review, but games like Braid do not come often. You will be sorry for missing one of the best games in a long time if you pass this up. Braid is this years Portal – creative, cheap, and a game that will set the standards for others in the genre. Where Portal rewrote the rules to first person shooters by infusing it with a puzzle element and keeping it under 4 hours long, Braid rewrites the emotional experience and time mechanic for games to be benchmarked by.

If the $15 dollar issue is a hurdle for you to get this game, then let me bring up a point that someone made that really struck me as a good thought. Consider that Jonathan Blow, Braid’s creator, did not want to make a standard Xbox Live Arcade game – a $10 game that is usually a hack at a remake or a cheap little thrill. Consider that he wanted to make a great game. The $15 dollar price tag seems much lower in that sense already. As Penny Arcade said, people spend $15 on shirts with ridiculously dumb jokes and overpriced meals. Yet, when a game that matters comes along, all of the sudden $15 is the antichrist of videogames (forget the fact that people spend $60 on games that don’t even get close to what Braid accomplishes.) Jonathan spent three years developing this game, fine tuning every aspect to make it as perfect as possible. He didn’t send out a cheapened game like most developers for Xbox Live do.

The result: Braid is about as close as a game can get to being perfect.

(For those who have played the game, I’d love to discuss your thoughts, especially on all of the metaphorical parts of the game, interpretations of the story, etc. And yes, if you're one of my close friends, I am willing to let you borrow my 360 to play this. I want everyone to experience this game. That means you Brandon and Chris.)