Catching Up - Braid and Amnesia: The Dark Descent

A while back that ridiculous Humble Indie Bundle came out with pretty much every good game ever. Even though I already owned several of the games, I bought it anyway, gifted away my duplicates and set to playing two games I should have played already, but never got round to - Braid and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Spoilers await below.


Braid
Last night at around 2:30am I completed Braid.

I'd like to point out that I actually aided a friend in the completion of the game around the time of release on Xbox Live Arcade back in 2008, so I was up to date on the story, but enough time had passed for me to have no advantage when attempting the puzzles.

But, as those of you who have finished the game will know, Braid isn't about the puzzles. If you are under the impression that it's a quaint little indie Mario-style game with time bending mechanics then I'm afraid you've been horribly misled. I watched Indie Game: The Movie a few weeks ago (something which I would recommend to anyone at all interested in the industry), and learned that Jonathan Blow, the maker of the game actually slipped into depression not long after Braid was released. To an outsider, this would seem utterly ridiculous. The game is the highest rated title on XBLA ever, was the second highest selling game on the service in 2008, and made Blow very rich, very quickly. To him, people were enjoying the puzzles, and that was fine, they just weren't "getting" it. The philosophical and highly mature side of the story only reveals itself fully if you complete the entire game, and that is what a lot of people were missing.

As I say, I knew prior to last night's completion what happened at the end of the game, and I remembered the final level fairly vividly. It speaks to the game's quality that I remember this almost four years after its release, and yet I can't really remember much of what happened in Max Payne 3 which I played and reviewed about two months ago.

Braid is a simple story about Tim, a guy who is trying to save his Princess from an evil monster. To do this he has to solve puzzles while manipulating time. But the thing about time in Braid is that it isn't linear, and it certainly isn't simple. Not only does that relate to the puzzles, but also to the story itself. The final level in the game takes place in World 1. The level begins and Tim sees the evil Knight holding on to the Princess whilst holding onto a vine hanging down from above.

"I got you!" He sneers.

But the Princess manages to escape his clutches and jump up to a ledge above him.

"Get down here!" He shouts after her.

"Help!" She cries out to Tim who is watching all of this from below.

Just then a wall of flame erupts from the left side of the screen, engulfing everything in its path. Tim runs to the right in the lower section of the level, with the Princess above him, and they aid each other by pulling levers and lowering ladders to help each other escape their impending doom.

Tim finally reaches a ladder, and climbs up to his Princess who is on the other side of some glass. And then, whiteness.

The princess is asleep in the room behind the glass, and Tim can't reach her. The only thing that can be done is rewind time, and then everything becomes clear. Time isn't being rewound, but allowed to run forwards.

The Princess is fleeing from Tim, setting traps and blocking off routes up to her which Tim manages to narrowly avoid each time. She then sees her Knight up ahead, and knows that she is going to be safe.

"Help!" She cries out to the Knight, while Tim watches helplessly from below.

"Get down here!" He shouts to her.

The Princess jumps down to from the ledge and into the loving grasp of her Knight.

"I got you!" He soothes her, and they escape up the vine to safety.

The epilogue contains text ambiguously explaining the story of Braid. Blow has never revealed the true meaning, and that is the point - it's very open to interpretation. One of my favourite theories is the Atomic Bomb theory, which can be found by clicking this link. It posits that Tim is a scientist working on the first Atomic Bomb, and that The Princess is the bomb herself. This would explain several references in the text hinting at locations and quotations surrounding the development of the bomb, and the wall of flame at the end of the game, and some of the artwork which suggests a Manhattan setting. My favourite thing about the story though, is that we will never know the exact meaning, and that's how it should stay in my view.

Story aside, the final moments of the game are a masterpiece in level design. The fact that Blow can make a level work both backwards and forwards, and have two entirely different meanings is a very impressive achievement. I'm very much looking forward to the next game that can combine storytelling and gameplay in such a tight way.


Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Again, I've seen the majority of Amnesia being played, so I knew what to expect here. You would have thought that would negate some of the horror impact of the game. Nope.

I haven't really got very far into the game playing on my own. Conceptually I'm a big fan of the game, but then I can never bring myself to put myself through playing it, which is a shame. I did do the water monster bit though, which is no mean feat, as people who have played the game will confirm.

One day I will finish it. Maybe.

The new Amnesia game, A Machine for Pigs got delayed until 2013 recently, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I really want to play it, but at least now I've got more time to prepare for it. You can read my preview of the game I wrote by clicking on this link.

That's it for now, thanks for reading, have a good weekend whatever you're doing. I'm going to see Batman, can't wait.

My ME3 Ending. Is the outrage from fans justified?

Just finished my first (and probably sole) play through of Mass Effect 3. I'll tell you what happened, go through some of the key (but limited) differences in the other endings, and will muse about whether the massive amounts of outrage from fans of the series is warranted. So obviously, spoilers are coming. Don't read if you don't want to know.

My Ending
You are faced with two (or three, depending on certain factors) choices in the final moments of the game. You can destroy the Reapers, or control them (or combine synthetic life with organic life in what sounds like some unholy experiment gone wrong). I chose to control them, which I believe is the paragon ending, I think this is the case because it was blue, not red.

Depending on your galactic readiness rating, which is pretty much based on how many side missions you did, there are a few different ways each choice can pan out. In mine, Shepard dies, the reapers retreat, Earth is saved, the Mass Relays are all destroyed and the Normandy crash lands on some remote planet where Joker, Ashley and EDI emerge unscathed, which confused me as EDI was with me moments before on Earth, but anyway, the credits roll.

Then there's an utterly pointless cutscene after the credits, which suggests that an old man far in the future has been telling his grandchild all the events which have happened throughout the series. Why? What does this add to the ending?

The Outrage
Well, one thing the child says is "Tell me another Shepard story." Uh-oh, DLC on the way, thanks for making sure we all know, Bioware. Then there's just a straight up message saying, "hey, well done for beating the game, but remember to buy the DLC when it comes out!" Apparently, fans of the series didn't quite like that their hundreds of hours spent playing these games culminated in a ten minute cutscene and a message telling them to spend more money. Who knew?

By the way, I looked up what the other endings were after I finished. Turns out they're all the same. Sometimes the shockwave that ends the Reaper threat is red rather than blue though, so that's something. It's a little more varied, sometimes Earth is destroyed and the survival of the Normandy crew is in doubt, but you will have had to have played a pretty awful game to get to that situation. Fans are annoyed that over the course of the three games, they have spent hours shaping their character to be what they want them to be, only to then find out that no matter what choices you have made, you will always be faced with the same decision.

Plot Holes?
Regardless of your choices and actions, the Mass Relays are always destroyed. These are the only means of travelling the galaxy, so that's going to make it difficult for the millions upon millions of alien species which have congregated in Earth's solar system to help defeat the Reapers to leave. Also, I haven't read them, but I'm reliably informed that in some of the fiction, we are told that the destruction of a Mass Relay causes an explosion the same size as a supernova, destroying the solar system it's in. Looks like Shepard just found a way to decimate all forms of life in the galaxy much faster than the Reapers could ever do. Oops!


Speaking of the Reapers, we're told by their creator, why exactly they were created. Get ready now.


He created them billions of years ago, to stop synthetic beings rebelling against their creators and killing them.


So he created synthetic beings, which every now and then would kill all organic life, so that the organic life wouldn't create synthetic beings which would kill them. JackieChan.jpg

I won't go into more details, you can find much a more informative article here about why people are so angry about it.

Are fans right to be annoyed by the ending to Mass Effect 3? Maybe. Probably. But honestly, who cares? Not me. Bioware consistently make fantastic games that we all enjoy playing. Sure, the ending was a little weird, but I still had a good time with the game and would recommend that anyone who hasn't played the Mass Effect games to give them a look as soon as possible. They are quite simply, a collection of the best games of this generation. Anyone who thinks they have the right to demand that Bioware change the ending to one of their games because they didn't think it wrapped up the story quite perfectly is absolutely crazy.

Thanks for reading people, have a good one.

Demos and New Releases

I feel like I haven't done this in a while. My last post was a review of The Darkness II, which can be found here, or if for some reason you don't want to read the entire thing, there is an edited version on the Warwick University newspaper site because it was too long for them.

In other news, I wrote an Arma 3 Preview for Hooked Gamers, and I've just finished up an article about the Double Fine Kickstarter and the Humble Bundle Mojam which should be surfacing in one form or another pretty soon.

The even more exciting news is that we're finally getting to a run of decent new releases... here's what has been whetting my proverbial appetite recently.

SSX Demo


I normally don't play game demos (the auto dictionary thing is underlining 'demos', but I'm pretty sure that's the correct pluralisation... anyway), because it is generally what the developer wants you to see, i.e. the most polished part of the game which will allow them to take money out of your pockets more easily. However with sports games (extreme or otherwise) I can't imagine they are able to do that so well. There's a tutorial and a single level in the SSX demo, so I guess they could just make that really good, but regardless, I played a bit of it.

It's pretty fun! I played one of the old games like ten years ago and haven't really touched the series since, but EA definitely seem to have rejuvenated SSX back into something worth playing. Oh yeah, it's a snowboarding game, maybe I should've mentioned that earlier.


Everything looks real nice, some great lighting effects and the animations are really smooth. As I say, there's only one level, or "drop" as EA are calling them so there's not a great deal to comment on, but it's definitely enjoyable. You do tricks, grind rails and everything else you'd expect from a snowboarding/ skateboarding game. Performing these tricks build up your meter, which allows you to give yourself a speed boost, and eventually you enter "Tricky" mode, where you get infinite boost and can perform better tricks. Do well enough in Tricky mode and you will enter "Super Tricky" mode, where you can hit the shoulder buttons at the same time to pull of your rider's special signature move.

I'm gonna wait til some reviews come out to decide whether or not I'm going to buy it, but it is certainly interesting me. I believe it's out in the US tomorrow and we have to wait til the 2nd over here in the EU, so we'll see.


FIFA Street Demo


Another reason I don't usually play demos is because it's probably going to be a level from the game, meaning I'm then going to have to play that bit again if I eventually buy it. I like games 'n'all but I don't really want to spend a bunch of time doing something again and again.

 Contrary to that statement, I have been playing FIFA 12 again and again and again recently, so never mind, play demos if you want to.

The lack of new releases keeps me going back to the super addictive online Ultimate Team mode, so I'm excited to see what EA is going to do with a new football release. FIFA Street is all about your ball skills (teehee) as you get points for doing tricks, and it's not about how many goals you score but how you score them.

The demo is out on Wednesday for PS3 so I'll give that ago and probably get back to you about that.

Mass Effect 3


Haven't played the demo for ME3, are you surprised?

This is the big one then, the first huge release of the year, and hopefully it will live up to the hype, and the precedent set by the much loved previous games in the series. It's out on the 9th in the EU, so less than two weeks away!

What was with all this hate for EA/Bioware even before the game demo came out, you hadn't even played it by then! I remember back in the good old days of, oh I don't know, a year ago, when Bioware was untouchable... the shining God amongst video game developers, and now everyone's complaining because it put multiplayer into an RPG game and tried to add in some Kinect functionality? Just don't play it that way if it incenses you so much!

I'm not even the biggest fan of the series, although I quite enjoyed the second game and I'll be buying this one when it comes out, it's just a little confusing.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning


After some screw ups with Paypal, I finally got my hands on this game around two weeks after release, and have been playing bits and pieces of it since then.

It's kinda good, I was hoping it was going to be super revolutionary but it isn't really. The combat is quite fun, and different to a normal RPG, so it's nice to have that variety, but it's not engaging enough. And there are far too many quests... the majority are fairly well written, but I have found myself playing it more and more like how I used to level through WoW on alt characters. Go to a quest hub, pick up every quest I see, skip through the text, follow the markers on my map, kill/loot/escort whatever is there and repeat until everything is finished.

It's a shame because they did have some really nice ideas, and it's fairly fun to play for the most part, it just needed to be a bit more compelling.

That's it for now, Journey is coming out in a couple of weeks and I honestly can't wait for that, but I'll get more into that closer to the time.

Thanks for reading y'all, have a good one.

The Darkness II - Review

I actually wrote this about 5 days ago, and have been trying to get it published somewhere since then. It's going to be in The Boar (Warwick University Newspaper) next week, but some of it had to be cut as it was too long, so here's a sneaky peek at the unedited version:

The Darkness II - Review

Digital Extremes has taken over the reins of development for The Darkness II, the follow up to Starbreeze Studios' acclaimed 2007 original. After a delay of over six months, it was finally released at the beginning of February on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The games follow the story of Jackie Estacado, who is inhabited by a malevolent being called The Darkness. This gives him unholy abilities, on top of two tentacle-like extra limbs, which can be used to melee and grab objects and enemies from afar. After surviving multiple mob hits in the first game, and being forced to watch his girlfriend, Jenny, die, Jackie went on a quest for revenge. The Darkness II takes place two years after the events of the first game, and in the meantime, Jackie himself has become the head of the Franchetti crime family, whilst trying to keep the evil Darkness under control. However, at the beginning of the game, Jackie is under attack once more, and must unleash the power of The Darkness again as only it has the power to prevent him from dying.

As the story unravels, you find that an ancient organisation called The Brotherhood are looking to gain the power of The Darkness. Giving up The Darkness seems an enticing prospect for Jackie, but the evil being reveals that Jenny's soul is trapped within it, and will be lost forever if Jackie does not fight back. And fight back you do, with great force. You have several categories of weapon to choose from, such as shotguns, rifles and pistols, with several types of gun within each, and you can dual wield one handed weapons. This is all standard fare, but what sets The Darkness II apart from other first person shooters are your Darkness abilities.

The right tentacle is used for swiping and slashing, and the left tentacle is used for grabbing. An enemy can't be grabbed unless they are dazed, either by being shot, or hit with the right tentacle. Once the left tentacle has someone in its grasp, a gruesome finishing move can be applied, and depending on your talent choices, you can gain health, ammo, or a shield which gives good protection from bullets. The left tentacle can also grasp objects such as lengths of pipe or fan blades, and can hurl them at enemies, causing yet more gory death. On top of the tentacles, you can also unlock some extra abilities, such as being able to channel The Darkness through your guns, which means you can fire without using any ammo and with increased damage. Early on, you get the ability to eat the hearts of deceased enemies to give you a health boost. Guts and gore are definitely high on the list of defining features of The Darkness II. Be wary though, as your Darkness powers can't be used in the light, so you are often shooting out bulbs, or avoiding enemies smart enough to carry large torches with them.

Also at your disposal is your little Darkling buddy, who is a figment of your imagination, but becomes a very real threat in the dark. He also provides a little comic relief, as he is a small, British-accented demon wearing a union jack shirt who delights in calling you 'Monkey' even though he looks like one himself. You control him at certain points during the game, but for the most part you're running around as Jackie killing everything that moves.

Right from the get go, the game has a rather frenetic pace, especially from an onlooker's point of view. The amount of action on screen at any one time can be a little overwhelming because of your four points of attack. Despite this, the controls are usually manageable, with one shoulder button being assigned to each limb on the consoles. The main complaint is that your tentacles rather obstruct your field of view, sometimes making it difficult to see exactly where the danger is coming from. Being in the light is also a massive hindrance, as it takes away your Darkness powers, while also partially blinding you. Once again, if you don't know exactly where the light source is, it's quite hard to escape and you are very vulnerable. When it's at its best though, The Darkness II is a delight to play, a fast paced shooter with great and exciting extra mechanics.

It's a nice thing to look at too, with some good cel-shaded visuals to give it more of a comic book feel, since the games stem from the comic book series. Although cartoony, the game does a good job of maintaining the dark, brooding atmosphere throughout, to the point that when you do go outside in the daytime for a fleeting moment later in the game, the amount of light and colour seems strange. Also adding to the atmosphere is the top notch voice acting on show, with Mike Patton of Faith No More fame returning from the first game to voice the Darkness, and Brian Bloom becoming the new voice talent for Jackie. Even the side characters are voiced really well, and the quality of writing helps you feel really involved in what's going on on screen. To break up the action, Jackie occasionally has hallucinations created by The Darkness to distract him from his goal of being reunited with Jenny. Many of these take place in an insane asylum, where Jackie is the patient, Jenny is a nurse, and members of The Brotherhood and his crime family are either doctors or fellow inmates. In fact, the game does a good job of nearly convincing you that maybe Jackie is a mental patient and is just imagining his other life after all. The Darkness II has a pretty compelling story, which will keep you powering through just to see what happens next.

The only problem is that the main story mode is on the short side. On normal difficulty it only took me between four and five hours. There is a new game plus mode, where you can replay the story again whilst keeping all of your talents you have accumulated, and there are plenty of achievements to go for, but the lack of length in the first place is a little disappointing.

The Darkness II does have a multiplayer mode to keep things going though, and it takes the form of a co-operative story campaign called Vendettas. You can play as one of four characters, each with their own limited selection of Darkness powers, and you play through some missions that are alluded to in the single player mode. It too is fairly short though, so if you want to bring some friends on a long multiplayer campaign, you may have to look elsewhere.

If you're looking for a quick burst of fun with some extreme violence and brutal murder thrown in, then The Darkness II is the game for you. A bit more work on the campaign and a more robust multiplayer mode and it could have become one of the better games in a slow start to the year for new releases. But as it is, it's an enjoyable, if short, experience that I would recommend to fans of shooters who are looking for something a little bit different.

Overall:

8.3/10

Some games are coming out!

It's February, and there are two games getting released that I'm averagely interested in!

By the way, my Borderlands 2 Preview was the highest rated on Hooked Gamers for January, so thanks for that if you voted it up!

Since then, I've written a DiRT Showdown Preview, and a review of Puddle, so check those out if you haven't already.

Enough of the self-plugging though, because my band is playing at Warwick University Battle of the Bands in two weeks. Oh wait, sorry, games.

The Darkness II
I never played the first one, "oh wah wah, you need to play the original first to get a feel for the story". No. That's what Wikipedia is for.

To tell you the truth, if it wasn't the start of the year and there were other things to be playing, I probably wouldn't be as interested in The Darkness II. It's just that I've played like 300 games of FIFA online now and I need something else to do. And ripping people in half with the evil tentacles coming out of your back, accompanied by an incredibly British monkey sidekick seems the best option.

You're this mafia boss, Jackie Estacado, and your girlfriend died in the first game, (or something, I haven't actually read Wikipedia yet). Anyway, the most important part is that you have this evil force, "The Darkness" living inside you, which Jackie attempts to keep under control, but he has to unleash it when a hit goes out on him so he doesn't die. (Or something, seriously, I'm just in it for the senseless murdering).

If I find it fun enough to play a good chunk of, I'll review it (in a more eloquent manner), so that's something to look forward to.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
EA seems to just want to refer to this as 'Reckoning' now, which is fine by me, it's a pretty long title otherwise. I think I've said before what a stupidly generic word 'Reckoning' is though, but watchagonnado?

Here's a lazy description of Reckoning: It's an Elder Scrolls game but with a more action-oriented combat system. You can hammer on the attack button to do combos and such, and there's an added timing element to pull off different attacks. Seems a cool system, but doesn't seem deep enough to stay really interesting for the dozens of hours the game will last, but we'll see.

There's coloured loot, main quests, side quests, repeatable quests, strange quests, up quests, charm quests and more. I've heard rumours that perhaps 38 Studios have somehow put too much content into the game? Or rather that there is enough content, just that a lot of it isn't exactly exciting (I hesitate to use the word filler without having played it yet).

It'll fill the RPG gap in my life since I Skyrimmed myself out (eww) though, and should be enough to tide me over til we get to see what aberration EA has turned Mass Effect 3 into (I hope that's not true).

I may review Reckoning, could take up too much of my time though given that I have several essays/ courseworks/ revisionings to be doing over the next few weeks, so that's less likely than a Darkness review.

Thanks for reading people, be good.

That bit where... Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Back in 2007, we were bored of first person shooters. It seemed like every month, a new game came out that was set in bloody World War II. By that time it had been done to death, we all knew the scenarios, the weapons and the outcome of every battle (the Nazis lose, spoilers).

But then, rising out of the swamp of FPS mediocrity came Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Wait a second, this is set, like, today? That's so real! It gave us a new enemy, instead of fighting Nazis, we were now fighting anyone who wasn't American or British, and in doing so the developers were staying as close to current affairs as possible...

Along with that, there were new weapons to enjoy, the guns that every nine year old can talk about at length today were largely unknown before this game came out. They also highlighted how much guns from the 40s sucked...you mean I don't have to load a new bullet into the chamber after firing every shot? War is awesome!

Five years later, we're praying for something different from FPS developers, but oh well, it was good for a while.

Anyway, there were two highlights of the game for me, one of them being the Ghillie mission, simply because it was something different. Instead of shooting everything that moved, you had to stealth your way through, picking your shots and trying not to get detected. Then there was that bit after you assassinated the guy with the helicopter which oh so nearly crashes into you! But then it stops, phew! My favourite part of the game though, was a moment of extreme poignancy that seemed so out of place and yet fitted in so perfectly.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Shock and Awe


"All U.S. forces, be advised, we have a confirmed nuclear threat in the city. NEST teams are on site and attempting to disarm. I repeat we're..."

In the mission entitled 'Shock and Awe', you are tasked with attacking Al-Asad's (the villain of the piece) rumoured position in his capital city. However, half way through the mission a retreat is called after a nuclear threat in the city is detected. During the retreat, you stop off to rescue a downed helicopter pilot who is under fire.

Everyone bundles into an evac helicopter and as you take off you see several other helicopters making their escape from the city, phew, everyone's going to make it.

And then the nuclear device detonates.

You watch as the mushroom cloud billows skywards and the shockwave makes it way towards you, destroying everything in it's path. We're far enough away, right? We're still going to make it. But the shockwave keeps coming, enveloping the other helicopters in a cloud of dust and rubble, and then it hits you. Your helicopter spirals out of control, crashes into the ground and then everything fades to black.

Did I fail the mission? That's not supposed to happen is it?

You wake up, manage to crawl your way out of the wreckage and drag yourself onto your feet. The sun has disappeared behind the smoke, and everything around you is just a shell of what it once was. At least you're alive though, someone will come soon to save you. You fall back to the ground and close your eyes.

Someone will be there soon.

It is later revealed that 30,000 people died in the blast, Marines, OpFor and civilians all wiped out. I had never played a game where such a catastrophic event occurred right before my eyes. Nor can I remember playing a game in which I had completed a mission, and several of the game's main characters died, all in one moment.

I congratulate you, CoD4:MW, not only for having an acronym longer than most game titles, but for putting this incredible sequence into a game, allowing a slight insight, just for a moment, into what it would actually be like to be in that situation. Maybe war isn't so awesome after all.

Thanks for reading.