As we count down to 2010, I decided to look back and recount on some standouts from this past year.  Rather than do the usual Best RPG or Best Action Game, I’ve made some awards that are a little more unorthodox.  In lieu of explaining them they’re pretty self-explanatory; I also didn’t bother limiting myself to just games that I had reviewed.  So if you’re curious about RMG choices or just killing a few minutes while we wait for the stroke of midnight, enjoy the RMG 2009 Game Awards!

The Time Bandit Award goes to…

Dragon Age: Origins – BioWare games have developed a habit for their impressive replay value, but even by that standard Dragon Age: Origins will suck up hours of your time.  It took me 35 hours to finish this thing between the main storyline, numerous side quests, and the DLC content.  I didn’t even complete all of the side quests, which I suspect would boost the game to at least 40 hours.  Even the main story quests alone are substantial with quests that take you across all of Ferelden through sizeable dungeons, from mountaintops to dwarven caverns.

The Surprisingly Good Game Award goes to…

Dead Space Extraction - This is probably at the top of everybody’s “Best Game Nobody Played” list, but there are plenty of good reasons for it.  Visceral Games has made one of the few rail shooters for consoles, rather than an arcade rail shooter that happens to be on a console.  The story seamlessly weaves in with Dead Space canon, the graphical downgrade from the 360 is surprisingly minor, and the game makes intuitive use of the Wii motion controls.  It’s just a shame that the sales don’t reflect the effort from the development team.

The Best Adrenaline Inducing Game  Award goes to…

Forza Motorsport 3 – Barely edging out Need for Speed: Shift, the speed factor of Forza 3 bordered on frightening at times.  From the point of view of a driver’s seat, watching your speedometer climb while your engines roared as you flew at lightning speed down a roadway was legitimate cause for an amazing adrenaline rush.  It was equally as adrenaline-inducing to clip the grass and spiral wildly out of control.  Even from a third person perspective, Forza 3 is a literal and figurative rush to play.

Best New Concept Award goes to…

DJ Hero - In a world where guitar games have thoroughly saturated the gaming market, DJ Hero demonstrated that there was plenty of untapped potential in music rhythm games.  Some were apprehensive about the thought of adjusting to a new and very different type of peripheral, but Activision eased you into the game gently.  Once you had the hang of the turntable you’ll be able to enjoy an immersive experience augmented by a great soundtrack and a lot of content.

The Best Game to be a Good Natured Asshole Award goes to…

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - In the Wii iteration of New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo saw fit to give players some peculiar opportunities.  You can now bounce off of other players and knock them out by throwing shells.  This leads to a litany of opportunities to aggravate your friends: Behold as you bounce a buddy of yours straight into a bottomless pit.  Watch as he retaliates by knocking you out with a shell to prevent you from getting that power-up, as you in turn get even by gobbling every power-up that subsequently appears.  As long as you’re playing with other good sports, you’ll have fun turning New Super Mario Bros. Wii into a rousing game of “Who can survive the longest?”

The Best Sandbox Award goes to…

Prototype – If Grand Theft Auto IV gave you superpowers, Prototype would be the result.  In Prototype you have free rein over Manhattan; glide at high speeds through the air, run up tall buildings and form massive craters when you crash into the ground without taking any damage, and leap across skyscrapers effortlessly.  Cops and the military will chase after you for revealing yourself or causing too much trouble, lending to even more chaotic potential by unleashing your various blades, claws, and blunt weapons or hijacking enemy weapons.

The Surprising Disappointment goes to…

Brutal Legend – Brutal Legend itself isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s reasonable to say that action fans betrayed.  The demo was insultingly misleading by suggesting a third person action game akin to God of War.  Instead we got what was chiefly a console real time strategy game.  That in itself wasn’t bad, but the controls were stodgy and your only strategy amounted to zerg rushing whatever you didn’t like and watching your headbangers pummel it into dust.

The Inevitably Bad Game goes to…

Avatar: The Game – Even dedicated promises by James Cameron that this game would be just as epic as its film counterpart fell flat on its face.  It’s linear, dull, and suffers from the same problems that every movie-tie in has.  Your movie-making prowess is as stellar as ever, Mr. Cameron, but that doesn’t extend to games.

The “Good Lord, Just Release it Already!” Award goes to…

Final Fantasy XIII – This has been at what, three E3 summits?  Come on Square-Enix, you owe this to us after Final Fantasy XII!  We know as much as we can about Final Fantasy XIII without even having played it.  Mass Effect 2 and God of War III were considered for this award, but to the developers’ credit they kept a low profile and waited a while before starting to release information about.  We know FFXIII perplexingly well considering it hasn’t even been released.

The “Give us an Update!” Award goes to…

Half Life 2: Episode Three – We’ve barely heard a peep out of Valve considering the conclusion of the Episode trilogy of Half-Life 2.  Despite some concept art Valve has been mum on what happens next in this series, leaving Half-Life fans hanging.  Just to clarify, this isn’t a complaint that the game is taking too long by any means – it just feels like an eternity since we’ve stepped into Gordon Freeman’s shoes.

The RMG Top Five Video Games of 2009

There’s no way I could give these games ratings from 1-5.  They’re all superb in their own ways with excellent strengths, and in a few situations comparing them would be petty because of genre differences.  So without further ado, in no particular order, my top five games of the year are:

Assassin’s Creed II

Dragon Age: Origins

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Batman: Arkham Asylum

These five games all dazzled me in different ways, and even then it was difficult selecting a top five; I simply couldn’t put myself through deciding which was the best.  Happy 2010, everybody!

5^th Cell seems to be taking a literal interpretation of the idea that video games are art.  Drawn to Life and its sequel (which came out after Scribblenauts), were imaginative titles wherein you had to design chunks of the world yourself.  Scribblenauts puts a similar power of creation in the hands of the user except that you’re working with words rather than a paintbrush.  Let’s see what a game does when your power stems from language.

Disclaimer: This game was generously provided by Warner Bros. Interactive Studios

Developer: 5^th Cell
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Studios
Genre: Puzzle
Console(s): DS

The verdict: Scribblenauts is creative and a great puzzle fix, but it falls short of the massive expectations it sets for itself.  As long as you can forgive the movement physics, you’ll have a lot of fun.

Omnipotence takes many forms in video games.  In many situations you’re the puppeteer of an adventurer, while other times you can create and destroy houses and cities and then destroy them with fire and meteors on a whim.  Scribblenauts gives you omnipotence by giving you the ability to create virtually any person, creature, or object you desire in your quest to solve puzzles.  5th Cell stepped up to the plate in developing this ambitious idea, and while there are some pitfalls in terms of content and movement physics Scribblenauts is an engaging, innovative title.

Spawn “review”

In Scribblenauts you are Maxwell, the curious fellow on the box cover, and you must partake in different puzzles where you need to recover “Starites” to solve them.  There are 12 different themed worlds with 22 levels each, with a huge variety of objectives to clear in order to get the Starite you need.  On one level you might need to simply reach a Starite at the top of a tree, but in another you’ll have to solve a rodent infestation without hurting them for fear of offending a hippie (seriously).  In each world levels are split into puzzle and action segments; the puzzle segments will involve…well, puzzle solving, while action components will deal with clearing out hostile targets.  Both components are definitely solid, but the puzzle segments feel stronger and more in tune with the game mechanics.

The stylus is mightier than the sword

The trick is you can use virtually any tangible person, object, or animal to solve puzzles by writing what you want to appear, whereupon it will pop into existence.  So if you type in “baseball bat”, a baseball bat will appear and be ready for your use.  5^th Cell has really gone all out –you can spawn just about anything you can think of.  Want to ride on a pterodactyl while wielding an SMG as you shoot at raptors on the ground?  You got it.  Maybe you want to see what would really happen in a pirate versus ninja fight if both were armed with flamethrowers?  Go for it.  Even God appears as a Father Time-like figure, or you can have fun with fantastic creatures like the Loch Ness monster and Cthulu.  The sheer amount of available content is staggering, and odds are if you think you can spawn it, you can as long as it’s not profane or copyrighted.

This system lends itself to a diverse method of ways to solve puzzles.  While you can generally use the same few objects to solve most of the puzzles in the game, it’s entertaining to tinker with the system and think outside the box.  There are badges that can be earned by fulfilling optional achievements within stages, such as not using any weapons.  Alternatively if you’re faced with a hostile, your options for clearing it out include a flamethrower, bazooka, SMG, Cthulu, and everything in between.  People and animals that you spawn also act fairly realistically to one another; a baby deer and a deer will migrate towards each other, but spawning a wolf will cause it to attack both of them.  My favorite instance of this was acting out Biblical prophecy by spawning both God and the Devil to watch them briefly duke it out.  Situations like this never get old, and they wind up being as entertaining as the puzzles themselves.

Scribblenauts’ greatest strength is that it rarely forces you to do anything.  It would be easy to just use a helicopter and a length of rope to solve most of the puzzles, but you can also be much more inventive than that.  The ability to easily solve puzzles by option isn’t a weakness as much as a convenience; aside from some occasional rules you can pretty much help yourself to whatever you want to solve the challenge.  You may find yourself humorously fiddling with the in-game dictionary spawner to come up with the most elaborate solution using dinosaurs, ninjas, a pulley system, and a UFO – this sort of freedom is where Scribblenauts shines.

Spawn “better movement physics”

As clever as Scribblenauts is, the item spawning mechanic stumbles over its own ambition.  The first problem is that a lot of items feel like copies.  For instance, a bazooka, SMG, and pistol all produce the same projectile. “Bridge” and “Beam Bridge” also produce identical bridges of the exact same size, as do “Tree” and “Tarap Tree”, and I ran into this several times when I tried to spawn variations of what I was trying to make.  There’s also an issue with item sizes and proper phrasing: I wanted to spawn a taller ladder than the one I had, but “big ladder” or “tall ladder” weren’t recognized.  Eventually the game pointed me to the phrase “turntable ladder” which gave me the ladder I was looking for.

The biggest problem which nearly breaks the game in terms of fun is the movement physics and the imprecision of the touch screen controls.  The game is 2D, and you move Maxwell around by pointing the stylus at wherever you want him to go.  Additionally, you tap whatever you want Maxwell to interact with, so for instance he would climb a ladder.  This sounds simple on paper but there are serious recurring problems throughout the game.  Tapping on an object you want to interact with doesn’t always register the first time, which can potentially cause a game over.  Once I wanted Maxwell to climb a ladder that was next to a lava pit, but he ran right past it and fell into the lava.  Maxwell also automatically jumps since there’s no jump button, which lends itself to further difficulty since he has a habit of jumping when you don’t want him to and vice versa.  It’s irritating enough to cause several setbacks and possibly a few game overs, but it never prevented me from quickly fixing any mistakes.

No need to try and spawn “replay”

There’s a lot of content to be had with as many puzzles as there are across 12 worlds.  On top of that there’s also a level editor that lets you spawn your own items, place them where you want, and even set the temperaments of living beings.  All in the puzzles will take a good several hours to solve, but again, your entertainment of the game can go far beyond that.  Even if the game doesn’t necessarily force you to come up with outrageous solutions, the curiosity and innovative spark behind it are sure to push you to think outside the box.

Closing thoughts

Scribblenauts had a lot of ambition behind it which pays off with the staggering amount of content and variation of puzzles to be had, but it’s not without issues.  The movement physics are punishing at times, and despite the extensive dictionary it feels like the team was cutting corners with copies at certain points.  Ultimately, what any puzzle game boils down to is how much fun you’ll have and how well it flexes your brain muscles.  As long as you can forgive the sketchy physics, puzzle enthusiasts will have a lot of fun and the game gives you a lot of room to think creatively with the power of a vocabulary.

Hey everyone, I hope you’re having fun celebrating, spending time with family, cherishing gifts, or doing whatever it is you happen to be doing.  I just want to wish all the RMG and Gamer Limit readers a Merry Christmas – good tidings to you all!

I’ve always loved building and management games from the moment I tried out the SNES version of SimCity.  I’m not sure if they love me back when my entire population starts complaining about too much or too little police presence, but I always keep coming back to them.  There’s something inherently artistic about turning a small cluster of houses into a sprawling urban empire. The Tropico 3 series has always appealed to me because it literally takes a vacation from building standard New York City or Chicago city skylines in favor of a banana republic scenario.  Let’s see what the third vacation is like.

Disclaimer: This game was provided by Kalypso Media.

Developer: Haemimont Games
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Genre: Building simulator
Console(s): PC, Xbox 360

The verdict: This fun and engaging building simulator goes far beyond the usual “build to make money” formula.  Its environment is creative, its political commentary is surprisingly astute, and the replay value will keep you coming back for more.

The Tropico games have a fairly creative history behind them.  The first Tropico was one of the most significant games to delve into building and management in a banana republic, featuring a lot of social commentary but also a lot of humor.  Tropico 2 actually explored a pirate island setting; it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t quite capture the charm of the original.  Tropico 3 demonstrates what can be done when you go back to the basics, and it feels like a true successor to the first Tropico game.    It’s also an excellent title all around; the game’s setting, commentary, and humor have been built on and expanded into a wonderful grab for any building game fan.

An island to call your very own

As Tropico 3 begins, you’ve just seized control of a Caribbean island and you now rule as El Presidente.  What immediately stands out about Tropico 3 is the genuine sense of connection that exists between you and your land and people.  There are customization options not present in most building games where you can design your own leader or pick an existing dictator.  Your Presidente has positive and negative traits that will affect him throughout the course of the game regarding political and economic matters.  You aren’t just a nameless mayor or amusement park owner; who you are and what your Presidente’s traits are will determine a lot of things in this game.

Consolidating your power

The dictator feel is also hit very nicely in the game proper.  You start off in office as immigrants are dropped off, exports are picked up, and you have a relatively small seat of power.  As always, you’ll need to balance people and jobs and ensure maximum efficiency in your city by creating houses and apartments, farms and factories, roads, and so forth.   However, there’s a dynamic political element that isn’t present in most other building games.  There are a number of factions you’ll have to consider: Religious zealots, nationalists, and communists are among various groups on your island that you’ll have to carefully balance and maintain so that one group doesn’t rise up against you.  Then there are international issues: You’ll have to consider being caught between the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, importation and exportation issues, and immigration to name but a few.

The political aspect of Tropico 3 helps the game transcend the usual “make buildings, earn money, make more buildings” formula found in a lot of building games.  The game feels much more interactive and you have much more control over society than you do as a SimCity mayor.  You’ll have a lot of political, economic, and social issues to juggle, and they will frequently tie back to what kind of personality your dictator has or what sort of policies you decide to enact.  At the same time, you have as much direct control over your island as you would expect being a dictator:  You can control the press, raise or lower wages and rent, give speeches to rally your people and raise morale.  You’ll have to consider what industries can be utilized to maximize profit and you can issue edicts that have various ramifications, like a same-sex marriage edict.

The complexity of dictatorship

In a way, this political element also becomes a problem if you haven’t played the first Tropico.  The tutorial is brief and very unhelpful towards helping players understand the subtleties of the game, instead focusing on basic things like in-game controls.  You might be bewildered when the nationalists rise up in revolt without realizing what you did wrong, or not realize a particular trait of yours is negatively influencing another group.  You’ll literally have on the job training as El Presidente, and it can get frustrating at times.  Despite this, like many building games there’s a sense of satisfaction when you appease people while simultaneously making tourism into a lucrative industry that generates a tidy profit for your island.  All you need to do is not be too distressed when your first attempt at dictatorship doesn’t go smoothly.

Tropico 3 also has a litany of gameplay types to offer.  The single player mode features fifteen missions with creative goals ranging from simply hitting a population goal to trying to manage your island while putting down constant riots.  These are a lot of fun and offer you a lot of diversity for a single player building game.  There are sandbox islands you can have fun in, and you can customize the difficulty level of these by adjusting economic and political settings and events.  There’s also a fairly in-depth editor and you can even play challenge maps via the Internet.  In a nutshell there’s a lot to do in Tropico 3, and the ever-persistent political element of gameplay only enhances the replay value.

The game runs fine but building as your island thrives can turn into a hassle.  The camera gets a little wonky and you’ll need to spend time wrestling it into position so that you don’t mess up your infrastructure because of the overlap problem.  Technically the game runs fine otherwise: The frame rate is smooth and on roughly the recommended system requirements there was no slowdown.  Graphics beautifully capture the banana republic atmosphere; sunny environments and vibrant colors are all put to work nicely here.

Conclusion

Ultimately the complaints are just blemishes in a very solid, entertaining experience.  There’s a lot to do in Tropico 3 whether it’s fiddling around in a sandbox or trying to reach a population goal in one of the main missions.  Tropico 3 updates, refines, and hones the formula set forth by its predecessors to be a very rewarding experience.  Rallying your people with speeches and pacifying political factions has never been this much fun.

Back in 2008, I reviewed Fable II and enjoyed it immensely.  I also happened to run into a quandary game critics can experience: Running into a big glitch after publishing the review.  I don’t mean clipping through a tree or even a big game breaking glitch, oh no.  I mean one of the most bizarrely hilarious glitches I’ve ever encountered in my 18-odd years of video game experience, and this is coming from someone who logged dozens of hours into Goldeneye.  Frankly, this was so funny I wasn’t even sure I would have marked the game down for it.

One uneventful evening, I decided to log in and see how much money I had accumulated due to my empire of real estate in Albion.  I clicked on “New Game” by accident, but something happened.  Rather than hearing Theresa’s matronly voice informing me that “…And so our story begins”, I heard a different voice.  I heard a deep, throaty, evil voice announce loudly “…AND SO OUR STORY BEGINS.” It sounded curiously like the voice of Jack of Blades from the first Fable game, or possibly Reaver’s voice if it were lowered by several octaves.

By this point, I was perplexed, but thought nothing of it.  I loaded my game, thinking it was a mere anomaly.  I thought wrong; I loaded just outside of Bowerstone right next to a traveling trader, who greeted me in the same deep, evil voice.  It took me a full several seconds to get over my shock as I meandered towards Bowerstone.  A city guard advised me to “STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!”, which seemed more threatening than courteous with that demonic voice.   What was going on?  Had a malevolent demon overlord become the voice of Albion?  I had to find help!

I entered Bowerstone, and I was greeted with bits of chatter: The same Demon Door-esque voice seemed to have taken all of Albion.  My initial thought was to reboot the game, but a moment later, I realized how dull that would be.  So I decided to go about life in Albion ruled by one collective evil voice.  A devil-voiced blacksmith complimented my hammer and anvil skills.  A sinister sounding trader thanked me profusely for my purchases.  I received a round of applause for my ability to flex my muscles.  Finally, there’s something undeniably funny about a woman proclaiming “I would like to be your wife!” in a gravelly demon door voice.

Eventually, I just rebooted the game from the Xbox 360 dashboard, problem solved.  This still sticks out in my mind because it goes far beyond your usual annoying glitch.   This was a bug that not only did not interfere with the game (too badly, anyway), but made it absolutely hilarious to play, even if it was just for five minutes.  I won’t even try to comprehend how a glitch like that happens, but I enjoyed the ride; I just wish I had been able to record the spectacle.  It’s difficult to do it justice in words.

One of the first games I tried out since buying my PS3 Slim was Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction.  I’ve loved the series since I played the first game, and one of the first things I noticed was my beloved turrets were back – and still as delightfully overpowered as ever.  This got me thinking about that special weapon – the one that negates any challenge, strategy, or intimidation by enemies.  So, since Gamer Limit readers seem to enjoy lists, I thought I’d compile a list of weapons that have stuck out for me as so abominably cheap that you’d have to blindfold yourself to give the game any challenge.  If I forgot anything (most likely due to me not playing the game in question) feel free to comment!

11.  The Organic Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2

Okay, so this one can’t really be classified as a weapon since you can only use it in specific instances.  Really though, it’s so much fun to use how can you not put it on a list like this, even as a joke?

10.  The Hand Cannon from Resident Evil 4

In all seriousness, don’t let the low position on this list fool you – it’s not higher solely because it’s very difficult to obtain.  Having said that, not only is it free, it’s obscenely strong.  The aim is somewhat limited, but arm yourself with this and you’re geared for pretty much anything the game can throw at you.

9.  The Knights of the Round summon Final Fantasy VII

Summons were a fairly integral part of combat in Final Fantasy VII (and the series in general), but even by that standard the best way to describe Knights of the Round is a “kill everything button”.  Using it triggers a series of attacks that amount to around 80,000 damage, enough to kill all but two optional bosses in a single hit.  The developers even made it so you can’t use Knights of the Round against Ruby Weapon without it automatically killing you using Ultima.  When developers feel the need to restrict their own weapon, that’s definitely a sign of an overpowered skill.  The only reason it’s relatively low on this list is that it requires a fair amount of effort to get.  Once you do, you’re set for the rest of the game.

8.  The pistol in Halo

It’s ironic that the pistol is such an effective weapon in Halo.  Usually, it only exists as a fallback weapon when your big guns are out of ammo.  Here, it’s the bane of Covenant, opponents in multiplayer, and even the Flood in most cases.  The pistol has big ammo, does heavy damage per hit, and is actually a fairly effective sniping weapon due to a small zoom ability.  It’s easy to kill other players and Covenant Elites in a few hits by using headshots, and most Flood combat forms will go down fairly quickly.  It’s not much use against swarms of Flood infection forms, but even then just fire a few shots into the cloud of little parasites, finish off about half of them, and let your armor absorb the rest.

7.  The AWP Sniper Rifle in Counter-Strike

While requiring marginally more skill than the Halo pistol to use being a sniper rifle (for people who are terrible with bona fide sniper rifles like me, anyway), the AWP practically defined overpowered weaponry; in many ways, it still does.  It’s a long range sniper rifle that pretty much everybody uses to this day, even after it’s been nerfed at least twice by Valve in Counter-Strike and Source.  Common side effects of this weapon are revenge hacks, excessive profanity, and people screaming into voice chat that the weapon in question is rigged.  Even today when you play Source most games will ring with the hated, feared, and loved shot noise associated with the AWP.

6.   The Ripper in Dead Space

In a game based around dismembering limbs, you’d think a buzzsaw weapon based around cutting would be the most effective tool in the drawer.  You’d be right.  The Ripper acts as a chainsaw with better range, and you’re able to move it as it spins.  As such, it’s the best possible weapon for dismemberment, and you’ll be able to mince any enemy that comes near you into a dismembered heap of dead alien flesh.  It’s more awkward to use in Dead Space: Extraction due to the sketchy Wii Remote movement physics (as always) but in Dead Space it’s guaranteed to make Necromorph limbs fly everywhere.

5.  The stationary turret in every Ratchet and Clank game

One of the signature weapons in the Ratchet and Clank series has always been a stationary turret that you drop, whereupon it attacks enemies that come near you.  It sounds like a simple premise, but the sheer amount of firepower it packs has made it one of the most devastatingly powerful weapons in every game in the series.  Even at its most basic level rips apart everything from big bosses to armored enemies to large rushes of grunt soldiers.  It gets even more powerful in Tools of Destruction, where the turret is actually made into a group of nano-swarmers that will disassemble anything that goes near it.  The scary part is even that can be upgraded by giving it a poison effect.  Then you can also purchase an upgrade that gives the Nano Swarmers a freezing effect.  Drop one or two and watch enemies explode faster than you can say “Cheap”.

4.  The Crissaegrim in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

In a way, this is the BFG of SotN.  Virtually everybody knows about it and will actually recommend that you avoid obtaining or using it if you want to retain any challenge in the game at all.  There are weapons with higher attack power, but this thing lands several hits per swing, has huge range, and does substantial damage with every hit.  If you get your hands on this thing it negates all strategy for the remainder of the entire game.

3.   Farsight in Perfect Dark

This weapon actually manages to make the AWP look like a pillow launcher.  Why?  In addition to the substantial power, the Farsight not only lets you see enemies through walls, but it also lets you shoot through them.  To date, this is the only weapon I’ve encountered that can actually break the laws of physics.  It’s reasonable to assume that this would exist as a hack in virtually any other game, but not Perfect Dark.

2.   Jade Golem form in Jade Empire

A more underappreciated BioWare gem, Jade Empire was essentially Knights of the Old Republic in a mythological ancient China setting.  With myth comes magic, and the most ridiculously overpowered magical ability in the game was Jade Golem.  This gave you the ability to turn into a giant Jade Golem as long as you had enough Chi (mana), which you usually did unless you avoided putting any points whatsoever into Chi when you leveled up.  Moreso than other transformations, Jade Golem form gave you ridiculous boosts to damage and armor, and additionally you become immune to all status effects.  You pick this up in the middle of the game and from then on there’s literally no reason to use anything else.  I even beat the very difficult final boss in under ten seconds by just hammering away with Jade Golem, taking off huge chunks of health with every hit.  I know what you’re thinking: Surely you’ll run out of Chi at some point, right?  That’s the winner: It recharges after every fight is finished.

So we’ve hit number one: My most overpowered video game weapon is…

1.  Fire Flower in New Super Mario Bros.

While the Fire Flower has been in every 2D Mario game since its conception, it got a significant power boost in New Super Mario Bros.  In the past most bosses had been immune to it, but now as long as you have Fire Flower you can simply spam your way past virtually every enemy and boss in the game with no risk to yourself.  In other 2D Mario games, you had the unlimited ammo and the one shot kills, but it didn’t work on some enemies.  You know what you’re in for when you get to the first world’s end boss and win within seconds by relentlessly hammering him with the Fire Flower as fast as you can mash the button.  The Fire Flower may only be this strong in New SMB but it’s been a powerful trademark icon of the series for over a decade, which definitely warrants the top of the list.

Honorable Mentions: The Fat Man in Fallout 3, the BFG in Doom, and the chainsaw in Gears of War 2

Disclaimer: This game was provided for review by Activision Blizzard.

I have a confession to make: I didn’t get into Guitar Hero until the third game, which surprises everyone I know because I’ve played virtually every iteration of Guitar Hero and Rock Band since I got hooked on it.  Since then I’ve made a vow to keep a closer eye on the rhythm games genre.  Like everybody else, I took note of DJ Hero because it seemed infathomable – a totally new peripheral for a new type of music simulator?  This definitely warranted checking out, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to review it.

Developer: FreeStyleGames
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: Music simulator
Console(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2

The verdict: DJ Hero is absolutely fantastic; it’s imaginative, creative, and easily one of the best rhythm games ever released.  It’s an expensive package, but DJ Hero isn’t something to be missed.

Music simulators have been all the rage ever since Guitar Hero demonstrated what could be done with good peripheral design and the right soundtrack.  Now that Guitar Hero has come out with five games, countless spinoffs and expansion packs for pretty much everything with a screen, isn’t it time for something new?  Lo and behold, FreeStyleGames set to work on a new peripheral for a game designed to simulate what it would be like to be a DJ.  The studio should be very proud of its work: An intuitive turntable, a great soundtrack, and a lot of fan service for DJs characterize this superb, albeit pricey package.

A new member of the peripheral family

DJ Hero comes packaged with the essential turntable, which a lot of effort evidently went into.  The game wins several points immediately for the peripheral’s accessibility: It’s nearly the height of a PS3 Slim, a few inches wider, and extremely light.  It’s also wireless and registration is never an issue whether you put the turntable on your lap, a table, or even on the floor in front of the TV.  There are two halves: The record platter and the mixer, which can be easily adjusted for whether you’re left or right handed.

The idea of adjusting to a newer, more complex peripheral after spending so much time with guitars and drums may sound daunting, but any fears are misplaced.  DJ Hero features several brief tutorials with Grandmaster Flash that walk you through the basics, then some more advanced components of the turntable.  You have three stream buttons similar to the five on guitar peripherals, and you have to tap the buttons whenever their icons enter the hit zone at the bottom.  The turntable can also be used in tandem with stream buttons to “scratch” the track, which is also indicated by an on-screen signal.  On the mixer, the Crossfader is required for streaming moves indicated on the screen.

The turntable peripheral is solid and feels great, incorporating a lot of new elements without making it too complicated. I went into this game expecting to do terrible on my first songs, but after the tutorial I was doing songs on medium and hard scoring four stars.  The controls feel like riding a bike; once you get the basics down you’ll instinctively know what to do.  Everything is responsive and seamless, and the record platter is utilized in a few really creative ways that make the experience much more immersive.  You’ll regularly be scratching, and if you do well enough on a particular section you’ll also be able to use the record platter to “rewind” your song and repeat the section to increase your points.  This is an excellent piece of new hardware that lends itself to a very original music game experience.

The only iffy part of the turntable is the Crossfader, which is a little stodgy in terms of controls.  You can move it seamlessly from the center to the left and right positions, but maybe a little too seamlessly.  Sometimes you’ll just move it from left to right without realizing it, potentially costing you a 50 or 100 hit streak when you make an error.  It requires some extra concentration to not move the Crossfader too heavy-handedly and there will still be a few issues once you do, but getting used to it doesn’t take too long.

Colored notes and crossfading

Gameplay progresses much like the Guitar Hero series – you’ll be able to access set lists, pick characters, outfits, decks, headphones, and customizable sample spins.  You’re given a number of stars based on how well you do on a mix, and the more stars you collect, the more you unlock.  You’ll gain access to new set lists, venues, characters, and more based on how many stars you collect, so the game rewards the player’s skill.  It still feels more accommodating to newcomers since you never fail out of a song; it keeps going even if you’re missing every hit.  Conversely, there are a lot of opportunities for skilled players to show off; Star Power takes the form of Euphoria which can be triggered using a button on the mixer.

A music game is as good as its soundtrack, and DJ Hero really shines here.  There are over 100 licensed master tracks organized into 94 original mixes.  There’s an immense amount of diversity across different music genres: Queen is mixed with Beastie Boys, Dizzee Rascal is mixed with DJ Shadow, Marvin Gaye is mixed with Gorillaz, and that’s only scratching the surface.  For DJ fans there’s also a lot of star power since DJs have lent their artistic talent in avatars and mix recordings to DJ Hero.  Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Daft Punk, and DJ Shadow are among several avatars that appear as DJs you can use.

The turntable, soundtrack, and unlockables blend together to create an immersive and immensely satisfying single player experience in DJ Hero.  Unlike in some previous Guitar Hero games where you mostly powered through the career mode in order to unlock all of the songs, it’s just flat out fun to scratch the record or watch in satisfaction as you pull off several difficult crossfader tricks.  Single player feels much stronger than most music simulators, and don’t be surprised if you find yourself unconsciously moving to the beat or even raising your hand to the imaginary crowd.

A costly DJ session

The downside to this wonderful experience is what everyone has griped about: The price tag.  Admittedly DJ Hero comes packaged with the necessarily peripheral, but $110 is really pushing it, especially since you could get two full priced games for that much money.  Of course, it begs the question: Is it worth $110?  Personally I’d say so, but the price may alienate people regardless.

The other problem is that while some multiplayer options are offered, this isn’t a party game in the vein of Guitar Hero.  A DJ and a guitarist can actually team up locally, which is a really clever idea on paper but your options are severely limited.  You’re only allowed to do this for ten songs so it will get old very quickly.  This issue extends to a lot of areas; DJ Hero has a terrific single player experience, but customization and multiplayer leave a lot to be desired.  There’s no create your own DJ option and making your own set list is unintuitive and cumbersome.

Final mix

DJ Hero breathes innovation into a genre saturated with guitar games and utilizes its own formula to become a wholly engrossing experience.  It may not be the best game to have at a party, but this music simulator will suck up hours of your time as you rack up stars, unlock new setlists, and learn to adapt to the superb turntable.

A while ago, Ben Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame gave a less than flattering review of Ghostbusters.  It was nothing out of the ordinary for him, but one line did speak to something that’s been happening with increasing frequency in the video game industry:

“This [Ghostbusters] isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened.  People or properties more commonly associated with famous movies, books, birthday card messages, etc, decide to grace the video game industry with their presence and everyone’s all like, “Ooh, show us how it’s done great sensei, because we’ve honestly just been guessing up to now!” It belies not only the endless disrespect video games receive, but also gaming’s collective self-esteem problem.”

This got me thinking about the video game adaptation of James Cameron’s Avatar, which hit the shelves recently.  Cameron went to surprising lengths to hype this up and went as far as appearing at E3 to assure gamers everywhere that “For the movie ‘Avatar’ we are creating a world rich in character, detail, conflict and cultural depth. It has the raw material for a game that the more demanding gamers of today will want to get their hands on – one that is rich in visuals and ideas, and challenging in play.”

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that “demanding gamer” is another way of describing the type of veteran gamer who demands high production value, detailed scenery, extensive replay value, and exciting gameplay (presumably most people on Gamer Limit).  Cameron is right that character, detail, conflict and cultural depth are raw materials for a superb game – so that means Avatar: The Game has to be stellar, right?  Whoops.  Reviews are generally mixed, but I’ve heard much more hostile reactions from friends who have actually sat down and played it.

Is the problem really that movie makers, even a genius like James Cameron, can’t make videogames?  Let’s back up a second.  Last year Steven Spielberg created Boom Blox in conjunction with Electronic Arts.  Having had the opportunity to review this, I can say it’s easily one of the best third party games on the Wii.  It’s imaginative and makes superb use of the Wii motion controls, and this was before the MotionPlus was out.  It’s also worth noting that Cameron developed Avatar: The Game in conjunction with Ubisoft Montreal, the same studio behind Prince of Persia and the Assassin’s Creed games.  So what’s the main difference between these two directors (as opposed to the fact that Boom Blox wasn’t released alongside a movie)?

Simple: Spielberg is an avid gamer.  He owns all three seventh generation consoles and enjoys Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  In the past he’s criticized overuse of cutscenes.  In a nutshell, he knows specifically what makes a movie good, and what makes a video game good.

Certain moviemakers who partake in video game development seem to use a generic formula that does little to stand out.  The Clive Barker games are another great example of this.  The difference between Boom Blox and Avatar: The Game is that the former is a video game, while the latter is just an adaptation of a movie styled as a video game.  The problem is that people associated with other mediums assume they know how video game development works without understanding the subtleties of it in the way that Spielberg does.  This way even big budget video game tie-ins like Avatar may look very pretty but never rise above mediocrity.

This is of course assuming the movie maker or whoever happens to be involved with the project really wants to make a good game, rather than a cheap cash-in.  If this is the case, then bravo; wanting to make good games is the first step in making good games.  I’m even willing to believe that video games released in tandem with a movie have the potential to be good; if you’re going to spend that much time developing a film that stands on its own, why not let the video game stand on its own as well?

As for gaming’s “self-esteem” problem, all I’ll say is this: Movies aren’t a superior medium to games, even if movies have been around much longer.  As much as filmmakers need to understand the importance of learning how video game development works, gamers need to learn not to get too worked up if a developer graces the E3 stage.

The solution for this type of problem is simple: Research.  Video gaming is a media form enjoyed by millions around the world, not a fad that you can test out and maybe profit off of if you happen to have a movie in development.  Video games have their own nuts, bolts, essentials, and lists of what to do and not to do.  If people involved with other media forms sincerely want to make good games, again, that’s wonderful; it’s just a matter of learning the ways of video games as they would with any other medium.  I would end this article by saying that video game development isn’t something you can just throw together, but it’s essentially been that way ever since the E.T. video game set fire to the industry.

Disclaimer: This game was provided by Activision Blizzard.

Talk about nostalgic.  The first Modern Warfare was one of the earliest games I ever reviewed and remains among my top five reviewed games to date.   Infinity Ward had huge shoes to fill, so let’s see how the long-anticipated sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare holds up.

Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision Blizzard
Genre: First person shooter
Console(s): Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS

The verdict: Infinity Ward has refined and polished their Modern Warfare formula to a shine, easily making it one of the best games of the year and one of the best shooters of this generation.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare set records, redefined multiplayer for the Call of Duty series, and signified a shift away from the well-trodden WWII timeframe.  Naturally when Modern Warfare 2 was announced the bar was set extremely high as shooter fans were eager to see what Infinity Ward could possibly do to top their previous opus.  Rather than attempt to reinvent the game for the sake of originality, Infinity Ward took what worked so well in their first game and fine tuned it and polished it.  Single player is more diverse and multiplayer is more balanced and offers even more rewards than its predecessor did.  As a result, Modern Warfare 2 is an absolute must-have for any shooter or online fan.

Five years later…

The single player campaign takes place five years after the events of the first game.  Although the SAS and Marines defeated Imran Zakhaev, his Ultranationalist party has seized control of Russia, and his former protégé Vladimir Makarov has taken the reins left by his leader.  When Makarov dupes the international community into believing the United States was responsible for a terrorist act in a Russian airport, all hell breaks loose as Russian forces invade Washington D.C.  As the Army Rangers race to defend the nation’s capitol, the elite counterterrorism unit Task Force 141 under Captain “Soap” MacTavish must find evidence linking Makarov to the crime.

Snowmobiles, sniping, and good old fashioned gunfights
Modern Warfare 2 takes the same intuitive and easy-to-master controls from the first game, gives them a few updates, and adapts them to a litany of new situations and locales.  Infinity Ward has worked an amazing number of different situations into this game and they all feel polished.  One level will have you tearing through guerrilla fighter resistance in South America to capture a target, while another will have you crawling around a Russian base in snow-covered Kazakhstan using your camouflage to hide as you stealthily pick off Russian patrols with your sniper rifle.  There’s a frantic snowmobile chase to get to an extraction point and a harrowing race through a decrepit prison while you use a riot shield to protect yourself from constant machine gun fire.  The game transitions seamlessly between stealthy infiltration gameplay and all out war between your Army Rangers unit and Russians attempting to drive you out of Washington D.C.  As a result Modern Warfare 2 never lets you get bored, and you’ll find yourself eagerly anticipating what type of challenge you’ll have next.

Certain elements go a long way in making the campaign feel dynamic, such as having more than one way to survive particular scenarios.  This is especially apparent in the Washington D.C. levels, where you’ll need to liberate suburban houses from dug-in Russians.  Will you run in through the front door with guns blazing, or will you try to undercut the Russians by sneaking in through the garage?  You’ll also have some high-tech backup; in one of the D.C. levels you’ll guide and protect an armored assault vehicle and you’ll be able to signal where you want it to fire and subsequently watch the machinegun decimate any hapless enemies in the area.  There’s also a guided Predator drone missile that can be navigated from the air to target a desired area; it’s immeasurably satisfying to see smoke rise through the air when you lower the predator computer after hitting your targets.

The only real issue to be had with the campaign is that at certain points the difficulty curve skyrockets.  Usually you’ll be able to move along without problems as long as you don’t try and circle strafe around a wide open area, but a few specific moments feature a lot of hidden enemies that will target you and only you the moment you stand up to try and fire.  This only happens a few times throughout the campaign, but when it did I usually died five or six times before finally clearing through the kill zone.

Scripted events are also present in Modern Warfare 2, and they’re as harrowing as they were in the first game…the first few times.  Modern Warfare 2 uses them a little too excessively; it’s cool the first time Roach falls to the ground and slowly recovers from an explosion, but when it happens several times it just starts getting intrusive.  Even with moments like this the game is also extremely short; you’ll be able to finish it in less than five hours, and there’s no reason to play it again unless you want to try out a harder difficulty setting.  Admittedly the ending is a truly epic finale, but it just felt like it ended too soon.

Mission accepted

Fortunately, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Special Ops mode, which is a cooperative mode featuring mission-based gameplay.  Most of these missions can be played alone or with a friend either locally or online, and there’s great variety in mission objectives.  Different scenarios range from holding off waves of enemies to searching areas and eliminating enemies while not shooting civilians.  You get stars based on how well you do on the missions (such as completion time or how many civilians got caught in your crossfire) and what the difficulty was.  More stars will let you unlock more missions.  Special Ops is a ton of fun whether you’re alone or playing with a friend, and adds up to several more hours of gameplay.

Controversy in a videogame?

Let’s take a brief intermission to discuss the infamous “No Russian” mission that set off the controversy bells everywhere.  For the uninitiated there’s a mission where you and several Russian terrorists move slowly through an airport gunning down every civilian you see, as well as a number of police and SWAT officers.  This feels like reaching for the low hanging fruit, but all things considered this isn’t that bad in terms of controversy.  You have the option of skipping it, you don’t have to attack any civilians and just hang back, and you’re an undercover American operative.  It certainly is very shocking, but in a way that really makes you aware that the game stems from the consequences of this grisly mission.  Even if you’re just an observer, it gives you a very in-depth view on what people are capable of.

Searching for matches…

Infinity Ward opted to keep the fundamentals of the revolutionary Call of Duty 4 multiplayer intact, which is perfectly fine.  However, they updated it in a lot of ways that will make Call of Duty 4 fans like me very appreciative. You still gain experience points and level up as you participate in multiplayer game modes, which include Free-for-all, Team Deathmatch, Domination, and many others.  The game also maintains killstreaks, rewards for getting a certain number of kills without dying.   There are a whopping 15 killstreak rewards that can be unlocked and you can customize which three you can use during the game.  Rewards range from a Counter-UAV for four kills to a Harrier Airstrike for seven kills, and you can even be a chopper gunner for 11 kills.  The grand finale is a Tactical Nuke for a 25 kill streak, which automatically ends the game with you as the victor.

Modern Warfare 2 also introduces death streaks, which give you a reward for multiple deaths if you’re having a bad game.  For instance, Painkiller requires three deaths without a kill to trigger and will give you a significant health boost.  The class system has also been beefed up and given some appreciative changes; primary weapons now include basic weapons like assault rifles and machineguns, and something like a shotgun, a sniper rifle, or even an RPG can be used as a secondary weapon.  This offers a lot more versatility in terms of strategy and with a greater variety of perks there is a huge amount of customization available. It’s also much more balanced this time around; Martyrdom has been made into a death streak reward and the infamous Juggernaut is no longer a perk, meaning there’s no “cookie cutter” build 70% of the players will be using.

Even moreso than its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2 also hands out rewards like candy.  You get experience bonuses based on just about anything you can do.  You’ll get a bonus for coming back after a streak of deaths and another bonus for killing a player who was just one kill short of a killstreak.  There are logos and emblems you can unlock for your Modern Warfare 2 profile, and challenges have much higher tiers.  Perks can be upgraded to “Pro” versions by completing their challenge, and this isn’t even everything.  Modern Warfare 2 just keeps giving the more you play, and Infinity Ward has managed to make Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer even more immersive by building on what worked.

Debriefing

Modern Warfare 2 lives up to all the hype that was surrounding it.  Single player, cooperative, and multiplayer are all a blast to partake in and any complaints I’ve made generally don’t hamper the fun you’ll have using predator drones, racing snowmobiles, and calling in your first Harrier airstrike in multiplayer.  Every shooter fan should put Modern Warfare 2 on their holiday wish list if they haven’t done so already.

Grahame did this a while ago, so I took a few minutes to think about what I never do in videogames.  Let’s keep this topic going, bloggers!

I have never…

10. Attempted a speed run that wasn’t required by the game for completion

9. Played as an evil character throughout the entirety of a choose your morality RPG

8. Played further than the first few hours of Final Fantasy XII

7.  Completed a 2D Mario side scroller in one sitting

6.  Used the shield in Super Smash Bros. games

5.  Gotten a nuke in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

4.  Used the Forge in Halo 3

3.  Completed Luigi’s mode in Super Mario Galaxy

2.  Built more than a small city in SimCity 4 without using a money cheat

1.  Used the Amazon or Assassin classes in Diablo 2