Stepping briskly away from the well drawn but unimaginative cheapness of the previous instalment, Silent Hill Homecoming, and Shattered Memories mor abstract re-imagining of the original game, Downpour takes the concept back to the best loved Hill with a story that falls into the mould of Silent Hill 2 whilst incorporating newer aspects of the modern gaming landscape, such as open world exploration, side-quests and hidden story points to flavour the more standard tropes of flawed humanity, redemption and self-loathing.

This time round it’s the story of state convict Murphy Pendelton, who turns out to be a surprisingly well formed character, considering he manages to elicit both the sympathy and affection of the player despite being introduced during a tutorial sequence where he brutally murders an unarmed man in a prison shower. As is hinted at here, there is far more at work than is first obvious. Who is Pendelton? Why is he in prison? What grievous hatred lay between the two men, and why does the young and pretty County Sheriff hold such anger toward him?

Well that looks......safe

Due to inevitable (un)natural events, Murphy is stranded in Silent Hill & finds himself assailed by the usual manner of semi-allegorical creatures including Banshee women, Pig-faced brutes, a hulking raincoat clad boogeyman and a constantly elusive wheelchair bound wretch.

The world of Silent Hill has never quite been so beautifully realised. Downpour is an  incredible looking game. The streets are realistically filthy, rooms cluttered with junk and there is enough variety of style and looks to ensure that it never gets boring looking. The effects of the mist and the titular downpour of rain, look great with Murphy’s clothes looking convincingly soaked through after periods in the rain.

I just want you to take this flyer!

Instead of the now utterly familiar sight of Bachman Street and the centre of town, Downpour is set in the tourist attraction of the Old Mine, the piers and harbour, and unsurprisingly an island prison in Toluca Lake. The heart of the game is of course the town itself, introduced after a long lead-in through a mine cart ride and some cliff-top bouldering. In the town proper there are many open buildings to explore and to hide from the rain and the increased enemy presence it brings. There are also various characters to meet and chat with, albeit briefly. Each presumably living out their own hell.

Whatever good can be said, Downpour does still have a few flaws. The Xbox version was prone to freezing up for a second or two in large open areas. i.e. the streets of the town. Considering how much time is spent in such places this stuttering gets quite irksome after a while. Thankfully the other areas of the game are mostly unaffected by this glitch.

The other problem is that combat is woefully implemented. Murphy can only carry one ranged and one melee weapon at a time. Meaning that bizarrely he cannot manage a slung shotgun and a holstered pistol while having a spanner in his hand. This wouldn’t be an issue were if the weapons didn’t break with more predictable regularity than a B&Q own-brand tape-measure. Fighting itself is slow, sluggish and difficult. Making it a tedious chore if fighting more than one assailant. Luckily many fights can be avoided by running away, however sadly many scraps must be waded through. Especially towards the game’s combat heavy finale.

Murphy wishes he hadn't licked that toad

The irony of this being that the final moments of the game offer one of the more imaginative turns of the series to date, as the narrative gives the plot a measure of closure which has been often elusive from many more straightforward games. This is the sort of Silent Hill we’ve been waiting for since 3, it may have a few duff moments, but it’s more of a return to form that could have been hoped for.

As beginnings go J.U.L.I.A. isn’t terrible, the pre-rendered opening sequence is moody, stirring and intriguing, with soaring orchestral music thundering away. It’s a big of a shock when moments later the visuals turn into low resolution starfield with some Amiga-era style graphical menus. The low-budget feel is compounded further when Rachel begins to chat with her only two companions, a Stephen Hawking style voiced Mobility Robot called MOBOT, and the titular ship’s computer J.U.L.I.A.

Solve a space age mystery

To call the voice acting poor would be unfair, as the problem seems to be more rooted in the downright awful script, with dialogue and evident translation errors. From MOBOT exclaiming that “A dead body is behind recognition” and Rachel’s several diatribes about now being totally alone, it’s clear that the game’s strengths lie elsewhere.

That’s not to say there are no strengths, as the mysterious plot surrounding the six planets of the Salia system and the disappearance of the rest of the crew is actually a thoroughly entertaining romp. Not only that but the open ended nature of the adventure means that after the tutorial-lite that makes up the first planet, the rest of the system is open to exploration in any order. Each planet can be scanned, plundered for minerals and then explored. The mining comes in handy later for ship and MOBOT upgrades, usually needed to overcome some puzzle obstacle.

The gameplay itself is based around a variety of small mini-games and puzzles. From the more complex such as mathematical conundrums and cryptography, to more basic logic and jigsaw style mind benders. Each puzzle usually relies on common sense and none are too difficult for anyone who enjoys a brain teaser. Adding to that, the narrative never moves too far out of view, with a few genuinely unsettling turns and twists which manage to surprise and keep the concept fresh.

Fix some circuits

The trouble with J.U.L.I.A. is that this is a game that would be far more suited to the mobile market. A game that would have been a must have on iOS or Android feels a little bit stingy on the more powerful PC platform, especially considering the £20 price tag. Ironically the iOS follow-up J.U.L.I.A. Untold has a far shorter scope, relying on the circuit puzzle minigame. As a result it feels a tad cheap, although it’s one of that dying rarity of good solid B+ games that the PC platform used to see so often.

Yes, zombies are getting close to or have even already become overdone. Recently we’ve had countless games either centred around the zombie apocalypse or with a zombie mod available for download. Maybe it was an attempt to escape the non-vampires of Twilight which drove us into a zombie-saturated market. But now there are gamers out there desperately trying to avoid them. Whether that counts as irony, I don’t know. I do know we’ve been burned by zombie games before.

I fell in love with the Dead Island trailer. It promised a perfect experience with the completely necessary but soul-destroying destruction of that little girl by her father. Those terrible decisions are part of what made Shaun of the Dead so good, even if it was more subtle about it. But then the Dead Island game arrived, and there were no heart-rending actions to make. There was no emotional investment.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the first-person shooter mods. While this may be controversial, it’s incredibly depressing that zombies and WWII German soldiers are effectively interchangeable. It’s depressing because we as a whole seem not to view either as human. They’re just mooks for shooting.

But in these last days of the zombie genre (dare we say its dying days?), another type of zombie game is emerging: one that enjoys itself. We saw this in Dead Rising 2 – while technically about a father desperately trying to survive and find Zombrex for his daughter, what do people really remember? The ability to dress a fully grown man in little girl clothing and take down zombies on a tricycle. Allowing players to be as absurd as they like in such an absurd situation, why it’s like the gaming equivalent of Brain Dead.

Which brings us to Lollipop Chainsaw. If there is one thing Suda51 does, it’s satirical games with more than a little self-awareness and a surprising amount of subtlety. Yes, there are jokes and references anyone can get right on the surface – things like naming the zombie-fighting main character’s school after George Romero – but Suda51 can be counted on to work in bigger and better comments for those willing to look from character interactions, upgrade systems, and even just how the controls are handled. Remember how to recharge up the light beam in No More Heroes and the animations that go with it?

Another thing to expect with a Suda51 production is a complete story, although not necessarily one with 100% closure. Zombie apocalypse stories have difficulty ending in any sense of the word, dragging on and on. There’s a highly relevant term for series which continue long after they should have ended: zombie franchise. The problem seems to be writers look for an ultimate, complete ending. But Suda51 can comfortably handle ending with ambiguity. In fact it’s a bit of a trademark of theirs.

So what is the story? Pure early 2000s paranormal camp. Think the sillier episodes of Buffy or the entirety of Big Wolf on Campus. Our hero is Juliet Starling, a cheerleader at San Romero High School which is being attacked by hordes of zombies raised by the resident goth (every fictional school in the late ‘90s and early 2000s was legally required to have one).  Picking up her trusty pink chainsaw, Juliet aims to take them out while considering her future romancing. Oh yes, due to some emergency chainsaw surgery to prevent zombie-ism, her boyfriend is now a head. He is the first to question his continued existence.

To quote the official introduction, the zombies are “only the opening act to a festival of zombie rock lords”. Watching the official ‘Bosses of Zombie Rock’ trailer, which contains more than a few naughty words, Suda51 appears to have created memorable characters and possibly even more memorable attacks. Do the screams of punk rock Zed actually create physical words?

Lollipop Chainsaw promises to push all the right buttons for both zombie lovers looking for a game where the zombies are actual characters and for anyone after a little ‘90s-style nostalgia.

The first three instalments of Dante’s adventures have been reviewed, analysed, and picked over so often that no attempt to summarise the actual plot will be made here. The ultra short version is he’s a half demon who hunts demons, has magic guns, a sword, and a big red coat.

The Devil May Cry HD Collection is made up of the first two games and the special edition of the third plus a vault of concept art and possibly every single piece of music ever used in all three games. Despite the HD in the title, the games look like straight ports from the PS2. If any smoothing around the edges has occurred, it’s not visible to the untrained eye. It’s not a major issue as the older graphics will be part of the nostalgia factor for fans, but it would have been nice to see improved character models, such as stopping Lucia’s hair from merging with her shirt. The straight port theory is boosted by the fact that many of the originals’ issues are carried over. If anything, a couple of extras have been brought in regarding voice/subtitle and voice/mouth syncing.

One of the possible pitfalls for HD collections is the chance the player will pick up and compilation of games and be forced to confront the fact that they’re all pretty much the same. The DMC HD Collection avoids this by showing a definite evolution in gameplay. The original DMC1 had a very simple style. The biggest obstacles were unlearning ‘normal’ button commands and learning where the changes in camera angle were. Originally started as a Resident Evil sequel, DMC1 gleefully used the off-kilter shots that make levels that extra bit disorienting. Nice during levels, but a nightmare during boss battles.

DMC2 had a similar style of gameplay but enhanced with things like targeting. In fact, the most perplexing thing about the first game was the lack of targeting. There’s an increasing percentage of gamers out there who might not have played any games without arrows indicating “Attack here, dummy.” This isn’t to say that it should have been added to DMC1. There’s something incredibly satisfying about identifying the best points to attack on a giant lava tarantula; effective character design makes those arrows unnecessary.

The level of explanation in each tutorial level evolves alongside the gameplay. DMC1 and DMC2 both chuck Dante onto a stone walkway on some island and the player can muck about along the way, discovering the controls through the “I wonder what happens if I push this?” school of learning. The third game is dramatically different. It features so many complicated changes like having to select a fighting style with its own special button combinations that a full on, battle-interrupting tutorial is used. DMC3 is also the odd one out as it starts off with fighting. No mucking about with wall runs for you; things need killing.

The result is three different experiences and the odd numberings people will give when recommending the series. Do you want to go by ease of combat? Start with DMC2, end with the almost overwhelming DMC3. Want to go by plot? Start at the prequel DMC3 then go to DMC 1. Or do you want to experience evolving gameplay?

The DMC HD Collection is a must for those who haven’t played the first three games. Even over a decade later, DMC1 holds its ground thanks to its well-defined missions and deceptively simple style, with DMC2 and DMC3 aging fairly gracefully themselves. But if you’re a fan looking for an improved experience? There’s not much to recommend the HD Collection beyond the fact it works with the PS3 while the PS2 discs don’t.

Each area generally comes down to the following; find weapons, shoot opponents until they explode, repeat until everyone is crushed wreckage underneath your armoured tires. What helps is that the game looks great; each area is big with everything looking rock solid; even when the explosions are flying it still keeps up with you.

So, when we say at the beginning it’s a very American game, what does that mean? Well, for one it has the generic heavy metal soundtrack that blurs into a repetitive guitar riff after a few minutes. The screen is crammed with information; there’s arrows pointing to your enemies, weapon information, stuff flashes up with how much damage you’ve done, it’s all very busy.

Twisted Metal also has one of those grim and gritty ‘mature’ stories that Americans do so well. In the story mode you get a bit of background about each competitor in the competition, like the popular Sweet Tooth. He’s a racer who wears clown make up and who’s head is on fire who spends his time driving round in his ice cream truck killing people. It’s all very Grindhouse-y which is reflected in the cut scenes; interestingly these are filmed which can be a bad thing but here it fits in with the vibe of the game. One of the inspirations is clearly things like Death Race 2000 from the 70s so to invoke this looks with filmed segments is a very interesting design choice that works quite well. The story is simply an excuse to get people into cars and blowing up stuff and is far from ground breaking but the effort is appreciated.

What the game is really about is making things explode which is fun, once you get your head round the controls. Despite it looking like a racing game Twisted Metal doesn’t control like a racing game; the main example being that the accelerator/brake are taken off the shoulder buttons and moved to the face buttons. This sounds like a small thing but takes a couple of rounds to get used to. But once you do, the game clicks and you can enjoy the explosions and the shooting.

The best way to do this is with friends, either online or split screen in the same room. There is a good selection of game modes that should keep you interested in the game.

Twisted Metal is very enjoyable, it’s nothing ground breaking or anything like that, but it is a well crafted piece of fun great for a blast with friends online. Thanks to the design of the game it may not be for everyone so definitely try before you buy.

Coloropus is a puzzle game with a bit of point and click adventure game mixed in for good measure. You are an octopus who’s octopus girlfriend has been kidnapped (octo-napped?) and stuck in a bottle so you have to go off to rescue her. Everything looks nice with a decent art style, so far so good.

The puzzles come in a combination of ways but mainly thorough colour; there are coloured balls throughout the level either through plants in the water or in some creatures. When you collect one of the colours you turn into that colour, but you can collect two colours at a time which means that you can mix things up but collecting a yellow which would make you orange.

A basic example of this is the coloured rocks that you need to destroy in order to access new areas. This isn’t just your basic colours though; if you know how to make teal then Coloropus is a game for you.

The problem is that all of these puzzles and exploration are tempted by the controls. You basically click on a part of the screen and your octopus moves there but as this is in water you drift around due to your momentum. This is painfully frustrating in some puzzles that require you to remain still as you try to shoot at an enemy swimming around. Or try to pick up and move an object. Or doing anything.

This is the problem with Coloropus; it has a lot of good ideas but it’s constantly tripping itself up. It’s never easy to play, never fun to play, it soon becomes either a chore or you wander around aimlessly trying to figure out what you have to do next.

Or you die and then the annoying levels get cranked up a notch; there is a good/evil system in the world whereby if you disrupt plants and such then you get an evil rating. If you plant seeds to grow plants you become good. The system feels arbitary, you could just bump into a plant and that makes you more evil. This is compounded when you die as you have to complete a puzzle to return to the game: if you are good then you go to Heaven and have a fairly simple puzzle; if you are evil then you go to hell and are given a tough puzzle. It is, on paper, a good idea the hell puzzle is so frustrating that you just want to remove the game from your computer as soon as feasibly possible and never play the game again.

That pretty much sums up Coloropus; a good idea hamstrung by it’s own execution. One for octopus completists only.

Bon Anniversaire

The other day, Mr Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, arrived on my 3DS and told me that this year is the 20th anniversary of the warrior of the stars, Kirby. It has been 20 years since Kirby’s Dreamland was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (or ‘Famicom’ in Japan), and to celebrate such an auspicious date Nintendo has announced that a special 20th birthday game will be released some time this year. Facts are sketchy at the moment, but no doubt more information will be released later in the year.

But the inflatable hero is not the only one celebrating a big number this year. Nippon Ichi Software, the brains behind Disgaea, is also 20 years old this year. In a press conference earlier this month, representatives from the company announced that they will be continuing to churn out their unique brand of ‘personable’ video games for many years to come. One such example is the upcoming Cave Story 3D on 3DS, a flashy remake of the hugely successful PC indie platformer, but Nippon Ichi also dropped hints about a special 20th anniversary game that they would be making this year. The game currently lacks a story, a genre, even a title, and so far the only information we do have comes from a single piece of concept art created by the gaming studio. Supposedly, then, it will involve some kind of maid angel thing.

Maiden voyage

This month also saw the end of a pair of closed beta tests for upcoming massively multiplayer games here in Japan. Firstly came Gundam: Battle Operation, a third-person mecha combat and strategy game based on the massively successful robotic franchise. With Gundam already being such a huge name, and with Bandai Namco already owning the rights to a number of similar games, it is easy to see this game becoming an instant success. Arcades already play host to Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna, a first-person simulator, and Gundam Triage, a card-based strategy game, as well as the action-packed Extreme Vs. Each day of Battle Operation‘s closed beta test new robots, weapons and features were unlocked for the players, though action was limited to a single battlefield. Players selected either the Earth Federation forces or Zeon as their chosen army and waged war upon one another for just less than a month. Now Bandai Namco is in the process of straightening out the bugs ready for the next test some time in the next couple of months.

Bigger excitement, however, was reserved for the closed beta test of Dragon Quest 10, the massively multiplayer role-playing game on Wii and Wii U. In the closing weeks of April, around 50,000 members of the press were invited to strap on their swords and take part in the first few hours of the game, with many of the features of the game ready for showing off. In a number of hands-on reports from various websites and magazines, it was clear the game was shaping up nicely. Many praised Square Enix for preserving the Dragon Quest aesthetic, not opting for the menu-heavy interfaces that plague many modern MMORPGs. Indeed, screenshots from DQX show that battles with enemy monsters take place in much the same fashion as DQ‘s single-player outings. Players gather in groups of up to four and do battle against foes in a turn-based system.

Not enough people to make a full team? DQX allows players without friends, or those who just want to go it alone, to create their own AI-controlled allies and add them to their team. Though the player has little control over their new drones, and they lose a percentage of their financial earnings with every battle the allies take part in, it is a good way to fill in those gaping holes in a team. Other features that reporters were happy to see included a house-building minigame, with furniture on sale around the DQX world, and an easily-findable list of commonly used phrases to facilitate communication between players, especially those who do not invest in a Wii keyboard. Square Enix announced in a press conference for the game that it would eventually be released on August 2nd of this year, for the price of 7,000 yen (around £55) on its own, or for 9,000 yen (around £70) with a USB memory stick that allows for expanded Wii memory.

Social gaming

Square Enix also announced this month that they had finished renovating their online music streaming website, Square Enix Music Stream, which on the 11th April transformed into Square Enix Audio. The free service allows for unlimited streaming of soundtracks to the famous games of Square Enix direct from your browser. To celebrate this renewal, Audio added the soundtrack to Final Fantasy XIII-2, released late last year.

Other web services to gain renown this month included a website called Game Lagoon, which acts as a gathering place for Japanese players to try out foreign ‘social’ games that are popular in their home nations. A ‘social game’ is an incredibly light game, usually free, to be played over the browser in a player’s mobile phone, and have become one the most popular gaming genres in recent years. Popular titles include games where you collect something, such as Dragon Collection, build up a corporate empire, as in Kaitou Royale, or train a warrior to fight evil, such as in Final Fantasy Brigade. Social games may not quite have taken off in the West as they have done in Japan (though Zynga has been working to popularise some of them), but Game Lagoon offers games from elsewhere in Asia, including Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

In final news, CESA, Japan’s governing body for computer entertainment, announced this month that it would be opening nominations for 2012′s Japanese game of the year. The polls will be open from now until July, alongside a second, game designer’s award which is restricted to Japanese gaming corporations. By nominating a game, voters stand a chance to win new game consoles, tickets to holiday destinations and VIP passes for this year’s Tokyo Game Show.

In the charts, Monster Hunter 3G on the 3DS continues to be a big winner at third place for sales this month. As the recent winner of Famitsu Magazine’s Best Game of 2011 award, it is little wonder that Capcom’s 3D multiplayer action game is doing so well. Second place goes to Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, also on the 3DS. Kingdom Hearts, alongside its sister franchise Final Fantasy, is never far from the spotlight, and this latest venture is proving to be a good seller. Finally, the best-selling game of April was Super Robot Wars Z: New World, a re-envisioning of an older game in the sci-fi strategy series that adds new robots and new scenarios.

Once Golden Week has been and gone, everyone will have to hold their breaths for the coming Summer holidays. Expect more news next month. Until then, sayonara.

The story is a little hard to follow at the same time as feeling like a backdrop, rather than the main point, playing this game alone can be good fun. Although this isn’t the way it is designed: while there are a huge amount of missions that are extremely easy to play solo, the idea of the game is that you create your own team (or hire Mercenaries) to complete missions together. This includes taking over and defending territory.  It works rather well, and has a lot of good incentives to build up a team of friends or even put yourself out there as a Mercenary to help other people out anonymously.

This AC has Four Legs and a Giant Cannon...thing.

Mission locations feel varied, though objectives tend to be variations of “kill everything hostile” in the area. It’s slightly repetitive, but doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at all, as the enemy variety is large and fighting other Armored Core units in particular, can be very hectic and challenging.

Thankfully, with each mission being on the short side, load times are extremely fast, meaning you can be in and out of missions without much hassle, leaving plenty of time to do a good number of missions in any play session. It also means people who lean towards playing games in short bursts can pick up this game and feel very satisfied after playing a couple of missions and logging off.

The HUD looks complicated, but you get used to it.

As per the usual for From Software, there is a mind-blowing amount of customisation. You can change almost every aspect of your robot to your standards. Fast and manoeuvrable, slow and powerful, it really depends on whatever you decide to put on it. It takes a little getting used to and is definitely overwhelming at first glance, but it doesn’t stay that way for very long.

A good time all around, any fan of Mech games should pick this up without hesitation. Even people who have a fleeting interest should have a lot to find interesting here, especially if they get a good group of friends together to play with. Armoured Core V just proves that the Mech genre is still capable of producing good, unique games.

morphinapg sez:

The Uncharted games are personally my favorite series of games, with Uncharted 2 and 3 being my favorite games of all time. They’re certainly the most cinematic games I’ve ever played.

I’ve often heard many people describe these games as like controlling a movie, and have heard many people say that these games are just as fun to watch as they are to play, and I agree with both of those things. That gave me the idea to edit these games into movies. That way I would be able to watch the story of these games in one sitting easily, and without having to take up a considerable portion of my day.

Aiming to capture the most cinematic aspects of the game and cutting as much as the ‘play’ as possible for it all to still make sense. From the reaction on Reddit (and going on what I’ve seen so far) he’s a sterling job.

Full link to the original post here.

Videos:

Uncharted 1 (114 mins)

Uncharted 2 (178 mins)

Uncharted 3 (196 mins)

The Adam’s Venture series is about an archaeologist who, alongside his absent-minded professor father and a spunky lady sidekick, is trying to uncover the secrets of the Bible. So far, so Indiana Jones. But unlike the good Doctor Jones or the treasure hunter Nathan Drake (who can’t even pretend to be an archaeologist), our hero Adam Venture gets around with puzzles, not punches. Weapons and danger do make an appearance in the latter half, but that’s getting too far ahead. For now, let’s focus on the opening chapter.

The story opens on a dark and stormy night at a stately house in England where Adam’s father is pouring over his books and sends Adam to the library to collect a certain book from his new assistant in the library. Following the mandatory ‘hero makes a poor first impression on the spunky female sidekick’ are the first puzzles of the game: breaking into the library and finding the book. This is quickly followed by good old hidden chambers and setting off to discover the secrets of the knight’s tomb before a time skip to the series’ ending.

This first part shows the best puzzle design with a combination of one-off puzzles ranging from very simple to more than a little difficult and series of puzzles following a theme, such as when repairing rooftop windmills. Each must be repaired by correctly connecting fuses; however setting up the right connections becomes more difficult with each new windmill. While most of the puzzles aren’t too difficult to figure out eventually, there are a few which can accidentally be solved without understanding how you did it.

This first part also shows off the best environments in the game. Despite being a relatively low budget game, the environments are surprisingly rich in detail, particularly the scenes on the French rooftops. On the other hand, during the cutscenes character movements can be awkward, and the strong colours used for the environments and all the characters except Adam makes one wonder about his health. Is it some combination of jaundice and anaemia which makes him that all over shade of light beige?

The ending half has a smaller variety of puzzles but they’re bigger pieces. The series of tricksy mazes in particularly was wonderfully challenging. There’s just enough explanation in this half of what happened in the first two games to get a general idea, and it does make you curious about the first two games.

On the whole Adam’s Venture Episode 3: Revelations is an enjoyable diversion. While his quips may be a little stale, that could be easily written off as Adam trying to play up to the dashing archaeologist adventurer archetype. There are a couple of good chuckles along the way, a couple of moments of fourth wall breaking concerning everything being a puzzle, and a few well-placed red herrings. The biggest issue is the way the opening and ends are smashed together in a single game. It’s more than a little jarring and implies the writers couldn’t come up with enough for separate prequel and sequel games. Still even for an “adventure game franchise that is focused on non-violent gameplay”, it wasn’t boring.