Title: LittleBigPlanet
From: Media Molecule
For: PS3
LittleBigPlanet has had a huge campaign to accompany its exclusive release on the PS3. The developers a lot riding on it and so does the PS3 console itself. Luckily it is a work of genius and a benchmark in not just platform gaming, but gaming in general.
You are in control of Sackboy, a little cloth character in a 2D world. Sackboy can be customised with almost limitless choices which can be unlocked by playing. There are about 20 base levels to the Story Mode and several bonus levels to navigate. These levels are sometimes hit and miss but the best levels more than make up for the average ones.
What LBP is all about though is the user created content. By collecting items you can create your own levels with the only limit being your imagination. Then share your creations with the LBP online community and download content created by other users. This is what makes the game unique and gives it tremendous longevity.
Apart from Sackboy’s flighty jumping ability which can be frustrating, LBP is virtually faultless and is the title that could shape the way we play in years to come.
Title: Left 4 Dead
From: Valve
For: Xbox 360 (Rated R18)
There’s few games in 2008 that I have enjoyed playing more than Valve’s zombie survival horror Left 4 Dead. While technically it’s nowhere near perfect, that doesn’t detract from it being brilliant fun.
You are cast as one of four survivors (you get to pick which one) in and around a city in which the rest of its inhabitants have been turned into zombies. Not slow ambling zombies, but vicious, fast-running, bloodthirsty zombies a-la 28 Days/Weeks Later.
Working as a team you have to fight your way through the hoards from safehouse to safehouse until you reach your transport out of there. In one act you can easily plow your way through 2000 zombies in their various forms.
Single player is great, but multiplayer co-op is even better as you really need to watch each other’s back . Online you can play as either a survivor or the infected and go at each other. Online play does suffer from some problems but is still worth a look.
Left 4 Dead has won numerous awards in 2008 and rightly so. It’s frantic FPS action at its best.
Title: Resistance 2
From: Insomniac Games
For: PS3, Rated R16
While Resistance 2 might not break new ground in the first-person shooter genre, it does present a game that is as close to perfection as you are likely to get on this generation of consoles. No only is it a huge single player campaign with great weapons, new enemies that range from the small and numerous to the large and completely brutal but even more impressive is the unprecedented ability for up to 8 players to complete a co-op campaign. If that wasn’t enough, up to 60 players can compete in a single match online.
Graphically the game does look better than the original resistance, but the gameplay mechanics remain the same and have some of the same clunky movements but with the on-screen action almost never letting up these do not present any problems.
Resistance 2 is thrilling and by far the best FPS on the PS3 if not any console.
I have been dishing out some high scores lately, but this is the time of year when all the big guns are released. 2008 has been an enormous year for gaming with some of the most epic titles ever to grace our screens.
Title: Dead Space
From: Electronic Arts
For: Xbox 360, Rated R18
For a game that on the surface at least seems quite generic, and is adding to an already bloated genre, Dead Space is brilliantly original and has that certain X-factor that places it amongst the best of the year.
With the human race having expanded into space and the inevitable mining of other worlds, you are sent to investigate a mining colony which has unearthed a strange artifact on a distant planet. The story and action echoes movies such as Aliens, except you are thrown into the middle of this third-person survival horror and there’s no help on its way.
This is perhaps the most genuinely scary game I have played in years, with horrific monsters, incredible amounts of gore and plenty of moments that make you leap out of your seat. You are equipped with some of the most innovative weapons which can be upgraded to inflict maximum damage to your hideous foe.
While the story is kind of generic, it’s still intriguing and the full-on action makes this a must play if your old enough – and even then, don’t play it alone.
Barack Obama: His Story
Distributed by: Madman Entertainment
The race to decide the democratic nominee for the 2008 US Presidential Election was by anyone’s standards a stirring moment in history. Although almost unimaginable only a few short years ago, it seemed likely that for the first time ever the nominee would be a woman – and a woman with impeccable political credentials. But that dream ride to the White House was not to be, because her opposing candidate for the Democratic nomination was another one for the history books, the young national Senator for the state of Illinois, Barack Obama.
It soon became apparent to observers across the globe that, while in any other year Hilary Clinton would have had the nomination sewn up, she had the misfortune to face a politician who is truly one out of the box!
So how did a man named Barack Hussein Obama, born to an American mother and Kenyan father get to this exalted position?
Phrases like ‘meteoric rise’ trip off the tongue when you begin to consider this 47 year old, who only became a national senator in 2005. In three short years he has made an indelible impression on the world political landscape.
Barack Obama: His Story is a 60 minute documentary that gives a sweeping insight into the upbringing and background of the man who would eventually become US President. It centres around the democratic nominee race up until the point where Clinton conceded and pledged her support for Obama. If you followed the election to any degree then you might have seen much of the footage used or heard the facts before, but it’s nice to have them presented in a relatively short and succinct one hour package.
The presentation and commentary is matter of fact and to the point with no hearsay, controversy or patriotism. Obama is obviously a great orator and the DVD highlights some of his best speeches, in particular his acceptance speech upon winning the nomination race. Whether he’s the genuine article, or just infinitely more convincing than his predecessor remains to be seen, but it’s easy to walk away from His Story feeling overwhelmingly positive about the future.
The DVD includes a brief 30 minutes of special features broken down into 8 short, factual mini-docos.
They are:
1. Hilary and Bill Clinton – an overview that not so much covers his Presidency, rather than Hilary’s role in it.
2. 2. Black Civil Rights in the USA – a very brief history covering from the days of slavery through to the sixties and seventies.
3. Hazards of becoming President – documents all the assassinations and attempted assassinations of US Presidents. Quite interesting.
4. Kennedy vs Nixon – a rundown of the 1960 election campaign.
5. Black Power – an interesting doco that highlights previous African Americans who have attained positions of power in the Senate and US Government.
6. Know Your Candidates – A newsreel piece on the 1964 election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater.
7. Famous Campaigns – documents famous campaigns such as Hoover/Roosavelt, Stevenson/Eisenhower, Carter/Reagan
8. First Ladies – this would make a decent full length documentary in itself if it went through all the First Ladies. But this short piece only focuses on Eleanor Roosavelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter and Nancy Reagan.
What I found most interesting is the fact that neither George Bush or George W Bush barely got a mention in the whole DVD apart from when George W Bush had a hand grenade thrown at him. It gives the impression that they’re a piece of American Presidential history that the Producers and perhaps all Americans would rather forget.
As a reviewer, you have to find both the good points and the bad points about any game. With the top-notch titles it can be difficult to find the negative points without being really anal about the odd loading time or the texture you saw pop up in the third dungeon on Level 3. Wii Music is the opposite. I’ve been putting off writing this review due to the fact I just couldn’t think of anything positive to say about it – not even in sarcasm.
But then I realised that I had to change the way I looked at it. I had to ignore the TV advertisements which had trendy, good looking people in their early 20’s laughing and enjoying Wii Music – they’re lies and border on false advertising. No, I had to look at it from the point of view of an 8 year old, because it’s quite clear that Wii Music is a kid’s toy – one of those noisy kid’s toys that a spiteful Aunty will buy your kids just to piss you off.
Wii Music flaunts over 60 different instruments to play, and when I say “play” I mean pretend to play as you are only armed with the Wii remote and the nunchuck controller. This means you must go through the physical motions of pretending to play each instrument. Hold the nunchuck like a fretboard and strum the Wii remote if you’re playing a guitar, hold the remote up to your mouth (or close to it) and nod up and down like a Glen Miller band member if you’re playing any instrument that you would otherwise blow into. In the same vein, use the nunchuck and remote as drumsticks as you play the “air drums”, pressing various buttons for snare, cymbal etc.
Notes float along the bottom of the screen and it’s your job to play them in time. It’s easy to forget which, if any, buttons you’re meant to be pressing when you’re doing all the movements too, but fear not, because it’ll give you a great score anyway. In fact you can flail your arms around like Kermit the Frog on Ritalin and it’ll tell you that you did a good job. You see where I’m going with this? There’s not a lot of skill involved.
While it is possible to play Wii Music by yourself… please don’t. You’ll have the men in white coats knocking on the door in minutes. This is a game that must be played with friends as it’s the combined human effort of the “band” that provides even the slightest enjoyment. Take Rockband and Guitar Hero World Tour for example, playing them with buddies is where all the fun lies. Wii Music is no exception.
That brings me to the music selection itself, and onto reviewer rant number… ah crap, I’ve lost count. The music is MIDI quality. That’s right, this is 2008, a time dominated by cinematic masterpieces like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears of War 2 but all of a sudden we are propelled back to a time when the Commodore 64 was king and I wore silver pants. Initially you are provided with one song – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, all the rest must be unlocked and range from equally nauseating jingles to classical numbers, video game themes and some pop tunes. All sounding no better than a polyphonic ringtone.
What is cool about playing these songs though, is that you can choose which style to play them in. Want to play Twinkle Twinkle as a hip-hop track? You can. Want to play Ode to Joy with a xylophone, tuba and bass guitar? You can do that too.
Once the song is over you can save your video, design an album cover by dragging your Mii onto it and send the whole thing to someone via WiiConnect24. That person can pick up the song you sent, change it however they want, send it back again and so on.
If you tire of the main game itself (took me all of 2 songs), then there are a few minigames thrown in for good measure. Mii Maestro has you conducting an orchestra by waving the remote like a baton. It’s strange though because I did quite well and scored really badly and scored well when I flailed my arms around at random. Another minigame is Hand Bell Harmony in which you shake bells in time with the beat (yawn). But the best by far, if only for a short time, is Pitch Perfect where you must try to identify whether a pitch is above or below the ideal.
If Wii Music had been released two years ago (admittedly before the Wii console itself) then it would have had some serious novelty value. But with the likes of SingStar, Rock Band and the Guitar Hero series, Wii Music can only serve as a game for the youngest and perhaps the oldest gamers out there. So with that in mind, Wii music does serve a purpose, but I’m clutching at straws here.
Ups: Will keep the kids and Grandma occupied on Boxing Day morning. Sharing creations online is clever.
Downs: Too little too late. You’ll need 4 remotes and 4 nunchucks to get the full benefit.
Title: Far Cry 2
From: Ubisoft
For: PS3 (Rated R18)
The original Far Cry was a game that you either loved or hated. It left a sour taste in the mouth of many fans and this is perhaps why Ubisoft have gone in a different direction altogether with the long awaited sequel.
In this first-person shooter, you assume the guise of a hired gunman in the relatively unexplored setting (gaming-wise at least) of Africa. Your main objective is to hunt down The Jackal who is responsible for illegal arms trading which fuels the fires of civil war. While you do have main objectives, you are free to explore the hundreds of kilometers of dusty roads, satellite shantytowns and bushlands accepting side missions from anyone prepared to pay you diamonds for your services.
This may sound like it provides for some varied gameplay, but unfortunately it does get repetitive soon enough. That said, Far Cry 2 is an excellent game which brings a refreshing new setting and ideas to an often stale genre. It plays superbly and looks even better, add to that an immersive storyline and you have one of the must-play games of 2008.
While it may not get Game of the Year, Mirror’s Edge certainly takes the cake for most original. Just when you thought gaming had explored every possible scenario, EA DICE have made a first-person adventure/shooter where you don’t actually have to fire a shot – if you don’t want to.
Mirror’s Edge is staged in a city where information is heavily monitored. The safest way to pass confidential info is by human free-running couriers. You are cast as Faith, one of these parkour couriers uncovering a tale of murder and betrayal.
The rooftops are your playground as you run, jump, shimmy, climb and make split second decisions on the best route to get from A to B. Once the controls are mastered, which doesn’t take long, the parkour dynamics flow freely from one move to another. You can acquire weapons to shoot enemies, or you can slow down time to disarm them relatively peacefully before running away.
It’s an exciting game which is virtually non-stop, which is a shame because I was itching for some down-time to explore the city more.
Well done EA, I hope Mirror’s Edge spawns at least a sequel or two.
It’s common knowledge amongst football fans (and yes, I intend of using the correct term – football, for the duration of this review) that the battle between EA’s FIFA franchise and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer has PES in front all the way. It’s known as the footballer’s football game, the one you play if you want to experience the finer intricacies of ‘the beautiful game’.
While FIFA might have the full player, team and stadium licenses, PES has been chipping away and have managed to procure the Liverpool and Man United licenses with this release. Small consolation if you’re an Everton fan – but then again, why would you be an Everton fan in the first place? PES also has the exclusive rights to the UEFA Champions League and also includes Ligue 1 Orange, Eredivese, Serie A and most of La Liga.
The unlicensed clubs have all the real player names, but alternative club names, badges and kits. These can all be edited by the user however, if you have some time on your hands.
FIFA 09 has taken a huge step forward in the realism stakes while still remaining accessible to newcomers, that is not the case with PES 2009. If anything it has rested on its laurels yet remains the football sim for the purist.
Visually, the game is everything you would expect from a current generation sports game. Player movement is fluid, the likeness to their real-life counterparts is incredible and the stadiums and crowd animations are first rate as always. The menu presentation and introduction leaves a lot to be desired though. I’m sure some of you will like the style, but I found it to be out of place. Rather than show off some flashy FMV and how you can see the sweat dripping off the nose hair of Ronaldo, we are presented with some black and white gameplay with splashes of colour, changing to an arty, sketchy look every so often. Kudos for doing something a little different, but it didn’t impress me much.
Entering into the game itself, the first thing you’ll notice from the last instalment is the slower gameplay, more in line with an actual game of football. Gone is the arcade-like speeds of old, this is a more deliberate style of gameplay. No longer can you sprint away from your marker while controlling the ball – markers will either catch up or match you, as we all know running with the ball is never as fast as running without the ball. This forces you to think about your plays more and look earlier for layoff passes rather than go alone or hit and hope.
Players will demonstrate skills relevant to their onfield positions too. Midfielders will bring a ball to feet, turn and pass to an open man with ease, where a bigger defender might perform it with less finesse. Speedy forwards will execute twists and turns, confusing hapless defenders while trying the same with another player might result in losing possession. This brings a sense of individualism to the game and make you feel like your playing with 10 other players, each with their own traits rather than 10 clones of each other.
Passing can be made by the traditional button presses, or if you’re feeling the game and want more of a challenge then you can also use the right thumbstick. A firm flick of the stick will result in a rocket pass in the chosen direction, while a more gentle touch will produce the opposite result. It’s a nice option and gives a sense of freedom, but I found myself reverting to the buttons more often than not.
Perhaps one of the biggest improvements in PES 2009 is the true-to-life ball physics. As any footballer will testify, despite the ball being round, it can be an unpredictable beast at the best of times. They take huge bounces and run away from you on hard ground, skid as if on ice when there’s a light covering of rain and hold up completely if the pitch is waterlogged. The ball will react properly if it takes a deflection by spinning unpredictably or ballooning over the keeper with topspin. New to the series too is the ability to chip a through-pass for your forwards to run on to. The new ball physics apply accurate backspin to the ball allowing it to lob over the defense and hold up upon landing for your striker to hammer into the goal. Mastering this play will result in many attempts on goal.
Notice I said “attempts” on goal rather than “goals”? That’s because it’s ridiculously difficult to put the ball in the net in PES 2009. The shooting system is too complicated and takes a lot of the fun out of the game. Shots from distance will usually fly like a Dan Carter conversion and shooting from any slightly acute angle provides equal frustration. FIFA 09 walks all over PES 2009 in user-friendly shooting dynamics. This alone makes up my mind when I walk to my games and choose to play FIFA over PES. Sure, spending time on the practice field will improve your shooting, but to be perfectly honest I’d rather it was just made easier to make the game more fun. FIFA has nailed this with the pre-game 1 on 1 arena where you can muck around while the game loads and shooting at goal is a more forgiving exercise.
If I set up a game between Brazil and Wales with opposition AI at it’s lowest level I would expect to finish the game at least 6 goals in front despite my level of experience. But although I would carve up in the outfield, scoring goals is another kettle of fish. All too often a game like this would result in a 0-0 scoreline.
The play modes are all much the same as in previous outings competent thorough but lacking any fresh inspiration. Even the Be A Legend mode is identical to EA’s Be A Pro. In Be A Legend, levelling up your player though can only be done by playing training games – and lots of them. It’s quite time consuming and I would have preferred to see progression made through perfecting certain skills or achievements on the training field rather than just playing game after game.
The commentary is once again supplied by Champion and Laurenson and their witty one-liners are in abundance. But most of the time they’ll leave you scratching your head with their random remarks and this is yet another area where FIFA has come out on top.
Putting aside the disappointments of PES 2009, on the pitch, the game is still the most realistic football sim on the market. I don’t believe the PES franchise is getting any worse, rather that EA’s FIFA franchise is barking at its heels and surpassing it in some areas. The time has come for Konami to take the series to the next level and that could mean “dumbing” some things down a little (eg. the shooting) to make it less anal and more accessible to the casual gamer.
I really look forward to what PES 2010 has to offer.
Pros: Superb in-game visuals. Realistic ball physics. Still the footballer’s football game.
Cons: Boring career mode. Horrible commentary. Scoring goals is too hard.
Title: LittleBigPlanet
