21 Jun 08 Metal Gear Solid 4 - Mini-Review

I’ve done it. I’ve completed Kojima’s masterpiece of a game, Metal Gear Solid 4. It was worth the wait and was enjoyable throughout every moment of the game. Here’s my thoughts on the game.

Story: Metal Gear Solid 4 is the final chapter in Solid Snake’s story. It’s a complex, twisted world with a deep story that will keep you hooked if you were familiar with the previous games in the series. There really is a lot to tell with th is story, so don’t be surprised if you spend most of your time watching cutscenes and listening to dialog. The story is well thought out and extremely deep. For this I give it a 10.

Gameplay: The gameplay perfects the stealth gameplay that this franchise has been built upon. With Snake’s new OctoCamo suit, you can texture your suit to just about anything you can lean up against in the world. The controls have also been perfected. They are familiar to the other games in the franchise, but bring the shooting controls up to speed with more current shooters. I love it. To add as a bonus, MGS4 includes a Metal Gear Online starter pack. The same type of gameplay transfers to online well and is extremely enjoyable. Gameplay gets a 10.

Presentation: One of the things I’ve always loved about Metal Gear is that most everything you see is rendered in real time. The game simply looks gorgeous and Kojima’s attention to detail really shows. MGS4 brings a whole new level of detail that most developers don’t even get close to with their games. I can’t even begin to count how many easter eggs there are in this game as well. Sure, MGS4 is not the best looking game out there, but it’s darn close to it. Presentation gets a 10.

Side Notes: Playing this game was truely the most enjoyable experience I’ve had on the Playstation 3 so far. I found the lengthy cutscenes to get somewhat annoying because of the time I had to commit to playing the game if I was going to do so at all. It’s not really the type of game you can just jump into and play for 20 minutes, save, and then pick up where you left off later. You really oughta devote an hour at a time at least, but once you start, you won’t want to stop.

Final Rating: 10

Tags: gaming, playstation 3, review

02 Jun 08 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that I rented Naughty Dog’s “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” for the Playstation 3. I know I’m about 6 months late to the party, but what do you expect from a former xbox fanboy. All I have to say is WOW! Uncharted is an incredible game. Let me break it down for you.

Story: In Uncharted you play as Nathan Drake, a character that believes himself to be a descendant of Sir Francis Drake. You are an independant adventurer interested in discovering Drake’s hidden treasure. As events unfold you run into other interesting characters and plot twists leading up the the uncovering of the mystery behind this supposed treasure. The plot kept me pretty interested throughout the entire game. Naughty Dog depicted this hero as a normal guy, which isn’t typical, but it really created a sense of attachment to the characters. I give the story a 9 for originality.

Presentation: One of the more eye-catching parts of the game is its graphical presentation. Uncharted had an extremely lively and vivid feel to the enviroments. It wasn’t a boring shade of grey like quite a few of the games as of late. The textures were realistic and the animations were fluid. Considering this is a title from last year’s holiday line-up, Uncharted looks good. Presentation is a 10 for being so delicious.

Gameplay: I am not a platformer fan, but that aspect of the game was exceptionally well done. The shooting mechanics is where this game takes a few hits. I play a lot of shooters so naturally I go for the head shot, but for some reason many of the enemies have managed to take multiple head shots even when they are unprotected. I can understand this if they were wearing a helmet, but their shiny bald heads were completely exposed. The enemies in this game seem to be able to absorb an insane amount of gun fire. You think a few shots to the torso with an automatic weapon would be enough to kill a man, but these guys can take a full clip. Despite those faults, I still had a blast with the game. I give gameplay an 8 for those awesome vehicle sequences.

Conclusion: I rented this game and managed to beat it in under eight hours. It’s a kick-butt game, but as with most single-player games, I don’t think I would ever bother to play it again. If you haven’t already, give it a play.

Final Score: 9

Tags: gaming, playstation 3, review

28 May 08 My thoughts on Haze

I took the plunge and put down the $8 to rent Haze, Free Radical’s new game that hasn’t been very well received by critics. Let me just say up front that it isn’t all that bad. It’s actually fun if you can look past the low resolution textures and somewhat shallow story line. But is it worth the full price of $60? Probably not. Here’s a compilation of my thoughts after finishing the game on the Normal difficulty with two other players.

Presentation: Haze isn’t really an attractive looking game at all. The textures seems pretty low resolution and overall it just doesn’t really look good. Sure, graphics don’t make the game, but it really shows how much attention to detail developers either have or don’t have. That didn’t leave me terribly torn, though. It does look like a game from this generation. I give the presentation a 7. It’s not much better looking than Resistance: Fall of Man, a launch game (Resistance is a great game, by the way).

Gameplay: I didn’t really see anything new or terribly innovative other than the Nectar system. Nectar enhances your combat ability, lighting up enemies, increasing your resistance to damage and ability to heal. The weapons handle exceptionally well and it’s actually fun to kill enemies. Put this together with Nectar and you’re going to have a ball. Until you abruptly become a rebel early on in the game, that is. Being a Mantel trooper was the most entertaining part of the game, and they take it away so quickly. Playing solo at this point is a drag, so round up a few friends for a good time. Oh yea, and vehicles are aweful. Gameplay is a 7 for me.

Story: The story was actually quite interesting in the beginning. Once you switched over to the rebel side, though, I really didn’t care what was going on. They did do a good job keeping you immersed in the game as a Mantel troop by staying first person at all times, but it quickly became a drag as a rebel. I give story a 5.

Conclusion: Don’t buy it, just rent it. I had high hopes for this game, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Co-op with other players over the PSN is the best feature of this game, and even that is barely adequate. It is fun, but it’s the kind of game you’ll end up beating once and then moving on. I do think that reviewers were a little too critical with this game overall, but it really isn’t worth a whole $60.

My Score: 6.3

Tags: gaming, playstation 3, review

20 May 08 Haze reviews leave me hazed

It’s pretty unfortunate, but one of the year’s most anticipated PlayStation 3 titles is a flop. I am extremely disapointed, as I was really looking forward to this game. Famitsu and PSM Italy actually gave the game really positive reviews, but IGN and a few other companies gave Haze extremely poor reviews.

I think I’ll end up renting this game before I make any final judgements, but it looks like I’ll be playing Grand Theft Auto 4 until Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out in the next month or so.

Tags: gaming, playstation 3, review