Bulletstorm: Everything Old is New Again...Maybe

Ahhh Bulletstorm, from unknown, to potential sleeper hit to regular guest star on Cliffy B's Twitter feed, the game's momentum just seems to keep growing. My enthusiasm, on the other hand, maxes out at "curious" at best. While the game does seem to have the potential for some serious fun, I have some issues with the "kill with skill" combat system at the core of most of the hype that ranges from serious potential for fun-killing repetitiveness to the fact that it's not as original as the parties involved would like you to think.

The main bullet point amidst this storm is that the game isn't just about killing enemies and moving on, it's about killing them with creative and potentially hilarious combos in order to be awarded the maximum number of points for that kill. More points lead to more power-ups lead to more ways to kill enemies.

In order to do this your character is equipped with an energy whip and a time-slowing kick in addition to it's more traditional FPS arsenal. Have a look at this summarizing video, courtesy of IGN, to see what I mean.

More Bulletstorm Videos

Where I start having issues is that I have yet to ready about anything besides the energy whip and boot appearing in your combo-making arsenal. How many times/ways can you pull an enemy towards you, kick it away then shoot it? Or kick an enemy away then pull it towards you and THEN shoot it? Or...erm just eliminate one of those steps and do that. See my problem? I can see the gameplay being really fun...for an hour or two. After that they better have something in store to shake things up a little or the average player is going to get bored long before the end credits roll.

This actually brings me to my other point, MadWorld. "What? That crazy, over-the-top-violence Wii game?" Yup. For those that missed this one, MadWorld is about killing your enemies with the most violent combos possible. You still get points for just chopping a guy in half, but you get a lot more if you jam a tire down over his head, ram a street sign through his skull and THEN chop him in half. Sound familiar? Have a look. (Warning, don't let the cartoony black-and-white graphics fool you, this game is VERY violent)

More MadWorld Videos

It almost seems like someone at People Can Fly (the people behind the game) played MadWorld and said "Hey, we should do this with guns!" After all, Bulletstorm was originally a 3rd person game. The additional problem here is that MadWorld seemed to run out of ideas for combos by the end, and the game was only about 4 hours long. When such a short play time will never fly (see what I did there?) with gamers on the "hardcore" consoles (360 and PS3) can Bulletstorm avoid running into the same, potentially disastrous shortcoming? It's still pretty early to tell, but without some really creative weapons, lots of environmental kills or something besides the whip and boot I can't honestly say that I'm holding out much hope. Their latest PR stunt was pretty entertaining though...

We Need More Giant Robot Games. Also: Yes Kojima, You Really Should Retire Snake.

First I'd like to say, if you already know exactly what giant robot game I'm going to talk about, congratulations on your acceptance into my personal "You're Cool" club.

Close your eyes and just think to yourself, "When was the last time a good giant robot game came out?" Depressing, isn't it? Considering the we're closing in on what would normally be the twilight of a console generation, having to look to the previous generation for any worthwhile entries into the genre leaves any gamer that grew up on Voltron,Transformers or Power Rangers quite blue.

The Armored Core series has been pretty downhill since the second game; and Chromehounds did not help From Software, who developed both series, to reclaim any credibility within the genre. Applying the Dynasty Warriors formula to the Gundam Universe also disappointed quite thoroughly. There have been a few other attempts this generation...but all of them failed to impress. Some hope still exists for Activision's Transformers:War For Cybertron, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Especially with the average pedigree of developer High Moon Studios. Fingers crossed though...

Sure, we occasionally get some decent giant robot action thrown into our other games. Lost Planet, FEAR 2, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Killzone 2 (you know, that one part). In the end though, a giant robot game is just not the same as a game with giant robots. Porting Virtual-On to LIVE Arcade doesn't count either.

So what happened? I don't believe there's anything noteworthy, if anything at all, on the horizon for some giant robot-on-robot, city-smashing, love. We came from Armored Core, MechAssault, Zone of the Enders, Steel Batallion (assuming you could afford it and find a place for the controller) to a complete vacuum. I'm not even picky! Give me the slow, plodding T-A-N-K-! style play of Mechassault or the fast-paced, anime-flavored combat of a Z.O.E. game and I'll be thrilled.

The technology currently on the table, or rather entertainment center, is particularly good at rendering metal armor, stones, and the accompanying lighting effects (according to Cliff "not Cliffy B" Bleszinski anyway). Hmm, good at rendering metal, stone, lighting ef-GIANT ROBOTS! You know how they say some formulas just scream out the answer? Like graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate screams...? Exactly. Well that's one of them.

Am I to believe that Activision, Transformers, and whatever re-skinned Armored Core From Software decides to poop out are all I have to choose from? What happened to all the people making these games? Will people abandon their WWII soldiers, modern day soldiers, and futuristic soldiers to shoot bad guys with a giant robot instead? I think they just might, especially if it's pretty.

Which brings me to Kojima. Leave Snake alone. you've said you were going to do it every game for nearly a decade, just do it. The story of Solid Snake has been as neatly tied up as once could expect from the trip through "WTF"-land that was the Metal Gear Solid series. The stealth genre is changing drastically to accommodate a market that, by and large, wants to shoot things, not hide from them. You're halfway there with letting another team take Metal Gear: Rising in another direction (assuming he stays "hands-off" as a producer). A huge "thank you" for that, by the way because, as I've mentioned twice before, I have to see how Raiden went from whiny wanna-be to kick-ass cybernetic ninja. Then, however, you cheated by creating the Naked Snake storyline to continue on with an almost identical character to Solid Snake acting out almost identical gameplay.

Just leave them all alone. You've go other series to work on. Give us another Zone of the Enders, because the world needs giant robot games. Kojima's name on a giant robot game could bring out quite the audience with the accolades MGS4 managed to capture. With one successful giant robot game comes others. With other giant robot games comes competition. With competition comes awesome giant robot games. And that's what we're working for here, folks.

Just let Snake die, he's old. Move on to some other series, or even give us a whole new one. Let the stealth genre settle down a little bit, not even Sam Fisher just sneaks around guys anymore. If technology evolves or you come up with an entirely new, truly revolutionary game mechanic feel free to do a reboot. In chronological order would be nice, since MGS3 managed to take place before MG, MG2, MGS, and MGS2. For the uninitiated, that means the 5th game (called the 3rd) in the series took place, chronologically, before the first game, which was made over 20 years ago. A modern take on the earliest games in the series (Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2) would be quite the moment for long-time fans too.

In the meantime, give us back our giant robot games. Oh, and Kojima-san? While we're talking about reboots and reviving franchises and what-not, remember Snatcher...?

Some Cheers, Some Tears, Mostly Huh?'s

Those of you interested in the status of your favorite "is it ever actually coming out!?" game can check out the latest "Life Support" article over at IGN.

This lists the general status of several titles whose development status has remained amazingly questionable, for years in some cases. (Yes, Duke Nukem Forever is still on there, 13 years and counting!)

There is one interesting tidbit for readers of Higher Tech, Beyond Good and Evil 2 has had it's status bumped up to stable. However, no new details have emerged since HT last covered the game, so I'm not sure what caused the slight status promotion. But feel free to check everything out at the link above.

New BioShock, same Tunnelvision

Well it seems that 2k managed to botch the widescreen in the PC version of BioShock 2. Hmm...this sounds familiar...

It's nice to see 2k getting on top of patching the issue in such a timely fashion, but didn't they learn their lesson last time? In case you missed the first BioShock (whaaaaaat!?) or just need a refresher, the game clipped off the top and bottom of the image when played on widescreen monitors or television. Normally, widescreen expands the sides of the image by essentially making the entire image smaller and then utilizing the extra real estate on either side to display wider image on the screen (get it?). This is what the "letterbox" effect is when you watch a widescreen movie on a normal 4:3 television. Same idea in a video game.

What 2k did with BioShock (and now Bioshock 2) however was simply leave the image at it's original size and clip a little of the top and bottom of the image, actually limiting the player's field of view rather than improving it. This is not how widescreen is supposed to work. (Any goldfish that might be reading this, see explanation above)

It's nice to see that 2K has the patch up today, supposedly, I haven't been able to find it. Regardless, why are we going through this again? This is the exact same issue that affected the original BioShock. Did the developers at 2k somehow forget the whole debacle in the 3 years between the titles? Maybe they should just start prepping the widescreen patch for BioShock 3 now. Especially because, with the first to being as awesome as they are, you bet I'm going to be picking that up as soon as it comes out, and I'd prefer that it work on my monitor right out of the box this time.

All Beyond Good & Evil fans: join me in saying "Hip-hip-huh?"

So apparently Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development, according to IGN and Ubisoft. This is stark contrast to comments made by Ubisoft president, Laurent Detoc, last July which gave the feeling BG&E2 had been put on indefinite hold or scrapped altogether.

At the time, Detoc said: "Whether or not it comes out remains to be seen anyway, but we didn't want to abandon that IP because it has a cache and authenticity about it," Detoc said at the time. "There's something very pure about that game and it's too bad that we were not able to build it as an IP at the time."

Wait...you're telling me that you're company is continuing to spend time and money on developing a game that you're not even sure will be released. Yeah, sure, that makes sense...to a crazy person. Although it's better than the alternative of the game being scrapped altogether.

So I'm not sure who these sources at Ubisoft are, but I wish they'd been a little more detailed. Anyways, enjoy the original teaser video (confirmed as being in-game by Ubisoft) as well as leaked footage that is, for some reason, still debated as to whether or not it's in-game, actually BG&E2, or even real at all. Courtesy of those crazy bastards at IGN.

For those of you that don't care because you didn't play the first game (which was the majority of you or the sequel wouldn't be on such shaky ground): the biggest, fattest "Shame on you" I can muster. Because you missed out on an absolutely FANTASTIC game. And since it came out on Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox AND PC I recommend you go pick it up right now and play it. Chances are you have one of those systems around, or a backwards compatible successor, if you're even at this site in the first place. Go. No, don't waste time watching these videos, GO! NOW!

Teaser

Beyond Good & Evil 2 at IGN.com

Leaked Footage

Beyond Good & Evil 2 at IGN.com

Supreme Commander 2 details.

Fans of science fiction RTS rejoice! No, StarCraft II hasnt' been released early, sorry. Didn't mean to get your hopes up. However, IGN has details on Supreme Commander II and that's almost as good...kinda.
On a related note however, those unimpressed by SupComm 1's lacking story and those worried about the newly forged partnership with Square Enix can both find some solace in the knowledge that Square Enix's hand in the project will be to beef up the story. Or not, depending on your reasons for trepidation regarding the Square Enix partnership. The rest of you, however will likely be glad to hear about SupComm 2 being treated to "an involved story that features fractured relationships between a core cast of characters will be told, chiefly through brief in-engine cutscenes at the beginning of missions and, refreshingly, during the gameplay itself, with plot and character development coming over the radios as the plot-specific units chat to each other. " Sounds somewhat like that other big SciFi RTS of years past don't it? Emphasis on the "SciFi." This is still Supreme Commander so some of those characters are going to be robots, insectoid aliens, talking brains in jars and dinsoaurs wearing powered armor.
Besides the storyline focus, SupComm 2 will be making some changes to its multiplayer. Namely that GDG net is no longer a part of the game. Instead the game will be completely integrated into Valve's Steam software and utilize it's powerful, and popular, features.
Other things to get some simplification include the game's economy system. Gone is the complex web of SupComm1 and returned is the more traditional system of gathering, and saving, resources used to buy structures and technology upgrades. Much like the simplification that took place in Final Fantasy 7 (see what I did there?) the developers are hoping a simplification of the game's trickier mechanics will attract more players.
Even the code of the game itself has been simplified, allowing SupComm 2 to be played on PC's with lower specifications than the minimum requirements of SupComm 1. For those that missed out on the first game due to lack of a "serious" gaming rig or Xbox 360, this is fantastic news indeed. However, this did cost the game it's ability to support custom maps; though general modding is still possible.
Of course, this being a sequel and all, expect the requisite upgrades to graphics, maps and units. Did I mention that the game will have a canon that fires TANKS!? All in all, there's plenty of reason to get excited when the game releases sometime this March.

Psh! Nailed it! Dead Space

You know, I liked the original Dead Space, but I felt like it didn't quite live up to one of its promises: the weapons.
The weapons, for the most part were definitely cool, but what happened to the ideology that your main man, Isaac Clarke, is an engineer/repairman, not a soldier? What happened to not finding your standard 3rd-person-shooter weapons and having to make do with workbench tools? I'll give credit on trying to give story context to things like having a full-on flamethrower instead of, say, a welding torch, or for the massive "boss fight/large enemy" gun but some of the stuff...just no. I mean, I'll give you the Line Gun for cutting ore or whatever, these are miners, but when is a miner going to need timed mines (ooo, I get it) that shoot out spinning lasers and dismember everything within range? So with a sequel coming out that has such cool new features as multiplayer, how about fulfilling some of that "not your standard weapons" promise? Maybe something like a nail gun? I know Extraction had the rivet gun but that doesn't quite count since A) Extraction was a side story and B) it nailed things to the wall, not enemies.
Come on guys, plenty of other games have had such weapons, even if they didn't quite make sense when you stopped to think about it, why can't Dead Space? You could even make a specific battle out of it. Have a Necromorph with body parts that make their way back to the main body and rejoin it once dismembered. That way you've gotta nail those damn pesky...appendages to the wall/floor to stop the beast. Imagine the multiplayer smack talk applications!
"OOOhhh I just cut of yo arm bitch! And now it's nailed to the wall! What now, one-armed man?"
My vision's going all slotted just thinking about it!
Of course with news on the sequel slowly trickling out, it looks like the Javelin Gun coming in DS2 may fulfill my wishes. I guess we'll see when it releases in...when it releases.