Sunday, February 13, 2005
Pac Man vs Unreal Championship 2
I got $20 on Pac Man. Anyone who can eat ghosts is a bad ass in my book.
It's time to gather around the fireplace and listen to Uncle Tom's Video Game Impressions of the Week. Despite my assertion that no new game would come into my possession until March 1st, a new game did, in fact, enter my apartment on Friday night. Technically, it's my roommate Tim's, but that is just an exploited loophole that provided an hour of pure entertainment for three very lucky gentleman. By way of a 90% off deal at Toys R Us last week, Nick was able to procure a copy of the fabled Pac Man Vs; a game so fiendishly simple I have been eying it seductively for more than a year now, but never got up the nerve to talk to it until Friday.
Some of you may be wondering what this so called Pac Man Vs could possibly refer to. Is it actually a brand new Pac Man title, you may be wondering, only our beloved hero takes on ghosts, pellets and Marvel characters in a 2D fighting game? No, it's not even close to that. Rather, this is just a multiplayer update to the classic arcade title that is now more than 47 years old. If you are entertaining any idea that Pac Man Vs is an attempt to modernize the best dang circle shaped hero of our lifetime for a newer generation, you couldn't be further from the truth.
The game functions thusly - one player, using the Gameboy Advance, tethers their bite sized system to it's big brother Johnny Gamecube and plays an actual game of Pac Man. You know the game: a maze of dots and pellets populated by evil ghosts named Pinky, Blinky and Stinky, a bushel of some fruit or another and one hungry disembodied head. This is a straight port of the arcade classic in almost every single sense. There is still the rudimentary four color, 2 bit graphics and the same old school music and "Paku paku paku" sound effects. This is as old school as you can get.
The other players, up to three able bodied humans, use standard Gamecube controllers and a television for easy viewing pleasure. Instead of teaming up with the Pac Man by controlling the bowed Ms. variety or any of his deadbeat children, you control the archenemy of hungry circles the world over: the ghosts. The trick is, you are only able to see a small fraction of the screen. So, while your friend, using the classic Pac Man view on a GBA, is able to maneuver the good guy easily around the level with every dot and ghost in easy view, the ghosts are confided to desperately searching out he-who-eats dots while yelling strategies and advise to their fellow ghosts.
This formula works swimmingly. With only three humans participating, two of which are controlling ghosts, Pac Man has a slight edge over the competition. However, with good old fashioned teamwork and some skillful navigation, it is quite easy to trap Pac Man and touch him. Once he is caught, the catcher then takes hold of the GBA and the former Pac Man now controls a ghost. It is just a fantastic system. It's no surprise this game was merely packed in with other, more complex, Namco titles as it is truly one of the most simple "new" games to be released this generation. However, that in no way is a measure of just how much fun it is to control the evil ghosts for the very first time. It is so much fun trying to out think your friend, or springing on them when they weren't paying attention, that you will quickly forget just how dated the game truly is.
Plus:
"Pac Man ate a ghost!"
Last night I played a few demos as well. I'm sure Nick wants to jump on G-Pinions with impressions of the shockingly good Area 51 and the been there, done that gameplay present in Return to Arms, so I'll talk about a personal favorite of mine: Unreal Championship 2.
This is a huge franchise on PCs. Probably the best, and most popular, multiplayer FPS series around. It's lightning fast and highly addicting. It's also really hard for someone like me who lives and dies in the world of consoles. However, as good as the PC games are, they simply do not translate to the console world. You will never hear me say the Keyboard and Mouse combination is superior to the standard console controller, but it certainly offers a gameplay experience that simply cannot be duplicated with two analog sticks. Because of this, the best FPS titles on consoles are much slower than what you would find on a PC. For instance, games like GE and Halo, which do not require lightning fast reflexes or a high degree of coordination to compete, are the best representation of good console FPS.
Thankfully, the company that makes Unreal realizes the difference and built this new title from the ground up for the Xbox. Because of this, you get a completely unique experience that should be able to stand among the greats when it is released in a few months.
The element that most differentiates UT2 from other console FPS titles is the ability to switch between first and third person at the touch of a button. The advantages of each is readily apparent - in first person it is much easier to accurately target your enemy with a gun. For anyone who isn't retarded, you'll realize this is a rather large part of any shooter. The game is balanced almost perfectly, so don't expect any sort of disadvantage while being in the third person. Here you can roam around the environment much easier than you would otherwise be able to and attack melee style. This is what really makes the game great. Unlike Halo 2, which made the sword so cheap as to steer the game towards unplayable territory, every character can go medieval on someone and take them down with a few switch punches and slashes.
Probably the coolest thing, that I wasn't able to really understand in my brief play through, in the inclusion of different characters. This is much more sophisticated than the skin swap in Halo 2 or the different heights from Goldeneye. Instead, each character is actually completely different. For instance, there is a sniper character who, well, shoots from afar. I was a Wolverine type guy who was much better in hand to hand combat, but quite slow. As long as each character is balanced this should provide a much deeper play experience than other FPS titles. Also the game looks fantastic.
That's it. Hopefully next week you'll hear about Paper Mario 2. 2 Cool 4 You.
It's time to gather around the fireplace and listen to Uncle Tom's Video Game Impressions of the Week. Despite my assertion that no new game would come into my possession until March 1st, a new game did, in fact, enter my apartment on Friday night. Technically, it's my roommate Tim's, but that is just an exploited loophole that provided an hour of pure entertainment for three very lucky gentleman. By way of a 90% off deal at Toys R Us last week, Nick was able to procure a copy of the fabled Pac Man Vs; a game so fiendishly simple I have been eying it seductively for more than a year now, but never got up the nerve to talk to it until Friday.
Some of you may be wondering what this so called Pac Man Vs could possibly refer to. Is it actually a brand new Pac Man title, you may be wondering, only our beloved hero takes on ghosts, pellets and Marvel characters in a 2D fighting game? No, it's not even close to that. Rather, this is just a multiplayer update to the classic arcade title that is now more than 47 years old. If you are entertaining any idea that Pac Man Vs is an attempt to modernize the best dang circle shaped hero of our lifetime for a newer generation, you couldn't be further from the truth.
The game functions thusly - one player, using the Gameboy Advance, tethers their bite sized system to it's big brother Johnny Gamecube and plays an actual game of Pac Man. You know the game: a maze of dots and pellets populated by evil ghosts named Pinky, Blinky and Stinky, a bushel of some fruit or another and one hungry disembodied head. This is a straight port of the arcade classic in almost every single sense. There is still the rudimentary four color, 2 bit graphics and the same old school music and "Paku paku paku" sound effects. This is as old school as you can get.
The other players, up to three able bodied humans, use standard Gamecube controllers and a television for easy viewing pleasure. Instead of teaming up with the Pac Man by controlling the bowed Ms. variety or any of his deadbeat children, you control the archenemy of hungry circles the world over: the ghosts. The trick is, you are only able to see a small fraction of the screen. So, while your friend, using the classic Pac Man view on a GBA, is able to maneuver the good guy easily around the level with every dot and ghost in easy view, the ghosts are confided to desperately searching out he-who-eats dots while yelling strategies and advise to their fellow ghosts.
This formula works swimmingly. With only three humans participating, two of which are controlling ghosts, Pac Man has a slight edge over the competition. However, with good old fashioned teamwork and some skillful navigation, it is quite easy to trap Pac Man and touch him. Once he is caught, the catcher then takes hold of the GBA and the former Pac Man now controls a ghost. It is just a fantastic system. It's no surprise this game was merely packed in with other, more complex, Namco titles as it is truly one of the most simple "new" games to be released this generation. However, that in no way is a measure of just how much fun it is to control the evil ghosts for the very first time. It is so much fun trying to out think your friend, or springing on them when they weren't paying attention, that you will quickly forget just how dated the game truly is.
Plus:
"Pac Man ate a ghost!"
Last night I played a few demos as well. I'm sure Nick wants to jump on G-Pinions with impressions of the shockingly good Area 51 and the been there, done that gameplay present in Return to Arms, so I'll talk about a personal favorite of mine: Unreal Championship 2.
This is a huge franchise on PCs. Probably the best, and most popular, multiplayer FPS series around. It's lightning fast and highly addicting. It's also really hard for someone like me who lives and dies in the world of consoles. However, as good as the PC games are, they simply do not translate to the console world. You will never hear me say the Keyboard and Mouse combination is superior to the standard console controller, but it certainly offers a gameplay experience that simply cannot be duplicated with two analog sticks. Because of this, the best FPS titles on consoles are much slower than what you would find on a PC. For instance, games like GE and Halo, which do not require lightning fast reflexes or a high degree of coordination to compete, are the best representation of good console FPS.
Thankfully, the company that makes Unreal realizes the difference and built this new title from the ground up for the Xbox. Because of this, you get a completely unique experience that should be able to stand among the greats when it is released in a few months.
The element that most differentiates UT2 from other console FPS titles is the ability to switch between first and third person at the touch of a button. The advantages of each is readily apparent - in first person it is much easier to accurately target your enemy with a gun. For anyone who isn't retarded, you'll realize this is a rather large part of any shooter. The game is balanced almost perfectly, so don't expect any sort of disadvantage while being in the third person. Here you can roam around the environment much easier than you would otherwise be able to and attack melee style. This is what really makes the game great. Unlike Halo 2, which made the sword so cheap as to steer the game towards unplayable territory, every character can go medieval on someone and take them down with a few switch punches and slashes.
Probably the coolest thing, that I wasn't able to really understand in my brief play through, in the inclusion of different characters. This is much more sophisticated than the skin swap in Halo 2 or the different heights from Goldeneye. Instead, each character is actually completely different. For instance, there is a sniper character who, well, shoots from afar. I was a Wolverine type guy who was much better in hand to hand combat, but quite slow. As long as each character is balanced this should provide a much deeper play experience than other FPS titles. Also the game looks fantastic.
That's it. Hopefully next week you'll hear about Paper Mario 2. 2 Cool 4 You.
// posted by Tom @ 1:00 PM 
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