I once heard Assassin’s Creed described as nailing the prom queen. She looks really good in her dress but once you get her in bed she just kinda lays there. For many parts of the first Assassin’s Creed, I’d have to agree. The game to me was breath-taking: it had great sound, great environments, and – though slightly odd – a well written story. However, once you got down to the actual gameplay it became repetitive, and it became easy to lose interest. Assassin’s Creed 2 takes the vision behind the first game, and spends plenty of time polishing the story. I found myself being led into really enjoying the characters this time, and believing they had emotion and a reason for being. The first Assassin’s Creed – though experiencing many gripes – was what I believed to be an experiment in world interaction and sandbox style free-running which was pulled off very well in most regards.

Upon booting AC2, I found my character in the same prison he was held in during the first game, and waiting once again for freedom. A quick monologue to catch you up to speed in case you missed the first game and away the action goes. AC2 certainly wastes no time in getting going, and keeps you on your toes just as much online action games or party bets do. Sprung from prison, you begin your escape route being flung into the trunk of a car and taken to a secret lab where they will analyze your memories to turn you into a modern-day version of your ancestors. I couldn’t help but notice that the faces on many of the characters looked odd, the lovely woman who sprung you had huge lips, which when animated definitely helped display her emotion, but when standing still looked creepy and unnatural. Some of the character models in the modern-day cut scenes looked sub-par, especially when compared to Ezio’s world of Italy.

A huge help to fixing the redundancy that AC1 suffered from is that Italy has many varied landscapes and artistically diverse cities that they can send you to. Moving from city to city in AC2 feels much more varied and exciting. I was also pleased to leave behind the pattern of receive mission, pick-pocket, recon, assassinate, wash, rinse, repeat. Allowing you to use varied tools, escape plans, and breaking into areas however you see fit (paying hookers to assist included!). Also, a nicely added system is the world economy. Since you are a noble, you are allowed to re-invest your personal finances into building brothels, taverns, etc. into the city, and will earn money from them as they progress. These reasons cited, and then adding the items from Leonardo DaVinci on top of Ezio’s vengeance driven motives, you get a title with much more depth and entertainment than the first game offered. This game motivated me to continue much further than the first, and I find myself wanting to grind more into the game to help build my city, strengthen my fighting, and finish my revenge. Ubisoft’s open mind to their consumer’s wants have helped this title grow to solid AAA title.

To add a geek side-note, I’m super pleased with my collector’s edition content. The one offered at Gamestop for 79.99 came with a very nice, very detailed statue of Ezio standing 7.5 inches tall, and looking great. Also included are extra maps for more game play. If you were lucky enough to have one reserved, or find one unclaimed, I highly recommend picking it up. I buy and receive a lot of collector’s editions, and most that include a “statue” (Street Fighter, I’m looking at you and your barely passable RYU/C-VIPER.) generally deliver a 3″ action figure. It’s nice to see a collector’s edition with a solid amount of content for a reasonable price.

Loved:

• The huge immersive world, smoothness of the interaction between AI and Ezio while in Italy.
• The acrobatics system, climbing, and audio all felt exceptionally polished.
• Collecting items while in game felt much stronger, instead of discovering banners across the world, you are picking up feathers with sentimental value to your mother who hasn’t spoken since your family tragedy (I’ll leave the events secret to prevent too many spoilers).

Hated:

• The cut-scene style execution of the modern-day looked spotty. Some character models looked very detailed and strong, while others seemed half-assed and weird.
• While controlling Desmond Miles I watched my character run for no reason, and then with a horror-film style rigidity he began walking slowly again, and then returned to running.
• It felt like anything involving Ezio was highly polished and very detailed, while anything in modern-day was an afterthought to the game.

Rating:

• Graphics – 8
• Audio – 9
• Replay -9
• Controls- 9
• Overall- 8.75

Click Images Below to Purchase From Amazon

For those that haven’t played the new Call of Duty and want to avoid spoilers, you might want to stop reading this article here.

The “No Russian” airport mission was deemed too much for the Russian government, hence the recall. Infinity Ward seems to understand the reason for it, and have released patch for the PC version. They have also announced an edited version of the discs expected back in Russia within the month.

[Care of GotPS3.ru translated by Hellforge]

For some reason I’ve been drawn to Mario Bros. games since their inception. And  so when I heard about a classic style Mario game capable of four simultaneous players announced at this years E3, my interests were instantly peaked.

Putting it in and playing the first few levels greatly reminded me of  Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. DS. (Forgetting that it’s up to four players for the moment.) The controls are like any other Mario game, with the exception of a motion sensor  used to pick things up, use certain items (either by twisting or tilting), and dismounting Yoshi. You can also play with the nun-chuck, which I found instantly confusing and went right back to playing with the side-ways wii-remote.

Like many of the Mario Bros. games they have some new suits to give the game some new “Twists” such as the propeller suit, the Penguin suit, and some cold overalls that allow Mario to huck snowballs. As well as some power-ups that we’ve already seen, Fire power, and the Mini-mushroom. You won’t even notice while playing, but they removed all the items that possess any ability that resembles true flight. (You’ll find that the propeller suit is nowhere close.)

The story is the same as the original game. In the first scene all of the characters are having a party at the castle, and the bad guys show up, trap the princess, and throw her on their airship. The airship is full of all of Bowser’s kids. (you’ve fought all of them in some of the other games.) The airship drops them off at different towers throughout the worlds, and that’s where the boss battles come from.

I hate to sound repetitious, and so I will sum up the entire game as Mario-like, and move on to the four-player mode. At first it may come off as a downer statement but I think that it’s true to say, Mario Bros. isn’t meant to be a four player game. And with this massive hurdle they still accomplished to make it fun to do.

But there are some serious problems. First off, playing with anyone (also woman, and children) below your skill level can get agitating. So if you’re one of those guys that do speed runs beating the levels with four well placed jumps, I don’t think this mode is for you.

Secondly, because you re-spawn in the level, you can hardly die at all if you are playing with adequate players.

Thirdly, some places are beyond congested with four players, and being bunched up, losing track of who you are, and getting bounced on until you fall into a pit is also annoying.

Lastly, with four players in as established a universe as Mario. I think you should be able to choose from more than Mario, Luigi, and two generic toads. (If anyone thinks I’m too harsh with Mario Bros., I just have to tell them that I didn’t have anything bad to say about Super Mario Bros. Sunshine. Which I think says a lot.)

On the positive side, it is really fun with four player similar to multiplayer poker, but more as a social time filler.

And at the end of it all. Bowser’s castle is easier than most, but Bowser himself can be pretty difficult. I think this title was successful because right after going through it the first time, I feel like going through and playing it again. There is a lot of extra stuff to do, not only are there lots of star coins in every stage to find, but after you beat the game you get extra content for each world that you have all the coins from.

And it has all the same kind of extra stuff that you would expect from a normal Mario game. Secret goal points, Cannon warps, extra item games. If you are interested in finding all the secrets this title will keep you busy for a really long time. And then even after you master all the secrets, it’s still fun to run quickly through again.

Ultimately I don’t think that it’s the best side-scrolling Mario game to date, but it is still really good, and worth playing. Easily better than New Super Mario Bros. DS

Update for single player: I just went through and beat the single player, and I was disappointed to find out that all the challenges I had going through the first time, were due to incompetent compatriots. Bowser and his level took one try, where I was never even regressed to smallness. So Derek, if you’re reading this you were right. This game might be a little too easy.

Score
• Graphics – 8
• Audio – 8
• Gameplay – 8
• Replay – 10
• Overall – 8.5

You can buy it on Amazon. Which seems to be the best deal, because it’s already discounted!

On Tuesday, November 17th, the Utah Symphony at Abravenal Hall is presenting “Play! A Video Game Symphony” which is a presentation of video game music presented by a live symphony orchestra. The music comes from games like Halo, Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, World of Warcraft, and many more.

Big Shiny Robot! is giving away two tickets to the event to one lucky winner.

For everyone who doesn’t win the contest, tickets are still available at their website. Having just seen Star Wars in Concert, I’m quite pumped for this evening at the Symphony and have already bought my tickets.

In order to win, all you need to do is add us to your Facebook and/or Twitter and update your status to say:

Big Shiny Robot! (www.bigshinyrobot.com or @bigshinyrobot) is where I get all of my geek news and reviews.

Then leave a comment here, telling us that you’ve done the deed. Make sure you put your real name and email address in the comment bar. And we’ll be giving the tickets away on Monday, as the show is Tuesday.

FACE YOUR DESTINY ON MARCH 9, 2010 – FINAL FANTASY XIII LAUNCHES IN NORTH AMERICA
Multi-Platinum Singer Songwriter Leona Lewis
Offers Brand New Song “My Hands” As Game’s Theme Song

LOS ANGELES (November 13, 2009) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in North America announced today the highly anticipated street date for FINAL FANTASY® XIII. This latest project in the multi-platinum FINAL FANTASY series promises to be intensely compelling and will be available for both the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft on March 9, 2010.

I was surprised how quickly I began to hear about FFXIII so shortly after FFXII came out. And not just heard, there was some really cool images and videos out as well, and so I’ve had my hopes up since about 2006. I just didn’t know  how long I’d be waiting. Well it was a long time coming, but we waited, and now it’s here. Everything I’ve seen about FFXIII makes me want to play it as soon as humanly possible, and now my only hope is that it doesn’t disappoint.

(I believe I heard at some point that Final Fantasy XIII Versus was supposed to come out the same day as the main game, but I can’t find any evidence of the reality of this fact. So there might be another wait ahead?)

You can pre-order your copy of FFXIII on Amazon.com by clicking this link!

Some cool game shots below!

(Click the images to make them bigger.)

This is the footage they showed at this years E3.

The Mrs. was out with friends the other night and returned home with the coolest energy drinks I’ve ever seen. Thought I’d share em with everybody, she purchased them at Hastings, which I didn’t even know existed in our great state.

It’s here, it’s finally here! We all have been waiting so long for this game. Writing a review for a game like this feels almost pointless at times. Though a good friend back east (and some shady retailer dealings in NY) had already claimed me a copy a week prior I still braved my local game store with the BSR crew to pick up their copies. “Standing room only” doesn’t even begin to describe the situation we faced. The hype was there, but did the game deliver? I’d say minus a few polish issues hells yes it did, the bags under my eyes definitely prove that fact.

SPOILER ALERT: I’m going talk about whatever I want and it may or may not contain spoilers.

I will preface this review with the statement that the team from Infinity Ward took every consideration for their audience in building this game. They literally built two separate paths to help you avoid the “offensive content” involved in the story. This alone is more than enough proof of that. The character models looked a little bit better than the original Modern Warfare, but the animation and motion felt so much faster. Whether chasing a weapons dealer through the streets of Brazil, or making myself uncomfortable slaughtering civilians in a Russian airport, the action is heart-pounding. I found myself loving the character development, and actually congratulating myself as I accomplished achievements and missions. The vast amount of weapons, and creative use of them warms the heart of any shooter enthusiast. From heart-beat monitors to a lap-top that drops direct strike missiles (yeah I lost a multi-player  game or two against those ). Infinity ward really spent a solid amount of time giving you a diverse experience, with a diverse play style, and loads of weapons.

During single player I loved the different strategies I was forced to employ against my AI opponents, I only wish that my counterparts were as smart as the competition. Several times a Russian soldier would sneak up behind me while I was defending various fast food establishments, and the 3 soldiers who played supposedly on my team decided that the enemy behind me shooting me in the ass wasn’t important enough to deal with.

For the most part, I feel this was still better than the game playing itself like it did during the original Modern Warfare. I remember doing sessions on the lower difficulties where we would just watch the AI kill each other off as we ran check-point to check-point. Also a few times, I would kill a guy standing on a roof he would fall off said roof and glue himself to the side of the building. This gravity defying tactic was probably the only glitch I encountered in the 12 hours of gameplay. For a triple A title such as this, with as much pressure being put on it, I can honestly say that’s an impressive mark. Seeing as it is a random occurrence, not too shabby Infinity Ward, not to shabby.

The perks handed out during multi-player have become more explosive and exciting. My favorite being the nuclear bomb given to anyone who can get a 25 kill streak. ( I’m sure the joke at their studio is if the dude gets a 25 streak he doesn’t need the nuke anyway.)

All in all I think Infinity Ward lived up to the expectations developed after the release of Modern Warfare 1. This game easily brings shooter fans an excellent title to grind out their XBox Live, Playstation Network, or PC reputation on. New comers as well will find cutting their teeth on this won’t be as painful as trying to dive head first into a Rainbow 6 vegas online match. Minus the slap to the PC crew with their limited multi-player, undedicated servers, and price hike, I feel this is a perfect buy for the Holidays.

Click Images below to Buy On amazon

Bringing RPG skeptics to a beautiful realization. The staff at Bioware have left sci-fi to return to their fantasy roots. With an epic soundtrack reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, and game play to bring us back to the Baldur’s Gate days, I don’t see any RPG fan, or gamer for that matter being disappointed with the 59.99 they request of you in this title.

After blasting about 8 hours of this title, I wouldn’t tell the standard Halo gamer to run out and grab it. But I would tell them to keep an open mind, because this game blew me away.

I was skeptical up and through the first origin story. The opening cinematic had a few choppy collisions, primarily when the swords were entering the body. But the world looked so full, and the environments were so pretty, I almost didn’t notice. The orc-like monsters known as “the Darkspawn” were incredibly monstrous and the characters were extremely interesting.

As you begin play your class selection begins Human, Dwarf and Elf. True to the character based RPGs they have your selections limited by race. Humans can be mages, rogues, or warriors. Dwarves are limited to warriors or rogues. Elves, like humans also have the choice of the three classes.

Once you get your hero selection on, you move it along to customization, Male or Female, facial width/height/eye colors, etc. etc. etc. I’ve never been one for character creation in a game but I did enjoy the amount of detail allowed in the opening screen for this game. I’m sure many die-hards will spend a good amount of time building their ultimate character, I however will push random, and continue. And enter the world Tea-bagger, the great elf rogue.

Upon creating characters of different classes and races I was pleased to see a different story between the Elf Mage, Elf Rogue, etc. There are six different origin stories in the game, and an achievement/trophy tied to each one. Instead of playing the same basic story and feel straight through your character has a different motivation each time. (Though it is limited to the different classes giving you at most 6 options).

The combat system of this title links directly in my mind to World of Wacraft. Find opponent, push A, begin generic melee attack on opponent. The cool flow of the combat system is found in the use of X, Y, B, and your right trigger to systematically trigger your special moves. As a rogue I hit X to stun, hold right trigger, and press X again for a low blow. Then press the right trigger and push B to do a fatal stab. Etc, etc, etc,. As a former WoW junkie this style of combat is right up my alley, and once again drops!

The AI assisting you in place of another human player wasn’t too bad, the default settings would just attack anything mercilessly without taking their own health into account. This can be frustrating for those who don’t dig around inside the menu system a bit. Once you do you’ll find a set tactics mode where you can set thresholds for your AI such as pop a potion at 20% health, etc.

Moving into the main story line of betrayal and fear, I was forced to collect vials of Darkspawn blood. These dropped often for me which is a nice feature (comparing my experience to WoW where you usually have a 10% ratio of item drops).  And then on to find a scroll which led to more story-linked quests expanding the story even further.

Another great addition I discovered to my excitement as I talked to more characters in the game I was pleased to watch my quest log expand as well. Bioware has not let their fan base down in any way, and it’s refreshing to see a throwback to dungeon crawlers given to the consoles.

Liked –
• Vast landscapes and an epic soundtrack that kept me enthralled in gameplay.
• Solid story writing with different paths allowed for many players.

Disliked –
• Character models looked alright, but I’d love an RPG with awesome character models.
• Your main character never talks during conversations even though his face is on screen.

Score
• Graphics – 8
• Audio – 9
• Gameplay – 9
• Replay – 9
• Overall – 8.75

Click on your version below to purchase through Amazon.com.

It sure has been a long time since I posted my last list of essential games for your library here. So I’m pretty sure it’s time to get another one up here, just for more educational goodness. I’ve also decided to make this one a bit more modern, featuring games from the last five years or so. Once again, though you may not agree with these lists, these are just a few of my favorite gems. Feel free to debate below.

Let’s get started, then.

Disgaea series, PS2, PS3, PSP, DS: A masterfully crafted strategy RPG and possible health risk to OCD gamers, Disgaea is a must have for anyone who loved games like Final Fantasy Tactics. Starting off deceptively simple, it takes only a few hours worth of play to find out just how much you can actually do here. Disgaea features tons of character and monster classes, rich side-quests, and a level cap of 10,000, no joke. Of course, you don’t have to reach these lofty heights to beat this game, but doling out damage in the millions is exceedingly satisfying. If that’s not enough, the game’s writing has great humor, and also features homicidal exploding penguins, doods. If you don’t have this already, get your copies fast. Even the recent PSP re-releases are climbing in price. (I just found out my PS3 Disgaea 3 is fetching prices in the hundreds now)

Metroid Fusion stands out in my mind as having one of the most frightening enemies in my gaming experiences, which is made all the more impressive by the fact they accomplished this on the GBA. The first traditional Metroid adventure released in a while, Fusion brought back some great memories linking back to Super Metroid’s storyline, while actually fleshing out Samus’s pretty ambiguous character with a bit of backstory. Going back to what I mentioned above, the X-parasite Samus clone is terrifying. I’ve never experienced such fear fueled adrenaline on a handheld system, but thanks to perfect mood setting cut-scenes, getting chased by a mindless zombie with all of your former abilities became akin to playing a survival-horror game on a much more advanced system.

More then half of you just wondered what the hell this was. Well, I’ll tell you right now: God Hand, a gem of a beat ’em-up passed under many people’s radar. Coincidental since this game is produced by Clover Studios, the makers of another incredible, yet over-looked title, Okami. You know, sometime I hear people complain about how hard games like God of War are, and I simply think of God Hand and laugh. This game beats the crap out of you, again and again… Yet still manages to bring you back for more. Robust combat, awesome moves, and insanely wierd characters are one of the driving reasons to buy this game.

BlazBlue, in my humble opinion, is the greatest fighting game out there. I can almost hear the enraged roar of SF fans everywhere as I type this paragraph, but if you don’t agree that BB is at least stiff competition for the number one spot, you have no taste in games, or haven’t played it in stubborn fanboy rage. By the makers of another great series of fighting titles, Guilty Gear, BlazBlue has every element you require from a fighting game. Sharp, crisp 2D visuals? Check. Awesome, balanced gameplay? Check. Incomprehensible storyline? Check. It’s all here, waiting for you to lose hours of your life mastering the characters. Speaking of characters, the cast  are all unique, unusual, and entertaining. From a dual-fan/gun wielding hottie to an amorphous blob, all the way to a vampire lolita who summons a lightning frog named “King Henry”. This is a must-have game for anyone who plays, not just fighting fans. I’m gonna show just how pretty this game is below.

See? I totally told you. Next up, and the final game on this list:

Persona 4 is a great RPG, with an even more impressive story. Avoiding all cliches, P4 places you in the shoes of a non-amnesiac high school student who moves to a small, rural town from the big city. Not much later, bodies start appearing in in strange places, on top of antenna and other high places. The game really starts going from there as you and your ever growing group of friends work to solve the murders, as you find the method of killing is too unimaginable for the cops to figure out. The characters and writing shine here, with an interesting story revolving around facing the dark, or hidden side of our personalities that inhabit everyone. The gameplay is top notch as well, fast paced, and hard to get bored of. Even if you get tired of the drag, right when it seems you don’t want to do any more, a golden bit of story leaks, and you’re right back on the case. Pick this one up, and you won’t regret it.

UPDATE :LOS ANGELES (November 5, 2009) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that DISSIDIA™ FINAL FANTASY® for the  PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system (including the PSP®go system) is now available on PlayStation Store.

So now you can download it straight from the Playstation Store! (As long as you aren’t sentimentally attached to owning a disk.)

Dissidia is the new Final Fantasy game, released for the PSP. When I first heard about this title I was completely uninterested, as I thought it was going to be a glorified fighting game. But then I tried it, and it was a glorified fighting game. (With lots of RPG elements.) Much more playable than I was lead to believe from the first images.

The game is mostly the 3-D one on one fighter that it looks to be, but it has a story mode that implements a grid style map, laced with treasures and battles, that you have to maneuver to get to the end. The grids are simple at first, but they require more and more strategy as you get further along.

The battle systems pretty good itself, if not a little extreme. Kind of like if Advent Children were a video game, because you’re characters are practically flying. You are given two different kinds of hit points, one is a courage gauge, the other is an actual life meter. The courage gauge is filled by stealing the courage of your opponent, and the larger number you have the more damage you’ll deal. And you have two separate attacks, one to attack courage, the other to deal death blows.

Another part of battling that I quite like is the EX gauge. Which is the same as limit breaks from the games. A meter that if filled, can deal greater damage, and do super moves for a short time. When in EX gauge mode each of the characters each do something different.

Cloud does Omni-slash with Ultima Weapon, Terra goes into Trance, X-death does Grand Cross, Etc…

The game is actually quite amazing when you take into account what a portable system can do now a days. It seems to me that it’s nearly PS2 quality graphics during gameplay, and I was astounded by what they did with the CG movies. They looked really good. Since the days of Gameboy, I have been dreaming of playing video games that were this intricate, and looked this good. And these dreams have finally been realized. (But I find that I just want more now.)

The story in this game is very simple. Good = the heroes from all the Final Fantasy games, working for a goddess named Cosmos. Bad = the villains (Plus Jecht) from the same games, working for Chaos (fittingly voiced by Keith David, fitting because he kinda looks like a gargoyle.) All of the characters go through their own small side stories, playing into the major battle between good and evil. Although I found that they had way to much character story, and that it interrupted game play if you didn’t skip most of it.

Which brings me to my next analysis, this game has tons of gameplay, plenty of equipment, relics, summons, and abilities to acquire. Plus all of the levels gave you incentives for beating them with high grades, giving them plenty of replayability. The only real trouble I had with the game, was that the main boss was so easy when you got to him. Way easier than lots of battles leading up to him. But then when you get to the bonus dungeons you have to fight a harder version of him, that’s so impossible that I gave up trying. So there was a definite lack of balance.

As stated earlier I didn’t think I would enjoy this game, but it was actually really well made, and fun. I wish it could be played on a system as well as being portable. It’s not exactly an RPG, but it’s a good blend. If you have a PSP, it’s worth a try.

3.5 out of 5 Bigshinyrobot’s!

Buy it on amazon with this link!