I think I may have just played one of my all-time favorite levels in a platformer. And not because it did anything necessarily spectacular. It was more about the way the gameplay, tone, and a specific song came together (the song isn’t listed in the credits, which is a really odd oversight). I didn’t want the level to end. I just sat there at the exit letting the music play with the wind blowing softly under it. Since when did platformers get so wistful? Actually, I know the answer to that. Trace a sad lovely line from Ico to Flower to Braid. Keep following that line and you’ll come to Bastion, the game I’m currently playing. The level is Prosper Bluff. You’ll know it when you get there.
In a way, Bastion is “just” a platformer with RPG elements. But like Ico and Flower and Braid, it’s more than its genre. Bastion knits familiar gameplay into a neatly playable package, with the design acumen of something like Darksiders or some umteenth Ratchet & Clank; it makes the familiar feel fresh. The graphics are cheerfully colorful and tastefully lively, but there’s a sullen mood underneath it all, expressed mainly through writer Greg Kasavin’s story and actor Logan Cunningham’s gravelly basso narration. It has the economy of a children’s book and the poignancy of poetry. And I wish to heck I knew what song plays at Prosper Bluff, because it’s going to be floating in my head for at least several days. Probably longer.
Bastion is the creation of a teensy indie developer called Supergiant Games, but it’s published by Warner Brother Interactive. It’ll be out next week on Xbox Live, at which point I’ll have quite a bit more to say.
Since the alternative was Transformers 3D and since we thought Colin Farrell was pretty funny in In Brugge and Alexander, we decide to see Horrible Bosses this week. Find out how that turns out or skip ahead to this week’s 3×3 discussion at the 43-minute mark. We try to have an erudite discussion about great examples of production design, but we’re not entirely up to the erudite part.
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Panzer Corps comes out on Monday. You might think Panzer Corps is some serious hardcore wargame from Matrix Games. You’d be partly right. It is from Matrix Games. But it’s not serious, hardcore, or a wargame. It’s just an appropriately breezy remake of a 1994 beer-and-pretzels strategy/puzzle game called Panzer General. Which, yeah, was a classic back in the day. But now?
After the jump, why would you ever want to play a remake of a game from 1994? Continue reading →
Whew. For a while there, I was worried that Sims: Medieval was just going to be a one-off. Fortunately, Electronic Arts hasn’t forgotten about their wonderful fantasy-themed gameplay-infused iteration of The Sims.
…new exhilarating quests expand upon the original adventures like finding the fountain of youth or protecting the kingdom from an evil sorcerer. The war between Tredony and Aarbyville creates a new ambition and opportunity for players to suit up their kingdoms. Players can choose to be anyone from a king or queen to a knight or blacksmith, and with that, prepare for voyage accordingly. Treasure hunting is an exciting new gameplay feature in the pack with maps, shovels, rare treasures and surprising dangers, while challenging players to find hidden objects and search for desirable rewards that will benefit their Hero Sims. Other new items include birds that you can name and train, and interrogation chairs.
The Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles has a range of pirate and nobility-themed items that players can use to revamp their creation of legendary swords or embellish their customized royal weddings with new fashion pieces. Bold new signature items can be used as rewards or punishments. As a treat, Hero Sims can now be accompanied by companions such as pet falcons or parrots. If Sims have been more naughty than nice, players can subject them to extreme punishments such as the interrogation chair.
After the jump, a few screenshots and useless observations. Continue reading →
This week, we bring you a very special internationally flavored episode of the Quarter to Three Games Podcast, which includes various non-videogaming pursuits like boardgaming, pinball, and iPhone games. Also, find out what indie game is well on its way to 100 million downloads, give or take. And naked battles!
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Rather than see the Transformers 3 this weekend, we decided to see a superhero movie that isn’t Green Lantern. Join us for a discussion of Super. Not Super 8. Just straight up Super. Spoiler: Tom Chick has already gone on record as being a big fan. The 3×3 of our favorite examples of comedic timing begins neatly at the 60-minute mark. How’s that for timing?
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Yesterday was the most disappointing games of the year so far. With all that negativity is behind us, it’s time to look at the best games of the year. Following are my ten picks for this year’s games that have made me the happiest.
After the jump, let the celebration begin! Continue reading →
Fear 3 focuses on the three rules of making a good shooter: gunplay, gunplay, gunplay.
Thumbs up.
Welcome to the halfway point of 2011. What better time to make a couple of lists? Following aren’t necessarily the worst of the year — if I’m lucky, I didn’t play those! — but the most disappointing to me personally. These are the games with the widest gulf between what they could have been and what they actually are.
After the jump, let the wailing and gnashing of teeth commence Continue reading →
That picture up there isn’t just a screenshot from Catherine, an upcoming Japanese import to be published by Atlus. It’s also my reaction upon seeing what kind of game Catherine is. I’d been hearing snippets of conversations about the game, and I’d seen a trippy video, and I knew it was from the creators of the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games, and somewhere along the way I had picked up that it was a mature psycho-sexual thriller. Wait, maybe I’m confusing it with Black Swan. But I had no idea what Catherine actually was. Today I found out it’s just a puzzle game!
After the jump, have I been misled? Continue reading →
What do bigfoot, Chinese dissidents, Magic the Gathering, nudity, and Zone of the Enders have in common? They’re all discussed on this week’s Qt3 games podcast! Plus, good news for freedom and Jason McMaster totally outs himself as a lifelong nerd.
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You could describe the basic gameplay in Killer 7 as “half-assed shooter”. But the gameplay wasn’t the main draw, so who cares. Shadows of the Damned, the latest game from Killer 7 creator Goichi Suda, feels like what Killer 7 would be if it only consisted of its basic gameplay.
Killer 7 was full of interesting characters. So far, Shadows of the Damned only has one character and calling him interesting would be a stretch. That would suggest I actually know something about him. But I don’t. What’s with all his tattoos? What happened to his face? Where did he get his talking skull sidekick who can turn into a gun or a motorcycle? Am I supposed to hang fire playing this half-assed shooter while he doles out bits of backstory to the skull? And shouldn’t a talking skull who can turn into a gun or motorcylcle be less annoying? Why is Shadows of the Damned’s talking skull like some poorly written and half-heartedly voice acted Wheatley from Portal 2?
I don’t know whether Shadows of the Damned will end up going anywhere worthwhile, because after three acts of uninspired shootering, uninteresting characters, unimpressive graphics, and hit-or-miss-but-mostly-miss humor, I decided to play the game it wishes it was. And boy, does Bayonetta hold up.
2 stars
Xbox 360
So, like Bad Santa, but with a teacher, right? What could go wrong? Find out in this week’s podcast.
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One of the tough things about jumping back into an MMO after being away for a while is re-acquainting yourself with those rows and rows of icons. Every time I try to get back into Lord of the Rings Online, it’s a whole learning curve all over again. What a fantastically tedious chore it is to piece dozens of spells, skills, and abilities with their tiny and often inscrutable icons.
When I visited ArenaNet yesterday, they showed us some early game content, which was manageable enough. Then they threatened to jump us ahead to level 30 content, which would includ some underwater adventuring and a dungeon stocked with the equivalent of elite creatures in Lord of the Rings Online. Who wants to be fast-forwarded and dropped into something like that?
But one of the many nifty things ArenaNet is doing in Guild Wars 2 is arranging skills into “packages”, for lack of a better word. Half of your skills are dependent on your choice of weapons. When you go underwater, it gives you a whole new set of skills. When you’re reduced to a downed state (known as incapacitated or “incapped” in shooters), you have a different set of skills. Elementalists have different skills based on their choice of element. Engineers have skills based on their choice of kits. As a thief, I could steal a skill from an opponent and use it immediately against him. The slot for hotkey 6 is always your healing skill. Slots 7-9 are your choice of three class skills. Slot 0 is your ultimate. Actually, I think ArenaNet calls it your legendary, but I couldn’t help but think of League of Legends as I considered the relative elegance of Guild Wars 2 in comparison to other MMOs. This is a game where the developers help you choose and arrange skills into sets rather than ringing the screen with a hundred tiny icons. Jumping ahead to a level 30 character was only slightly more daunting than jumping into a level 1 character.
For other reasons I want to play Guild Wars 2, check out my coverage on GamePro.
Dungeon Siege 3 has the feel of pushing a plumbing snake down a drain.
Thumbs down.
