Blog Post: My thoughts on Sony's E3 2011 Press Conference

It's never the content at a Sony E3 press conference that's the issue....well, with the exception of their infamously bad PS3 reveal, of course. Sony always packs their press conferences to the brim with announcements, trailers, and plenty of montages for both its portable and home consoles. The biggest issue has always been the presentation itself, which to me feels incredibly dry and tends to run for far too long. I always find that while Sony usually has the most to announce at their conferences, they do it in the most boring way possible.

This year we saw Sony make an effort to spice up their presentation a bit. We got an (incredibly lame) pre-show, and they stuck a pretty pointless performance at the very end, but hey, gotta give them credit for trying. At the very least, this presentation, while it still felt a tad too long, was far better paced than in the past, and they really did announce and show plenty of titles for all their platforms: the PS3, the PS Move, 3D gaming, and, of course, the reveal of the new PSP, the PS Vita. Sly Cooper 4 was a pretty great announcement, as was having Ken Levine up there to tell the crowd how his studio was eventually sold on motion controls. Sony also went through great lengths, like last year, to secure exclusive content in multiplat titles, something that will definitely make PS3 fans happy.

Though they spent a little too much time on the Playstation Move (damnit Sony, watching someone play a sports game is boring) it's good to see that they, like Microsoft, won't be abandoning their Wii-competing device, even though the Wii seems to be no longer competing (more on that tomorrow). It's also great to see that, unlike Microsoft, that device hasn't become essential to playing all of Sony's new games.

Regarding the Playstation Vita, the visuals on that thing look nice. I wouldn't say they totally blow away the 3DS, but they definitely look like a step up. The system also seems to have its own features, like back touch screens, so props to Sony for not just ripping the 3DS off like they could have. The games they have coming for it also look much more impressive than most of the stuff they were putting on the PSP, making it look like Sony will really be pushing for North American success, something the PSP really never achieved. I also have to give Sony credit for competitively pricing the PS Vita.....yeah, it's sad that we're in an age when $249.99 is considered competitive pricing, but, lo' and behold, that's what Nintendo's charging and Sony's definitely met that price.

There are a couple things I would have liked to have seen, like a trailer for the upcoming Twisted Metal game and Final Fantasy 13 sequel, but hey, can't have everything, and the show ran long as it was. Sony overall put on an impressive show and though the presentation could still use some tightening up (and Sony, let us know the names of the games in your montages!) they definitely showed Microsoft, well...how Microsoft used to do a press conference.

Rating: B

Sony's confident that the PS3 will become the hardcore gamers' system of choice, and after seeing Microsoft's conference, it's hard to argue. How Nintendo's Cafe will fit into this, well, tomorrow we'll find out.

Blog Post: My thoughts on Microsoft's E3 2011 Press Conference

It's that time of year again; E3. For video game fans, pretty much the place to be for new game announcements, surprises, and, of course, a giant celebration of the hobby that we all know and love.

You wouldn't know this from Microsoft's press conference, which was overall pretty much more of the same from last year. This time, they opened the show with Modern Warfare 3 instead of Black Ops, they showed off some 3rd party multiplatform stuff, including a demo for the new Tomb Raider (which isn't coming until Holiday 2012, which is a lonnnnng way off, MS) and the likes of Mass Effect 3 and a new Tom Clancy game, with demos both highlighting these games' new Kinect voice recognition features...not a whole lot to get excited about. Mass Effect 3 will undoubtedly be an amazing game, and is one of my most anticipated of the year, but did anybody seriously think that the Mass Effect series needed voice recognition? Did anybody think at any time while playing Mass Effect 2, "Hey, this game would be so much better if I could voice my dialogue choices instead of selecting them with an analog stick" ?

Therein lies my biggest problem with the Kinect and Microsoft's conference in general. I just don't think the Kinect is particularly necessary. We haven't yet seen a real game that's truly benefited from Kinect controls; it's all been substitutes for controller usage that add nothing to the experience except a novelty and some gimmicks. Games that really benefit from Kinect support are games that can only be played with a Kinect, and I just don't think there are a ton of *actual* games that can be played without a controller.

To give Microsoft credit, the Kinect is great for younger audiences, something they're obviously well aware of, having spent a large portion of the show demoing (though the demos were either fake or incredibly laggy, watch for a seriously delayed golf swing in Kinect Sports 2) Tim Schafer's upcoming Sesame Street game, a Disneyland Theme Park Adventure title, and some other new Kinect features involving importing and tracing objects....all cool stuff, and if I had kids, something I'd consider getting them if they were good,  $150 is still a lot of money to spend on a toy...and that doesn't include the price of the system itself.

For gamers, the Kinect again leaves us out in the cold. Is a rail shooter really the way we want to play a game like Fable? Again, I have to ask the question; did anybody ever think, while playing a Fable game, that a more immersive Fable experience would have been created if we were locked on rails? I doubt it. I also doubt that a Kinect game was what many people had in mind when Crytek's Codename: Kingdoms was revealed last year, now revealing itself to be an M-rated, melee-driven Kinect title.

For the controller, Microsoft showed off more of Gears of War 3, and for Gears of War fans, I'm sure it'll be a great piece of more-of-the-same action. I've never been a huge fan of the series, and the demo didn't do a whole lot to change my mind. The long-rumored Halo: Combat Evolved remake was also showcased, undoubtedly a quality game but a pretty big sign of the sad era we're in; when games only 10 years old are being remade just so a publisher can have a new franchise entry out every year. Halo 4 will be arriving next year, (Winter 2012) as was revealed at the end of the conference with a pretty cool trailer, making the Halo 1 remake seem even more unnecessary. Halo's a fantastic series and Halo 4 will definitely be great, but it's hard to shake off the feeling of "more of the same." Microsoft's newest, most "exciting" features are all on the Kinect. If nothing else, this press conference made clear that those looking for controller gaming on the 360 should accept the fact that we're just about done with that era. Why not buy a PS3 (or upcoming Project Cafe, which we'll see in all its glory tomorrow) to play future 3rd party multiplatform titles? What does the 360 have to offer that its rivals won't?

Outside of Kinect games, none of which (I feel) look like they'll be particularly compelling among gamers over the age of 10, and the likes of Halo, it's clear that the Xbox 360, from a 1st party perspective, is done with. It's cool to see Microsoft jumping eagerly into Kinect, their determination to avoid a SEGA CD-like fate being pretty admirable. I just wish they weren't leaving the rest of us out in the cold. I actually thought the Kinect Adventures showing last year was pretty fun, but this year, none of the Kinect reveals looked even remotely compelling to me. Kinect Sports 2 and Dance Central 2 are blatant attempts to grab another $50 from people for content that should be downloadable, the kids games are just that; kids games, with likely little to offer for anyone outside that age group, and the hardcore Kinect titles shown are more of the same rail shooter-type experiences that we've been playing for years on the Wii.

Meanwhile, for the controller, no surprises.

My rating: C-

Not a trainwreck, just not a whole lot to get excited about.

Review: Mass Effect 2. A Western RPG that I like? Must be the end of the world

To my surprise, I really enjoyed Mass Effect 2, and coming from me, a Japanese RPG fan, that’s pretty high praise. Since my first exposure to the RPG genre was with Japanese RPGs, having devoted tons and tons of hours to them during the PS2 era, Western RPGs have never felt natural to me. At the very least, it has always been a love/hate relationship. I really liked Fable and got into one of Bioware’s previous RPGs, Jade Empire, but then on the other side of the coin, I wasn’t a huge fan of Knights of the Old Republic (which I did play and beat) and open world Western RPGs annoy me so much that I got fed up and traded in Fallout 3 after only a few hours of playtime. I also couldn’t stand what I played of the original Mass Effect. Right now the industry seems very much divided over what type of RPG style should win out, with Western RPGs now taking over, both from a sales and critical perspective. Bioware, the developer of the Mass Effect series, has been quite vocal over Western RPG superiority, going as far as to say that Final Fantasy isn’t even an RPG….comments that just make me cringe.

So hopefully you can understand how hard it has been for me to root for the Western RPG subgenre. It’s a credit to how good Mass Effect 2 is that I was able to get past my preference for Japanese RPGs and enjoy what happens to be a really well put together game, both compelling in its storytelling and also solid and accessible in its gameplay. Granted, it’s not perfect, but it’s a game that I’d still definitely recommend everyone, even fans of Japanese RPGs, give a try.

Graphics and Audio: Bioware deserves credit for knocking it out of the park as far as the visuals are concerned. Mass Effect 2 not only looks better than the first game, but performance-wise, it blows it away. Mass Effect 1 ran so poorly on my 360 that it felt to me like a completely unfinished product, whereas Mass Effect 2, though it still has Bioware’s trademark long load times, runs so much better that it’s like night and day. They’ve really gotten the hang of the Unreal Engine and the game looks great, and, in some instances, even awe-inspiring. The facial expressions may not be quite on par with something like Final Fantasy XIII but they still look incredibly convincing, and you really feel like you’re having a conversation with real people while you chat with the locals and your party members. On another note, I only found myself getting stuck on the level geometry once (and for a Western RPG, that’s very good) and I was able to get out of it by mashing buttons; didn’t even have to re-load my save. Awesome.

The voice acting’s also nearly perfect, as all actors deliver their lines with complete and total conviction, despite a slightly irritating accent or two. The movie-quality soundtrack also deserves praise, and the atmosphere felt when wandering through the game’s cities is perfect, especially as you hear news of the game’s events being reported on televisions and sound systems above you, Lost Odyssey style.

Narrative and Storytelling: This is the heart of Mass Effect 2 and it’s what makes the experience so unique. As is typical with Bioware games, the majority of cutscenes take place in the form of interactive conversations, with the events frequently pausing to give you the option to select the bits of dialogue you will use to respond to any given situation. At times, you’ll also have the option to perform direct actions in cutscenes, such as choosing to walk forward to comfort a crying character or, in one of the game’s cooler sequences, to punch a character through a skyscraper window. The choices you make in conversations not only give you a great deal of control over your likable main character, Commander Shepherd, (whose backstory, as well as gender and some physical traits, you choose at the start) but they also can dictate your relationships with others in your crew and the people you interact with, both friend and foe. Mass Effect 2 does a great job of giving you a wide range of selections with lots of gray area, so it never feels like you’re just going through the motions of “okay, good choice vs evil choice,” a complaint I have with a lot of Western RPGs. I also have to offer praise for the quality of the dialogue, as Mass Effect 2’s really stands as some of this generation’s best. While there’s certainly a lot more to the gameplay (the combat system takes the form of a 3rd person shooter, after all, which I’ll get to later) I found my favorite parts of Mass Effect 2 to be the ones where I got to stroll through either the Normandy (my ship) or the various cities, talking to my party members and interacting with the locals. Truly the game’s standout feature and what I feel is a personal best for Bioware doing this type of RPG.

The story itself is certainly not on the same level as its character interaction (I still feel that Japanese RPGs are by far more imaginative in this category) but the tale still has its share of compelling and intense moments. It may not offer anything we haven’t seen before in countless sci fi space operas, and it could be a bit better at reminding us of key terms from the previous Mass Effect, especially for those of us who didn’t get too far in it. Still, the story, which involves building up a top-notch crew to head on a suicide mission to save the human colonies from invasion by the evil Collectors definitely will, at the very least, hold your attention. The rivalry between characters like the Normandy’s pilot, Joker, (voiced by Seth Green) and his AI supervisor, EDI, is very entertaining, and there’s all sorts of little touches like that that add personality to the storyline and characters. Their interaction and some great action scenes help bring it all to life.

This is a story you have a sizeable amount of control over. You can choose to collect all of your party members over the course of the game, or, you can choose not to. Throughout the game, the characters you do add to your party will ask you to do them a favor by going on an optional, and personal, mission with them. Successful completion of these missions (and yeah, you can fail them, and once you do, that’s it) will make these characters more loyal to you, which gives them an increased chance of survival during the game’s final (and deadly) mission. Depending on your relationship to your characters and the choices you make, and whether you choose to do optional ship-building work, anyone (and everyone) can live or die, including Shepherd.

This has its strengths and weaknesses. Due to the nature of an RPG like this, there’s a large cast of playable characters, and though several will leave a definite impression, others inevitably get completely screwed over. Garrus has little to do beyond his introduction, Jack comes across as nothing more than a whiny and unpleasant addition to the crew, and Legion literally has no development whatsoever. As far as the character deaths are concerned, this is different from a Japanese RPG. In that type of narrative, where the story is set from the start and therefore a death can be built up to and made a very emotional occasion (Final Fantasy VII) a Western RPG like this, where anyone can die based on your choices, lacks this buildup. Because of this, when (or if) Mass Effect 2 mercilessly kills off your characters in the final mission, it feels more irritating than emotional, there’s no way around it. Western RPGs, as far as I’m concerned, have never been able to capture the emotion and power of a pre-defined story, such as that of a good Japanese RPG, and Mass Effect 2 is no exception. That’s not to say that there’s no emotion to be found in this game, there certainly is, but the fact that several of my characters being killed off didn’t affect me at all emotionally is something that rubbed me the wrong way. That’s probably the only weakness to Bioware’s style of storytelling. Otherwise, though, Mass Effect 2’s story and character interaction proves both compelling and entertaining, and that’s certainly nothing to be scoffed at.

Gameplay: Mass Effect 2 is divided into two very distinct sections. There are the RPG sections involving character interaction, then there are the combat sections, where the game essentially becomes a third person shooter. This doesn’t mean that it loses its RPG aspects entirely; you can freeze the action at any time to bring up a wheel from which you can select special attacks to use, or which weapons to change to. Your character does gain EXP and level up similarly to an RPG, and you’ll often come across a character or two who you can talk with even during the shooting segments. You can still evolve your weapons and armor, and you can hack doors and databases even when in the shooting segments. The leveling up system and much of the game’s interface has been greatly simplified from the convoluted Mass Effect 1, a change that I think is definitely for the better, though I’ve of course heard some grumbling that it’s been “dumbed down.” Bioware’s clearly learned that if you’re going to make a game a “shooter,” you have to go all out and make it a shooter. Mass Effect 2 features a true third person shooter combat system, one which feels much less clunky than the 1st game’s. And shooting only seems to take place in designated areas (you always know when you’re headed into an area where gunfire will be involved) so unlike the original Mass Effect, when you could be randomly ambushed by enemies when wandering through town, the shooting is much more divided from the RPG aspects of the experience. Gunplay’s quite easy to get the hang of, and on the standard difficulty, not too inherently challenging, save for a couple cheap sections that occasionally rear their ugly heads.

The shooting, solid is it is, actually ends up being the thing that keeps Mass Effect 2 from being quite as excellent as everyone says it is. Granted, there’s nothing wrong at all with this shooting system, which plays well and can often be a lot of fun. The problem is that it’s so ….standard. This is your very basic cover shooter despite some cool powers, multiple characters and weapons, and environmental hazards to shake things up; you still have very little choice in how you deal with your enemies. If you step out from cover in the midst of a gunfight, you’ll find yourself dead very quickly. Your health meter’s small, though it does regenerate if you avoid taking damage for a few seconds. What that means though is that you’re stuck playing Mass Effect 2 as a cover shooter; if you want to have your teammates fire from cover and you want to, say, run up to the enemies and engage them directly, chances are, you’ll die. As far as cover shooters go, this is a serviceable system, but it lacks the freshness or choices of something like Vanquish, where, hey, you could get out of cover, jump into a power slide, and go after those giant mechs up close. Mass Effect 2, besides a half-heated Adrenaline mode, doesn’t give you much freedom to do stuff like this.

It surprises me, then, that Bioware put such a generic shooting system at the forefront of almost all of the missions. When you go on any sort of mission, 9 times out of 10, it’ll have shooting at its front and center. It’s unfortunately reminiscent of a lot of RPGs nowadays, even Final Fantasy XIII, where every issue in the game seems to be resolved only by your characters taking out their weapons and killing stuff. As with Final Fantasy XIII, this works a majority of the time because the combat system (in this case, shooting system) is fun, but Mass Effect 2’s system lacks the strategy and variety present in Square-Enix’s title. The way you fight enemies at the end of the game isn’t much different from how you’ll fight them at the start, and some of these repetitive shooting sequences end up going on for just a bit too long.

It’s in this way that Mass Effect 2 ends up being an odd balancing act. Though so much of this game happens to be excellent and really stands out, Bioware weakens their product by forcing you to spend so much time with what’s, conversely, a pretty unremarkable shooting system. Again, it certainly doesn’t break the game, but it’s sort of like being at a fancy restaurant where you’re served a world class meal, only to find that the bits of chicken in it happened to come from the local 7/11. And hell, I love my 7/11 food, don’t get me wrong, but it just wouldn’t be quite on par with the rest of the world class dining experience.

As far as the game length itself, doing all the characters’ loyalty missions and the occasional sidequest, it clocked in at around 21 hours for me. It can of course be much shorter if you choose to skip out on the character missions entirely (not recommended) but it can also be much longer if you take the time to do some of the game’s many sidequests, build up your ship, and explore the expansive galaxy available to you.

Verdict: Mass Effect 2 is a game that I’m glad I played, and it’s actually the first Western RPG I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since the original Fable back on the Xbox (haven’t played Fable 2 or 3, maybe I’d like those too, who knows). Filled to the brim with incredible dialogue, lots and lots to do, fantastic interaction with your party members, an exciting (if a bit unoriginal) story, and fun (much more accessible) shooting action, Mass Effect 2’s a great experience. The visuals and audio are also some of the best this console generation, and the game performs much better than the original Mass Effect did. That said, it’s not a perfect experience, as I still find it harder to get emotionally attached to Western RPG characters, who are so defined by you that they’re hardly able to be defined by the game itself. The romance system’s implementation still feels a little sloppy to me, and the shooting, while fun, doesn’t really offer much you haven’t played before (but better) in actual shooters. These flaws aside, though, Mass Effect 2 proves to be a compelling ride that’s very much worth your time, regardless of what you thought of the first game, or Western RPGs in general.
--
Presentation: Long load times can get irritating, as does the occasional glitch, but Mass Effect 2 looks and runs much better than the original. Cool story with very interactive cutscenes and some tough decisions to make gives you the feeling of being in control.

Graphics: A few bland corridors aside, this is a beautiful-looking game with some amazing atmosphere.

Gameplay: This might be the best use of Bioware’s Conversation system to date, and a true step above the rest of the Western RPG subgenre. The shooting’s fun and serviceable but overall nothing too special. I wish Bioware focused a little more on the former and less on the latter.

Sound: Top-notch performances and a Hollywood-quality score, plus great atmospheric touches, give Mass Effect 2’s audio category top marks.

Value: Length of the campaign depends on how much you choose to do. Still much shorter than a Japanese RPG but not bad overall. Lots of side stuff, and you’re able to access this even after the end credits roll.

Overall: 8.0/10

(Note: My reviews go on a .5 scale)

Review: Mortal Kombat 9's both a trip down memory lane and a great new direction for the series

Growing up as a kid in the 90s, there were few things that seemed to scare my parents more than the incredibly violent Mortal Kombat series. It was a fighter whose iconic characters, interesting mythology, and over the top violence quickly cemented its place as a key figure in the gaming landscape, and this newest entry, simply titled Mortal Kombat, will definitely please fans, gain new ones, and undoubtedly ensure that the series remains popular for years to come.

Series co-creator Ed Boon had originally envisioned Mortal Kombat (for the purposes of this review, Mortal Kombat 9) as a complete series reboot with an all-new cast. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the previous entry if you set aside the DC Universe spinoff, ended with the images of the series’ characters dying off, which left the door wide open for the planned series re-invention. As it would turn out, though, fans didn’t quite want that to happen yet. If you look at the series throughout the years, big changes took place after Mortal Kombat 4, which was unfortunately the final Mortal Kombat game developed for the arcades. After the fourth installment, the series went on a hiatus for a number of years, its next generation rebirth eventually taking place with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in 2002, followed by Mortal Kombat: Deception and then Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Though these were all quality games that were loaded with features and content, the gameplay at their center felt quite different from the Mortal Kombat that many of us grew up with. With Mortal Kombat 9, we have a return to the more arcade-style gameplay of the first 4 games (and in 2D, like the first 3) but with a couple new twists, and the result is easily one of the best Mortal Kombat games we’ve seen in a long time, one that definitely stands up there with the classics.


Mortal Kombat 9’s Story mode begins where Armageddon’s left off, with Raiden, Liu Kang, and the other characters dying in the midst of a bloody battlefield. With his final breath, Raiden sends a vision of this fate to his past self. We then cut back to the events of Mortal Kombat 1, where, in the midst of Shang Tsung’s island tournament, Raiden receives his own message, and, understandably alarmed by what he sees, becomes determined to change their fate. It’s all actually pretty clever, and this plot device gives the developers the chance to return us to the events of the first 3 games in the series. Unlike the story modes of the past couple installments, which took the form of full on action/adventure games, Mortal Kombat 9 simply features a series of fights strung together by surprisingly well-produced cutscenes. The dialogue and voice acting’s rather cheesy but I found myself amazed at how genuinely compelled I was to progress the story to see what would happen next. Not only does the story mode allow you to become somewhat familiar with all the characters and their moves, but it’s great to get to see the stories from the Mortal Kombat Trilogy presented in this way. If you want to see Cyrax/Sector pre-robot, if you’re curious to learn how Jax lost his arms and want to witness the birth of the rivalry between Sub Zero and Scorpion, then you’re this game’s target audience and you’re going to love this. The Story mode lasts quite long (for a fighting game) and proves to be both addictive and challenging, but that’s only a tiny portion of what Mortal Kombat 9 has to offer.

In addition, you of course get the classic arcade-style Ladder, where you pick a character and a difficulty setting, then get to fight off a series of opponents to reach Shao Kahn at the top. Upon beating him, you unlock the ending of whichever character you're playing as, which is narrated to you in front of some beautifully drawn concept art. This mode can also be played in co-op, which is done tag team style and it’s not only a fun way to ease new players into the game, but it can also be a blast if you’re with another experienced player who just wants to get in on the action. You can play Tag Team in Versus mode for up to 4 players, though you can only complete the Ladder with 2.

In addition to this, there’s the Tower, consisting of literally hundreds of bizarre challenges to complete as you ascend to the top, ranging from things like fighting with your arms (or heads) cut off, to fighting upside down, and of course to the return of the Test Your Might/Test your Sight mini-games. With challenges that range from funny to challenging, it’s yet another mode that can keep you busy for a long time.

All of these modes award you Koins, which, like Deadly Alliance/Deception/Armageddon, can be used in the Krypt to unlock new character costumes, Fatalities, music, and concept art. Though there are a lot of throwaway unlockables here (the damage concepts especially) I found the idea of picking one of hundreds of prizes to buy without knowing what the prize would be to be fun, and the large amount of throwaway prizes makes it all the more satisfying when you do unlock something cool. Each character's given one Fatality to start with (yup, the deadly finishers return, as bloody as ever) which is available from their moves list. You can also unlock each character’s second Fatality, a Stage-specific Fatality, and a Babality. If you choose to play this like the classic Mortal Kombat games and simply go online and look up all of your character’s Fatalities from the start, you’re able to do that, and you can perform these in the game without having unlocked them. Still, the added convenience of having all the Fatalities in each character's moves list provides incentive to actually unlock them, and I’m sure that many fans will opt to clear this massive Krypt of all its goodies.

In addition to all of this, there’s also an online mode, and though I can’t comment on it because I don’t have Xbox Live at the moment, it’s just yet another mode in a game full of content. You should note though that if you buy this game used or choose to rent it, you’ll have to pay an additional fee to have access to the online mode, as is becoming more common this generation.

As I alluded to earlier, the fighting system in Mortal Kombat 9 sees a return to the series’ 2D roots, plus the removal of the switch-on-the-fly fighting styles, which became a central element of the MK fighting system starting with Deadly Alliance. You no longer have the ability to move around a 3D plane, and though I never minded the move to 3D, I have to say that after playing Mortal Kombat 9, 2D fighting suits this series much better. The new addition to the combat system is a gauge at the bottom of the screen. As your character pulls off combos or takes damage, the gauge increases, filling up its 3 levels. At level one, you can perform a powerful special move, while reaching level 2 gives you the ability to interrupt an enemy’s combo on you. Level 3 allows you to trigger an X-ray move, which are hilariously brutal and cinematic special moves unique to each character, with the camera changing to X-ray mode and showing you the damage being done to the inside of their bodies. Triggering each phase of the gauge is as simple as clicking both triggers, and once you use it at any point, your gauge goes back to zero. Needless to say, knowing when to use a Breaker or when to hold out for your X-ray move becomes a big part of the strategy of each fight. The fighting system here feels much more fluid and balanced than I remember any previous Mortal Kombat game being, and pulling off a well-executed uppercut or roundhouse kick is as satisfying as ever.

Visually, Mortal Kombat 9 continues the series’ tradition of ambient levels with some truly vibrant colors and nice attention to detail. The pouring rain you can see outside the windows of Shang Tsung’s throne room looks beautiful, as do the various souls you’ll often witness flying throughout certain stages. Though many of these stages are remakes of places from the first 3 games in the series, they still look and feel different enough so as to come across as nostalgic while still seeming like new levels. The characters become bloody as they get beat up, and the Pit Bottom level now has pipes literally pouring blood onto the stage, and, yes, onto the characters if the fight happens to take you under it. I’ve always been a fan of the Mortal Kombat games' art direction and this game definitely continues that tradition. Musically, things are a bit less impressive, but there’s still some good stuff in here and it complements the action well. The remixes of past Mortal Kombat tunes definitely proves to be a nice touch.

As far as flaws go, I have to say that as satisfied as I am with this pretty incredible fighter, it’s not quite perfect, and there are some (comparatively small) things that still can be improved upon in future installments. You can’t do a Versus match against the computer unless you start playing the Ladder, which would be fine if not for the fact that in Ladder mode, unlike Versus mode, you can’t choose your stages or your opponents. That’s not a game-breaker but it would have been nice to have simply been able to do Versus matches against the computers without starting a Ladder game. On the topic of Versus matches, there are some slight issues with the character select menu that make things a little less easy than they could have been. Changing your character’s costume’s a pain because not only does the game give you no indication of how to change your costume (push Start over your character if you want to select their second costume) but you can’t see the costume that you’re changing to. All you can do is select either Costume 1 or Costume 2, and your character’s appearance isn’t reflected until the match begins, which is sort of annoying. After the match, you have to return to the character select screen if you want to choose a new level, as simply selecting Rematch puts you both back on the same level that you just played. Again, this is not a huge issue by any stretch but it's rather unintuitive and feels like an unnecessary inconvenience. I also have to also point out that while Mortal Kombat 9 features a great Fatality tutorial that makes it easy to learn how to pull these finishers off, the game’s actual tutorial (which is thankfully optional) pretty much sucks, as it prevents you from progressing through it if you’re stuck. For example, a few minutes into the tutorial, the game instructed me to pull off a certain combo, which, for whatever reason, I couldn’t do. I didn’t have the option to skip this part and continue the tutorial, so I had to miss the rest of it, having no choice but to look up the information on the other features, like how the X-ray gauge worked, online. Of course these are the types of things that an instruction booklet would have helped greatly with, but Mortal Kombat 9 is continuing the industry’s unfortunate trend of phasing out instruction booklets, so all we get in the box besides the disc is the code to play online and a booklet advertising merchandise that we can buy…..great…

I guess the only other flaws I’d have to point out aren’t exactly flaws, but they are still things I’d like to bring up. This roster’s made up pretty much entirely of classic characters, with Cyber Sub Zero being (to my knowledge, anyway) the only new playable character. Just like with the level roster, this doesn’t mean that the game feels like a rehash, it definitely doesn’t. Still, it would have been nice to have seen a few fresh faces in there. For one final complaint, some of the Fatalities are pretty weak. Though there are some truly awesome ones in here, in the age of games like MadWorld, it’s hard not to feel that with some of these Fatalities, things could have been taken even a step further; not that they should be more violent, they’re certainly violent enough, but that they just feel a little too short and unimaginative. Mortal Kombat 4 I think still has the series’ most elaborate Fatalities, and I wish Ed Boon would go back and watch some of those before beginning work on the next game.

Verdict: With the exception of those complaints, though, I have to say, Mortal Kombat 9 has proven to be a huge comeback for the series, and for a series that’s been as consistently good (well, excluding ports and spinoffs, anyway) as this one has, that’s a huge achievement. Not only is this game loaded with features and unlockables, but it has a great fighting system (probably the most balanced yet for the series, in fact) a fun story mode, tons of challenges, nice visuals, strong multiplayer, and lots of nostalgic touches. Unintuitive menus, the lack of an instruction booklet, and an optional tutorial that frankly isn’t much help are only slight bumps in what’s otherwise a very accessible, not to mention deep, fighter. I’m certainly no expert on the genre but I had a blast with this game, as I have with almost every Mortal Kombat installment up until now, and I’ll most likely continue enjoying this one for a long time.

Presentation: Corny but but surprisingly compelling story, tons of content to be found in each mode, and a huge Krypt filled with unlockables and plenty of fanservice to go around. On the other hand, menus can be somewhat unintuitive and there’s no instruction booklet in the box, which really sucks.

Graphics: Art direction is “Mortal Kombat” in every sense of the word and I love it. Strong art direction, characters look great and animate well, and the game keeps up a rock solid framerate. Levels resemble classics from the first 3 games but mostly manage to feel fresh.

Gameplay: The most balanced Mortal Kombat game yet, the move back to 2D clearly serving the series well. New X-ray moves prove to add a lot of strategy and switch things up, and I can’t stress enough, there’s a ton of stuff to do in this game.

Sound: Voice acting’s very campy but you don’t play these games for the acting. Music’s good, though I still feel that Mortal Kombat 4 remains the best in this category.

Replay Value: Off the charts.

Overall: 9/10

(Note: This review was of the Xbox 360 version.)

Blog Post: GTA5 next year???

Well, VGchartz is reporting that Gamestop has listed GTA5 for release on January 15th, 2012. As always with retail leaks such as this one, particulars like the date should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, this is a pretty big indicator that, at the very least, we'll be seeing GTA5 revealed soon. My guess is at this year's E3.

My thoughts? I'm really hoping for a Far East GTA game. That's why I was so excited to play Activision's cancelled True Crime game, and I think a GTA-styled game set in Asia would really shake things up.

If not, I guess I'd settle for a return to the awesome Vice City setting. It'll be interesting to see what Rockstar's planning. Since they're choosing to go with another number (whereas last gen we had just GTA3 and then Vice City and San Andreas) I'm guessing that this will be another series reboot as opposed to  another game using the GTA4 engine. Which is probably for the best.

On a final note, I'm hoping for some big changes in the gameplay department, but after playing Red Dead Redemption, I'm not too worried. Rockstar knows how to make games.

Just one more reason to look forward to this year's E3!

Blog Post: Project Cafe

Well, rumors are swirling. I'm beginning to get that awesome feeling I get when a next gen console is on the horizon. Wii 2, or Project Cafe, (as it's now code-named)  is sounding insane and incredibly promising at the same time.

My only reservation is the power....is Nintendo going to once again design powerful, jaw-dropping hardware, or will this be playing catch-up? We'll find out, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Blog Post: New Nintendo system....my thoughts

Well, today was the day for pretty big announcements from Nintendo that aren't exactly..... announcements. But these rumors, which sound more like fact than rumors, are still big. IGN reports, as have several other media outlets, that at E3 this year, we'll be witnessing a successor to the Wii; that this new console will be backwards compatible with all the Wii's games, will be significantly more powerful, and will allow for HD resolution. IGN is also hearing that this will be an attempt by Nintendo to win back the "hardcore gamer," which, well, we've heard many times before.

On one hand, I'm both excited for and a little concerned by this news. I seem to be one of the only "hardcore gamers" on the planet who still favors the Wii as my current gen system of choice, and so I always hoped that rumors about an "HD Wii"  system that I'd have to buy to continue Wii gaming were false, which, thankfully, they were. I love the Wii, I love the Motion Plus, I loved a lot of the more niche games that the Wii received that most people don't even seem to know about, and thanks to Super Smash Bros Brawl, I've played this system for more hours than I've probably ever played any other video game system. The next Wii, though, will not be arriving until late 2012, if what we're hearing now remains the case. Which still gives us time with the current Wii system, and hopefully time to still get games like Xenoblade and The Last Story localized, both of which I'm dying to play.

With it promised for late 2012, I'm actually okay with the Wii 2 releasing earlier than the competition will be releasing their systems. By late 2012, I feel, the Wii will have finally run its course. My concern lies with the question of...well, how powerful are they going to make this thing? Some speculate that it will be in the same ballpark as the PS3 and 360, which, to me, just won't cut it. The Wii 2 should be a next gen system, not a system playing catch up with the current gen. The potential is there for Nintendo to be the only next generation system out for years...neither Sony nor Microsoft has said to expect a new system from them for quite a long time, though it'll be interesting to see how this announcement will affect their plans. The question is, will they simply catch up to the PS3 and 360 and leave it at that? If so, they shouldn't even bother, they will need to make their system a large step up visually from PS3/360, which are 5-6 years old at this point! It's already being said that the system will support HD...well, that should have been a given, in this day and age.

My hopes for the Wii 2, or whatever this system will ultimately be called, are that it will be significantly more powerful than the 360 and PS3, that it will deliver a revolutionary control interface while still allowing for traditional control, that it will have a significantly better online play model than the Wii had, that it will come with a HDD, and that we'll see a more visible effort from Nintendo to provide hardcore-targeted games to its consumers.

I'm excited to hear more, hopefully soon, and I'll definitely share my thoughts as I hear them. :]