Too Little, Too Late

So I just beat P.N. 03 (Product Number 03) and I have to say, I'm disappointed.

I bought the game because it was part of the Capcom 5, and I didn't think a highly-respected publisher like Capcom would let me down. But they did.

I won't get into all of the depressing details, if you want those you can check out P.N. 03 in the Reviews section (that's right, I inaugurated the section with this awful title). But I will give you a quick breakdown.

The audio in the game is awful. There are only 2 scenes with voice acting, and I wish there weren't. The game is supposed to be a dance/dodging based 3rd-person shooter, but the dance music also sucks.

There is no story or plot.

All of the levels are terrible. I have designed better levels in Game Design class using Source. Those were classroom levels. Classroom levels beat this shooter.

The combat is boring, the gameplay is repetetive, and most of the dodging techniques are not needed. The more powerful special attacks are fun for a few levels, but don't last long. Charging forward wildly and launching the Griffin attack kept me happy for about 20 minutes.

The bosses were lame, the regular enemies were lame, the AI was shoddy. You're supposed to rack up points to buy better suits and upgrade them. Usually I'm a sucker for RPG elements like this, but I bought as few upgrades as I could to beat the game. I never do that. This game turned me off that much.

The main character didn't turn me off. She's pretty hot actually, possibly the hottest video game character I've seen. They try to use that to your advantage, by making the final suit you unlock by beating the game on hardmode a highly-revealing outfit. I didn't fall for it, you shouldn't either.

There were a few more engaging levels and a few more difficult bosses near the end. There was also an interesting room or two. But these were the types of things you'd expect as the first level of a normal game, not as the final and best a game had to offer.

Supposedly the final boss is really hard, and takes lots of practise, patience, and timing. I just tapped A faster than usual and killed it in about a minute. Here's its sorry mug.

Next time Capcom, play the game before you publish it.

- Scott

Brawl Released At Last!

The delays have driven us mad, but at long last Super Smash Bros. Brawl is out. I had hoped to play it over spring break and even earlier, but with the delays I was not able to play it until this week.

I was fortunate enough to not only get to play it, but also to review it for my college's weekly newspaper. Since I don't own a Wii of my own, I had to set up a deal with a friend to borrow his Wii for a few days. After a couple of days playing through every mode of Brawl, I have to say, it was time well spent. This blockbuster does not dissapoint.

If you want the full run-down on the game, I've posted the comprehensive review in the Reviews section, or you can check out the published version in Articles.

But as an overview, this game is unbelievably packed with great content.

It has all of the old modes that the previous entry, Melee, had plus a lot of new ones. And all of the old ones have been improved. New modes like Rotation and the revamped Tourney mode make setting up matches easier. The brand-new solo campaign, Subpsace Emissary, is a god-send. Previous installments had nothing to offer for a campaign, but this retro-style 2d platforming adventure is awesome and enjoyable. The Event mode has been expanded, Classic mode has been updated, and the Stadium challenges retain their replay value.

The visuals and sounds have been vastly improved as well. I actually used certain moves just because they sounded so cool, rather than because they were effective. And though the character models all look the same as Melee, the special effects are far more impressive.

Of course, all of these modes, graphics and audio are all just extras: what gamers really care about are the characters and stages. These essentials do not dissapoint.

I played with most of the new characters, all of which were surprisingly-well balanced. I loved getting to play as Charizard instead of lame Pokemon like Pichu. I also enjoyed playing MetaKnight, who was much faster than his size leads you to believe. Solid Snake's ranged weapons were a lot of fun, although I didn't like getting beaten up while trying to guide my rockets.

Stages were pretty sweet too. I loved playing on Castle Siege with its multiple parts, my favorite was the underground hall. I also liked the innovative levels like Pictochat and WarioWare. But again, you can see more info on the stages in the full review.

So my advice to everyone out there, be you casual or hardcore gamers, play Brawl! If you've missed out on the smash bros phenomenon for the 5-10 years, this is the time to finally get to know one of the best series ever madel.

As I said in the review, this is one hell of a game.

- Scott

Video Game Soundtracks

When most people think of quality music, they probably think of the recording industry. Maybe there is a minority of people out there who think of their favorite Broadway shows or movie soundtracks. But how many people think of video games?

We all have been playing them for years, but how often do we take the time to appreciate a game's music for what it is. For most games, not often. When you're in the middle of being shot, trying to level a character, or pushing your car for those few extra seconds you really aren't worried what the stereo is playing.

But increasingly developers are putting more time and effort into games' audio. Next-gen sound has a lot to offer, and developers are utilizing their new tools. I just started playing Smash Brawl yesterday, for example, and the audio quality, even on the Wii, is outstanding. There were certain moves that I used repeatedly, even though they weren't very effective for combat, simply because the sound effects were so good.

But this focus on audio isn't brand new. One of my favorite developers, Free Radical (formed by the designers of the original GoldenEye) had some amazing soundtracks in their TimeSplitters series. And, even better, they provide full soundtracks from their games for free on their website.

The soundtrack for TimeSplitters 2 is just amazing. With great ambient tracks, like those for the wild west level, the notre dame level, or the chicago level, the music compares favorably with the best soundtracks out there. I've got the full soundtrack on my iPod, and listen to it just like I would any other music.

So it was natural for me to go to Free Radical's tracks when I was assigned to work on an audio project for one of my classes. We were assigned to create an audio composition that was exactly one minute long that conveyed the theme of "the evil inherent in mankind." I played through the soundtracks for some of TS2's darker levels, and decided on the Notre Dame level. This was only one element in a composition of a lot of pieces, but the Notre Dame piece was crucial to the final effect. (I've included a link to my audio project below)

While video games might not stick out as the best place to go for music, they often are. Nothing else I listened to had better quality or mood than the Free Radical stuff. So keep up the good work developers, and if you get discouraged, or if you decide to skimp on the audio on your new game, remember: We're listening.

- Scott

Low-Res Demo & Campus Cops

Today was our second milestone for the Game Design course, and believe it or not, we were way ahead of schedule.

We were supposed to have a low-res version of our demo done, but we actually got further than we had hoped. We had planned to have two playable levels, the dorm room and the campus overworld. But I went in the night before and put together, in a couple of hours, a third level (a classroom).

What was in these levels was better than we'd hoped as well. The dorm room had lighting effects, triggers and actions, and scripted NPC behavior with dialogue. These were all things we had been experimenting with for the last couple of weeks, but we hadn't been able to figure out or perfect. But thanks to some help from some senior members of the team, we got some of that done. Outside of the game, we have some of the Spanish dialogue (since it is a Spanish learning game) recorded, and we have a lot of design documents that detail what else we would do with the game. And of course, the Wii-mote can be used to play the game.

I was very proud to have done the classroom level on my own, especially in such a short amount of time. It shows that I've been picking up Hammer (the level editor) and Source (our game engine) quite well.

We almost had a problem though.

When we were working in the lab at about 2 in the morning, some of the campus police came in and almost kicked us out. They asked us what time the lab was supposed to close, as if we were breaking the rules and they wanted us to admit it. But after we said it closes at 3, they did a Dr. Jeckle/Mr. Hyde switch and were super-friendly. They actually ending up staying for a while to watch us work and talk to us about the game.

So once again, I found gamers in the most unlikely of places. One of the cops was likening our project to the old Quake mods he used to build, since we are technically creating a mod of Half-Life 2. The other cop talked about his first-person shooter as well. It was cool to find gamers in places of authority, maybe as this trend continues the gaming industry will cease to be looked at as the evil media.

Although, if we want to avoid that stigma, we'll need to make a slight change to our demo. We found out that, currently, you can enter a code to get guns. Which means you could run around our campus shooting the student NPC's. Talk about a public-relations nightmare...

- Scott