Good.

Okay, I have more to say than that but I’m trying to trim down my long winded reviews.

It sometimes feels likes video games are becoming an industrialized commodity, something spit out by massive companies based on the blandest, most test-marketed features and design.  So when we get a game with as much personality and originality as Splosion Man, it’s worth savoring.

The explosion mechanic (really the only mechanic) is no more than a glorified jump.  In the hands of the developers at Twisted Pixel however, it becomes a wide ranging, constantly evolving mechanic that allows for some of the most manic and enjoyable puzzle platforming on the system.  But Splosion Man’s originality doesn’t just lie in its gameplay, it’s the highly animated (literally) character, the fact that enemies explode into a pile of carved hams and T-Bone steaks and that hugging a fat scientist produces a 3 minute song about donuts that makes this an experience well worth playing.  I look forward to trying the game out in 4 player co-op, though I haven’t yet had the chance.

Also, the game has some of the funniest achievements this side of the Penny Arcade Adventures.

Gamers rarely seem to be happy with the price of new games, but every once in a while, something comes out that we all just shut up and buy. Battlefield 1943, the latest in DICE’s series of multiplayer FPS’s, came in at the super budget price of 1200 Microsoft Points last week with nary a peep about the bill. The fact that only about three servers were available to play on (since apparently EA didn’t think the game would be all that popular) left most gamers with something else to complain about. Then again, a lot of developers would kill for a game that was more popular than initially anticipated.

So now the servers are up and running, Xbox users even won themselves a new map by killing 43 million people (won’t that make Jack Thompson proud) and were left with a modern remix of Battlefield 1942. Their are only three maps, three classes and two game types to choose from, but don’t think that makes this game small in scope or atmosphere . When your team calls in air support to aid in the capture of an airfield or your squad storms the beaches in an attempt to save pinned down allies, you forget that this is simply an “arcade game”. Battlefield 1943 also creates that “war is hell” feeling like few other games. Air raid sirens signal that enemy bombers are only a few seconds away from eradicating your base, buildings and all, in a deafening barrage of explosions. Tanks blast entire walls out of buildings, making cover temporary at best and bridges never last very long in the intense battles.

Battlefield 1943 really breaks the mold of what most Xbox gamers are accustomed to on the downloadable side of their consoles (PS3 gamers however, have been enjoying full downloadable games for years now). The game isn’t a small, relaxing title or one you can play with your buddies on the couch.  It produces thrilling, at times epic battles with 24 players flying, driving and capturing bases (among numerous other roles) across beautiful, destructible island maps. . The squad system gives small groups of friends tactical intimacy without loosing the games grandiose scale.  The game also has what now seems like an expected experience point system gives you a rank and… well, little else from what I could tell, but its their in all its malicious addictiveness.  And of course, DICE nails the feel of the guns and vehicles, and give us three balanced and flexible classes to play as.

Sure, I’d like to be able to turn off the head bobbing and change some of the control layouts, but these typify the triviality of my complaints.  This is not just an easy recommendation; it’s a must buy. Battlefield 1943 is the essence of a killer multiplayer experience; varied, exciting and constantly rewarding.

Capt. Charles Conley is being an ass. He’s punching everyone in the face as he plows down a New York sidewalk. Right before that he left a massive dent in some strangers car, a dent he made by jumping off an apartment building. I presume he’s no not usually such an ass and that this should be a sign to the other soldiers that maybe, perhaps, this isn’t actually Capt. Charles Conley. Perhaps his new found ability to run up walls and jump off buildings should also tip them off. But it’s too late. Alex Mercer, disguised as Capt. Charles Conley, has just absorbed the tank driver and taken the bases idle tank.

The next series of events gets a little hectic, so I’ll try to go slow. I use the tank to blow up the two enemy tanks waiting at the base, drive down the street while getting to helicopters on my tail. I jump out of the tank, grab a nearby taxi cab, run up a building (carrying the taxi cab above my head), toss the taxi cab at the closest helicopter, glide to the building across the street using what appear to be blood jets, rebound off the wall of the building and karate kick the second helicopter in the face.  Some mutant monsters show up so I transform my arms into massive claws and slash them a few times before absorbing them into my being.  Ding! Mission complete!

This is not an extraordinary mission in Prototype. In fact, it’s one of the first. Before the mission started, I had to watch a cut scene where my estranged sister explained… something to Alex Mercer. I’m not sure exactly what because I pretty quickly decided I didn’t really care at all about this story. I’m not sure if this is indicative of how awful the narrative of Prototype is or how much I really wanted to get back to playing. Probably more the the latter than the former, but I do want to emphasize that the story here is pretty god awful. Basically, Alex Mercer really wants to make the people who did this to him pay.

Movement is the reason to play Prototype ; with one button you can run straight up buildings and with a second you can jump 30 feet and glide across New York. It’s practically effortless and a constant source of joy. You really don’t ever feel limited by where you can go on the island; your speed and agility are up to you… most of the time. Eventually you unlock a burst power that is sometimes incredibly useful and other times sends plummeting to the streets below. Likewise, the karate kick can be an awesome trick to quickly getting in close to any enemy; other times, it sends you flying into a parked car instead of that tank you’d really, really like to hijack.

Speaking of karate kicks, you’ll probably be doing a lot of them. Also, you’ll be swinging massive arm blades, shooting 30 foot tentacles at pedestrians and firing lots of rocket launchers. This would be fun, or rather is fun, right up until you start fighting mobs of enemies that use unstoppable combos and constantly ram you like a freight train. You’ll have to learn to be much more agile than you should need to (read: spam dodge button), but then again, movement is such a joy in this game that running away from a fight and absorb some helpless civilians for health is actually a entertaining part of the games flow. Of course, boss fights where this is impossible are on the border of “throw controllers out of anger” type, so might I suggest playing the game on easy?

That’s actually one of my main annoyances: the game doesn’t hand out an achievement or reward for beating the game on normal (just one for beating it on hard). Since I’m not earning anything for playing on normal I would love to change my difficulty down to easy, but you can only do that when you start a game. Just avoid norma the first time and I’m sure you’ll love this game even more than I do.

(Images courtesy of Joystiq)

Infamous, the electric super hero PS3 exclusive, is aggravating, repetitive and hackneyed.  It’s also one of the best games of the year.  How can this be?  Because the game is also none of these things.  Here’s why:

Aggravating:

Infamous has lots of the memorable moments full of bad ass… bad assery.  I just wish that every once and a while I could scale a skyscraper or grind a power cable and not be sniped from 7 miles away by some jack ass with an AK-47.  These are street gangs with machine guns, not Navy snipers, so why don’t they ever miss?

Another annoyance is the feel of the climbing.  Infamous takes more of a Crackdown route than Assassin’s Creed style climbing mechanic, meaning their is some skill involved.  Crawling over bridges and jumping across building is made a little easier by a stickiness that sucks you to ledges and outcrops.  This is usually appreciated… except when you want to let go.  This problem is exacerbated when falling in water kills you instantly and super accurate gangs are everywhere.

What really surprises me though is how much of the game could have been absolutely infuriating but manages to stay in the perfect zone of challenging fun.  Check points are liberally and well placed, something you often don’t find in open world games.  Many of your electric powers require (surprise surprise) electricity from sources found around town.  These sources of power are easy to find, well placed and make sense within the game world.  Being sniped and falling off buildings at an inoppurtune time might be annoying, but never so much as to make me quit playing.

Repetitive:

Grey.  Dark grey, light grey, grey grey.  Their, I have painted you a picture of Infamous’ open world, Empire City.  It’s a lot more noticeable in a game where you’re climbing to the top of buildings that you’ve climber that same building on all three islands. If I remember correctly, Crackdown managed to craft 3 themed islands full of distinct buildings, so I don’t think it’s impossible to do.  This helps in navigation because if you remember that the Nuclear power plant is east of the docks, or that the dome topped tower is at the northern part of the city, you can find your way around town without hopping into a map every 3 seconds.  Not so with Infamous.

The repetitive nature of the buildings in Empire City is only made more unbearable when you find one of the very few original landmarks, like the junk tower or Arkam Asylum-esque jail.  While it’s enjoyable to find a new landmark to conquer, why does an open world game force you to take the one special route to the top of the trash tower?

The missions almost succumb to this same repetitive nature, throwing out the same missions over and over.  Side missions are usually some flavor of collectathon, satellite beacon hunts, medical supply retrieval, kill these dudes, kill those dudes, etc.  Thing is,their’s a reason I said almost.  I was pleasantly surprised throughout Infamous to find completely new side missions types at just about the time I was feeling drenched in sameness.  The main story mission are even better at throwing out completely new types of gameplay right up to the end of the game.  When you’re so use to open world games like Assassin’s Creed of GTA throwing the same recycled mission structures at you over and over, Infamous’ main story missions are a breath of fresh air.

Hackneyed:

I’ll make this simple: Infamous’ story is bad.  It’s sloppy, shallow and melodramatic.  Villains pop into the story at random, so you have a boss at the end of a mission arc.  Friends and foe can be counted on taking the most cliched option possible.  The highly vaunted morality choices are so black and white and presented so mechanically that their robbed of any possible significance.  It’s not long before every moral choice breaks down to “do you want the good super powers or the evil super powers? Press X or O”.

And like all my other criticisms, I can’t help but sort of enjoy it despite it’s faults.  Instead of cutscenes, the game usuually uses slick graphic novel style comics as exposition, lending to the whole super hero motif.  And like the comics it’s supposed to emulate, the story should be excessively corny, with just about every government conspiracy and superhero cliche thrown in for no good reason at all.  I can’t help but think the morality choices at some point became a running joke over at Sucker Punch, but even if they weren’t, they are useful in making a second run through little different.

If your still wobbling on whether Infamous is a worth while investment, here’s the most important thing you should know: it’s fun. Really, really pleasurable to play, climb and fry enemies with all manner of electric powers.  The game progress at a good rate or new missions and powers, theirs almost always a variety of missions or activities to choose from, and the controls are just spot on.  It’s may not be perfect but it still one of the best games the PS3 will ever get.