Friday, July 16, 2004
Bungie cord
I've been playing a good amount of Halo lately, mostly because i've been spending a lot of time with friends (funny how that works). Actually, I didn't even own Halo until last friday, when I picked up a copy to use in a LAN party. I think it's generally vastly overrated, and have been pissed about it's existence ever since Microsoft bought Bungie. But hey, it's still a fun game, and fairly accessible to anyone, so it's good when having people over.
I played a good hour of Halo last night with two friends of mine before switching over to our usual game hen, Red Faction 2. Obviously, it took me a while to adjust back to the fairly different controls and pace (fast), but beyond that, I immediately missed some little things about Halo, which made me appreciate it quite a bit more after playing so much of it. Don't get me wrong, I still think the actual kills in RF2 feel better, and thus I will always prefer it (seeing as that's what the game is all about), but I can finally give Halo some decent props.
For one, melee attack. Having a decent up-close attack available all the time is really nice, especially in frantic situations. In Halo, if need be, I can usually circle-strafe someone until I'm able to clock them in the back of the noggin, even if they're armed and I'm out of ammo. Or if you sneak up on someone (or spawn behind them) and want to take them down quickly - bam, no problem. In RF2, unless you're set to spawn with a sniper rifle or an explosive weapon, it ain't happening, even with the maddest of skillz. As soon as they're on to you, they'll most likely turn around and waste you. worse yet, if you find yourself five feet in front of someone with a worse weapon, you'd better run for your life, no competition. In Halo, a well-timed barrel to the face can even the odds instantly.
Secondly, weapon balance. You learn quickly in RF2 that without an explosive weapon or wicked bad sniping abilities, you're fucked like a kitten in a wood chipper. The bottom four or so weapons suck, especially when compared to the explosives. I've gotten used to this by now, but it's nice in Halo to be able to defend yourself with any weapon you start with. The pistol is definitely too powerful, but I'd rather that be the case than not powerful enough. Combine this issue with the lack of a melee move, and two players in the same stage can be at very different levels of power, without skill factoring in at all.
Lastly, grenades, my favorite thing about Halo. Granted, RF2 has grenades, but with such a fast pace and mostly one or two-hit kills, there's hardly a need for them. Plus, the grenades in Halo just feel right, in the same way killing someone does in RF2. In FPSes, it's all about the visceral experience, and with grenades, Halo nails it. Something about their arc and their damage radius and power all clicks, and playing with them is a necessity if your opponent chooses to.
So, yes, I've gotta give multiplayer Halo some props. It's been a long time coming, I admit. I just thought it would be interesting to hear about the little differences. Tom will probably get his jollies off to finally hear me bad-mouth Red Faction a bit, but I'm secure in liking both games, for different purposes. And they're hard to compare, seeing as Halo doesn't even have bots (fucking rushy Microsoft). And I didn't even bring Timesplitters 2 into this. But still, I stand by my props. Now I just need some competition :-)
I played a good hour of Halo last night with two friends of mine before switching over to our usual game hen, Red Faction 2. Obviously, it took me a while to adjust back to the fairly different controls and pace (fast), but beyond that, I immediately missed some little things about Halo, which made me appreciate it quite a bit more after playing so much of it. Don't get me wrong, I still think the actual kills in RF2 feel better, and thus I will always prefer it (seeing as that's what the game is all about), but I can finally give Halo some decent props.
For one, melee attack. Having a decent up-close attack available all the time is really nice, especially in frantic situations. In Halo, if need be, I can usually circle-strafe someone until I'm able to clock them in the back of the noggin, even if they're armed and I'm out of ammo. Or if you sneak up on someone (or spawn behind them) and want to take them down quickly - bam, no problem. In RF2, unless you're set to spawn with a sniper rifle or an explosive weapon, it ain't happening, even with the maddest of skillz. As soon as they're on to you, they'll most likely turn around and waste you. worse yet, if you find yourself five feet in front of someone with a worse weapon, you'd better run for your life, no competition. In Halo, a well-timed barrel to the face can even the odds instantly.
Secondly, weapon balance. You learn quickly in RF2 that without an explosive weapon or wicked bad sniping abilities, you're fucked like a kitten in a wood chipper. The bottom four or so weapons suck, especially when compared to the explosives. I've gotten used to this by now, but it's nice in Halo to be able to defend yourself with any weapon you start with. The pistol is definitely too powerful, but I'd rather that be the case than not powerful enough. Combine this issue with the lack of a melee move, and two players in the same stage can be at very different levels of power, without skill factoring in at all.
Lastly, grenades, my favorite thing about Halo. Granted, RF2 has grenades, but with such a fast pace and mostly one or two-hit kills, there's hardly a need for them. Plus, the grenades in Halo just feel right, in the same way killing someone does in RF2. In FPSes, it's all about the visceral experience, and with grenades, Halo nails it. Something about their arc and their damage radius and power all clicks, and playing with them is a necessity if your opponent chooses to.
So, yes, I've gotta give multiplayer Halo some props. It's been a long time coming, I admit. I just thought it would be interesting to hear about the little differences. Tom will probably get his jollies off to finally hear me bad-mouth Red Faction a bit, but I'm secure in liking both games, for different purposes. And they're hard to compare, seeing as Halo doesn't even have bots (fucking rushy Microsoft). And I didn't even bring Timesplitters 2 into this. But still, I stand by my props. Now I just need some competition :-)
Thursday, July 15, 2004
And you thought Taft was evil
Now that I have finally finished Beyond Good and Evil I can safely say this is not only one of the greatest games made this generation, but everyone who does not own a copy is an evil person who is ruining the video game industry. And yes, I am aware that I do not actually own a copy of this game. So what makes BG&E so amazing that, years from now when I am forced to lie in bed all day as punishment for eating too much fast food in my youth, a creepy smile will spread across my greasy, hamburger like face when the word “Jade” is mentioned in my presence? There are many things, but at the top of the list is Beyond Good and Evil’s unprecedented ability to create a game with an emphasis on stealth gameplay and story that I actually enjoyed.
Beyond Good and Evil pretty much plays like Zelda or Star Fox Adventures or any of those games that urge you to explore a giant world without the luxury of a jump button. The story revolves around Jade – a video game heroine who is good looking without having her own programmed breast physics – and her attempt to uncover a huge government conspiracy with only her trusty camera and a stick of war by her side. You should know, her best friend is a pig sapien and orphans are prominently involved.
If that little nugget didn’t sell you, picture this – a game with stealth missions that are not unforgivably hard. In Splinter Cell, the worst stealth game ever made, you can slowly walk down a ledge and then drop noiselessly to the ground as you roll behind a bush. Then you slink through the shadows, carefully timing your movement so the passing guard doesn’t see you. You go through this boring routine for an hour or two, we’ll round it down to a nice, even week, and then you’re spotted. Oh no! The enemy kills you quickly and you have to replay the whole damn thing. This is “fun” in normal stealth games.
In BG&E, if you get caught in a stealth mission, you go back a whole minute. Each room in the enemy compound presents a new challenge; if you fail you are only sent back to the beginning of the room. It makes the game much less frustrating, and it actually encourages you to try different ways to pass obstacles. The game is a little easy because of this, but a lot more fun than other stealth games.
The story is something I could blabber on about about for paragraph upon tasty paragraph, but for respect of those that have not yet completed the game I will leave out the details. What makes this story so engaging is the emphasis on character. The game creates very real personalities for each person present. There is no cookie cutter reluctant hero in this, nor is there the loudmouth companion who cracks horrible joke after horrible joke. These characters feel very real, with feelings and emotions you can relate to.
The story is seamlessly integrated with the action, so you never feel as if you are a passive participant. The story does take a turn towards the unbelievable near the end of the game, but the rest of the story is so solid, you can’t help but be caught up in Jade’s plight for the truth.
In addition to the standard quests in the game, there are enough side missions to keep the action from getting stale. As mentioned earlier, Jade is equipped with a camera. The main purpose of the camera is to expose what the government is hiding from the public. But, you can also take pictures of animals. I know this doesn’t sound that fun, but it actually is. Most of the animals are right in the open. You can take a picture of your orphans or pig friend and send them to a scientist for documentation. But, you have to track down some of the animals too. For instance, in one situation you place a peace of cheese down and quickly snap a photograph as a mouse like animal takes its food. You get money for taking picture, so those who don’t necessarily like to keep a scrap book of all the animals in the game will still have incentive to take pictures. It’s a great diversion and surprisingly fun.
The game does have some flaws. The camera system is kind of crappy at time. On a scale of Cory Feldman to Jeff Goldbloom, the computer controlled partner who is with you throughout most of the games is just a notch above Christopher Burk on the Celebrity Retard Scale. And there are one or two huge bugs present that make it so you can never actually finish the game if you encounter them. Other than those minor quirks, Beyond Good and Evil is pure candy and should be consumed as quickly as possible.
Beyond Good and Evil pretty much plays like Zelda or Star Fox Adventures or any of those games that urge you to explore a giant world without the luxury of a jump button. The story revolves around Jade – a video game heroine who is good looking without having her own programmed breast physics – and her attempt to uncover a huge government conspiracy with only her trusty camera and a stick of war by her side. You should know, her best friend is a pig sapien and orphans are prominently involved.
If that little nugget didn’t sell you, picture this – a game with stealth missions that are not unforgivably hard. In Splinter Cell, the worst stealth game ever made, you can slowly walk down a ledge and then drop noiselessly to the ground as you roll behind a bush. Then you slink through the shadows, carefully timing your movement so the passing guard doesn’t see you. You go through this boring routine for an hour or two, we’ll round it down to a nice, even week, and then you’re spotted. Oh no! The enemy kills you quickly and you have to replay the whole damn thing. This is “fun” in normal stealth games.
In BG&E, if you get caught in a stealth mission, you go back a whole minute. Each room in the enemy compound presents a new challenge; if you fail you are only sent back to the beginning of the room. It makes the game much less frustrating, and it actually encourages you to try different ways to pass obstacles. The game is a little easy because of this, but a lot more fun than other stealth games.
The story is something I could blabber on about about for paragraph upon tasty paragraph, but for respect of those that have not yet completed the game I will leave out the details. What makes this story so engaging is the emphasis on character. The game creates very real personalities for each person present. There is no cookie cutter reluctant hero in this, nor is there the loudmouth companion who cracks horrible joke after horrible joke. These characters feel very real, with feelings and emotions you can relate to.
The story is seamlessly integrated with the action, so you never feel as if you are a passive participant. The story does take a turn towards the unbelievable near the end of the game, but the rest of the story is so solid, you can’t help but be caught up in Jade’s plight for the truth.
In addition to the standard quests in the game, there are enough side missions to keep the action from getting stale. As mentioned earlier, Jade is equipped with a camera. The main purpose of the camera is to expose what the government is hiding from the public. But, you can also take pictures of animals. I know this doesn’t sound that fun, but it actually is. Most of the animals are right in the open. You can take a picture of your orphans or pig friend and send them to a scientist for documentation. But, you have to track down some of the animals too. For instance, in one situation you place a peace of cheese down and quickly snap a photograph as a mouse like animal takes its food. You get money for taking picture, so those who don’t necessarily like to keep a scrap book of all the animals in the game will still have incentive to take pictures. It’s a great diversion and surprisingly fun.
The game does have some flaws. The camera system is kind of crappy at time. On a scale of Cory Feldman to Jeff Goldbloom, the computer controlled partner who is with you throughout most of the games is just a notch above Christopher Burk on the Celebrity Retard Scale. And there are one or two huge bugs present that make it so you can never actually finish the game if you encounter them. Other than those minor quirks, Beyond Good and Evil is pure candy and should be consumed as quickly as possible.
Monday, July 12, 2004
OPM Demo Disc Review Issue 83
This month was alright, nothing special. I know the summers are slow in gaming, but you'd think that more publishers would want to demo their fall games right about now, especially since they'll most likely be buried under the flood of franchises otherwise. I know I'll be buying at least ten games this fall, so if a smaller publisher wants to get my attention, now's the time.
Demos:
NBA Ballers - For whatever reason this game never really appealed to me before, even with the pretty positive reviews it garnered. I guess I just can't get into the intense rap culture vibe this game sells itself on. That's not to say it's a bad game though - quite the opposite. The 1-on-1 basketball in the game is very well-done, and shockingly compelling. The gameplay is about as deep as, and somewhat similar to, the NBA Street series, and that's a huge compliment. The controls felt a bit less intuitive than said series, but I'm sure with an hour or so more of playing it I'd have them down cold. One thing that I do need to note is the ridiculously realistic player models. The animation is as good as any other basketball series, but the players themselves look downright phenomenal. For those people who are stupid, having only two players on the court instead of ten means you can put a lot more polygons into each of them; so, roughly, you could say that they are five times better looking than the average game model. When you pick your player in the menu, the image of their head is the most photo-realistic thing I have ever seen in a game. So, yeah, it's a good-looking game. It's also got online play in the final version, which I'm sure is a good time.
Serious Sam: Next Encounter - I'll say this much - it's superior to the X-Box version I recently purchased for $5. The load times are much faster, there are no game-halting glitches, and the combo-based FPS gameplay actually works. The hordes of creatures are much more intelligently placed, actually making it fun to plow through them and build up your combos. Still, saying that this game (as many critics have) harkens back to the good ol' days of simpler times with brainless FPSes is kind of a cop-out. The game is that, but that's not really a good thing. If you're going to make a game about sheer wall to wall killing, you need even more enemies, and even more firepower. Still, the game is fun, in the most mindless of ways. If you can get it for $10 or less, knock yourself out.
Galactic Wrestling: Featuring Ultimate Muscle: This used-to-be-a-Gamcube-game is apparently based on a series of tiny, fleshy wrestler figurines that I used to collect. Well, I remember them being a lot more fun than this game. I can assume something got lost in the translation from Gamecube, but I'm guessing this was more or less crap to begin with. The character designs are mildly interesting, as is the presentation (including the 'Gilbert Godfried with a megaphone' announcer), but the actual wrestling just feels sloppy and broken. You apparently have a decent amount of moves at your disposal, but attempting to pull them off was neither fun nor challenging - your wrestler pretty much does what he wants regardless. Poop.
The Red Star - Tom knows some dude at Acclaim who's working on this game, so I tried to play it with the most open mind possible while scrutinizing as much as I could. It's fun. It's nothing amazing, and only slightly more unique than most stuff I've played recently, but it's certainly playable. It's kind of a 3D side-scroller meets overhead shooter. Kind of. You basically trudge along horizantally in a quasi-3D fashion (think TMNT arcade game), shooting or fighting whomever you encounter. Shooting constantly is fun, but makes the game too mindless and easy, while fighting does the exact opposite. I'd definitely like to see that balanced a bit more before release. The level design was simple, but effective enough, with a consistent flow of bad guys to deal with and switches to flip. The best things about the demo, by far, were the mid-level and level bosses. Employing a pattern-based shooter method, you fight them as you would a boss in 1942 (the game, not the year), rather than the typical thugs that inhabit the rest of the level. The boss fights are fun and challenging, and feel like a 3D Contra done well. The worst thing about the demo was the sluggish walking speed. It really takes away from any sense of momentum the game has going, and just making wandering around a chore. They need a run button at the least if they expect me to play the final game.
World Tour Soccer 2005 - Soccer by 989. Get your shit together. 'Nuff said.
Siren - I don't like playing scary games. I can handle scary movies (unlike some people), but something about being in uncertain control of a scary situation myself just invokes some primal fear in me, and this extends to videogames. I force myself to play the Silent Hill game just because they're so damn good, and the odd Resident Evil here and there, but in general I steer clear. Anyhow, with that said, Siren seems pretty decent. The whole look and feel of the game is very nervous, with dim locales and sparse audio. It plays a bit like SH, only with a gimmick called "sight jacking" added into the mix. Basically, it comes down to you being able to see through the eyes of potential attackers (zombie-like creeps called Shibito - awesome name). it's creepy as shit, albeit not as useful as you'd think. And besides the off-putting 'Asian guy with a British accent', the cinemas as nicely done. If you're a fan of horror games, you'll probably dig it, although it's tough to judge such a game from a demo.
Everything Else -
They have a nice video showing off the camo features of MGS3, though it's a bit boring and looks badly compressed. They have the usual tips and downloads too, nothing special though. The monthly GT4 update is also ultra-lame with nothing but footage (no interviews, etc.). Though I must say, the new polygonal crowds look great. There's also a shitty Driver 3 (I refuse to use the real name) promo thingy video directed by Ridley Scott. It's weak.
Demos:
NBA Ballers - For whatever reason this game never really appealed to me before, even with the pretty positive reviews it garnered. I guess I just can't get into the intense rap culture vibe this game sells itself on. That's not to say it's a bad game though - quite the opposite. The 1-on-1 basketball in the game is very well-done, and shockingly compelling. The gameplay is about as deep as, and somewhat similar to, the NBA Street series, and that's a huge compliment. The controls felt a bit less intuitive than said series, but I'm sure with an hour or so more of playing it I'd have them down cold. One thing that I do need to note is the ridiculously realistic player models. The animation is as good as any other basketball series, but the players themselves look downright phenomenal. For those people who are stupid, having only two players on the court instead of ten means you can put a lot more polygons into each of them; so, roughly, you could say that they are five times better looking than the average game model. When you pick your player in the menu, the image of their head is the most photo-realistic thing I have ever seen in a game. So, yeah, it's a good-looking game. It's also got online play in the final version, which I'm sure is a good time.
Serious Sam: Next Encounter - I'll say this much - it's superior to the X-Box version I recently purchased for $5. The load times are much faster, there are no game-halting glitches, and the combo-based FPS gameplay actually works. The hordes of creatures are much more intelligently placed, actually making it fun to plow through them and build up your combos. Still, saying that this game (as many critics have) harkens back to the good ol' days of simpler times with brainless FPSes is kind of a cop-out. The game is that, but that's not really a good thing. If you're going to make a game about sheer wall to wall killing, you need even more enemies, and even more firepower. Still, the game is fun, in the most mindless of ways. If you can get it for $10 or less, knock yourself out.
Galactic Wrestling: Featuring Ultimate Muscle: This used-to-be-a-Gamcube-game is apparently based on a series of tiny, fleshy wrestler figurines that I used to collect. Well, I remember them being a lot more fun than this game. I can assume something got lost in the translation from Gamecube, but I'm guessing this was more or less crap to begin with. The character designs are mildly interesting, as is the presentation (including the 'Gilbert Godfried with a megaphone' announcer), but the actual wrestling just feels sloppy and broken. You apparently have a decent amount of moves at your disposal, but attempting to pull them off was neither fun nor challenging - your wrestler pretty much does what he wants regardless. Poop.
The Red Star - Tom knows some dude at Acclaim who's working on this game, so I tried to play it with the most open mind possible while scrutinizing as much as I could. It's fun. It's nothing amazing, and only slightly more unique than most stuff I've played recently, but it's certainly playable. It's kind of a 3D side-scroller meets overhead shooter. Kind of. You basically trudge along horizantally in a quasi-3D fashion (think TMNT arcade game), shooting or fighting whomever you encounter. Shooting constantly is fun, but makes the game too mindless and easy, while fighting does the exact opposite. I'd definitely like to see that balanced a bit more before release. The level design was simple, but effective enough, with a consistent flow of bad guys to deal with and switches to flip. The best things about the demo, by far, were the mid-level and level bosses. Employing a pattern-based shooter method, you fight them as you would a boss in 1942 (the game, not the year), rather than the typical thugs that inhabit the rest of the level. The boss fights are fun and challenging, and feel like a 3D Contra done well. The worst thing about the demo was the sluggish walking speed. It really takes away from any sense of momentum the game has going, and just making wandering around a chore. They need a run button at the least if they expect me to play the final game.
World Tour Soccer 2005 - Soccer by 989. Get your shit together. 'Nuff said.
Siren - I don't like playing scary games. I can handle scary movies (unlike some people), but something about being in uncertain control of a scary situation myself just invokes some primal fear in me, and this extends to videogames. I force myself to play the Silent Hill game just because they're so damn good, and the odd Resident Evil here and there, but in general I steer clear. Anyhow, with that said, Siren seems pretty decent. The whole look and feel of the game is very nervous, with dim locales and sparse audio. It plays a bit like SH, only with a gimmick called "sight jacking" added into the mix. Basically, it comes down to you being able to see through the eyes of potential attackers (zombie-like creeps called Shibito - awesome name). it's creepy as shit, albeit not as useful as you'd think. And besides the off-putting 'Asian guy with a British accent', the cinemas as nicely done. If you're a fan of horror games, you'll probably dig it, although it's tough to judge such a game from a demo.
Everything Else -
They have a nice video showing off the camo features of MGS3, though it's a bit boring and looks badly compressed. They have the usual tips and downloads too, nothing special though. The monthly GT4 update is also ultra-lame with nothing but footage (no interviews, etc.). Though I must say, the new polygonal crowds look great. There's also a shitty Driver 3 (I refuse to use the real name) promo thingy video directed by Ridley Scott. It's weak.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Burnout 2 is really fucking good
I've played a handful of the games I picked up last week at the $5 Circuit City clearance sale (which officially starts today, but good luck finding anything left), but Burnout 2 (Point of Impact: Director's Cut for X-Box) has quickly become my most-played game. I'd always been intrigued by the series and it's consistently good reviews, but rarely invest anything close to full price in racing titles since their replay is limited. At $5 though, I'll buy almost any game, and this one was a fucking steal like no steal before it.
The concept for the game is simple but brilliant - drive as dangerously as possible to drive as fast as possible. Each "near miss" you collect by almost brushing into oncoming traffic fills up your boost meter, which you can get a couple extra m.p.h. from when it's full. And when you use it, it stays almost full, so it only takes another near miss or two to fill up. You can imagine the ridiculous chains that can be performed. It extends beyond traffic, too - when you get into drifting (tapping brake at a sharp turn so that the back of your car spins out a bit, realigning you with the road), every corner you careen around skillfully gives you some boost for your meter; catching air off a bump on the highway does likewise. The ways and places in which you get more boost (besides driving close to other cars) all very feel natural, and are very subtly integrated. In other racing games, driving your best will help you win; in Burnout, they've added a middleman, which makes it ten times more fun than a regular race (if you didn't get these boosts, you'd never win, even with your best skills on display). I hate to spend so much time discussing such a simple gameplay device, but it's tough to appreciate unless you've played it.
All the basics in the game are top-notch as well. The graphics are gorgeous - there's a real sense of speed when you're racing, and the crashes look incredible in literal heart-pounding slow motion. The controls are as wonderfully simple as the game premise - right trigger to drive, left to brake, 'A' button to boost. That's really it. You can tap 'X' to glance behind you or 'Y' to change the song (more on that in a sec), but those obviously aren't integral to playing or enjoying the game. The menus are all simple and intuitive, and the load times are almost instant for restarting a race (a huge plus).
The main game is broken down into a couple different types of races. There's your typical lap races, one-off races to win a specific car, and pursuit races (play as a cop car, and catch up to and smash to bits a particular enemy car). All are totally enthralling, and all use the 'race dangerously' mechanic. And then, there's the Crash mode, probably the single greatest side mode in quite some time. Basically, you've got a small stretch of highway (or windy mountain path, seaside intersection, etc.) to cause the most chaos possible, and highest monetary damages. There are certain dollar amounts attached to broze, silver, and gold medals, ranging from $3 million to $50+ million. This gets insanely addictive, getting closer and closer to the desired amount with each attempt. And the difference usually comes down to the angle in which you smash the initial car's bumper or whether a bus grazes a lumber truck during the chain reaction. And sticking with the great presentation, each collision is presented in crashtacular slow motion, with a nice helicopter overview afterwards to show the extent of the destruction. You can even do it two-player, in a "beat this amount" horse-like game. Brilliant.
Last but not least, there's the custom soundtrack. This was the first time I'd taken advantage of this feature since getting my X-Box (and I think the only game I have that's capable of it), and holy tap-dancing christ is it great. Blazing along city streets (or spiraling through the air post-crash) listening to my favorite tunes is really fucking cool, and I now realize, really fucking underrated. No game should should be released without this feature. The X-Box has a damn hard drive, make some use of it. Oh, and while there isn't online play (wait for Burnout 3 for that), there are Live scoreboards you go check up on, showing where you rank for every race or crash or what have you. This sounds kinda lame, but seeing that I ranked only 805 in one crash test was pretty cool, and made me want to try that much harder to beat the record.
So, yes, this game is fantastic. If I'd have realized just how great it was earlier (and why), I would have certainly dropped fifty bones on it. The fact that I got it for five blows my mind. Kickass.
The concept for the game is simple but brilliant - drive as dangerously as possible to drive as fast as possible. Each "near miss" you collect by almost brushing into oncoming traffic fills up your boost meter, which you can get a couple extra m.p.h. from when it's full. And when you use it, it stays almost full, so it only takes another near miss or two to fill up. You can imagine the ridiculous chains that can be performed. It extends beyond traffic, too - when you get into drifting (tapping brake at a sharp turn so that the back of your car spins out a bit, realigning you with the road), every corner you careen around skillfully gives you some boost for your meter; catching air off a bump on the highway does likewise. The ways and places in which you get more boost (besides driving close to other cars) all very feel natural, and are very subtly integrated. In other racing games, driving your best will help you win; in Burnout, they've added a middleman, which makes it ten times more fun than a regular race (if you didn't get these boosts, you'd never win, even with your best skills on display). I hate to spend so much time discussing such a simple gameplay device, but it's tough to appreciate unless you've played it.
All the basics in the game are top-notch as well. The graphics are gorgeous - there's a real sense of speed when you're racing, and the crashes look incredible in literal heart-pounding slow motion. The controls are as wonderfully simple as the game premise - right trigger to drive, left to brake, 'A' button to boost. That's really it. You can tap 'X' to glance behind you or 'Y' to change the song (more on that in a sec), but those obviously aren't integral to playing or enjoying the game. The menus are all simple and intuitive, and the load times are almost instant for restarting a race (a huge plus).
The main game is broken down into a couple different types of races. There's your typical lap races, one-off races to win a specific car, and pursuit races (play as a cop car, and catch up to and smash to bits a particular enemy car). All are totally enthralling, and all use the 'race dangerously' mechanic. And then, there's the Crash mode, probably the single greatest side mode in quite some time. Basically, you've got a small stretch of highway (or windy mountain path, seaside intersection, etc.) to cause the most chaos possible, and highest monetary damages. There are certain dollar amounts attached to broze, silver, and gold medals, ranging from $3 million to $50+ million. This gets insanely addictive, getting closer and closer to the desired amount with each attempt. And the difference usually comes down to the angle in which you smash the initial car's bumper or whether a bus grazes a lumber truck during the chain reaction. And sticking with the great presentation, each collision is presented in crashtacular slow motion, with a nice helicopter overview afterwards to show the extent of the destruction. You can even do it two-player, in a "beat this amount" horse-like game. Brilliant.
Last but not least, there's the custom soundtrack. This was the first time I'd taken advantage of this feature since getting my X-Box (and I think the only game I have that's capable of it), and holy tap-dancing christ is it great. Blazing along city streets (or spiraling through the air post-crash) listening to my favorite tunes is really fucking cool, and I now realize, really fucking underrated. No game should should be released without this feature. The X-Box has a damn hard drive, make some use of it. Oh, and while there isn't online play (wait for Burnout 3 for that), there are Live scoreboards you go check up on, showing where you rank for every race or crash or what have you. This sounds kinda lame, but seeing that I ranked only 805 in one crash test was pretty cool, and made me want to try that much harder to beat the record.
So, yes, this game is fantastic. If I'd have realized just how great it was earlier (and why), I would have certainly dropped fifty bones on it. The fact that I got it for five blows my mind. Kickass.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]