Impressions: Dead Space

June 28, 2009 by Eric Layman

06-28-09

I didn’t see much from Electronic Arts at E308. We didn’t have an appointment with EA, and, when I essentially snuck in, the only game I was concerned with was Mirror’s Edge. Mirror’s Edge seemed destined for legendary status (and it didn’t disappoint), but I was completely ignorant to EA’s other surprise burst of new IP, Dead Space. Post-E3 podcasts heralded it as out Resident Evil-ing RE5, and was quick to proclaim it the new flag waver for the survival horror genre. Whereas RE5 dropped the horror elements and went for a straight up action approach (with the inherent interface oddities of Japanese game design), Dead Space was to actually make a stab at being legitimately scary and reinstalling the lights-off sense of dread gained while playing.

Currently in the middle of chapter 5, I think they hit the mark pretty well. The enemy designed, with arms and shit everywhere and tentacles all over, are light on inspiration, but do well to constantly scare the shit out of me and, before I’m familiar with them and how to bring them down, creep me the fuck out. Dead Space’s bloodlust is unmatched by anything except perhaps Gears of War; Isaac’s stomp is brutal, and its ability to dismember anything on the ground provides a gratifying burst of destructive capability. While the mutated monsters do well to set the mood, bits of nuanced horror are also sprinkled in from time to time. Somewhere in chapter 4 I visited a side area that was probably a bathroom. There were a lot bodies and body parts strewn about, but, off to the side by a stall, were two decapitated bodies with their backs against the wall, and their hands joined together. It might have been a throw away scene and could have easily been a coincidence, but it added a macabre charm to the atmosphere; what had to happen to these people for them to wind up like that?

Dead Space’s fully integrated HUD also made numerous strides in the user interface department. Isaac’s health is represented by meter on his spine, right next to a meter for his stasis power. The item menu as well as video transmissions pop out of his suit in a cool 2D display (that you can reverse if you rotate the camera – pointless, but neat), both eschewing the traditional tendency to clutter to screen or separate the player from the atmosphere with a pause menu. The dread is always present and, for the most part, there is no escaping the horrors that wait by flashing over the pause menu. The ‘path line’ when clicking R3 pulls the current back a bit, but, given how many times I’ve almost gotten lost, I’m glad it’s there.

Compliments also go to the combat system. Every shooter I’ve played in recent memory has directed you to aim for the head for maximum damage. In Dead Space, you quickly realize that aiming for the head is terribly inefficient and rarely gets the job done. Hacking off limbs of renders the early aggressor dead in just two shots. Other enemies I’ve faced, such as the small triguns things and fat men require a bit of strategy and patience, but I absolutely fucking hate the packs of grub things. Before I figured out the alt fire for the line gun, I had no idea how to deal with these things without wasting a ton of ammo.

Speaking of ammo, I constantly feel as if I’m playing the game incorrectly. While a variety of weapons are available, thus far the only extra gun I’ve purchased is the line gun. I barely have enough power orbs to upgrade my plasma pistol/thing, stasis, and rig, and I can’t picture having to ration them out to dump them into anything else. The plasma cutter is getting the job done and I am doing my best to explore every square inch, but I can’t help but feel as if I am missing a ton of orbs, or maybe the game is a lot longer than I think it is.

Despite my praise for the interface and combat, nearly every other square in of Dead Space reeks of ideas borrowed from other games or films. The story appears to be a variant of the classic Aliens/Event Horizon tale, with ulterior motives behind an artifact/species that’s taken over the planet/ship. The narrative constantly has you running errands for other people, and I’m sure I will have visited every last corner of the ship by the time it’s all over. The audio drops are straight from Bioshock (and after seeing Singularity at E3, it looks like this is a new staple for shooting games), and the art direction, minus the enemies, is lifted directily from every lived-in space ship design to have ever existed (though the command deck, with the sweeping view of the planet, was quite impressive).

But don’t misinterpret being my observation of derivability for criticism. I don’t actually have a problem with what Dead Space has borrowed, especially since every inch of it is backed with lavish production values. Definitely glad I finally found time to play it.

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Impressions: Punch-Out!!

June 25, 2009 by Eric Layman

06-25-09

I bought Punch-Out!! on impulse and, almost immediately, started feeling buyer’s remorse. I got the original Mike Tyson’s Punch Out at a yard sale when I was like seven, and I played the hell out of it, but the overly basic timing/puzzle based gameplay seemed like a style of play that vanished along with my childhood. 2009 demands more substance than 1989, and no one wants to spend fifty dollars on a twenty minute experience, regardless of how well it could stand up to repeat playthroughs. Yet, I bought Punch Out.

For whatever reason I rebought (argh) the original on Virtual Console, and made it all the way to Mike Ty-Mr. Dream on my first go around. I planned on blazing through the Wii version and confirming all of my rash suppositions, but, instead, I wound up getting the shit kicked out of me by Von Kaiser. Von Kaiser. I easily dispatched him on the next go around, as well as Disco Kid and King Hippo, but then I was completely wrecked by Piston Honda. From then on I don’t think I ever won match on my first attempt. Aran Ryan and Mr. Sandman, in particular, each kicked my ass at least a dozen times.

Honestly I was quite surprised by how well the inherent gameplay translated over to the current generation. For the most part, my opponents modified their techniques after they were knocked down a few times. Even the slightest variation to an attack, like a slight delay, totally threw me off my rhythm and resulted in a punch to the face. Punch Out wound up being far more hardcore-friendly than I had anticipated, yet it added nothing more than a facelift to the twenty year old structure. Pattern memorization, anticipation, and twitch reactions is game design 101, but through Punch Out’s rich atmosphere and endearing gameplay, it somehow made an ancient concept come off as fresh and exciting. For the last half of the game and all of Title Defense mode, I actually had to pay attention to everything that I was doing. I couldn’t sit back and let my brain take some time off; every single move by an opponent required a twitch reaction with absolutely no room to spare.

And I lost count of the times I almost gave up. Piston Honda on title defense seemed impossible, and I was convinced there was no fucking way I was going to beat Aran Ryan. Soda Popinksi seemed particularly assholic, with me being unable to distinguish punches I had to duck from punches I had to sidestep (the window to make a choice is impossibly small), but I always persevered. Currently I’m at Bald Bull, and, since I just got the headgear after notching my 100th loss, I suppose I should close out Title Defense relatively soon.

Punch Out’s most impressive virtue is probably it’s allegiance to the original incarnation. Glass Joe no longer spoke in Peanuts adult voice, but his inflections and mannerism remained identical to his garbled NES posture. Von Kaiser’s clicks mimed his head bobs, and King Hippo’s mindless gorilla noises matched what we all imagined he’d actually sat. Honda’s eye squints, Bald Bull’s inability to breathe, Popinksi’s foot shuffle, Macho Man’s pecs jiggle, and Sandman’s punch switch combos were all remarkably intact. The game was slavishly faithful toe the original, right down to Mac’s semi gay pink jogging suit and Doc spouting complete nonsense.

Easily dismissing any fears over game length, I have dumped more hours into Punch Out than I can count, and I’m overwhelmingly pleased that Nintendo finally decided to cater a revival toward the core audience.

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Impressions: Burnout Paradise (Big Surf Island)

June 24, 2009 by Eric Layman

06-24-09

I bought Burnout Paradise’s Big Surf Island pack on sheer principle. I had dumped 80 hours into Burnout Paradise over a year ago, 100%’d everything but a handful of the online races and, generally, I enjoyed every second of it. Repetition didn’t matter and trying to get a 40+ multiplier in a stunt run was one of the hardest, zen-requirement things I’ve ever done in a videogame. I took another ride with the Bikes Update, which I completed in its entirety, but I got off the train once the DLC started costing money. I wasn’t opposed to purchasing it, I was impressed with the free content thought they could stand to make some scratch, but I was pretty much “done” with the game unless they were adding planes in the rumored Eastwood update. Or if the island pack every came out.

Well, the island pack came out, and I bought it on principle. Ten seconds in, when I was greeted by the cool looking but sonically challenged (was the audio sample on that engine in like 64kpps?) dune buggy, and I was wondering what the hell I just spent twelve dollars on. I had taken so much time off of Burnout, I wasn’t even sure what the hell I was supposed to be doing. Billboards and Gates seemed sort of interested, and I vaguely remembered racing at every traffic light, but what else was there to do in the game?

A couple monster jumps later and I was fine; Burnout is a racing game with platforming tendencies, and incredible sense of speed, and a steadfast allegiance to sheer automotive nonsense. And every one of those distinct qualities is alive and well on Big Surf Island. A clever redux and amplification of the famous beach ramps, parking garage launching points, a donut hole to jump through, and a fucking ski jump in the middle of a tropical island where all there and waiting. The entire area was constructed with nothing but love from Criterion, clearly evident with a focus on fun and mayhem, rather than thematic coherence. Sure, the vacation theme was prevalent and the audio cues were a nice “surfs up dude” touch, but the whole place was basically one huge playground.

And it was fun while it lasted. In about three hours time I managed to clear most of the events. Event Tour, or whatever, appeared to be a new mode or included in one of the recent updates I never downloaded (I had to download five updates when I bought Big Surf). It was basically like a time trail consisting of a jump focused (mostly) guided route off the main streets, which was a nice change of pace. I aced all of the races, marked men, and takedown races, but I didn’t even touch the stunt runs. Doing that shit again, specifically trying to drive backwards to my old route (which I will never forget) rather than carve out a new route on the island wasn’t my idea of fun. I also found all the billboards, all but three gates, and two jumps. Getting the micro Delorean was a nice bonus, especially since I never shelled out for the real thing, but it was a novelty at best.

Good stuff, Criterion, but I still want planes!

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Review: InFamous

June 12, 2009 by Eric Layman

06-12-09

Reviewing games is sometimes a task that usually pushes me far beyond my normal “okay, enough” point as it ravenously consumes my free time, but rounding out every inch of InFamous was an absolute joy from start to 100% completion. I can’t picture a better compliment. Sucker Punch is a little late to the party with their first PS3 offering, but the wait was beyond worth it; InFamous was an incredible experience.

Read my full review over at Digital Chumps!

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Elecontronic 3 2009

June 7, 2009 by Eric Layman

Massive, all inclusive pre-show writeup: [link]

We have A TON of impressions and video footage at Digital Chumps, but my particular coverage included:

+ Microsoft Press Conference

+ Ubisoft Press Conference

+ Steve Weibe DK Record Attempt Photos

+ Tekken 6

+ Muramasa: The Demon Blade

+ Gran Turismo PSP

+ Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

+ Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

+ Avatar

+ Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

+ Blur

+ Heavy Rain

+ PixelJunk Shooter

+ Final Fantasy: Dissidia

+ LittleBigPlanet PSP and PSP Go!

+ Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier

+ Brutal Legend

+ Batman: Arkham Asylum

+ Wipeout HD Fury

+ Trine

+ TMNT Smash Up

+ Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

+ Motorstorm: Arctic Edge

+ Persona

And, because I love hack job lists, my best of show (excluding trailer-only stuff like Last Guardian) would be something like:

10 – Avatar

9 – Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

8 – Prototype

7 – God of War III

6 – Sin and Punishment 2

5 – Mass Effect 2

4 – Brutal Legend

3 – Trine

2 – PixelJunk Shooter

1 – Heavy Rain

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Impressions: inFamous

May 23, 2009 by Eric Layman

05-22-09

I couldn’t see much of Jak in Uncharted or Ratchet in Resistance, but I can definitely feel Sly’s influence in every step Cole takes. The floatyness of the character, dancing across knocked over poles, a seemingly magnetic attraction to platforms – inFamous proudly wears Sly’s lineage on its sleeve. Other open world games (save Crackdown) concern themselves with realism and, for lack of a better word, logic, but inFamous isn’t shy to drop conventions in the name of having a good time. I can fall from any height like in Crackdown, I can climb any building like in assassin’s creed, and I can shoot lighting out of my god damn hands like in nothing else in the genre. Sure, Cole’s powers often mirror other modern conventions (grenades, guns, power stomp, etc), but their unique aesthetic and their context make them seem like an entirely different approach to game design.

GTA4 was beautiful, ambitious, and technically impressive, but it largely failed to bring the gameplay up to the level of its technical scope. Save a few specific example, the missions were cookie cutter replications of last gen design and. I’m only a few hours into inFamous, but the previously mentioned mechanics have already leant themselves to a variety of wildly amusing missions. For example, GTA4 feature the tried and true “follow without getting noticed” missions and bound you to a “spook meter” if you got to close to your mark. inFamous has a similar missions, but eschews the meter in favor of pure stealth; the guy occasionally stops to look around, but if he so much as notices you, it’s missions over. You’re supposed to climb buildings or overpasses and follow him from above, staying completely out of the way of his x-axis point of view. Finding a way to get from building to building require a few greater sense of place, easily outclassing GTA’s primitive approach to the same concept.

And Cole’s powers do quite well to expand traditional open world gameplay. Escorting prisoners to jail would be a boring activity in any other game, but zapping them into place and trying to hunt them down when they broke free was a lot of fun. Assaulting a bus and some guards, an activity that usually requires rocket launcher rationing and trial and error death, was a head on face off. I’m also totally gay for radar drops and blast shards. The latter isn’t as ambitious and beneficial as Crackdown’s agility orbs, but I’m always pleased to see collectables that actually do something for a specific purpose. Oh, and there are always the intangibles I haven’t yet thought of; my mind was blown when I jumped in the fountain in the park – and then watched in horror as the random people in it got electrocuted.

Originally I wanted to play through as the antihero. I’m always the good guy in morality games and I wanted to give evil a shot, but for whatever reason my default instinct wouldn’t allow it. I figured the meter would be bound to the specific, time-stopping “what do you choose” events, but, long after I became a Champion, I was surprised to find a rather messy encounter that claimed the lives of some pedestrians had lowered my good rank down an entire notch. Needless to say, the morality system is ground deeper into the gameplay than previously thought, so I guess I’ll have to watch my shit.

I don’t really know a more nuanced way to put it, but I’m loving the fuck out of this game. Drake, I think, was the last time I loved a game so much that I totally ignored any perceptible flaws, and inFamous is having a similar effect on me.. Yakuza 2, Banjo, CoD4, Gun – all the games I’ve played as of late have been good, well made games, but they all sported niggling issues that soured me on the experience. I see no flaws in inFamous, and I fully intend to 100% complete the game and get my first Platinum trophy. Yes, I will play through it twice, yes I will collect every dead drop and blast shard, yes I will complete every side missions, and yes, I’m sure all do some stupid shit to round off a few trophies. Those are bold words for a game I’ve only played six or so hours, but everything just feels so right and so perfect, I can’t help but do little else but sit here and look forward to getting home to play it.

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Second Impression: Gun

May 20, 2009 by Eric Layman

05-20-09

Ten minutes into Gun, I was ready to write it off. The shooting seemed clunky, the environments seemed hastily constructed, the voice actors seemed to not give a shit, and the wild west setting was a major turn off. An hour in I wasn’t feeling too much better, but then suddenly, sometime after I arrived in Empire, everything in the game just clicked. My plans to blast through it were put on hold; I started enjoying what I was doing and sought to draw the experience out as long as possible. I was claiming Wanted posters, I was assisting the sheriff and federal marshal, I was taking missions as a ranch hand, and I was tracking animals for an Indian – all because I wanted to. I didn’t necessarily need the extra experience, but I liked the results of leveling up my gun hand and loved how much more engaging the combat was because of it.

Actually, the gun play was awesome around the board. Quick draw was ridiculously addicting and conveyed an amazing sense of feeling like a badass. It felt awesome when I mowed down five or six guys all in the blink of an eye, and essentially completed an entire shootout in what amount to a second’s time. I didn’t use the other weapons nearly as much, but, toward the end, it was hilarious to blast someone with a shotgun from point blank range and watch their body parts fucking explode all over the place.

Some of the violence and imagery was quite a bit more than I expected. Seeing Hoodoo’s lifeless corpse put on display, watching Marauder (magruder? the last boss) get crushed by a fucking rock was quite unexpected, the gratuitous macabre and gore in the gun fights was a bit overwhelming. Some of the missions titles were pretty funny as well (my favorite was, “Save the whore”), and, in general, the game felt like more of a representation of theatrical old west, as opposed to historically accurate old west. I guess, otherwise I’m not sure how they can explain zombie confederates, bloodthirsty indians, scalping, and my ability to kill well over 1000 people in a few day’s time.

Gun also housed a reasonable number of insane gameplay quirks. Power sliding horses was one thing, but running them to death and watching them collapse into a sliding death rattle of blood and meat was quite amusing. Seeing a horse run around with its head and/or entire body on fire was quite unexpected and, along with their expendability, transportation only served to increase their similarly to cars in GTA. Shooting people’s limbs off was entertaining, and eventually lead to a personal quest of sorts; I tested the dynamite bow on every living thing in site, only to discover that horses were the only other creatures that boasted limb-severing explodablity.

Sure, a few number of hiccups occasionally pissed me off. I hated it when I was stranded in the middle of nowhere with no horse, I never figured out where the fuck to get sniper ammo, weapon selection could have been easier, parts of the map being totally obscured was dumb, and I would often find outlaws I had been tracking to actually be on the other side of a mountain, but they weren’t really a big deal. Gun was, above all else, fun. It wasn’t particularly deep or innovative, and I might forget all about it in two years, but it wound up doing something quite unexpected; a great deal of good games have probably flown under my radar. Games I had no interest in or any reason to play might have actually been titles I would have enjoyed. Black immediately comes to mind as a similar title, but god only know how many four star games I’ve missed over the years.

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Impressions: Gun

May 17, 2009 by Eric Layman

05-17-09-2

Picked up Gun for 360 with the intention of playing along with RebelFM’s gameclub. I had already played nearly all of the other games in 1UP FM’s backlog and I enjoyed listening to their commentary, but I had never actually played along with the podcast. And I’m a little late to the party, but it gives me an additional three or four hours of shit to listen to at work, so why not?

Anyway, my initial impression was somewhere along the lines of ‘holy fuck this looks old.’ Until that moment I had never really considered myself a graphics whore for videogames. It bugged me a bit with Yakuza 2, but I’ve always played last-gen games well into the current generation without much of an issue.

It was a bit jarring to play something that was, for all intents and purposes, a dinosaur, but my shallow fears were easily alleviated by the Western aesthetic. Unless you want to count Stranger’s Wrath, I hadn’t played a Western themed game since Mad Dog McCree at my friend Tim’s house in the mid 90’s. I’ve never really been that hot for Western films; I don’t get the appeal of cowboys, I don’t some Marlboros’, I would hurt myself with spurs, and riding a horse would (did) scare the shit out of me. I had Yahoo Buckaroo and I’m sure I had a cap revolver, but I always wanted to go into outer space, not back in time to the Wild West. Still, the general aesthetic is relatively unseen in gaming, and I’m always happy to visit different worlds.

And obviously there was no better person to welcome me to such a place than Kris Kristofferson. I found Pa’s educational tutorial to feature an overt lack of practical reality, and reeked of cheese, but it was kind of endearing to be (pistol) shooting birds with my dad. It wasn’t anywhere near as cool as, say, power sliding into horses in the next tutorial some time later, but it was a decent way to get familiar with the controls. Bullet time seems like cheating and I’m still not entirely sure how the fuck ammo works (does my pistol have unlimited ammo? do I have to buy the rest? how long have I had a shotgun?), but drinking to replenish health is awesome and the mechanics feel pretty solid.

I just said it was cheating, but I’m fairly positive that bullet time, or gunslinger view or whatever, is going to be essential to surviving the game. When I had to go rescue my hooker friend I assumed it was going to be one dude up in a room, but, for reasons that still aren’t exactly clear to me, I wound up taking on a gang of roughly twenty people. Immediately after that I appeared to upset the leader’s brother and had to kill his gang of twenty arsonists. I don’t care, the combat is pretty fun, but it’s a little silly considering I haven’t even seen that many people wandering around town. You know? I mean, where the fuck are these people coming from and why isn’t there some mass graveyard for the foes I felled..

I had heard Gun was an open world game (and that seemed appealing in the context of a Western), but I’m not entirely sure that label is accurate. The paths I’ve walked have always been funneled toward a specific direction, and the extra missions (be it the Wanted stuff or Pony express) have been quite overt and not strayed outside the boundaries of town. I want there to be sprawling, wide open missions that compliment infinite expanse of the Wild West. Given I’ve only played for maybe 90 minutes, but I really hope the game opens up as it carries on.

The Western aesthetic is more or less in place. The requisite list of whores, whiskey, railroads, guns, and racist depictions of Indians Native Americans appears to be checked, but I am really anxious to see what direction the story takes. The not so holy preacher doesn’t look to be the end of the line by way of the random steamboat overthrow, so my dreams of some sort of Wild West conspiracy-conglomerate might yet be realized. Really, as long as there is some horseback riding, train take over, hostage situations, Deadwood-like swearing, dudes thrown through saloon doors, and a high-noon shootout, I should be ok. Actually, what would be great is Westworld without the murderous robots – or maybe throw them in there, I don’t know.

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Impressions: Rag Doll Kung Fu

May 17, 2009 by Eric Layman

05-17-09

When I saw it at Sony’s E3 suite last year, Rag Doll Kung Fu actually seemed appealing. It wasn’t a title that I had gone there to see (like Eden) and it didn’t blow me away (like Fat Princess or Flower), but it seemed to have enough substance to be a charming little game. It summoned memories of my first time with Super Smash Bros, where I wasn’t too sure what I was doing, but was confident that with some practice it might be a fantastic party game with a reasonable amount of depth.

Unfortunately it’s not. Rag Doll Kung Fu, as far as I am concerned, is an incredible disaster and a complete waste of an opportunity. I liked the aesthetic and I thought the music was somewhat inspired, but after five minutes with the tutorial I realized I was walking into a shit storm. I know the game isn’t supposed to be too serious, I get that, but in 2009 there is absolutely no excuse for pointless motion controls. Flipping the controller over to recharge health isn’t so bad and shaking it for Chi balls is manageable, but the fucking firefly punch is outrageously stupid. Even with practice (and an ace on the challenge), I found it to be painfully pointless. This is supposed to be a casual game, right? Then why in the hell are you tacking on controls that even I struggle to remember and execute? I don’t get it, especially when the shoulder buttons are mostly used for some LittleBigPlanet like arm swinging and taunting.

Typically if the input is screwed up then the rest of my experience with a game sort of implodes with it, and the remaining interface issues sort of guaranteed it. Wasn’t the point of installing a game to minimize or outright erase load times? Then why in the hell does Rag Doll Fu have them constantly? After a match, to begin a new a match, to save, to load the menu? Really? Why is there no immediate retry option for battles or challenges? What the fuck happened to intelligent game design? The game just seems rushed and cobbled together, which is odd considering I heard they significantly renovated the previous PC iteration.

The other shit was pretty awful, but the biggest disappointment might actually lie in the combat system. At E3 I remembered seeing a bunch of characters and, in my head, I was envisioning four player brawls on par with Smash Bros. Every move would require the same input, but the results, depending on the character, would be dramatically different. But in Rag Doll, everyone has the same moves. Every character is exactly the same. They have different voices and you can even customized or totally build them with some accumulated loot, but it fails the change the gameplay in any way. The basic attacks require an appreciated sense of targeting, but, other than that, it’s a mash fest.

Rag Doll Kung Fu probably isn’t as bad as I am making it out to be. The titular Ragdoll Physics grant it a reasonable amount of charm and the intended casual audience probably won’t know any better, but the final product is still an embarrassing waste of an opportunity. It probably wouldn’t have reached the hype and the popularity of Smash Bros, but it could have easily been a lustrous gem in Sony’s casual crown. Instead, we’re left with a functionally retarded and bizarre product that, essentially, boils down to a tech demo.

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Second Impression: Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare

May 16, 2009 by Eric Layman

05-15-09

Loved the Chernobyl flashback mission. Taking the role of your present commander as he was cutting his teeth was a blast and donning the ghillies suits was way more fun than it should have been, but the perfect hook arrived with the setting. Chernobyl has always been a fascinating topic; I find myself rereading the wikipedia entry when I’m bored and I’m always a sucker for indulging in pictures of the place. Through their rich visualization, Infinity Ward did a fantastic job recreating the mood and atmosphere behind the only modern ghost town (of that scale) in existence. The abandoned buildings, the fucked up looking swimming pool, the decaying apartments and, yes, the climactic scene at the ferris wheel were all wonderfully haunting. I only wish I wasn’t always being hurried through; I wanted to stop and investigate, to look closer, and to examine every last detail because it felt like I was rushing through the fucking place. It seemed like there was so much left to explore, but maybe that was all smoke and mirrors because of how fast I was moving. Well played, either way.

Actually that was a prevalent theme throughout the entire game; keep moving. I rarely felt comfortable during the normal FPS segments, it always felt like I wasn’t supposed to be camping out and waiting to clear a hoard. They never stopped, and the only time I seemed to make progress was when I started running. In a way that was disappointing, I can think of specific instances in the later few chapters where I gave up on weaponized badassery and simply made a mad dash for the next area on my compass. Especially the War Room sequences save the segment where my path was blocked and I had to go left or right, I barreled through the whole thing and barely attempted any form of strategy. It was just run, shoot, and hope to god I find some cover to let me health recharge. I’m sure this changes with an increase in difficulty (and I’m sure I would find zero fun in said increase), but the basic FPS elements felt a little…off.

I already talked about the “physical” changes to the FPS paradigm in my previous entry, but, almost like Bioshock, CoD4 impacted me not through its mechanics, but through its means of delivery and immersion. Bioshock sought to breathe life into the world through its atmosphere, and CoD4 walked a similar line through its unique use of the first person point of view. Fucking dying as Jackson came out of nowhere, and the post-nuke helicopter crawl will stay with me for a while, but that perspective hit it’s climactic peak (at the actual climax) when Price shoveled me the gun and I, in a completely delirious state, managed to pick off the antagonist right as he was parading around in victory. Watching him execute my buddies made me angry, so it was incredibly gratifying to alter the outcome of an ending that I surely thought was going to be a downer.

Speaking of the ending, what the fuck was with that rap song at the end? Did I hear that right or did Infinity Ward actually write a song called Hard and Deep and have some dude rap about their technical prowess? The fact that it followed and otherwise somber score made it even weirder, but hey at least they followed it up with a completely gratuitous (and totally random) plane hijacking/hostage mission. It was a fantastic easter egg, a true ‘ah fuck it, throw it in at the end’ segment that they loved, but couldn’t seem to integrate anywhere else in the game.

I’m aware that CoD 4 got its legs through its genius multiplayer system, but that…isn’t for me. I thought about this a lot with Killzone 2, but I don’t like being simply “ok” at a game. I’m not having any fun unless I am doing well, and doing so in modern fps requires (in addition to a shit ton of time familiarizing yourself with the mechanics) a vague means of collecting perks and, essentially, leveling up. I don’t want to be bogged down in a multiplayer shooter. I would love it, and I have no doubt that it would be a ton of fun – but it would be an experience of nothing but pure gameplay. As of late I’ve been enjoying both sides of the coin, gameplay and the illusion of being in another world. Multiplayer shooters offer less of the latter, so instead I move onto other games. Maybe one day I won’t have such a huge backlog.

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