Here’s a crazy looking game that could well give Paper Mario a run for his money. It’s called Fez, and is being built by Kokoromi. I have no more words. Just watch the video.
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We’ve had the consoles for a while, and I think we’ve pretty much decided which we like better. I won’t give it away just yet (I’ll save it for our review), but after having some time with both, I’ve learned a few more things:
The Playstation 3’s motion sensitivity seems a little vague. This is, of course, one thing that the Wii excels at. With the PS3, you don’t have the confidence-inspiring responsiveness the Wii provides. For example, in Ratchet & Clank, there are a number of things you control by tilting and twisting the controller. When you do so, it seems like you’ve got to tilt the controller a good 30 degrees on a given axis before the game registers that you’ve moved. This leads to me waving and twisting the controller around like an idiot. I feel like I did when I was 9, playing the original Nintendo console for the first time. If I was trying to move left, I’d twist the controller, then my whole body in an effort to get my little man to do my bidding. Also, I’d make faces. Also, I still make faces. What they really need to build is a game system that reads your facial expressions and uses them to control your little man. Or at least one that reads my expressions. Continue reading →
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I finished Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction on the PS3 a few days ago, and recommend it. I’ve never really played a cartoony action style game, they’ve never appealed to me much, and didn’t really have very high expectations for it. Maybe that’s part of the reason I enjoyed it. Of course, it could have also been the constant stream of crazy new weapons. Anyway, a few notes about the game:
Lots of guns. Lots and lots and lots of guns. You know, it’s funny how often video game characters carry around an apparently magical arsenal. I think by the end of the game Ratchet had something like 24 different weapons, yet managed to neatly stow them… somewhere. Seriously, where does he keep all that stuff? And some of the guns are gigantic. The Magma Blaster, for example is almost as big as Ratchet himself. Does he have some sort of pocket wormhole that leads to a rented storage unit in Jersey? If so, how does he change weapons out so quickly? I mean, you just select the weapon, and boom, he’s ready to fire. Sometimes you can crack off 3-4 shots from different weapons before a baddy has even had a chance to move. Curious.
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Remember what the internet was like when you first discovered it? Click on something then wait… wait… loading… and ah! you finally get what you were after. As it turns out, the Playstation 3 experience is very similar. Let me tell you of my woes.
So two nights ago, while playing Motorstorm, I decided try a quick online race. I plugged in the ethernet cable, and was informed by Motorstorm that I’d need to create an online Playstation account. OK, fine. I go to create an account, and am told that my system software needs to be updated to do that. Grumble, so I go to update the system software, which requires a download, and quickly realize that the download to upgrade the software is substantial and will take some time. So I decided to forget it. The next morning I started the PS3 up and started the download so it’d be ready for me later that day.
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So I’ve been playing with both the Playstation 3 and the Wii lately. I’ll give you a full rundown of what I think some other time, but here’s a few of my thoughts on the two consoles.
Holy cow that’s a Giant Rubber Thing that comes with the included Wii controller. Nintendo apparently packages a Giant Rubber Thing (henceforth called the Nintendo GRT) with Wiis. I’ll have to post a photo later. I was unaware that I’d be getting a GRT with the system. I presume it’s to prevent your grip from slipping on the controller as you shake, waggle, and roll your way through games. And if it does slip, better to get clocked in the head by a Giant Rubber Thing than a cute, white, heavy, plastic brick, right? Also, I saw this article wherein some dude’s 3-year-old destroyed the TV with a Wii remote. Maybe the GRT is to prevent this sort of thing as well.
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Of all the games I’ve sampled in the last month or so as part of a Playstation 3 vs. Wii quest, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is by far my favorite. Here’s why:
Motion. Nathan (the main character) has got to have the most fluid, natural, flexible character animation I’ve ever seen in a video game. He runs, jumps, climbs walls, vaults obstacles, takes cover, and so on just like a real boy. Now, admittedly I’m really not that familiar with video games in general, so there could well be some games on par with or better than Uncharted, but precious few, i’d wager. I’m pretty confident in recommending it to just about anyone.
Acting/Story. I’ve never been a big fan of video game storylines. Usually I feel that they just get in the way of gameplay. Plus, the voice acting is usually so bad as to trigger the gag reflex (try Resident Evil: the Umbrella Chronicles for an excellent example of horrible acting). Uncharted, on the other hand is the first time I’ve felt involved and interested in the storyline, much like a movie. Much of this is due to the best acting I’ve ever seen in a video game. I think most games take the story a bit too seriously, and don’t let any humanity leak into the acting. In Uncharted, the characters are as believable as any movie out there (provided you squint a bit to disguise the CG-ness of the whole experience). At one point the leading lady is trying to convince Nathan she’s going to keep her word on something and does some weird little pseudo-military boy scout at attention arm gesture and says “I swear”. Before I could even finish thinking what’s that supposed to mean, Nathan imitates the gesture and says “Whatever that means.” It’s a pretty good example of the subtlety of writing and acting the game demonstrates. In the end, I enjoyed the narrative portion of the game probably as much as an Indiana Jones film or National Treasure. It’s just a fun, rambling, impromptu-feeling adventure story.
Nathan Drake can only carry a couple items at once. He can manage a pistol and a rifle of some sort. Plus a handful of grenades. It’s a nice little touch of realism that most games don’t bother with. You can only have a single rifle at a time, so do you think the sniper rifle, or the shotgun is going to work better for you? Or maybe the AK-47? You can only take one, so choose wisely. This is, of course, in direct contrast with Ratchet & Clank, where you somehow manage to tote around enough firepower to arm a medium-sized militia. More about that another day.
Visuals. Uncharted is a heaping scoop of eye candy. I think it’s one of the first games to really take advantage of the horsepower of the PS3. In some of the behind-the-scenes videos the developers talk about how they were able to pull of more realistic water, facial animation, shaders, shadows and so on because of the capability of the hardware. I have no doubt there will be many games that best the graphics of Uncharted in the future, but for now it’s about as good as it gets.
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