G-pinions

So I return from one of the largest Scrabble tournaments in the country, brain mostly intact. I finished 12-8 in my division, 16th out of 42 people. Beh. Not great, but it was fun. Anyhow, on to the games.

I just got to play some Red Dead Revolver over at Dan's Place, and, well.....hmm.....it's not very good. The art design, filmic scratches on the cutscenes, classic western music and such is all very immersive, but the gameplay, from the couple of levels that I played, feels very unbalanced and broken. And it's a damn shame too, because we haven't had a good cowboy game since Sunset Riders. RDR got a lot of very mediocre reviews, and it's easy to see why after playing it. The controls are ill-mapped and often feel unresponsive in tight situations. Delivering a final, bloody headshot to some crumb-bum redneck feels gratifying enough, but the gunfight leading up to it is sloppy, not nearly visceral enough (the controller doesn't even rumble), and often glitchy. I guess it should come as no surprise, as Capcom cancelled it after a long, laborious development process, only to have Rockstar pick it up, finish it, and put it out. Rockstar has been mostly synonymous with quality games these last couple of years, so I figured they would have touched up the game more than they did before release. The biggest problem at all, which most reviews I've read seem to agree with, is the lack of balance in the gunfighting. Five rifle shots to the face from three feet away is just as likely to take down a bad guy as a single pistol from thirty yards away. The location damage, weapon strength and aiming accuracy are all woefully inconsistent, and make the combat (the bulk combat) a chore. Not to sell the game completely short - there is a fair amount of innovation, especially for the genre. From the quick-draw showdowns to the card-game/shootout multiplayer battles, there are a lot of cool ideas flying around in every facet of RDR; it's just a letdown that most of them are as sloppy and unrefined as everything else.

On the non-crappy cowboy game front, Full Spectrum Warrior is finally starting to intrigue me. Despite getting rave previews from pretty much everyone who witnesses it, the idea has seemed pretty lame to me thus far. You control a group of soldiers in a fictional Middle Eastern Country (Zekistan - very creative) dealing with various terrorist situations. The twist is that you don't directly control them, ala Socom, you just give them orders. That's pretty much all it's been summed up as so far; doesn't sound very fun, does it? However, it's now being described more, and sold more, on being more of a real-time strategy game, ala Warcraft, only up-close and personal, and has brought with it a good bit of interest, for me. The game seems to focus heavily on different combat formations (flanking and the like), and using the right setup and execution for each scenario. You can also easily jump between your various unit types during the game (grenadier, sniper, etc.), while the rest of your team does it's best to help you out and stay the path of the mission/your orders. I'm not describing it very well, but check out IGN's review, it got me fairly hyped. It also has co-operative online play, which seems like a great addition for a game such as this. And on top of everything, it's developed by Pandemic, who is also releasing two of the most entertaining-looking games this year. Word.