Topic: Rate The Last Game You Played

[broodwars]

I actually think SH3 is the better game, overall--gameplay and storyline considered. Far darker, far creepier at times.

Same here, for the most part.  My big issues with SH3's story is that it kind of trades off a good father-daughter storyline for a desperate bid to make SH 1's ridiculously convoluted storyline make sense, a sacrifice that largely went in vain I'm afraid.  I would have preferred the game be a standalone story like all the other Silent Hills have been (For the most part. Origins is directly linked to SH1 and Homecoming dabbles in tying into the SH1 storyline as well).

BTW, SH Downpour does improve a lot when you switch from the sadistically-hard "Normal" combat difficulty to the much-easier "Easy" difficulty.  I'm playing it right now, and I'm digging it despite some major flaws.

[Lithium]

   I Just finished Mass Effect 3 I really liked it. However i really don't like how bioware forces you to play the boring multiplayer mode to up your galactic readiness. No matter how much sidequests you do it wont budge, in fact it pretty much nullifies the war assets you gather by cutting them in half if you dont play the multiplayer. I didn't even know that was the case until i got about halfway through Priority: Earth and then your galactic readiness drops if you're not constantly playing multiplayer, I'm talking a matter of hours here.


  That said, im not big on the combat side of the game, to me its just another gears of war inspired shooter but its the storyline that makes it for me (and i am very pleased with the inclusion of the "narrative" difficulty mode) I actually thought the story for mass effect was was alright, ME 2's didn't really do anything for me but Mass effect 3's plot is really enjoyable. The last few hours give a climatic end to the game, and as for the ending. It really isn't as bad as i was led to believe.


i was ready to give it a full 10/10 but the multiplayer left a bad aftertaste, a 9/10 would have to do.

[broodwars]

Alright, I'm finally going to get caught up on my impressions backlog with a look at 2 gaming "reboots" (of sorts):

GoldenEye Reloaded (PS3) - I really liked the Wii version of this a game a year ago, and the "Reloaded" version for the HD Consoles is even better.  I remember this game getting heavily criticized by the gaming press when it released for not looking sufficiently "HD", but I think the game looks outstanding (especially compared to the Wii version).  The lighting's much better and more atmospheric, and there are certain scenes that feel "finished" now compared to the Wii version like the Nightclub level.  In that case, what used to be a bunch of 2D sillouettes block off by invisible walls and minimal lighting now looks amazing with full character models and full bloom lighting. 

This is one of those cases where I think the graphical improvement had a major impact on my enjoyment of the gameplay, as levels felt more "complete" and atmospheric.  Aside from a horrible final level and boss, the SP campaign is still one of the best ones I've played in an FPS.  I haven't gotten around to playing the online multiplayer, but from what I've heard it's pretty decent if barren at the moment.  So yeah, I highly recommend this version of the game.

Silent Hill: Downpour - This game has been taking an unfair beating from the press and from certain die-hard fans.  However, I really don't think the game deserves this derision, as it's a very solidly-executed horror game that feels like both a big first step forward for the franchise and an homage to the older Silent Hill games.

What's funny to me about the criticism is how familiar it is: "bad combat", "little direction", "not scary."  Gee, all three sound an awful lot like Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3 (to some extent) to me.  Oh wait...those were developed by a Japanese team, so I guess they're immune to criticism, especially the sacred cow named Silent Hill 2.  No, let's instead have a double-standard and heavily criticize the Western-developed SH developers for trying to make better games. 

Downpour is a very flawed game, but I really enjoyed my time with it and thought the story was one of the best in the series.  The combat is pretty mediocre, but it's serviceable; you rarely have to fight; and on Easy Combat Difficulty the monsters rarely try to block your attacks.  I could do without breakable weapons, but you find new ones so frequently that it really didn't bother me.  It's not particularly engaging, but combat has always been a problem in the SH series in one way or another and I didn't find it altogether detracting here.  The environments are well-designed and easy to navigate, and the new sidequest system offers some interesting SH short stories around the city.  The music by the composer of the TV series Dexter is very well done and very much in the spirit of previous series composer Yamaoka, though it's perhaps too subtle as you're wandering around the town.  There are also some really nice set piece moments in the game, my favorite being the sequence where you run a Hansel & Gretal school play (which goes to a very interesting place).

My big problem with Downpour is that there's a certain lack of cohesion to the experience, a unifying element that brings the game together.  For instance, when you transition to the Otherworld, you have Shattered Memories-style chase sequences where you run from a pursuing vortex, but the game never even attempts to explain the vortex or leave clues as to what it means.  It could be an homage to a similar sequence from Silent Hill 3, but it's never explained or hinted at and really feels out-of-place.  Water similarly is hinted to have a special resonance with the main character due to an event in his past, but it seems randomly malicious.  The story is well-written, but could have been tightened-up in places and certain elements could have been conveyed better.

Overall, Downpour is not a fantastic game, but it is consistently a good first effort from a new developer trying to bring new elements into the series while respecting its roots.  I think if more people could get past their nostalgia over Silent Hill 2 and acknowledge the flaws the old SH games had, they would also see that there's much more to this game than they give it credit for.  Instead, people go into this game presuming it sucks, and they see nothing more than what they wanted to see.

[Halbred]

The thing that draws me to SH games are the monsters. Even though the game was generally terrible, the last PS3 entry (whatever it was called) had some interesting creatures. I've looked at pictures of monsters in Downpour and...they don't look like monsters at all. Even the one that crawls around on the ceiling looks like a stretched-out person. So I do want to try this game, but at the same time, I feel like I'll be disappointed with the character and art direction. Is this a valid concern?

[broodwars]

The thing that draws me to SH games are the monsters. Even though the game was generally terrible, the last PS3 entry (whatever it was called) had some interesting creatures. I've looked at pictures of monsters in Downpour and...they don't look like monsters at all. Even the one that crawls around on the ceiling looks like a stretched-out person. So I do want to try this game, but at the same time, I feel like I'll be disappointed with the character and art direction. Is this a valid concern?

I think you would be disappointed with the "monsters" in Downpour.  They're not the most imaginatively designed things, especially by Silent Hill standards, though the "dolls" are pretty effective at being creepy (they stand in one place and attack you with their shadows, which you can only see with UV light).  I ran into monsters fairly rarely after the prologue, though, so I gave them very little thought.  They serve their purpose, but I don't think they're particularly memorable.  HOWEVER, the game also manages to avoid regurgitating enemies the series has driven into the ground, so that means no nurses; no dogs; no pyramid head (and his replacement is pretty effective); etc.

As for the art direction, I think the look of the Otherworld is pretty inspired, but altogether it's fairly standard Silent Hill 2-style dilapidated buildings and foggy streets.  The way your flashlight or match illuminate very small areas does make for much more interesting-looking areas than they otherwise would have been, though.  This is a dark game when you actually turn the brightness down to what the guide says it should be (the default is extremely bright).  As with the monsters, Downpour also seems to go out of its way to avoid doing the same environments that have been done to death in the series like hospitals, instead opting for some new ones like a forest and cave (which you have to navigate by match).

[TJ Spyke]

The GameTrailers review was pretty harsh on the game. They went after stuff like the QTE events, endless spawn points for weapons where you can just stand there and basically have infinite ammo, and making it clear when you are about to have swarms of enemies come after you. They also mentioned the lack of grain effects that most SH games have.

[broodwars]

The GameTrailers review was pretty harsh on the game. They went after stuff like the QTE events, endless spawn points for weapons where you can just stand there and basically have infinite ammo, and making it clear when you are about to have swarms of enemies come after you. They also mentioned the lack of grain effects that most SH games have.

OK, let's pick this apart in order:

1.  The most prevalent QTE events are for getting monsters off you when you get grabbed or get stunned by the Shrieker's scream attack, which are of the "wave the stick side to side" variety.  There are also some "mash this button" or "rotate the stick" QTEs for moving certain objects.  It's not a big deal, certainly not any more so than any other action game.  Where's their bitching about Resident Evil games using QTEs, or other beloved games like the God of War series?

2.  The only items that have endless spawn points are when that item has to be used to break a lock or remove nearby boards over door, or if they're simple items like bricks or stones.  It's another thing that's only a big deal if you choose to make it one.

3.  The game makes it clear that you should run from large groups of enemies because you're not supposed to be able to take them on in combat.  I don't know why so many people try it and then complain about the combat when they get slaughtered.  And yeah, there's a sidequest related to calling off the cop cars that roam the streets, spawning monsters if they see you.  Monsters also get more aggressive and numerous when it starts raining, which is fine because it encourages you to run for cover until the rain stops.  It builds tension in its own way, though I think it could have been a lot more prevalent than it was.

4.  I'm glad the grain filter is gone, as it makes the game look much better.  If you turn the game's lighting down to where it should be according to the instructions, the game looks fine and the fog's prevalent enough that your visibility is pretty limited out in the streets.

I have major issues with that Gametrailers review, as there are several points where I have to wonder how much effort the reviewer put into the game.  For instance, the reviewer bitches that there's no radio to tell you when an enemy is close, but there IS.  It's a walkie-talkie that starts emitting police band radio signals when a monster gets close.  Stuff like that AND the fact that the review came out two weeks after the game's release made me wonder if they even gave the game a fair shot.  The Invisible Walls discussion where they mindlessly praised the early Silent Hill games while mocking Downpour for having issues those very games had just confirmed it for me.

As I said, Downpour has some major issues, but critics are treating it like "it's the worst game EVAR" and the death of the Silent Hill series when it's a perfectly decent game like IMO all the other post-SH1 games were.  Weekend Confirmed even called it more damaging to its series than Operation Raccoon City is to Resident Evil, yet for all its problems Downpour is still more of a horror game than Resident Evil has been since RE2.

[TJ Spyke]

I think (I am going from my memory) their issue with QTE's was when they happened in situations like the bridge you are on collapsing and you just happen to lose the flashlight you had (which led to them saying they didn't like how close-up the camera was when you had to use a lighter for light).

Yeah, they showed piles of bricks. It was funny how the video showed the enemies not really being hurt by the bricks.

I don't know who reviewed it for GT. Does Keighly actually review games or does he just provide the narration for the video reviews?

[broodwars]

I think (I am going from my memory) their issue with QTE's was when they happened in situations like the bridge you are on collapsing and you just happen to lose the flashlight you had (which led to them saying they didn't like how close-up the camera was when you had to use a lighter for light).

Yeah, the bridge thing where you lose your items (which happens twice in the game) is annoying, but it's only something that happens at the beginning and end of the game.  And I liked how close the camera came in while you have the lighter out, as it gives the game a sense of claustrophobia and removes your visibility so you imagine more horrors around you than are actually there.  Plus, you only need to use the lighter in the cave at the beginning of the game because you've lost your flashlight.  Once again, they chose to complain about something that you only need to worry about in the first few hours of the game.  Interesting.

Yeah, they showed piles of bricks. It was funny how the video showed the enemies not really being hurt by the bricks.

Yep, bricks are pretty useless.  You can knock enemies down much faster just taking the brick and clubbing an enemy with it rather than trying to take it down by pelting it with bricks for several minutes.

I don't know who reviewed it for GT. Does Keighly actually review games or does he just provide the narration for the video reviews?

I don't think Keighly does more than PR and the Bonus Round show.  I forget who was on the Invisible Walls episode that covered Downpour, but I believe he was the reviewer.

By the way, something else that pisses me off about the Gametrailers review (and several others as well): all the complaining about the Korn rock song (which I actually think is enjoyable and fitting).  The GT review treats it as a major issue, but do you know where it appears in the game?  The attract mode video, which plays if you leave the start menu running without controller input for about a minute.  That's it.  That's the only place in the game (except maybe the credits, but I don't think so) where it plays.  You could play the entire game and never hear it.  Silent Hill has a history of extremely out-of-place JPop numbers that play in the attract videos, and people didn't single them out for derision.  Like I've said before, critics have a major double-standard when it comes to Downpour.

[Gato]

"Journey" on the PS3 - 10

Amazing game. So relaxing and innovative multiplayer. Just awesome.

[Lithium]

Hotel Dusk
the subtitle, room 215 has nothing to do with the game other than the fact that its where you're staying.

Is a decent mystery novel, probably like the ones you can find at your local grocery store book aisle. The writing itself is serviceable, sometimes unintentionally funny, sometimes intentionally. The plot seems to be progressed through unbelievable coincidences that just so happened to come together on that one night at the hotel, If you're like me and like to nitpick when it comes to these kinds of things it will take you out of the experience, but those able to sustain their suspension of disbelief might find uncovering the  mysteries enjoyable. The games strengths come from the illustrations and animation that brings the characters added depth taking advantage of holding the DS book style by using higher resolution art assets that would have been difficult to fit onto the screen otherwise. As for the music...Well, it has it. That's the most I can say about Hotel Dusk's forgettable soundtrack.

The game was a bit of a drag to get through at the beginning espesially chapter 3 which is as long as it is boring. Holding your hand at one minute and then leaving your stranded the next, Hotel Dusk forces you to go through the events in a very specific order even when there's no logical reason to do one thing over the next. Failure to do so just results in you running around the hotel and tapping on everything in order to trigger the next event. The dialogue trees can sometimes be as obtuse as trying to advance the plot since going along one tree can suddenly net you a game over screen. Sometimes it feels like you just have to click a choice at random and hope it doesn't end your game. Fans of classic adventure games may find this tolerable, but someone like me who has no nostalgia for that genre just found it annoying.

With the completion of this game I'm proud to say that my DS and Wii Backlog that I've been working on for almost 2 years is now complete. However im kind of dissapointed that the game to send off my DS lite was this average.

5/10
just read a book. (or a better visual novel)

[Halbred]

Rayman Origins - 9.5/10
Good lord, what a game. My first Platinum trophy (Vita) and possibly my second Platinum trophy in the future (PS3). I loved every second of it. It's beautiful, challenging but never frustrating, and speaks to the pure platformer fan in me. Nintendo forgot how to make games this good. In fact, the last one of this quality was farmed out to Good Feel (Wario Land: Shake It).
Aliens Infestation - 6/10
Now, at the other end of the quality spectrum is this half-assed effort from WayForward, a company I usually can't get enough of. The game is underwhelming in its repetitiousness, you fight the same creatures for the entire game, there's a space-walk segment that's so frustrating it made want to bend steel in anger, the final boss is a cakewalk, the credits last as long as the game did (that means the credits was long, not that the game was short), and there are no meaningful unlockables. There's a minigame that kind of sucks instead.
Skip this one, but DEFINATELY get Rayman Origins. I have it on Vita and PS3. I actually prefer the Vita one because it's portable, but there's a new thing to collect (basically puzzle pieces), an interesting Ghost mode, and some Near compatibility. But any way you can, get that game. Holy crap, it's amazing.

[ejamer]

...
Aliens Infestation - 6/10
Now, at the other end of the quality spectrum is this half-assed effort from WayForward, a company I usually can't get enough of. The game is underwhelming in its repetitiousness, you fight the same creatures for the entire game, there's a space-walk segment that's so frustrating it made want to bend steel in anger, the final boss is a cakewalk, the credits last as long as the game did (that means the credits was long, not that the game was short), and there are no meaningful unlockables. There's a minigame that kind of sucks instead.
...

Harsh. 


I've started playing this game recently and (apparently) am enjoying it more than you.  Nobody will accuse Aliens Infestation of being brilliant or exceeding expectations, but it's good enough fan service and seems worth playing once.


My biggest disappointment so far is the overall feeling that budgets were small or development was rushed since the game manual is useless, cover art unimpressive, and some of the level/enemy designs feel underbaked.  But the first two complaints don't really matter and the third one hasn't prevented me from enjoying the game so far.  (Note: I haven't gotten to the space walk yet.)


However, I only paid $10 for my copy and wouldn't have felt comfortable spending anything more. I also wouldn't rate it higher than 7 or 7.5 - not that different from your 6.  So take this post with a grain of salt.

[Halbred]

Yeah, I found it for $20 new.

I will say that, overall, WayForward just seems philosophically opposed to unlockable rewards.

[Lithium]

analogue: a hate story

I tried out the demo on steam since i played Christine Love's previous Visual Novel "Don't take it personally babe, it's just not your story" and liked it. This time however i was left dissapointed, the Interface for analogue is a mess (although starting the game up in a command prompt was pretty cool) mostly because it makes it very hard to find previous messages (like don't take it personally, you're pretty much eavesdropping on people's emails/chats) but in the end it's a library simulator. I couldn't bring myself to finish the demo out of sheer boredom (after 30 minutes).

[ejamer]

So a quick counter-point review of Aliens: Infestation (DS) since I finished the game last night.


The good points:
- graphics, sound, and animation are generally good and evocative of the series
- many different "characters", all with different dialog
- ending details change slightly based on which marine is used
- nice fan service
- end credits start with a cut of Requiem by Holy Light of Demon (youtube it)


The bad points:
- no meaningful difference between characters outside of cutscene dialog
- every new item outside of explosives is basically just a door key with no other in-game purpose; you never have a reason to weld doors shut or to use these items
- too many weapon upgrades makes looking for them pointless, or maybe just too few weapons available?
- ship design feels odd, with many "secret" areas that house only unnecessary health/ammo refills (especially when they are right by a save room that refills everything automatically)
- flamethrower is essentially broken by having no meaningful ammo limit
- very short and easy with little incentive to play though again


Personally I didn't find the space walk section to be that bad. It had loose controls, forced you to avoid aliens instead of fighting, and (at least for me) involved a couple of blind jumps to get to the end... but the whole thing takes 3-5 minutes and provides a badly needed change of pace.  In that way it reminded me of the in-vehicle section where you have to gun down aliens using your stylus.


So what is my final opinion?  This game lacks the love and polish needed to be really good. In fact, the feeling that Aliens: Infestation should have been much better was impossible to shake while I was playing. However, it remains entertaining fan service that is worth trying if you can find the game at a reasonable price.

7.5/10

[broodwars]

Well, it's been a while since I've done one of these, but my backlog of reader reviews is getting pretty obscene so I have to put this out before I get too involved in anything else.  Just to preface this, I'm going to try to change-up my "reviews" a bit and make them a little more visually pleasing and useful.  It's just an experiment at the moment, but each game I'm going to talk about will have the game's logo, the platform I played it on, and a youtube video of actual gameplay.  That way, if what I'm saying interests you, you have some gameplay footage you can look at right there. 

You have no idea how hard it was to find youtube videos from some of these games that didn't have someone doing a running commentary, and there's no such thing as good Vita game footage b/c of the lack of a video output (but I tried to find some good ones).  I'm also going to try to break these things up more into separate posts so these aren't these massive walls of text.  Let me know if this stuff works for you, as it's just an experiment right now.

So without any further ado, I got a Vita last month and I've been playing a bunch of stuff on it and a particularly cool PS3 game:


Vita (Platinum #58)

Some of you may remember that despite the gaming media's massive love affair with Uncharted 3 last year, when I played it I really didn't like it.  It seems appropriate, then, that Uncharted Golden Abyss on Vita rolls around, and the gaming media has spent a considerable amount of energy looking down on it with such phrases as "the direct-to-video Uncharted."  However, I went into the game without inflated expectations, and I found myself surprisingly invested in the experience.  I actually think it's a much better game with better storytelling; a better villain; a more consistent gameplay flow; and quite a few moments that may not be "epic setpiece moments" but were just as exciting and felt appropriate to the Uncharted Universe.

Alright, let's get the obvious hardware-mandate stuff out of the way: Golden Abyss is an extremely gimmicky game.  You'll be constantly rubbing the front touch screen to make charcoal rubbings; rotating 3D objects with the back touch to get a better look at them; tracing lines across the screen to do hand-to-hand combat finishers, cut down obstructions with your machete, and row a boat; and use the gyroscope to balance on most beams, take in-game pictures, and help adjust your aim while shooting.  Even the few boss encounters are basically cinematic QTEs with finger swiping instead of button pressing.  I think the only Vita hardware feature not used in some tacked-on way in Golden Abyss is, amusingly, the microphone (which is ironic considering how games went on the DS).  Yes, it's tacked-on and yes, these Vita features don't really add much to the experience.  However, on the flipside I also found that they really didn't detract from it either, and most of these Vita gimmicks were either blessedly optional (like using motion control to adjust your aim, something that often threw my aim off because I'd be subconsciously slightly tilting the Vita) or were mainly only used in optional side content.  I even found some gimmicks surprisingly useful at times like reloading by tapping the screen or doing platforming by tracing Drake's route with the touch screen.  I think it helps that the very first thing I did when I pulled my Vita out of the box was slap a screen protector on the thing.

With that out of the way, I found the 8-10 hour campaign very well-paced and enjoyable, and the game encourages probably more exploration and discovery within the levels than any previous Uncharted game.  The storytelling is textbook Uncharted, with extensive voice acting and a reasonably-cohesive and competent script.  And as you may have heard, the game just looks and sounds amazing (especially the outdoor environments), though I definitely saw some Uncanny Valley problems during cutscenes where the camera would close-up on a character and their eyes are just dead (which is not a problem the Uncharted games usually have).  Gunplay feels very solid and accurate (especially once I turned the motion control aim-tweaking off), and aside from a few areas in the game where you have to run from gunfire or shoot goons while hanging from a rope I thought the difficulty balancing was well-tuned.  And unlike Uncharted 3, most of the combat environments are designed to allow the player a variety of ways to proceed so stealth is very much an option.

My biggest problem with the game, though, is that it's more than a little buggy.  I frequently ran into an issue where I needed to climb a surface, but Drake would only climb part of the way.  At that point, the game wouldn't acknowledge that there were more surfaces to climb, and it often took climbing down and repeating the process to continue progress (and sometimes I even had to reload my game).  That's a crippling problem in a game where you spend most of the experience climbing.  There are also a few sections where you have to defend an NPC that can be a little annoying.  Despite these issues, though, it's a real credit to Sony Bend that when I finished the game for the 3rd time for my Platinum trophy, I still wanted more of that experience.  And to give them further props, they managed to avoid the series' biggest problem: the tacked-on and silly supernatural element.  Everything in this game can be explained logically, and the game ends on a very appropriate story twist.

In the end, Golden Abyss is not my favorite Uncharted game (that would be Uncharted 2), but it's an excellent first effort from a studio that has proven itself very capable of developing handheld installments of major console games (they also made Resistance Retribution).  I look forward to whatever this studio makes next.

[broodwars]

Vita

My previous experience with the tetris-esque Lumines experience has been mixed at best.  By the time I got my PSP, the Lumines games were getting hard to find and as far as I know they have no digital versions on PSN.  I played the PS3 Lumines Supernova and really didn't like it because of the high difficulty level and the horrible track list.  I never could get beyond the 3rd or 4th "skin" in Supernova's campaign mode.

However, I decided to give the franchise another try with Lumines: Electronic Symphony when I picked up my Vita, and I can't overstate just how much better this game is than Supernova.  The biggest improvement is the in the tracklist, which you can see here.  Instead of Supernova's terrible, screechy JPop, Electronic Symphony's music is geared towards more soothing traditional electronic music, often trance-based.  While I'm not fond of every song on the list, I'd gladly listen to most of the tracks outside of the game and that's something most video game soundtracks can't claim.  And the way that Lumines ES uses the songs is interesting and very tied into gameplay: each "skin" has a set number of blocks the player must clear to complete it, and the song progresses as the player moves closes to that goal.  So when you're playing extremely well, the song hits its most exciting point as well.  The block-clearing timeline also adjusts its speed to the beat of the song, and the very visually-pleasing background animations change per the music as well.  Sometimes in the more bombastic songs this can be a little distracting, but overall it's a very cool display of interactivity in a puzzle game.

After the improvement in the music, though, the best thing I can say about Lumines ES is that it feels extremely fair.  In previous Lumines games, you had to progress through the game's tracklist in a single sitting, in a single "life" to unlock all the skins.  For players who weren't Lumines masters, this was just impossible and it was frustrating to never be able to see beyond the first 3 or 4 skins previously.  In Lumines ES, though, when you finally fail a Skin in "Voyage" mode, the game merely asks if you want to stop now and keep your score, or if you want to lose your score but keep progressing from your current skin.  Now, even if you aren't an exceptional player, you can still see all the content in the game and that is a massive improvement.  Also, there's a new Shuffle Block that randomly appears to randomize all blocks attached to it.  When I had a screen nearly at the brink of failure, that shuffle block often popped-up and totally saved me by suddenly clearing half the screen and giving me a shot at a comeback.  You also have "avatars" you can equip to trigger game-saving powers on command, similarly giving you slight chances at comebacks and combos.

Lumines Electronic Symphony is an exceptional and very addicting game that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a good puzzle game and has a fondness of electronic music.  It has a great track list with a variety of licensed and original songs, and while the game can be deviously hard it also feels amazingly fair and welcoming to Lumines newcomers.

[broodwars]

PS3 & Vita

Your enjoyment of this game and these tables is pretty much going to come down to one thing: whether you are a fan of wacky fantasy pinball that does things no real table could do, or whether you are a fan of completely faithful and realistic traditional pinball.  I personally lean towards the fantasy pinball of games like Marvel Pinball, which really take advantage of being "video games" to do some crazy things.  However, I still have a love for old-school pinball fueled by all those childhood weekends I would spend playing (and completely sucking at) pinball at my local (no longer existing) West Jordan Galleria, and to that end I really enjoyed this game.

Pinball Arcade is...simply that: a realistic simulation of 4 highly-acclaimed real-world tables from different eras and manufacturers: Ripley's Believe it or Not, Black Hole, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Theatre of Magic.  Of the 4, the only table I actually dislike is Black Hole (which is both boring and cheap IMO), and more tables are on their way in the future in the form of monthly DLC packs.  Like the company's previous Pinball Hall of Fame collections, the tables look decent (but not spectacular, especially in the Vita version); the menus are amateurish at best; and the collection is pretty basic in terms of extras.  However, the ball physics are great; the tables look and sound authentic; and you won't find a better game for teaching the player how to actually play these tables.  Unlike Marvel Pinball, each table has an extremely detailed set of instructions as well as a set of in-game challenges that will actually make you a better Pinball player.

On a side note, if you're wondering where the movie/TV-licensed tables are, FarSight Studios currently has a Kickstarter set up to try to get the money to license the Twilight Zone Pinball table, as well as others like Star Trek: The Next Generation's Pinball table if they go over so you might want to check that out.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm buying a Vita next week before I go off to E3, and I think you may have sold me Uncharted.

[Halbred]

If you haven't already played it, Rayman Origins is THE BOMB on Vita. Infintately more playable in a portable format. Looks amazing. Has some cool Near stuff and new collectibles to collect.

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I was already planning on picking up Rayman and MLB The Show with it (and by with it I mean when I get home, because I <3 Digital Distribution).

[broodwars]

Vita

I picked this one up on NWR_Neal's recommendation, and while I won't go as far as he did to call it "the best game on the system right now" I will say that Vita needs more games like this.  It has excellent pacing; the puzzles are inventive and use the system's features well; the controls are very responsive; the game is visually interesting with a unique art style; the levels are well-suited to "pick up and play" portable sessions; and the game is just incredibly addictive.  Also, the game is just legitimately funny without going overboard, and with each level there is this great sense of empowerment despite the gradual increase in difficulty.  While I would argue that the game is possibly too short at only 2-3 hours long, I do think the game ends just as it's starting to run out of ideas.

Sadly, I picked up this game's PS3 predecessor "Tales from Space: About a Blob," and after a couple of levels I can't say I'm fond of it.  Compared to the Vita game, it's noticeably slow and borderline boring.  Mutant Blobs Attack, though, is an excellent game and it's only $8 on PSN.


Vita

Escape Plan is unique in the Vita's early library: it's not a PS3 port and it's not trying to be a complicated AAA-budget console experience.  It's a simple puzzle game with a unique and eye-catching "1930s Black & White cartoon" visual style based around merely trying to get your extremely-fragile ink-filled characters from one side of a room to the other using touch controls.

Sadly, the touch controls are both the best and worst aspects of this game, although they've gotten considerably better after a recent patch.  To move your characters, you swipe them in the direction you want them to go.  One of the characters can blow up like a balloon to reach new areas, which you control with the Vita's surprisingly-accurate tilt functionality.  You move objects in and out of the environment by touching them on the front touch screen or rear touch pad.  Deadly fans can be started or stopped by twirling their blades in various directions.  I could go on with further examples, but overall the touch controls work exceptionally well...MOST of the time, and when they work they feel very intuitive and responsive.

Unfortunately, the game has a problem of mapping too many functions to the same gestures, leading to the game getting confused at times as to which action to execute when situations overlap.  For instance, tapping on the back touch both moves objects to the foreground AND attracts or repels the attention of enemy minions and NPC sheep.  This leads to major problems when (for example) you have an extremely time-sensitive puzzle where you have to make the sheep cross a rapidly-retracting bridge of blocks.  You'll press the back touch to bring the next block out, and the sheep will interpret that as you indicating them to turn around and run away.  The block retracts, the sheep die, and you have to start over.  Speaking of the back touch, it can also be very tricky to pull a block out on command in timing-sensitive situations since it can be very hard to tell immediately where your finger is in relation to the front touch screen.  Some puzzles also make full use of the Vita's multi-touch capability, leading to sessions of finger twister where you have to move a character while simultaneously plugging leaky pipes or building block bridges through tapping.

That said, however, I think Escape Plan is a great puzzle game with a good sense of humor and (like Mutant Blobs attack) it ends when it starts to run out of ideas.  It's one of the very few Vita games that actually seems designed for bite-sized portable play, and even when the controls do mess-up at worst you're only set back a few minutes of progress.  Often the death animations are amusingly elaborate enough to warrant some intentional screw-ups.      Plus, the game has additional levels available as free DLC in the latest patch, so there's plenty of game here to enjoy for $15.

[broodwars]

OK, just two more left to go until I'm caught up for the last month...

If you haven't already played it, Rayman Origins is THE BOMB on Vita. Infintately more playable in a portable format. Looks amazing. Has some cool Near stuff and new collectibles to collect.

SPEAKING OF WHICH...


Vita (Platinum #59) & PS3

I picked up the PS3 version of this game earlier this year, made it 3/4 of the way through the game, and then put it down out of frustration.  Fast-forward to a week ago, and I felt in the mood to play a real platformer on my new Vita so I picked up that version of Rayman Origins as well.  After playing both, to my surprise I actually vastly prefer the Vita version, as I found that the constantly zoomed-out view and shorter analog sticks actually made the game easier and faster than the PS3 version.  It also helps that you can tap on item bubbles and enemies on the front touch screen to "pop" them rather than having to run over and hit them manually.   :D

That isn't to say that Rayman Origins is ever an easy game, however.  This game may actually require more pixel-perfect platforming and strategic planning than Donkey Kong Country Returns, especially in the later stages of the game and the bonus level.  Like all great platformers, this game is all about the flow, that subconscious feeling of momentum where you're executing incredibly complex feats of acrobatics and split-second decision-making on pure instinct.  For the most part, Rayman Origins flows exceptionally well and has more imaginative level design than Nintendo's showcased in years, but I have a few major gripes with it.

1.  I despise the sidescrolling shooter-based Mosquito levels.  There's never the great sense of speed that the main levels have, their Electoon requirements can get pretty ridiculously hard (leading to a lot of retries just to get that one group of enemies you had to pass up earlier because 3 other things were flying at you at the time), and the shooting just isn't fun.  It would be fine if these levels only came up a handful of times in the game, but there's one in every world.  The experience gets old extremely quickly.

2.  That final, steampunk-inspired world is terrible.  The levels are long, tedious, and more prone to "unfair"-feeling trial & error than possibly every other level in the game combined.  It's a radical difficulty spike compared to the levels preceding it.  And it has 2 Mosquito levels.  Oh joy.  And I'm sorry, but that second-to-last level where you're chasing the eventual "villain" is pure unadulterated B.S., requiring you to execute complex platforming maneuvers often before the object you are supposed to interact with is even on-screen or in-place.  And if you don't pull off these moves with the exact right timing, you die.  I think I died more in that stage than I did in the "Night of the Livid Dead" bonus stage (supposedly the hardest stage in the game), simply because NotLD was fair with what it asked the player to do and where the checkpoints were placed.

3.  I really didn't enjoy the time trial runs you had to do to get on most levels to get an additional electoon and "time trial trophy".  Getting those time completions felt more like the game trying to teach me to play recklessly rather than actually teaching good platforming skills, and as a result those runs felt so stressful that I just couldn't enjoy them.  Rayman Origins is at its best when the momentum of the platforming feels "natural", and the time trials just felt extremely artificial.

I don't know if I'm going to try to get a Platinum on the PS3 version as well considering the problems I've had doing the time trials on the PS3 version, but Rayman Origins is still a great game on any platform.  It's an extremely beautiful, creative, and just plain fun platformer that (like DKCR) has a refreshing amount of faith in the player's ability.  The soundtrack is fantastic and full of musical variety, too.  Even the water levels are great (and possibly the high point of the game).  How often can you say that about a video game?  Like everyone else, apparently, I highly recommend it.

[broodwars]

Alright, last one...


PS3

I admit that this is an odd game for me to have played, especially since I never played this game's MP-only predecessor Warhawk.  I'm a single-player-centric gamer who values narrative, and this is a team-based multiplayer-centric online shooter.  However, I am also a Robotech; StarCraft; Star Wars: Rogue Squadron; and Firefly fan, and this game has elements of all of those franchises.  If that sounds like an extremely weird combination, it's because it is but all the disparate elements come together beautifully to create a fun and exciting game that's worth checking out both online and offline.

To break down the elements, this game's setting is what's commonly known as a "space western": mankind has journeyed out into the stars but people struggle to survive on the lawless new frontier (ala Firefly).  During battle, players can expend acquired "rift" energy to call down structures from low orbit to build vehicles and defenses (ala StarCraft).  Battle often take place on multiple fronts, necessitating the player to constantly switch from fighting a ground war to taking the battle to the skies in aerial dogfights involving fighter craft called Hawks (ala the Rogue Squadron series).  As for the Hawks, they can transform between a ground-based bipedal mech and an aerial combat fighter craft (ala Robotech).  These elements together give the game a unique and interesting feel I haven't seen in any other game this generation.  The player's ability to potentially change the flow of the game at any time by dropping new structures at almost any given flat terrain gives the game a tone of unpredictability that keeps the experience fresh.  You can even use your spawn-triggered drop pod or incoming structures as weapons if timed right to crush an incoming foe.

Unlike Warhawk, Starhawk does have a Single-player campaign, and while it's not the greatest thing I've ever played it's competently designed and does a really good job of teaching the player what they'll need to know for multiplayer.  The story is weak, but serviceable and it does feel like the developers made an effort to tell a story when it really wasn't necessary.  I also appreciate that the single-player campaign has its own unique flavor compared to the multiplayer: whereas the latter is based around the usual team deathmatch/zones/capture-the-flag structure, the single-player campaign is largely based on defending structures with elements of Tower Defense.  When the single-player works (as it does in the SP level in that youtube video, which is my favorite level in the game), it feels very similar to the old Rogue Squadron games with the constant switching between aerial and ground-based combat with some light base-building.

The multiplayer, though, is where the game really shines.  Maps are huge, and battles can get pretty chaotic with 32 players (16 on each team) running around; dogfighting; bombing structures; calling down new structures; shooting each other in tanks; etc.  I really only have a handful of complaints about the game:

1.  Although the sheer number of things you can tweak when creating a match is impressive, the game still only has 3 modes (team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, zones) and that can get a bit repetitive.  "Capture the Flag" also has some major issues since players can call down defensive structures, as I've seen many matches end in ties just because no one can get at the flag through the gauntlet of defensive structures BOTH teams throw around the flag.

2.  There is a co-op based "Horde Mode" called Prospector mode where your team protects a structure from 6 waves of enemy attacks, but there's no matchmaking for that mode.  Either your friends play it with you after you invite them, or you play it on your own.

3.  It can sometimes feel a bit random what the game determines to be "build-able" flat ground.

4.  While the SP campaign does a good job of teaching you the game's easy-to-use interface, it also teaches you bad habits when it comes to your life expectancy in combat.  For example, while Hawks can withstand a fair amount of punishment in SP and feel really powerful, in MP the things might as well be made of paper.  There's definitely still a learning curve going into MP.

5.  The SP campaign has a real problem conveying a sense of urgency in most of the missions.  When a campaign objective is under attack, it doesn't often feel like anything's actually in danger and it's easy to "game the system" by waiting to trigger events until you've farmed a suitable amount of rift energy to make things easier.

All that said, I'm surprised at just how much I enjoyed Starhawk, especially the multiplayer (though the single-player campaign is by no means "bad", and I'm glad it's there).  It's a game where, no matter what you do and no matter how you play, you always feel like you're making a valuable contribution and the action is fast and frantic.  It's a 3rd person shooter; a vehicular combat game; an aerial dogfighting game; and a strategy game to some extent, and somehow it all works.  I think it might be a tough sell to people at $60 and I think Sony threw it out into the marketplace to die with no marketing, but it's a quality title worth checking out.  Also, Sony has already announced that all map packs for this game will be free, so the online community shouldn't be fractured like apparently the Warhawk one was.

Phew.  That's it.  I'm caught-up at last, and I'm going to try to not build up a reviews backlog like that again.  :D