Between all of my random gaming sessions on my PC, 360, and PS3 since I bought my PS3, I’ve been devoting time every once in a while to making my way through God of War: Collection, the PS3 HD remakes of the PS2 original God of War and its PS2 sequel, God of War II. I’ve finally completed them both and starting God of War III now. In any case, before I get too far into God of War III and it starts skewing my thoughts on the first two, let’s get to the review.

God of War
God of War was originally released on the PS2 back in 2005 by one of Sony’s own Santa Monica Studio. Hard to believe that its release was only five years ago, but it went on to win Game of the Year awards that year. Being a Sony owned IP, the series has become a series staple ever since then, with titles releasing on both the Sony PSP and PS3.

God of War follows the story of Kratos, a captain in the Spartan army who makes a deal with the original God of War, Ares. In return for saving his life, Kratos gives himself to Ares, and does his bidding. In his bloodlust, he was tricked by Ares into murdering his own family, and the game follows his journey of revenge to kill Ares and become the new God of War. Being based on Greek Mythology, the premise of the game features various characters, locales, and stories from Greek Mythology that have been modified a bit to shape the addition of Kratos into the world. It works wonderfully, and if it’s one thing I can say about God of War is that it’s storyline is phenomenal. The scope is huge, the cutscenes raw, and even Kratos himself is such a well designed and while angry, still quite the likeable protagonist.

Of course, the original issues I had when I played with the game back in 2005 were that the gameplay lacked the enjoyable depth that I had grown accustomed to from other competitors in the same genre, such as Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry. While I do still agree that God of War’s gameplay is not as enthraling as its Japanese competitors, its storyline is so good that it nearly makes me forget about the simplicity of its gameplay. TO be fair though, I don’t have any issues with its gameplay – the various weapons, special abilities, upgrades, etc. work fine – but it just seems to be lacking that special hook I find in Japanese games, such as Ninja Gaiden’s charge and decapitating combo system, and Devil May Cry & Bayonetta’s style system. Of course, God of War’s storyline easily dwarfs anything the Japanese seem to come up with to tell for their action/adventure games, so at least the God of War series has that major strength going for it. God of War also still destroys Dante’s Inferno – so don’t even bother with that one.

There are a couple negatives with the original God of War in the remake – one minor and one major. The minor issue I had with the remake is that the video cutscenes in this game seem to be in its native 480i or whatever form it originally was in back in 2005. It’s definitely rough on the eyes, but because it doesn’t quite affect gameplay, I’ll let it slide. The bigger issue with the game, and thankfully it happens in only a few places in the game, are its more frustrating gameplay elements: the beam balancing and the climb up the towers of spinning spikes towards the end of the game. For a game as fast-paced as God of War, to have to resort to walking slowly across balance beams (and even having to jump over moving spikes, etc.) just gets frustrating. The most frustrating though are several towers towards the end that have spinning spikes and if you mess up and get him by one, you get knocked all the way back down. It happens far more often than you expect, and this part of the game really had me cursing out loud – something that is quite rare for me. Overall though, the game still holds up quite well by today’s standards, especially after the “HD” remake.

God of War II
God of War II takes place where God of War left off, and [MINOR SPOILER AHEAD] Kratos has killed Ares and become the new God of War. Unfortunately, what fun is playing a game when you’re already a God? In any case, Zeus has some beef with Kratos and his war mongering, so he kills Kratos but as Kratos makes his way into the underworld, he is saved by the Titan Gaea. The Titans are basically are the Gods’ parents, and now that both of them have beef with Zeus, they sort of team up to bring him down. Overall, the sequel’s storyline is weaker than the original God of War’s epic scope because it feels a bit forced. In a way, the first God of War game could have basically been a one shot game with a finished storyline but the sequel drags it out a bit. The first half of the game is pretty bland, but the story picks up and finishes strong to set up a conclusion to the trilogy in epic fashion.

While the storyline of the second one isn’t quite as good as the first, a lot of enhancements have been made to the sequel’s gameplay that make the sequel not exactly inferior to the first. The two major issues with the first game – the blocky low res video cutscenes, and the frustrating balancing and spikey tower type gameplay elements were practically removed in the sequel. Maybe the technology got better when the PS2 version was originally released in 2007, and the cutscenes were able to be rendered in 480p then? Who knows – but the cutscenes in the PS3 re-release of God of War 2 are more inline with the new HD gameplay engine. It also looks like the team behind the sequel took the complaints of the frustrating balancing and spikes to heart, as they have been pretty much removed from the sequel.

The sequel also brings more interesting gameplay enhancements with the ability to swing from certain areas with Kratos’s chained blades and stop time during certain parts of the game to gain an advantage against enemies or to solve puzzles. I can’t forget the puzzles – God of War II has several of them, and to a degree, they actually are done well so that there is sometimes a nice little break from all the killing to solve certain puzzles. Often times the solution to a puzzle is something gruesome anyway, but I for one found the increase in the sequels’ puzzles not a bad thing. What’s also good is that the sequel clocks in at about 12 hours compared to the original’s 8 hours, so while the storyline is not as great, from a gameplay perspective, it’s superior to the first.

Final Thoughts
If you’ve never played one or either of these games and you’re a current PS3 owner, I definitely recommend checking this collection out. At the bargain price of $30 retail (or $60 bundled with a PS3 Dual Shock controller), it’s definitely worth owning. It took me about 20 hours to make it through both games, but with several difficulties, and various treasures to unlock, you can play the game for a lot longer if you enjoy the gameplay. Like other popular Western games, the God of War: Collection has a strong storyline, and if story is a major factor in your gameplay enjoyment, the God of War: Collection will deliver. Of course, if you’ve already played the original releases on the PS2, I can’t quite recommend them again, and it’s even difficult for me now to figure out a score for this collection based on games that were re-released. Am I reviewing the games in their original form, the quality of the re-release, or the what the experience would be like for a first time player of this HD collection? This collection certainly doesn’t have any innovation behind it, but it’s a good classic gaming collection nonetheless and worth owning for any PS3 owners that missed out on the original two games on the PS2.

Final Grade: B+

Some of the already announced E3 2010 titles I’m looking forward to – can you guess what they are before the jump?

E3 2010 takes place this week starting tomorrow from June 15 through Thursday June 17, so there should be a lot of notable gaming news and announcements that we’ll be very excited to talk about. While most of the good stuff is probably under lockdown until E3 when they are announced, some publishers have already revealed their (partial) E3 2010 lineups. I’ve gone through and pulled out a few titles that I am definitely looking forward to hearing more info about in addition to any other crazy potential surprises!

The 3rd Birthday (PSP) – Square Enix
Surprisingly, there’s going to be a semi-sequel to the Parasite Eve series released on the PSP! I remember enjoying the first one on the PS1, so to go back to an action-RPG game with Aya Brea again sounds great. I just wish a Vagrant Story 2 would get announced…

X-COM (360/PS3/PC) – 2K
The X-Com series has a pretty loyal following on the PC and like another beloved PC series, Fallout, it’s getting a 3rd person-shooter style reboot in 2011. I never got a chance to play (and get hooked) on the original PC games, so I’m not as against the idea of this reboot as the more hardcore fans. After all, I thought Fallout 3 turned out pretty well! If X-Com ends up being as atmospheric as BioShock and Fallout 3, I’ll probably end up loving it.

Monster Tale (DS) – Majesco
Monster Tale comes from the lead developer and designer of Henry Hatsworth, the beloved action-adventure puzzle game from EA. What’s exciting about this title for fans of Henry Hatsworth (and classic NES games) is that Monster Tale will allow for raising a pet monster but have Castlevania/Metroid-style gameplay making it a potentially enjoyable game for gamers of all ages.

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (360/PS3) – Capcom
I’m not a very good fighting game player at all and I’m ready to admit it. But even if Street Fighter IV kicks my butt, I’m still excited for Marvel vs Capcom 3. Something about seeing my favorite Capcom characters in a fighting game has my inner fanboy screaming out. Too bad most Capcom characters end up sucking eh? The newest reveal on the Capcom side is Dante, from Devil May Cry, which almost made me faint. What Capcom characters will be revealed next?!

Dead Space 2 (360/PS3/PC) – EA
Dead Space was one of my favorite new IPs in 2008, so I’m glad to see the survival horror game is getting a sequel. I even played Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii! I’m definitely a fan of the series and am interested to see where it will go next.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising (360/PS3/PC) – Konami
All of you probably know by now how much of a Metal Gear Solid fan I am. Last E3, Konami announced that they would be bringing Metal Gear to the 360 with Metal Gear Solid Rising, starring Raiden. After Metal Gear Solid 2, I didn’t really care for Raiden much at all, but he was kind of a badass in Metal Gear Solid 4 so I wouldn’t mind seeing what Rising is all about. Now if only Konami can provide us with more details at E3 2010…

The Last Guardian (PS3) – Sony
I never got a chance to play Team Ico’s first two games, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but I’m definitely not going to miss out on their next title. What’s even more exciting for me is that there are rumors of an HD remake of both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus coming out for PS3, which will allow me to experience all three of Team Ico’s beloved games.

This is my short list of titles to expect for now – but who knows what the publishers reveal. Let’s see what happens!

Dead Space is one of my favorite new IPs in the last couple of years, courtesy of EA’s own internal studio, Visceral Games (formally named EA Redwood Shores). The combination of action, adventure, and horror made the original Dead Space game seem closer to being a sequel to the Resident Evil games than Resident Evil 5 did. Dead Space Extraction on the Wii was also an entertaining (albeit short) horror shooter game, and it worked. I am totally a fan of Dead Space and a supporter of the studio. When I first heard that the studio behind Dead Space would be making an action/adventure game based on Dante’s Inferno, I was instantly interested. Action/adventure + horror in a hellish theme setting from the developer behind Dead Space? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near what I hoped it would be. Luckily for all of you, I played through this game so you don’t have to. Read on for my review and why this game disappointed me so.

Storyline and Premise
Dante’s Inferno takes place in the Nine Circles of Hell as depicted by Dante Alighieri’s poem, the Divine Comedy. Conveniently enough, the protagonist of the game is also named Dante, so in a sense, there is some symbolism and double entendre since the game’s title is not only referring to the original poem by Dante Alighieri, but the protagonist’s own internal inferno. Or, maybe not. In any case, Dante’s Inferno revolves around our protagonist named Dante, who goes off to war as a crusader thinking that by fighting for the church, all of his sins would get absolved. He returns home to find his lover murdered and Lucifer dragging her soul into Hell. Dante follows the two to get her back, but in the process, has to come to terms with his own sins along the way as he travels through the Nine Circles of Hell. Sounds interesting right? It could be the premise to an enjoyable horror-filled game if done correctly.

The opening couple of levels are a great introduction to what the heck is going on. I was genuinely scared as I landed in the first circle of Hell and watched souls pouring out like water and falling, walls of souls that I had to climb across, etc. It was all pretty hellish, and I thought, “Hey, this is kinda cool.” Unfortunately, it only goes downhill from there, as my initial impression of the game’s premise doesn’t carry all the way through to the end. It honestly feels like the developers designed the first couple of levels and had this grand scope of what they wanted to do, but then as the project got underway they ran out of time and had to really cut corners. This makes the game feel interesting to begin with, but falls flat as you move into the mid game and by the end you really just want it to end. I seem to have less of a detector of when games fall flat than others, as I thought BioShock was brilliant from start to finish while some complain that the last couple levels of BioShock were bad. But with Dante’s Inferno, I can definitely see how it just gets derivative and bland after only the first couple of hours. After 8 hours, it finally ends, except that you get a nice “To Be Continued” screen once it’s over. What the heck? You guys really want to continue this series? Go sit on the bench with Silicon Knights and their supposed Too Human “trilogy.” And thanks guys for not letting me skip cutscenes. Really appreciated. NOT.

I’m all for a different type of protagonist than the sexy (Bayonetta), the cool (Devil May Cry), the quiet (Ninja Gaiden), or the badass (God of War) violent action/adventure star, but Dante’s Inferno’s protagonist is just pathetic. Here’s a dude that is slicing his way through the depths of hell itself, and he’s panicky and screaming like a little girl, “What must I do?! Why are these souls here?” I just wanted to slap him a few times and knock some sense into him. You’re here to get your lover back. Suck it up and keep on killing. Instead he’s ripping demons in half followed by a cutscene of the guy practically crying for his mommy. Very uncool and unlikeable. Why do I want to play the role of a scared loser? Did the developers really think this one through? Even if the protagonist and premise of the game come up a bit short, gameplay is most important for an action/adventure game, right? So let’s see if Dante’s Inferno redeems itself there.

Gameplay
The primary positive I can say about Dante’s Inferno’s gameplay is that it does have a good system for leveling up. As you fight monsters, many of them have a chance to be punished or absolved. Punishing enemies allows you to go further up the unholy skill tree, and absolving them allows you to go further up the holy skill tree. Both trees have different skillsets and unlocks, and as you kill enemies you gain neutral experience points through souls that allow you to unlock skills in either or both trees. It’s not a bad system and reminded me a little bit of Diablo’s class based skill tree. I also enjoyed the ability to pick up dozens of different relics, and the ability to level most of them up so that they would provide better bonuses. For example, at Level 1 a certain accessory may grant +10% chance of critical attacks. If you wear it enough and level it up to 3, it will give you a +30% chance to crit, etc.

However, the actual gameplay itself is lacking. This is an action/adventure game right? Then why do I feel like half of the time I’m fighting the environment rather than enemies? I’m swinging on ropes, trying to jump across falling and moving platforms, etc. I think maybe a good 25% of the game’s time is literally spent climbing on walls. And then there’s the inane puzzles that you have to go through with the block pushing and all that. In short, there’s just a little bit too much platforming in this game. And the worst part is, the fixed camera angles and frustratingly cheap deaths. Several “platforming” elements aren’t intuitive enough and you’ll just die and scream out loud, “F this! How was I supposed to know that?”  And if it’s not that it’s intuitive enough, it’s because the game doesn’t register something correctly even though you did everything you were supposed to do. I remember one level that I kept dying on over and over because I had to swing off a section and land on a platform. I hit RB just the like screen prompted me to, and I would still never make that platform and always fall into the abyss. I got very frustrated. The combination of fixed camera angle and buggy/unintuitive platforming and puzzle elements make me wonder where the action is in this game. Fortunately, for the most part, checkpoints are usually pretty close together so even when you die, you don’t start too far back. But when you play Dante’s Inferno, expect to die a lot due to what I call “cheap deaths”. Those are the worst kind since they’re basically outside of your control. Sometimes I would actually die without even understanding how I died. A cutscene would load or something and I would be dead. What?!

As for the combat itself, it’s satisfactory. You have a decent number of moves, but outside the problem of the lack of combat in this game (I’d say maybe half of the game is just platforming elements – with maybe a good chunk of that climbing walls and shimmying across ropes), the number of enemies is staggeringly low. There’s probably like 5-6 enemy types in the entire game outside the bosses, and while it was cool to see the introduction of some enemies in their respective level of Hell, it didn’t quite make sense to me to see the Lust and Gluttony monsters showing up in subsequent levels of Hell. Did the developers just decide to force us to do more platforming because they didn’t want us to fight? And what is up with the difficulty on the default difficulty level? I played through the game on the Medium difficulty and it was actually a lot tougher than normal should be for a game. I’m getting pummeled by 10 monsters in a locked room with a fixed camera angle and I can’t even fight back or heal? The game just keeps giving me one more frustration after another. And to top it all off, there’s a ton of collectibles that you have to look for as you play through the game. Please developers, stop with the collectibles to artificially lengthen your games!

The God of War Comparison
I was not a huge fan of God of War when I played through it on the PS2, but I started playing it again in the God of War Collection on my new PS3 this weekend just to start seeing how much of a clone Dante’s Inferno was to it (and if I would actually start enjoying God of War more this time around). My initial impressions of God of War is that it still can’t touch the deep gameplay design of Japanese action/adventure games, but it’s enjoyable in its own way. There’s less of an emphasis on the game’s combat engine and more on the game’s adventure aspect. And hey, I’m ok with that. But unlike Dante’s Inferno, God of War still has a good amount combat, as you fight enemies at a much higher frequency than you do in Dante’s Inferno. It’s sort of sad to feel that the original God of War on the previous console generation is still better than Dante’s Inferno. I guess the developers of Dante’s Inferno wanted to copy God of War instead of surpass it, which is disappointing in its own right. God of War’s combat is more enjoyable and intuitive, its adventure is more interesting and captivating, and even its QTE button presses can be arguably fun – and varied! Unlike God of War, I noticed that Dante’s Inferno’s QTE commands are always in the same order, whereas God of War’s actually are random so you are kept on your toes a bit.

Final Thoughts
I sound pretty harsh in my review of Dante’s Inferno, but really, it’s not the worst game I’ve played. In fact, I consider this an average game. It sounded like it could be a pretty cool premise and had well-thought out leveling mechanics. But its poor execution and mundane combat prevent the game from being even considered good. I don’t like wasting my time playing average games. I tend to buy games that are very good or excellent, so when I come across a merely average game and play through it, I get annoyed more than I need to be. After all, I’m putting aside my precious gaming time to play something like this instead of Mass Effect 2. I was practically a Visceral Games fanboy before playing this game. I thought even if the reviews were average for the title, they don’t know the studio like I do. These are the guys that made Dead Space! How could they mess up? Well, they did. So all I can say at this point is to skip out on Dante’s Inferno. I bought this game way below retail and even at my price I’m already ready to go sell it. I cannot emphasize how big of a rip off it is to buy this game for its $60 asking price.

PS3 owners – you obviously have the entire God of War trilogy on your system. It’s the best Western action/adventure series out these days, and I highly suggest you stick with that and avoid Dante’s Inferno. 360 owners – this game may be the closest you can get to experiencing God of War, but I would still say skip it. It’s a very poor substitute. Bayonetta, Devil May Cry 4, and Ninja Gaiden 2 are far superior to this game and can be found for much cheaper. And as for you, Visceral Games, I hope you learn a thing or two when you put out the inevitable sequel. But I won’t be holding my breath.

Final Grade: C

The Dante’s Inferno demo went live about a month ago, and I’ve been meaning to write up some impressions on that but haven’t had a chance to. The good thing is, now that I’ve completed Bayonetta, I was able to revisit the Dante’s Inferno demo again to see if any of my feelings on the demo have changed since playing Bayonetta. I started writing about it, but I found myself getting sidetracked from really writing completely about the demo, and instead I’ve divulged into analyzing Eastern versus Western game design. Read on for a little bit of my thoughts on the Dante’s Inferno demo, and a lot of my thoughts on Eastern versus Western game design philosophies for action/adventure games.

When I played through the Dante’s Inferno demo last month, I thought it was a pretty entertaining game and decided right then that I would get the retail version of the game at some point (but not necessarily at launch). In playing through it again this past weekend, I would have loved if the cutscenes were skippable, since I honestly didn’t need to sit through all of the storyline stuff again. To be honest, the storyline is kind of out there, but it works to provide the game with a nice “hellish” backdrop. The protagonist seems to be kind of a loser though compared to Devil May Cry’s Dante or God of War’s Kratos, but with games like this being more about the combat, I guess I can let that slide.

The combat engine in Dante’s Inferno wasn’t as polished as I would like it to be, but it is smooth. Perhaps polished is not the right word but it felt a bit simplistic and not elegant enough. It also gave me a very strong God of War-like feel. I think it’s safe to assume that when anyone talks about Dante’s Inferno, inevitable comparisons to God of War are going to be made. I personally think they look and play similarly, and to me, that’s not a good thing since I don’t think the God of War games are as amazing as the gaming industry makes it out to be.

While everyone showers every God of War game with the utmost praise, I happen to fall into a very small minority group that doesn’t think that the God of War franchise is that good. AAA series? No – more like a B-B+ series for me. And before any flames or whatever get unleashed that I’m a 360 fanboy, I’ll say that if I had the time to play games on both the 360 and PS3, I would get a PS3. There are several titles that I would love to play on the PS3, such as Valkyria Chronicles, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank, and the upcoming White Knight Chronicles, Yakuza 3 and The Last Guardian. I played through the original God of War on the Playstation 2, and while it wasn’t a bad game, it wasn’t a game that I got super enthusiastic over.

I think it honestly comes down to Eastern vs. Western game design for action/adventure titles. On the Eastern side, we have action adventure games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta. On the Western side, we have God of War, Conan, and now Dante’s Inferno. It may be the old school gamer in me talking, but the Eastern action/adventure games just appeal to be more. They seem to have simpler yet more elegant game mechanics, and are just more intuitive to play. The Western action/adventure titles seem to be more focused on polygons, gore, and nudity yet the Western game worlds seem to be more bland and simple. I was surprised over the amount of nudity in the Dante’s Inferno demo, but hey, now that God of War has made nudity in gaming all the rage, might as well roll with it if you’re going to make a game similar to God of War, right?

Of course, Americans love God of War, but this whole East vs. West game design reminds me of fighting games. Think about the amount of depth and detail in Eastern fighting games versus Western fighting games. On the East side we have games like Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter, whereas on the West we have Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage. All of these franchises are successful, but when I play games like God of War and Dante’s Inferno, I find them to be enjoyable in their own way, but still do not quite hold up to Eastern action/adventure games. The shoe is on the other foot for FPS games and 3rd person shooters, so it’s not like Japanese game design is clearly better.

When I think about why Western fighting games are popular, it’s mostly due to the gore. Think about the amount of game mechanics that are in the Mortal Kombat games – it’s laughable at best. Then I think about my time playing God of War and now the Dante’s Inferno demo: enemies get downed and you are prompted to hit a button to finish them off and perform sort of a fatality. Is this why Americans love these Western action/adventure games? The button prompts to let loose the gore? Then I think about the Japanese action/adventure games, where the emphasis is more on elegance and style of combat rather than sticking your hand down an enemy’s throat to pull his head off. Devil May Cry and Bayonetta were all about gunplay, dodging and combos. Ninja Gaiden was about nimbly moving around the battlefield in order to decapitate as many enemies as possible through chaining.

I think about today how Japanese RPG games are getting poorly reviewed by Western audiences because the gameplay in these JRPGs are not evolving. They are starting to seem almost archaic in comparison to Western RPGs, with their branching dialogue options, morality paths, etc. I’ll be curious to see how Final Fantasy XIII plays when it releases stateside in the coming weeks. But while the Japanese are faulted for not evolving their RPGs, I cannot fault the Japanese for their action/adventure game design philosophies. I like these classic action/adventure game mechanics and believe them to be truly sound. It’s unfortunate these days, but the difference in design philosophies tend to be that the Japanese make better action/adventure, fighting, and platform games, while the Western make better shooters, RPGs, and multiplayer titles. Hopefully both sides learn from each other and we see benefits because of it. In the meantime, I’ll still get Dante’s Inferno, but I know that it’s not going to measure up to Bayonetta. And for Western action/adventure fans, maybe they don’t think Dante’s Inferno will be good enough to compete with God of War III either. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Bayonetta Bayonetta. Where do I begin. Funny – this is a game that when I started playing I was prepared to blog an impressions entry on it. My initial impressions were somewhat negative, but part of me felt like I was missing something so I decided to hold off and play through it more and just go for the review. As I continued to play the game past completion, I started to reach a zen-like trance with the game. Now, 20 hours later, I can say I love it. Read on to see how my first few hours with this game started off on the wrong foot but eventually found its way into…my heart?

I consider myself to be a relatively harsh critic of games. Growing up in the era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Battletoads on the NES, I guess I can say I’m well versed and trained in “classic action/adventure” gameplay. I am a definite fan of the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry games, but since then, there hasn’t really been another strong Japanese action/adventure game to release since Ninja Gaiden II and Devil May Cry 4 a couple years ago. Bayonetta had a lot of makings to be a bona fida hit in my eyes: the potential combination of over-the-top theatrics, solid and classic Japanese action/adventure gameplay, and a new sultry protagonist is a combo that us action/adventure game fans don’t come across every day. With reviewers raving, I eagerly started playing the game and was actually let down.

Initial Impressions
All sorts of niggling negatives started showing up as I played my first couple of hours through the game. Why is the music so bland and silly? It brought back my repressed memories of Marvel vs. Capcom 2′s theme song. And why the heck are most of these cutscenes not even animated? Did the developer have to save costs so instead went the route of still shots with recorded voices? It just looked cheap to see characters 3D rendered and voice-overs yet their mouths weren’t even moving. And worst of all was the entire storyline. It was confusing and terrible.

The Devil May Cry games had an easier to follow and entertaining storyline – heck even Devil May Cry 4′s storyline was excellent when compared to Bayonetta’s. As I sat through minutes of lengthy, nonsensical cutscenes between and throughout levels, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed with the storyline and the lack of any sort of direction with it. Part of me wanted to skip them because they were so bad, but part of me felt that I should watch it all to try to see if I could absorb some sort of semblance of a plot. Of course, one argument to be made in an action/adventure game is that storyline doesn’t matter, but I personally believe it can really elevate the gameplay experience if you feel more connected to the protagonist and the other characters in the game. There was no such connection here.

Gameplay – hitting me like Bayonetta’s hairweave boot
As I continued to play it, I came to realize that outside of the terrible storytelling, the combat system in the game is action/adventure perfection. The concept of guns on Bayonetta’s boots seemed so silly when I first learned about it, but they actually work quite well in the game. Most weapons in the game you pick up can be equipped on Bayonetta’s arms or legs, and combos vary depending on the weapon types. I loved holding a sword in my hands and equipping rocket launchers on my legs, so my combos would consist of alternating sword swipes and rockets hurled towards the enemy. It all seems so over the top but it works so well that I can’t figure out how to describe it.

It’s not only the equipping of weapons on Bayonetta’s arms and legs that make the gameplay so good. The first thing many players will notice are the Wicked Weave attacks, which are combo finishers that often make use of Bayonetta’s hair to form huge legs or fists that lay into an enemy at the end of a combo. They are ridiculously powerful and practically clear the room of enemies, making them tons of fun. The hardest part about pulling these Wicked Weave attacks off is actually being able to get through a combo before being interrupted. If you’re comboing one enemy and he’s stunned, that’s all well and good, but an enemy may be behind you that can attack, knocking you out of your combo and ruining your chance for unleashing a Wicked Weave. Fortunately, there is something else in the combat mechanics that allows you to pull them off a bit easier: Witch Time.

Bayonetta is perhaps the first action/adventure game I’ve played that incorporates a “bullet time” mode in a game like this. Remember games like Stranglehold, Max Payne, and F.E.A.R., where you could slow down time? Bayonetta has this and it’s called Witch Time. Witch Time functions in the same way as those other games: slowing down enemies while keeping you going at normal speed so you can pull off lengthy combos without worrying about getting hit. But what makes the Witch Time remarkable is how you activate it. It’s not simply hitting a button to go into this mode, but rather – you have to dodge at the exact moment you’re about to get attacked in order to have Witch Time activated. Thus, Witch Time is a reward for good gameplay rather than a crutch that you are forced to lean on. If you can’t dodge well, then you won’t get to use it!

There’s also a magic meter in the game that fills up as you do combos, dodge attacks, and counter enemies. As this magic meter fills, you get to perform special attacks called Torture Attacks, where Bayonetta grabs an enemy and throws them into a torture device for massive damage. They’re a lot of fun to perform, and the most interesting thing about the magic meter is that whenever you get hit, your magic meter decreases considerably. Like Witch Time, the Torture Attacks are also a reward for playing well as opposed to being a crutch to lean on. These Torture Attacks are almost like Killstreak Rewards in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer, for those of you that play that.

Outside of the dodging and Witch Time gameplay mechanic, you are also able to perform counters/guard breaks or whatever you call them in Street Fighter III/Soul Calibur. If enemies are attacking you and you hit forward at the moment they attack, you can repel their attack and create an opening. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily provide an ample opportunity to perform a lengthy combo if there are two other enemies behind you.

As you can see, the gameplay can be very frenetic when you’re in a screen full of enemies as you try to dodge, combo, and pull off Witch Times, Wicked Weave Attacks, and Torture Attacks. When you get good at it, you feel like you’re sitting on top of the world and get rated accordingly. Of course, it’s possible to get through the game without making use of all of these tools at your disposal, but when you do, it’s exhilirating.

Checkpoints
One of the biggest breakthroughs that Bayonetta makes over all of the Devil May Cry games are checkpoints. None of the Devil May Cry games had checkpoints. If you died at any point during the 30 minute or so level or on any of the bonus stages within those levels, you would have to start over. Make your way to the boss in a Devil May Cry game and die, and you will have to start the level over. Thankfully, Bayonetta has adopted the Western philosophy of checkpoints. Each level is broken up into generally about a dozen sections called Verses.

Each Verse is often a fight with a large enemy type or several smaller enemy types. Depending on how well you do in that Verse, you get graded and all of the Verse grades give you an overall level grade at the end of the level. If you die at any point in the level, you can continue from the last Verse you were on. If you die on a bonus stage within a level, you can directly continue from that bonus stage as much as you’d like.

Bosses even have several checkpoints throughout the fight, depending on how many forms they turn into. These checkpoints make the game so much more accessible to gamers of all skills that the game is just more fun (and less frustrating) to play after all. Of course, every time you continue, your overall level score gets penalized, so hardcore gamers can still have bragging rights on the Leaderboards displaying their super high level scores earned only through playing the game perfectly. It’s a remarkable balance of challenge and accessibility and I thought it was a very well planned approach. There will be no controller throwing in Bayonetta, yet the game still has lots of attainable bragging rights.

Game Length
Compared to games like Ninja Gaiden II and Devil May Cry 4 where action/adventure game fans can spend practically a hundred hours going through all difficulty levels to beat, Bayonetta stands a bit short. It’s possible to skip everything optional and make a bee-line right to the end of a level to beat the game in under 3 hours (there are special items unlocked if you do), but the game realistically hovers more along the 12 hour or so mark. Throw in the amount of time you may spend on the dozens of bonuses stages within each level, and you may find yourself getting closer to the 20 hour mark. Add in a few more difficulties for the harder playthroughs, which consist of more difficult enemies inserted into the game and it should take maybe 40 or so hours to get through everything this game has to offer. It’s not 100 hours, but it sure beats games these days that are only like six hours long.

Final Thoughts
If Bayonetta looks at all interesting to you, I would highly recommend downloading the demo and checking it out. The first level is far too crazy and confusing, as there’s too much going on at once, but the second level of the demo makes things a bit easier to grasp and understand. I love this game, and it may be the action/adventure game with the best fighting game mechanics I’ve ever played. From a pure gameplay standpoint, it’s perfection. The storyline and cutscenes are terrible, but now that I’m playing through on a harder difficulty, I’m skipping every cutscene (Protip: to skip cutscenes quickly, hold the R trigger and hit the back button) so the game is just an exhilirating action/adventure game from when the game starts to when I call it a night. Sadly, the lack of a good storyline and storytelling hold this game back from reaching a perfect score. But if I would have graded this game purely from a gameplay standpoint, it would unequivably be perfect.

It’s weird – Japanese games seem to have core gameplay (and even boss design) down to an art – it revolves around traditional gameplay mechanics that are tried and true. The combat is designed with such precision and care that when you play it you’re just like wow. But at the same time, storyline and character development in Japanese games are completely ridiculous and poorly done. When I try to engage myself into Bayonetta’s storyline, part of me can’t help but think of clothing that Japanese people like to wear with English on them but make absolutely no sense. That’s how their video game storylines seem to go. And on the other side of the pond, for Western developers, we seem to tell a great story with our games, but gameplay mechanics are generally not as well composed as the Japanese when it comes to action/adventure games. If only we could get an action/adventure game with Western storytelling and Eastern game design. Wouldn’t it be heavenly?

Final Grade: A-

Last week I happily drove to my local Gamestop after work to pick up my pre-ordered copy of Bayonetta. As a fan of Japanese action-adventure games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta is like a late Christmas present for myself. The reviews for the game have been phenomenal: perfect score (40/40) in Famitsu, and it’s currently sporting a 91 Metacritic average (ranking it higher than Assassin’s Creed 2 and Left 4 Dead 2). Imagine my surprise then, when I walked into Gamestop to proudly pick up my pre-order of Bayonetta but shocked to see that practically every shelf behind the counter sat dozens of copies of Darksiders and the clerks were gushing to the shoppers about Darksiders. Apparently Darksiders and Bayonetta both released on Tuesday last week, yet I hadn’t even know what Darksiders was until it rained on my Bayonetta launch-day “parade”. So what is it? And why does it look like some World of Warcraft Blood Elf in the middle of an urban city?

Darksiders is definitely a game that flew under the radar for me, as I didn’t even know anything about it until I actually saw it in the store. Considering I think I do a pretty good job with keeping up with the game industry, any game that manages to slip past me and come out before I even know about it is enough for me to give it some props. Maybe I disregarded it because it was a new IP, developed by a new studio, and published by THQ (not exactly known for putting out games I enjoy). Isn’t Capcom publishing a game called Dark Void that’s also being released this month? Dark Void/Darksiders – same thing right? Some crappy new “Dark” IP to complete the trilogy that Dark Sector started? (I kid, I kid.) Well, it looks like I’m at least wrong on the Darksiders side of thinking it would be crappy. It’s currently getting about an 84 on Metacritic, so it looks to be a decent game.

What’s interesting to me though is that Darksiders and Bayonetta share so many similarities. Both are action/adventure games released on the same day here in the United States. Both are single-player only games. Both are new IPs. Both are from new development studios: Vigil Games & Platinum Games. Yet the key difference, besides Bayonetta being Japanese developed and Darksiders being American developed is the main designer behind each one: Bayonetta gets graced with being directed by Hideki Kamiya, the creator of the Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe games. Darksiders also has a heavyweight on its side: Joe Madureira, the comic book artist most famous for his work in Uncanny X-Men and Battlechasers, was the creative director behind Darksiders. Thus, I’m sure we see a lot of influence in their work within the two games. I can’t speak much for Joe Madureira, but I know that both of Kamiya’s franchises, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, have more “over-the-top” craziness than any other games I’ve played. For Bayonetta to follow in this similar vein not only doesn’t surprise me, but has me really looking forward to it.

With Bayonetta clearly being the “stronger” game of the two why is there all this talk for Darksiders yet not much of a peep for Bayonetta? Looking at my friends list this past week, most of them were playing Modern Warfare 2, two guy were playing Darksiders. Sadly, no Bayonetta fans. Based on my own friend list landscape, Darksiders seems more popular than Bayonetta. No one on my list was playing Bayonetta, which makes me quite sad. I’m trying to plow through Dragon Age: Origins as fast as I can so I can give Bayonetta some representation.

I guess all of this lack of hype and stuff for Bayonetta in favor of Darksiders may just be an example of East vs. West. Think about when a game as big as Gears of War or Halo releases in Japan. Those people are like, “Whatever”…and go lineup to buy Final Fantasy XIII or the latest Dynasty Warriors game. Maybe that’s the same way here. The American audiences are more excited about American-developed games, and it surprises me because if you think about it, when we grew up in the NES days, all the good action/adventure games were pretty much Japanese designed. I’d say that Western developers still need to learn a thing or two about good action-adventure gameplay design from the Japanese, but they’re starting to get there. While I didn’t enjoy God of War as much as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, it’s certainly not a bad game – and Americans seem to love it (yet we also tend to buy stuff like Marvel Ultimate Alliance…ugh). I also gave the Dante’s Inferno demo a try recently, and the engine in that game pleasantly surprised me as well.

I have to admit, when I started reading more about Darksiders I initially thought the game was a licensed comic book title. But apparently it’s still only a game. Congrats then to Vigil Games, as your first game is a new IP that is considered to be pretty good! And congrats that you decided to solely focus on only single player and not tack on forced multiplayer <<cough>>BioShock 2<<cough>>. The combination of it being a new good IP, a lengthy single player game (20 hours or so), and an action-adventure game means it is now on my list of games to check out. (Even if I’m still a little bit annoyed that it’s pushing Bayonetta around here in the West.)

Last week cmfl3x and I presented you with a list of games that we felt were good value from a standpoint of being enjoyable for pretty much every type of gamer. This week we’ll share more “niche” titles – games that you can enjoy – provided you’re into the genre. Again, we want to look at games that are good value – ones that either have a lengthy/replayable single player campaign or plenty of multiplayer hours to keep you coming back while at the same time being enjoyable while being inexpensive.

While many Western reviewers put down Japanese developed games that don’t have a lot of production quality, I tend to still enjoy them. I like Japanese fighting games, RPGs, action/adventure games, and beat’em ups. I appreciate the linearity with many of them, and personally don’t mind if the graphics tend to appear closer to last gen technology than current. Because at the deepest level, what’s most important to me is gameplay. Is it ultimately fun to play? Here are games that I feel are ultimately fun to play and are good value, if you like the genre:

Fighting

Dead or Alive 4
[360: $29.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Dead or Alive 4 was the very first fighting game released on the 360. While several others have come along since then, it’s still quite a casual friendly fighter while having a strong online mode that allows for four players sharing a room at once. If you want to get into a cheap, yet accessible online fighting game, consider this game.

Virtua Fighter 5
[360: $19.99, PS3: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
While Dead or Alive 4 prides itself on its online infrastructure, Virtua Fighter 5 has no competitors when it comes to single player. For the best single-player fighting game on current consoles, Virtua Fighter 5 is it. It takes about 40-50 hours to get through, as you create a player and travel through various arcades that have hundreds of different AI opponents – with some modeled after real life Virtua Fighter 5 pros. There is a ranking system, and the ability to earn money to buy accessories for your character as well. Note that while the 360 version has online, the PS3 version does not.

Realtime Strategy

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
[360: $27.99, PC: $27.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Red Alert 3 didn’t sell well enough upon released and quickly dropped to the under $30 value price only months after release. But it’s definitely worth a shot as it has a very lengthy single player campaign consisting of 27 missions (pretty much double Halo Wars), a skirmish mode, and online play. For the least expensive, yet enjoyable RTS games on the 360, Red Alert 3 is the game to get.

Multiplayer Shooter

Shadowrun
[360: $29.99, PC: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Shadowrun has a funny existence on the 360 and PC. It’s a niche RPG game with its own fan-following, but the most recent game was converted into a Counter-Strike style online only shooter that allowed players to earn money and buy weapons, tech abilities, and magical skills. It’s a great game that also supports matchmaking, but because it wasn’t the type of game that Shadowrun fans wanted to play, and it shipped at $60 with no multiplayer, reviews were scathing. But at its current bargain price, the game is a gem. Just keep in mind that the PC version requires Vista.

Japanese RPG

Blue Dragon
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Blue Dragon is a Japanese RPG that comes from the creator of Final Fantasy and the artist behind Dragonball and Chrono Trigger. The game is an excellent (yet very standard) Japanese RPG, but the only thing really going against it is that it has children as protagonists. This makes it difficult for some people to really get into, but if you can look past that and are interested in a Japanese RPG, Blue Dragon is a great deal.

Lost Odyssey
[360: $29.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
It’s a little bit pricier than Blue Dragon, but Lost Odyssey is arguably the best Japanese RPG game on the 360. After Blue Dragon, Mistwalker decided to develop an RPG that was more mature and accessible to Western Audiences, and this game delivers. If you were a fan of Final Fantasy games growing up and didn’t exactly enjoy fighting the cutesy monsters of Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey is perhaps the better one to pick up.

Japanese Beat em up

Samurai Warriors 2
[360: $19.99 on Amazon]
Out of all of the Warriors series that Koei has spawned on the PS2 and 360, Samurai Warriors has always been my favorite. Playing as characters based on real-life samurais and ninjas with various missions, leveling up, finding gear, etc. has always made Samurai Warriors (as well as Warriors games in general) a good bang for the buck if you don’t mind the gameplay that is repetitive for some as well as the PS2 quality graphics.

Warriors Orochi
[360: $29.99 on Amazon]
Very similar to Samurai Warriors 2, but instead of following historical missions and levels, Warriors Orochi combines the world of Samurai Warriors with Dynasty Warriors, allowing you to create teams from both while confronting a new made-up enemy. While the storyline to the game isn’t as tight or appeal as that of Samurai Warriors 2, there is appeal to being able to choose from dozens of characters in both worlds. It also has PS2 style graphics.

Bladestorm
[360: $29.95, PS3: varies on Amazon] [espionage's review]
This game is perhaps my favorite Koei game on the 360 (unless the studio finally decides to release a Romance of the Three Kingdoms game). While it’s a beat-em-up like Samurai Warriors 2 and Warriors of Orochi, it has a lot more gameplay depth as it chronicles your life as a mercenary in the 100 years war. The game features next-gen graphics and army management of over a dozen different unit types that you need to manage and utilize to capture castles and towns.

Earth Defense Force 2017
[360: $19.99 on Amazon]
Another hardcore beat-em-up (or shoot-em-up in this case) is Earth Defense Force 2017. While the graphics and gameplay may be a bit on the simple side, the concept of simply defending the Earth from giant ants, spiders, mechs, and space ships using whatever lasers and rocket launchers you can find has a lot of appeal. With over 50 levels and five different difficulties as well as co-op split-screen support, it’s a game you can play for dozens of hours.

Japanese Hardcore Action Adventure

Dead Rising
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
While Dead Rising is somewhat of a shorter game due to it being time based, the concept of being stuck in a mall with zombies can be enjoyed forever. On top of that, there are straight out modes that have you simply trying to survive as long as possible. The game isn’t for everyone, as it adheres very closely to linear Japanese game design and Western gamers complain about the limited save system.

Devil May Cry 4
[360: $27.99, PS3: $27.99, PC: $39.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
I didn’t think Devil May Cry 4 was such an innovative jump over its predecessor (in fact, I enjoyed Devil May Cry 3 more), but I have to say that the game is lengthy. If you enjoy the combat engine of the Devil May Cry games (flashy combo-based fighting) you’ll probably get good mileage out of this one with its various difficulties and optional Bloody Palace mode.

Ninja Gaiden II
[360: $27.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Ninja Gaiden II has its fair share of detractors, but it’s my favorite action/adventure game this generation. I’ve sunk 100 hours into the game, and it doesn’t even have multiplayer. With several different weapons to learn and use as well as a lengthy campaign that has difficulty levels with differing enemies, if you want to conquer this super hard-core title you will be putting in 100 hours like I did.

The Rest

The Club
[360: $12.05, PS3: $14.97, PC: $12.69 on Amazon]
The Club is a radically different game from the normal shooter, as it combines the mechanics from racing games with shooting games. Think about how you would play a racing game – going along a track trying to get the best time on corners, etc. In The Club, you play a shooter like a racing game – running through a level, and shooting guys or killing them in a stylish enough way to give you score multipliers and extra time. The game’s longevity comes from wanting to compete for the best times/scores online, so if you’re playing it just to beat it, you probably won’t get as much out of it.

Viva Pinata & Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [360: $27.99 on Amazon]
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is not a sequel as so much as the original game plus a bit more of an expansion to the original game. Both are great and it’s fine to just pick up the first title if you want to save a few bucks. The concept to the game revolves around managing a garden, where the various flowers, vegetables, fruit, etc. all attract different pinata animals and those in turn attract others so the concept of the game is managing your garden in such a way that you have a thriving ecosystem. You could play these games for dozens of hours if you’re trying to accomplish everything in them.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
[360: $27.99 on Amazon]
Unfortunately, this game is still sitting in shrinkwrap for me so I haven’t had a chance to really play it yet. But from what I hear, the game is a lengthy adventure and very open to choice in that it allows you to hunt for parts and to create what you’d like in order to tackle various challenges in the huge world of the game. Need to fly your vehicle and keep it in the air for several seconds? Add whatever parts necessary and embrace your LEGO childhood….

That’s quite a list espion4ge! It seems like you did a good job covering pretty much everything, but I want to include title that’s not on the 360, but PS3:

Flower
[PS3: $10 on PSN]
This is the only game on my budget list that I haven’t gotten to play but if I owned a PS3 I’d probably download this immediately. Flower is a very different type of “game”. It uses the PS3′s Sixaxis motion controls exclusively. You play as the wind, and basically “blow” around different environments. As you touch different flower petals they bloom, and you eventually populate the entire field with flowers. From everything I’ve heard, this game = amazing graphics + great use of music + interesting narrative. If I ever get a PS3 I’m definitely picking this one up.

Well that about covers it for our two-part feature on gaming on the cheap – but you know what? Games constantly drop in price all the time so maybe in a couple weeks or months, we’ll continue to see the list of cheap, yet enjoyable games continue to increase. So my advice is, if you’re strapped for cash – just wait! It’s like deciding to save money by waiting for movies to go to video instead of going to the theatre every weekend. The savings definitely add up and based on how many games are out there today, if you’re watching your budget you can still be a gamer with plenty of games to tackle.

I’ve managed to score a 50k+ Gamerscore in my years with the 360. And while that pales in comparison to the guys with 6 digit Gamerscores, it still sometimes manages to illicit some responses from players in online matches (both good and bad). But what is the point of the Gamerpoint score anyway? In this discussion topic, cmfl3x and I will discuss our thoughts on the implementation of Microsoft’s Achievement system and this new site we joined called TrueAchievements.com.

I honestly never believed in a point system for the Achievements. I actually like the PS3 Trophy system better because it makes note of the feats you achieved in a game without assigning some arbitrary value to it. The value was up to the viewer to decide: “Oh wow this guy beat the final boss of the game on the hardest difficulty? Cool. What else has he done?” Instead, the score simplifies everything into pretty much how many Achievements you’ve gotten rather than which ones you went for. While I’ve never played a game simply for its Achievements, there are obviously some people that do – ask anyone that has Avatar on their game list, for example.

Recently, this site hit the gaming blogosphere: TrueAchievements.com. What it does is check your Achievement profile, and actually give a weighted calculation based on what your score actually should be rather than the arbitrary values assigned by the developers. The true score for a particular Achievement is instead based completely around how many players have actually played the game and if they were able to get it or not. A game like Avatar, for example, where everyone that plays it gets the 1000, would still have a True Achievement score of 1000, but a more difficult game, like Devil May Cry 4, will have an actual True Achievement score of over 4000 since only a small fraction of the people that played the game manage to get all of the Achievements, making them “worth more”.

Personally, I love what the guys at True Achievements are doing. Some games only associate a 10 point value to huge fetch quests, and in the current system it feels kind of unfulfilling to put 10 hours into 10 points. At True Achievements, they will assign a more “accurate” value to the number of Gamerpoints you “should” get. Their algorithm isn’t perfect, but I think they set up the system pretty well all things considered. I highly recommend that everyone check it out (which they have, they temporarily closed registration earlier because they were getting slammed).

Overall, I think Microsoft’s regulation of the system has been a good thing: keeping Gamerscores to 1000 points and 50 achievements makes sure everything is more “standardized”. I do like having a Gamerscore over just trophies, just because it gives you a concrete thing to point at. Of course the problem now is, some people who have had the system since launch have like 200,000 Gamerpoints and people who are buying the console now have no chance to catch up. It could be cool if Microsoft had some sort of Gamerpoint average, like # of Gamerpoints divided by games played or something.

People have floated the idea of using points to accessorize Avatars or something. Or if Sony had points associated with Trophies they could have people “buy” things for Home or something. I think it’s something that could work if done the right way.

Achievements, Trophies, and all that seems to be a win/win all around and a good step forward to the gaming industry. For those that don’t care about them, it won’t necessarily change anything but for those of us that do care, it’s revolutionary. With the Achievement/Trophy system, it seems like gaming now has become more social, because we can see how other players play games and what they’ve accomplished. I remember subscribing to Nintendo Power when I was a kid and people would mail in screenshots of their high scores in video games (Cliffy B., the lead designer of Gears of War, even sent in his high score in Super Mario Bros.). Now all of that stuff isn’t really necessary since we not only have Achievements, but online Leaderboards. So for those that want to compete, it’s a great thing.

I’m a big fan of the ability to unlock new Avatar clothes or Home outfits based on certain gaming accomplishments. It seems to be the general next step in making gaming even more social. Now we don’t just have names, but we have physical characters to represent ourselves in the gaming universe. As long as you don’t have to pay for them, I’m definitely interested. Even now, I love my current Gamerpic – only unlockable if you can beat Ninja Gaiden 2 on Master Ninja mode. Imagine how cool it would be, for example, if you could unlock a Gears outfit for your avatar if you solo’ed it on Insane or something:

Unlockable clothing for Avatars adds sort of an MMORPG-style heriarchy to console games – which would work very well, in my opinion. People that play games or are good at them should be able to earn things that demonstrate their prowess in gaming. Wasn’t there like a Halo 3 recon armor that only certain players got and others wanted to buy for thousands of dollars or something?

Anyway, going back to one of the things you mention, cmfl3x, about how you don’t like that people who got an early start on the 360 would be in the 200,000 by now. It’s not too big of a deal to me and what I alluded to when I mentioned that I was more a fan of the PS3′s score-less Trophy system. The point system makes all of gaming seem like a race – with everyone subconsciously worrying about their overall score rather than the actual accomplishments themselves. I’ve never been a fan of that, but rather, support more of a more customized but less competitive approach. Taking away Achievement points for all games is obviously a very crazy idea, but let me explain it differently – perhaps with Avatar clothing, as an example.

Say Microsoft implements a system such that each Achievement you unlock was really tied to an unlockable clothing article you could earn, rather than a point score. So if you were to get all of the Gears of War 2 achievements, you could unlock all of the Gears of War armor and weapons your Avatar could wear. Say Ninja Gaiden 2 is the same way. But see the constraint is such that you only have one head. You can only wear one helmet. So that means, you can really only choose to wear the Gears of War 2 helmet or the Ninja Gaiden 2 ninja mask. Thus, people can play the games they really want to play, and for those that play more, they simply have more Avatar accessories to choose from. Instead of seeing 200,000 Achievement points on one guy to your 5,000 Achievement points, in an Achievement system that was only tied to Avatar clothing the 200,000 point guy would simply have a bigger closet and more clothes to select from. But he obviously can’t wear everything so it evens out (similar to the gun unlocks in Call of Duty 4 – more options, but not necessarily better). Say your 5,000 points only come from J-RPGs since that’s all you play. What’s wrong with that then? Why would you want Gears of War 2 clothing anyway? This makes it so there’s less competition, but still promotes individuality in my opinion.

What’s also neat is that with clothing, you’re pretty much promoting your best Achievements that you earned – something the current Achievement system does not have. And it’s not like you’re just plastering them all over your profile – the clothing hint is much more subtle. Some guy could be walking around with a gold ninja mask (maybe from beating Ninja Gaiden 2 on Master Ninja), a scientist labcoat (maybe from beating all of the Gold Medal challenges on Portal), and wearing Halo armor pants (maybe from beating Halo 3 on Legendary). It could be a totally clashing outfit, but I think the idea would be pretty cool. I guess in a way, my wish for Achievements to be tied to Avatar clothing could still be added as a feature on top of the current Achievement point system and what not. But yeah I love the idea of Achievements tied to your gamer profile, but I’m honestly not a fan of Achievement points – especially with them not being weighed accurately.

The thing with Avatars is, we hardly use them. It’s not like we are walking around in Sony’s Playstation Home. I wonder if Sony will make a trophy room for people’s individual spaces? What I like about the Avatar idea is, even though we don’t use them, we see all of our friends’ Avatars. So if I’m in the dash and I’m navigating my friends list I can see you wearing your Master Ninja Helmet and maybe my Avatar would be rocking the Katana from Halo 3. But how would we advertise our Achievements to non-friends? I know people enjoy comparing the Achievements with random strangers every once in awhile. So it would be great if Microsoft (or Sony) made a process that was a bit more streamlined.

Going back to the True Achievements website, I like how you can check out someone”s “Best Achievements.” They basically take your top 5 Achievements (according to their scoring system) and paste them on your profile. I can’t imagine it’d be too difficult for Microsoft to do something similar, just take the number of online users of a certain game and factor in the percentage of users who have gained a certain achievement to calculate a “difficulty score”. I mean, Microsoft has all the information from Live, so they could just use that and then for everybody’s profile include “Top 5 Achievements”. Then if I’m browsing my friends’ profiles I can see who’s gotten what, and we could compare that way without having to worry about points.

Unfortunately I don’t see Microsoft changing their system right now. But hopefully they will tweak it, especially taking advantage of the Avatars. Right now I don’t even feel like customizing my Avatar too much, but if I could dress him up in something that reps my gaming prowess, I think I’d have a lot of fun with it. Because even if Avatars aren’t used too much, at least I will get to see and appreciate my Avatar brandishing a gold Lancer!

I wish the friend dashboard was a lot faster to load. It takes like a whole minute before the characters are fully downloaded and I barely go to it anymore since it’s faster to just go to the Friendlist with the guide button to see what my friends are up to. But I do like seeing what everyone looks like and who they’re playing with. If only it loaded faster.

I honestly think the Avatars and clothing options could still work quite well given the current limitations. We don’t need Home to enjoy it – I think Home is more a bunch of bloat anyway because people ultimately want to play games instead of walking around and wasting time. Simply seeing how your character is dressed on the Dashboard or on websites may be adequate enough. Besides xbox.com, there’s even some sites I visit these days where if you enter your Gamertag, your Avatar is automatically populated in your profile – which really goes to show you that the idea of Avatars can still be fun without necessarily having a Home-style playground to walk around in.

The “Best Achievements” thing on the True Achievements website is a great idea. I agree with you though, that Microsoft will most likely not change anything since the current Achievement system works and no one is really complaining. One issue I have with the “Best Achievements” section of the True Achievements website though is that it’s still basing the Achievement calculation off of originally assigned point values.

For example, my top two “Best Achievements”, according to TrueAchievements.com, are Master Ninja for Ninja Gaiden 2 and beating Inferno Mode for Earth Defense Force 2017. Ninja Gaiden 2′s Master Ninja Achievement was originally assigned 100 points. Inferno Mode for EDF2017 was assigned 250 points. But the difficulty ratio for each Achievement differs dramatically – Master Ninja has a ratio of 8.94 (as of this writing), making its True Achievement value 894, while Inferno Mode has a ratio of 2.49, making its True Achievement value 746. Notice how both of the True Achievement values are pretty similar but one is a lot more difficult than the other. The Inferno Mode’s True Achievement value is close simply because it had a much larger base value.

It would have been better if the site didn’t use the base values, and instead calculated the True Achievement value for all Achievements based on how often it was earned from those that played it, and how many people played the game altogether (similar to what you suggested earlier). I don’t know the exact formulas that the website uses, but basically something that doesn’t rely on the “sometimes arbitrary” Achievement value assigned by the developers. Some developers give a 1 point score to the hardest Achievement value in their games, and even with a 100 difficulty multiplier, it’ll never show up on the “Best Achievements” table on the site. Of course, all of these calculations pique my interest due to my engineering background, so maybe it’s lost on the typical gamer that just wants to have fun or isn’t as hardcore.

It could be neat though to customize your own Gamercard to show icons of your top 5 Achievements instead of the last 5 games you played. But I guess giving too much customization to users may make Gamercards and profiles more confusing. Still, I would have loved the ability to at least hide games you don’t want to show on your Achievement list. In the most recent Dashboard update Microsoft finally allowed us to at least delete games that we had no Gamerpoints on, but we still can’t get rid of games that have some score. I’m probably in the minority about this, but there are honestly some games I would love to remove from my Gamertag. Games like Tomb Raider: Legend & Armored Core 4 – ones that I only got an Achievement or two on are now stuck on my Gamertag. I doubt I’ll play them again, so I’d rather have them off my profile altogether. But ultimately, I guess it’s not really a big deal and I’m in the minority on this.

So to summarize my thoughts on this discussion, I think this True Achievements website is going in the right direction to make Achievement scores more balanced. I would love for Microsoft to get rid of the original values of each Achievement altogether, and instead have them calculated based on a formula similar to how the True Achievements website is doing it – but of course, to not use the base values in their calculations. And giving us unlockable Avatar clothing options associated with particular Achievements would definitely make me a happy camper.

Sounds like you’ve summed it up pretty well. There are definitely games I’d want to delete too, like Doritos: Dash of Destruction! Haha. Hopefully True Achievements will end up creating a “Top 5 TrueAchievement Ratio” List. That would help take care of the base score issue. As for the dashboard loading faster, I guess that’s best left to another discussion!

Devil May Cry 4, a game that looks modern but still clutches to the good and the bad of old school Japanese game design.

For anyone trying to complete all of Devil May Cry 4′s Achievements, you’ll be playing for a very long time as I have quickly learned. Often times I write reviews on games after I’ve gotten every Achievement I planned to get in the game, but with Devil May Cry 4, I don’t think it will be possible. It’s going to take me dozens of hours more to have a chance at getting every single Achievement, but even then, I don’t know if I’ll be skilled enough to get the most difficult ones. Still, after having gone through it once on the easiest difficulty I believe I have enough to formulate an opinion of this “hardcore” game.

Intro
In 1996, Shinji Mikami created the game, Resident Evil, for the first Playstation. The game became so popular that Mikami was promoted to producer and oversaw the Resident Evil sequels that inevitably followed. As a producer in the early 2000s, Mikami worked with another guy named Hideki Kamiya to create another Resident Evil-style game. After some thought the two decided to create this game as a completely new entity, naming it Devil May Cry instead of some Resident Evil spin-off.

Unlike the survival horror style gameplay of the Resident Evil series, Devil May Cry would instead be a stylistic “horror” action game starring a suave character named Dante. With a combination of skill-based combat mechanics revolving around gun and blade use, a likeable main character, and an entertaining combination of horror and comedy, the first Devil May Cry game attracted quite a following and went on to sell 4 million copies.

With the original game’s strong success, two more sequels were released on the PS2. The second game ended up bombing due to poor design and unenjoyable gameplay, not to mention a new team working on it that did not pay much attention to the first game. After the poor reception of the second game, the team behind the second game decided to create the third game and bring its game mechanics back to that of the first game. With the third game back on track, the Devil May Cry series continued to be popular.

Devil May Cry 4 was originally a PS3 only release. When Capcom announced back in March of 2007 that it would release the game for both the PS3 and the 360, several PS3 owners were outraged. They even went so far as to start a petition to ban the buying of the game since it was also being released on the 360. Capcom, who realized how strong the U.S. market was for their game (both of their earlier 360 releases, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, both sold over a million copies), simply shrugged the petition off. Their argument, that they just wanted as many people to experience the game as possible, made the PS3 petitioners seem silly since it wasn’t like they weren’t getting the game on their system. Maybe some of them bought the PS3 for the reason that Devil May Cry 4 was one of the exclusives to their system?

Nero, the starring character for Devil May Cry 4, is not as whiney as Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2.

Storyline and Premise
Unlike the first three games in the series, Devil May Cry 4 introduces a new leading protagonist, Nero, to the game universe. While some have gone on to lament the fact that this seemed too similar to Metal Gear Solid 2′s “bait and switch” of showing Snake in all the previews but having Raiden as the main character, Nero is actually a far more likable character.

The storyline revolves around Nero trying to rescue the woman he loves from various humanoid monsters with Dante showing up and meddling with everything – sometimes helping Nero and sometimes hurting him. To be honest, the storyline is simple yet confusing at the same time. It is a little less confusing than Lost Planet’s storyline, but that isn’t saying much. We just need to accept that Nero is the “good guy,” even if he is a demon.

The game is set up in 20 missions, each taking about half an hour for a 10 hour playthrough. The thing that is pretty annoying though, is that the first half of the missions involve going through the game as Nero, while the latter half of the missions you assume the role of Dante and backtrack through the same levels that Nero went through originally, including fighting the same bosses. While it’s nice that Dante’s fighting style differs from Nero’s, there is really only new content in the first half of the missions.

The game has very old school game design – it’s broken up into the 20 missions which are basically stages. If you die on a mission you can either use a continue that you’ve bought, start back from a checkpoint, or quit the game altogether – there’s no saving and loading from a mission. You can save in a mission but when you load your game again you’ll just be at the mission select screen, meaning you’ll have to play through the mission regardless. Even the checkpoints themselves are very far between – and you get penalized for using them. I guess this makes Devil May Cry 4 more of an action game than an adventure game, as you’re not really exploring much and saving your progress whenever you like as much as you are simply trying to beat a level so you can save and stop playing. Of course, previous titles in the series all follow this same exact mechanic, so if you’ve played them and enjoyed them this much of a concern.

Make no mistake – this game is meant more for hardcore gamers that grew up with action games like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania on the original NES. It isn’t as forgiving as contemporary action/adventure games with its limited saving, frustrating platforming elements, and relentless challenge. This is not to mention you even get graded on how you played through a mission, deflating your ego as you pass a hard stage and you’re graded with a C. Hardcore gamers will appreciate this game though, as the gameplay itself has interesting mechanics that offer a level of depth greater than general action adventure games, regardless of its archaic general game design.

Devil May Cry 4′s bosses are of typical Japanese game design: big, patterned, and with weak points.

Gameplay Mechanics

Combat
The main element of fun to be had in the Devil May Cry games is its stylish combat system. I would go so far as to say that the combat system in the Devil May Cry games is the closest one can get to taking a “fighting game” and turning it into a good action game with multiple enemies. This is because the combat system not only works, but it rewards you for comboing.

Combos in the game simply revolve around attacking your enemies with varied attacks while not getting hit yourself. As you vary up your attacks when you fight, your “combo” meter builds and you get ranked. Combos can revolve around anything you do to damage enemies, such as simple three button combos to air combos from launchers and gunshots. As you continue to vary up your combo, you get a letter grade. Landing a couple successful hits on your enemies without taking damage yourself will start you with a D rated combo. As you continue to mix up your attacks while not taking damage, your combo score will rise towards a C, then B, and so on while capping out at a SSS combo. This combat system is what gives Devil May Cry its unique fighting style – there’s a whole list of various moves you can use for each weapon to fight your enemies.

Nero and Dante play very differently, and fans of the game are generally split in terms of who they enjoy playing more as. The problem is, of course, that you are forced to play half of the game as one and half the game as the other, making it quite jarring to feel like you’re mastering one character but then forced to play as the other.

I prefer Nero myself, as his Devil Bringer and Rev Engine add completely new elements to the fighting. Nero sports a sword and a gun like Dante, but he also has a Rev Engine for his sword. This Rev Engine can be “revved up” by pulling the Left Trigger at the exact moment his sword swing connects with an enemy. When that happens, his sword revs up and glows orange, allowing the next hit to be faster and do more damage. Consequently, you can combo through enemies with completely “revved up” sword swings if your timing is good enough that you can rev on every sword hit. That’s a pretty hardcore combat element right there.

Nero’s Devil Bringer not only pulls enemies right in, it can act like a grappling hook for heavier enemies, pulling Nero to the enemy.

Nero’s devil arm, the Devil Bringer, is unique because not only is it more powerful than his sword, it also has very lengthy reach. One or two uppercuts with the Devil Bringer is practically enough to kill an enemy. The fun thing about the Devil Bringer though is its reach – especially when used as part of a combo. In most of Nero’s combos, he’ll knock the enemy away as he’s swinging. But throw the Devil Bringing reach move into the combo, and he’ll pull the enemy right back to in front of him, whether he’s on the ground or in the air doing a combo. The reach move makes long and continuous combos a lot easier and new players to the game can definitely appreciate it.

While Nero has the most useful weapon with his Devil Bringer arm, Dante gets plenty of varied weapons that are fun in their own way.

Dante plays similarly to his incarnations with previous Devil May Cry games, but with more fluid switching options. In previous games, Dante could switch to different guns and fighting styles only when pausing the game. But in Devil May Cry 4, Dante can switch weapons and fighting styles in the middle of fighting by simply pushing the D-pad corresponding to which fighting style he wants to change into or pulling the L-trigger to switch to the next weapon. The ability to change to different weapons and combat styles on the fly make it easier for Dante to score higher, varied, combo attacks.

Both Nero and Dante have access to something called a “Devil Trigger,” allowing them to turn into a Demon for a short period of time for faster and more powerful attacks and combos. The Devil Trigger gauge is a second bar that fills up as you inflict damage on enemies.

Currency
There are two forms of currency in the game: red orbs and proud souls. Red orbs are the main monetary currency in the game, left behind by defeated enemies or found after smashing objects. The red orbs allow the player to purchase various items from the store, which include items like continues, ones that increase max health, health-regeneration, etc. Whenever you buy an item at the store, it goes up in cost so in a sense, you are penalized for buying it. However, the cost for an item eventually caps off.

Proud souls are earned as a result of how well the player beats a mission. The mission score is calculated through three criteria: the amount of time used to beat the level, number of red orbs found on the level, and finally, how stylish the player was in defeating enemies. Points are deducted from your score for continuing, using checkpoints, using items, etc. It’s pretty harsh. The higher your mission score, the more proud souls you earn. Proud souls are used to buy new combat abilities such as air launchers, defense moves, etc.

Optional stuff
Devil May Cry 4, like the previous games in the series, generally has one secret mission in each level. When you find the secret mission, you are often given a specific criterion to beat it. If you beat it, you are given a fragment of a blue orb, something similar to a Heart Container piece from Zelda. Collect four fragments of a blue orb and increase your health bar by one notch. Secret missions are generally pretty difficult.

The Bloody Palace is Devil May Cry 4′s optional survival mode that has been in the series since the second game. It’s a 101 level survival mode, time based where you have to go all the way through each of the 101 levels to beat it. There is no saving, and very little health, making the trek quite difficult but its inclusion is obviously welcome for the more hardcore players.

Your combo grade is reflected with a word corresponding to the letter of the grade. In this case Dante is earning a rank A combo – A for Atomic!

Achievement System
The Achievement System in Devil May Cry 4 is two thumbs up for me. It is about as hardcore as the game itself – making the Achievements something you have to work hard to earn as opposed to being just handed out to you. Beating it on the easiest difficulty will get you less than 100 Achievement points! There are Achievements for beating the game on each difficulty setting, as well as beating each mission on each difficulty with an S ranking. This pretty much means you have to be quite awesome on every single mission of every single difficulty in the game – no small feat. There are also Achievements for clearing all of the optional stuff like the secret missions and the Bloody Palace.

The Achievement System in this game is set up such that you really have to do every single thing in the game to get all 1000 points. While I may not be able to ever get all 1000 points in this game because I’m not skilled enough, I respect how these Achievements are set up and it will end up getting the player to spend probably 40-50 hours playing this game, no small feat for an action game. Once I saw a guy with the full 1000 in this game and had to give him props. Hopefully I can get them all someday too!

The ladies from past Devil May Cry games appear in Devil May Cry 4, but it is disappointing how they have no role in the story except for eye candy.

Final Thoughts
Devil May Cry 4 is definitely old school. It has the limited design and frustrations of older games, and whether that’s good or bad is debatable. Games these days are all about regenerating health bars, checkpoints every minute, and handholding. Devil May Cry 4 has none of that, allowing the player to really see how well he stands as a gamer. While I have no problems with Devil May Cry 4′s “hardcore” approach, there are certain things that I felt should have been improved for the game since it’s already on its fourth iteration.

Devil May Cry 4 really just feels like one of its older PS2 predecessors but with HD graphics. I’m disappointed that not only does the game have fixed camera angles, several parts throughout the game require jumping and timing that become even more difficult due to the way the camera is handled in the game. There were several times where I was shouting out of annoyance for not making a jump and being forced to clear through a room of respawned enemies again every time I fall. I also didn’t like that the second half of the missions simply used the same content as the first half – even the same bosses. The game also feels very broken up; it doesn’t flow like an adventure game. It’s basically 20 missions with 10 or so rooms per mission – enter a room, the doors are sealed, and four enemies spawn for you to kill. This whole “lock the doors, spawn monsters, move to next room, repeat” is very poor and unimaginative game design and I wish the designers thought of a more unified way of going through the game.

Devil May Cry 4 gets a B- in my book, the first “letdown” in a long time for a game I’ve bought. I had higher aspirations for it, thinking it would be as fun as I remembered playing it on the PS2 but sadly, times have changed. With better examples of gameplay design in similar games like Resident Evil 4 and Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry 4 lives in the past with frustrating game design decisions that are only saved by a uniquely enjoyable fighting system and “cool” characters. The game isn’t for everyone and I’d recommend waiting for Ninja Gaiden 2 if you’re looking for a Japanese 3rd person action game with more adventure.