Tag Archives: Game review

Naughty Bear…or….20 minutes of game play I’ll never get back

Tuesday is new game release day, and Wednesday is new comic day. Now I don’t typically buy as many new games as I buy comics, but I tend to keep an eye on what’s getting released in the same way. This last Tuesday saw two releases that I have been watching for a while now. Lego Harry Potter, and Naughty Bear. I knew what to expect with any Lego game, while they may tell different stories, the game play is similar across the board. The Sleeper was Naughty Bear. I had seen a number of preview videos and some of the trailers, and to be honest, they did their job well and I was enticed. It looked funny/cute in a “Happy Tree Friends” sort of way.

Sadly, I was wrong. I bought Naughty Bear at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, got home and played through the first “episode” and instantly knew that I had made a mistake. I toughed it out and finished the episode, then packed it up and headed back to Gamestop. Thankfully the gracious personnel there were nice enough to let me swap it out for Lego Harry Potter.

Side note here. I was warned, by Erin when I bought Naughty Bear, that it was going to be bad. I decided to make my own judgment.

So what made it so bad? Well, The idea was good and funny. Unfortunately that was the extent of the good. The Premise was that you played Naughty Bear, the bastard step child of this “Care Bear” style island where everything is puppies and kittens. Some of the other bears on the island have treated you unfairly and you decide to get back at them by being naughty. Being Naughty can range from scaring them, sabotaging their stuff, or even bashing their stuffed heads in with a baseball bat. Who wouldn’t think that could be fun?!

What it ended up being was a series of “Challenges” where you had to sneak around and scare/kill your fellow bears while disrupting their activities. I guess that you could play the game more Sam Fisher style and sneak in the bushes then pop out and scare them, but after the first time you do that they all know you are there, so no more sneaking will help you. From there is just becomes “I’m going to run around and hit you with a bat”. When you finish with the bears, you can gain a few extra points by smashing stuff. And that was it! After a while, even the narration is grating.

Now, I think the game may be not as bad as I am making it out to be if it weren’t for one more glaringly bad problem, it was release at the price point of $49.99. For the same price as something like Lego Harry Potter, you get a game that may have done well as an Xbox Arcade title, for maybe $10-$12 bucks

The Graphics were just ok, the actual game mechanics were horrible. I had to maneuver myself around and fumble with the view to get into a position where I could actually scare another bear. Just Awful, one of the worst games I have tried. This may, and I emphasize MAY, be worth it when the price drops down to like $5, which I have no doubt that it will fall to that.

Uncharted 2

Posted by Steve on January 20, 2010 No comments

Continuing with the growing supply of sequel titles that were released this year, Uncharted 2 found it’s way to my very, very dusty PS3. Even thought I rarely play my PS3, I was eager to get my hands on Uncharted 2. The first game was a stunning way to show off the PS3’s capabilities as well as having a great story. Naughty Dog goes the extra mile when it comes to writing for these games. Uncharted 2 is no different. Every element of the game is stunning. From graphics, to story, to music, to voice acting, oh, and also that gameplay thing. (I guess we should talk a bit about that as well.

Uncharted 2 really is only a sequel in name and characters, the story is very stand alone and that is a great draw. In this story, our Hero, Nathan Drake, finds himself chasing down the fabled treasures of Marco Polo. This time around we don’t have the family tie that he had with Sir Francis Drake, but who needs more motivation than a giant Sapphire right? Through his adventures we meet new characters, new love interests, and even bring back some of the old characters. (It wouldn’t be the same without Sully.)

Drake travels all over Nepal, Istanbul, and the Himalayas as he tracks down the different clues that will lead him to fortune and glory. Through tropical jungle to snowy mountain peaks, the visuals are amazing. This is what the PS3 should be touting as true Next Gen graphics and the whole reason I picked up a 1080P TV. Far too often did I find myself marveling over the distance shots and the detail taken to render the smallest details. I would encourage you to take a stroll through the snow levels just to watch the dynamic of the trails and the build up of snow on Drakes legs.

Where this game really shines is in the story. I know there was the infamous PS3 commercial where some guy can’t get his girl friend to stop watching because she thinks it’s a movie, well, it’s believable. Except that this movie can last a week long and probably had a much longer over all script. Mixed with the extremely well done voice acting, Uncharted 2 could easily be mistaken for a big budget CGI film. Every cut scene delighted and encouraged me to just set the controller down and enjoy. I know it sounds like I am raving about these few simple elements of a game that may be considered small parts but they really aren’t. You could have the best game play in the world but without a good story to guide it, it’s just a shell.

Thankfully the game play keeps with the high standard set by the other elements. You step seamlessly from cut scene to game play and back so it truly feels immersive. Most of the controls were easy to use and intuitive. (Although since I come from more of an Xbox background, the trigger and aim controls being on the shoulder buttons is odd to me.) There is not a lot to say about game play when it’s solid, no bad camera angles, fluid motion, and god bless the Hint system! Every game should be required to have a system like this. If you don’t want to use it you don’t have to, but every now and then I ended up in an area wondering “what the hell am I supposed to do next?!” Thankfully the hint system would pop up and advise “Look at that open window up there stupid!” Far too often it saved me from looking things up in a guide or just getting frustrated and walking away. That’s a huge deal for me.

Another big deal that has found quite a hold on the video game industry is music. I had the chance to attend a Video Games Live concert and it really opened my eyes to video game soundtracks. (Not that I wasn’t aware of them before, but I am much more keyed into it now) Uncharted 2 delivers a soundtrack that is on par with that of many major motion pictures. It feels out the mood set by the setting and graphics and delivers the punch to make you feel the entire experience. Many times I can recall pausing and taking note of the amazing music. It’s almost sad to me when I look back on playing a game and realize I can’t recall the music because it just faded into the background. I love when music pops and Uncharted 2 does just that.

Now that I have covered all the good, lets talk about bad. Don’t worry, there isn’t much. Much like many free roaming over the shoulder games, sometimes the controls don’t translate well. There were certainly less instances of “Stupid Ezio (Drake)” and most of them I think were really my fault, it was still there. And the only other bad note I can think of would be Multi-player. WHY?? Seriously, with Uncharted 1 you had a solid story game that was well received. Uncharted 2 had a solid story game, why should you feel the need to add multi-player? Plus, if you are going to add multi-player to a game, make it a co-op for the main story!! Far too many games tack on a “lets run around in a map and just shoot each other” multi-player and forget why we bought the game in the first place!

So there you have it. Uncharted 2 is a very solid game and I am eagerly looking forward to Uncharted 3.

Uncharted 2 gets a solid 9.5 out of 10 Stolen Artifacts

Assassin’s Creed II

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2010 No comments

Much like everyone else, I have been looking forward to ACII ever since I played ACI . Only mostly it was hoping that they finally got it right. ACI was stunningly beautiuful and had a really good story to accompany it. Unfortunatly, the gameplay was horrible. If you managed to get through the first area, you have pretty much played the whole game. Each area of ACI involved things like pick pocket this guy, evesdrop on that guy, beat up this guy, and then kill that one. Wash, rinse, repeat. Even the collection parts of the game were mind numbing. You walked into an area and had to collect flags, but there were like eleventy billion of them. I am not sure I know anyone who actually got all of them.

But this isn’t about ACI, it’s about it’s successor….Assassin’s Creed II. It would appear that Ubisoft realized that they had a great engine but needed to fill it out with a great game. And that’s what happened with ACII. It is amazing to see that a company finally started listening to it’s fans! The gameplay has caught up to the engine and we as gamers reap the benefits.

ACII starts off where ACI left of (in the horrible WTF cliffhanger, except that now it makes sense) in the Abstergo lab but it takes no time before you jump back into the Animus (2.0 even) to start off on the real reason that we all bought the game. I am not going to explain the plot of the game for you because this is a review and you probably already know what the plot is. From start to finish this story grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t leave me be. Even Sarah enjoyed watching the story (and filling me in on all the buildings and plot lines that mirrored real life). The visuals remained just as stunning as the original which was great of course. And the actual gameplay was brought perfectly in line. Each mission was unique and played well into the story. The outside collection missions were easy and beneficial.

In ACI you had to grab flags, but in ACII, you collected chests….which had money, which you could spend. Oh and by the way, they added a mertchant system! And a real estate system. Not to mention an equipment system. All of these things would have been great in the first game. It worked simply enough, Missions and chests would net you money. You use the money to make improvements on your Villa (your home base). More money pumped into the villa would bring you more income over all, which you would use to buy new and better weapons. You could also buy maps, that would show you where the treasure chests were, which would get you more money.

Where ACII really shined though was in the story. It was engaging, from start to end. There are very few games that have such an investing story that just grabs you and makes you care about the characters. (and there should be more!!) I found myself wonder what happened with some of the characters that I had only casually met! (Where is Christina the girl Ezio was seeing in the beginning?) At the same time I was excited to go and visit with Leonardo and see what wacky thing he had going on. This is one of the reasons I was happy to hear that the upcoming DLC for the game would fill in the holes on some of the characters.

Now that I have praised the game enough, lets start talking about where it fell short. I can not tell you how many times I cried out “No, no that way, Stupid Ezio!!!” (Although Sarah probably could tell you how many times. I think she was counting. There were times that the controls just didn’t do what I wanted them to do. Sometimes it was nothing but a wrong turn but too many times it resulted with death, or even worse, missing a timed event! I am not even sure if it was me or the game, but like all other gamers, I am gonna blame the game here. I am trying to communicate that I want to jump after flipping right, and if Ezio goes forward then jump then right, that’s not what I told it to do. I think the problem really was in the left over animations. Ezio would still be moving after I stopped, and so it translated wrong.

Ubisoft cut down on the collection quests but not all together. The nice thing though is that they added the collections into the story. Feathers were collected to please your mother and remember your brother. (They also added a bit to the villa’s worth) There are, of course, the chests, but you can get a map for those where there is no way of finding the feathers except seeing them in your travels (or using a guide). The only other collection item would be the glyphs for “Subject 16”. These symbols were found on random buildings and added to the overall story outside of Ezio. The bigest problem I had with these was finding the building, and then where on the building. I managed to run across the buildings while I was out and about, the database would let me know there was a glyph but I would rarely have the time to search for it. So I would have to re-find the building later, and then scour the building for the glyph. After about 20 min of wall crawling, I ended up using a guide for some of these as well.

I really have to say, ACII is one of the best games I have played all year. I am not sure how re-playable it is, but it certainly took many hours of my gaming time and I count those as good solid entertainment. Unfortunatly it’s not a perfect game. Finicky controls and hard to find collection items added time to the game that I would have rather spent in the story. The last complaint I have isn’t really a complaint so much as an overwhelming feeling. There was so much in this game that it was almost hard to keep up with! Between the Vilia improvements, the main story, the codex pages, the Armor and weapon shops, the Assassin seals, and collections, I found myself sitting down and wondering, What part of the game do I want to play now? I know I know it doesn’t sound like a complaint, but when I have to ask myself “what do I want to do?” it detracts from what the game wants me to do.

Over All, I give it a good solid 8.8 Florins, out of 10.