Frothing Demand

Left it a little late tonight to write this, since I’ve been tidying up a number of little jobs today, and finishing some games that I’ve had on rental for about 3 weeks now. Most of my time this weekend was meant to be spent with Mario Kart Wii and Okami, but they fell by the wayside as I finished Viking. Of course, since I’m supposed to be reviewing Mario Kart and Okami, that’s bad prioritising on my part.

The Mario Kart series may be one of Nintendo’s strongest selling franchises, but in terms of quality, it has been on a steady slide since the initial entry. The main cause for this is the need on their behalf to make the game accessible. The thing is that Mario Kart always was pretty accessible – what Nintendo does to make the game more accessible only frustrates skilled players by stacking the odds against them. If you’re in first place in any Mario Kart game from Super Circuit onwards, chances are you’re going to cop a hiding from a blue shell and lightning at least once in a race. If you’re in last, you’ll get a blue shell, super star, bullet bill, golden mushroom or any other object that’s going to spit you into the top 3 in the next 15 seconds.

Normally I just grin and bear it with Mario Kart, but when I was playing on Friday, I experienced the game’s help from both perspectives – it happens very blatantly in the Wii version, a factor which makes me really not like the game at all. If I’m losing in a race, I would like to learn my lesson – if I race like crap, I deserve to come last and have to try again and do better by say, learning the course. Instead, the game gave me a series of power ups which put me from 12th place to first within 10 seconds, giving me the race and the cup.

I’ve yet to try the game online, but its safe to say at this stage that Mario Kart Wii is a bit of a bust. Maybe they should just do an update of the SNES version on Wii Ware with 4 player GP and Battle.

Reviews
UEFA Euro 2008 (PS3) at Strategy Informer
Army of Two (Xbox 360) at Internode Games Network
Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) at Internode Games Network

Features
The Warp Pipe at Internode Games Network

I don’t really make good use of this blog, mainly because I find most bloggers to be really annoying, and I don’t really think I can add anything of value. However, I did pay good money for this domain name and a year’s worth of hosting, so usefulness be damned.

Obviously, the whole daily update thing just isn’t me. I’m hopeless at being on the cutting edge of news – that’s the kind of stuff I’d rather just read than write. Also, my work is posted at inconsistent times on varying days, so I thought that maybe I could write some sort of topical rant here each Sunday, and accompany it with links to all of my work that has been posted over the last week. Everybody wins.

This week has all been about Grand Theft Auto IV. I had to rush through four reviews this week in order to get time to play it, and I’ve now put in about 24 hours worth of play over the course of four days, so everything’s sunk in a little. I’m not doing a review of the game for any of the sites I write for, but I will say that I do not agree with the critical consensus.

This critical consensus is something of an emerging problem facing the writing side of the industry. It’s almost like game reviews are written on the basis that they are kept within a certain range dictated by a hive mindset (usually the first few reviews to hit the internet). Any deviation from this hivemind rating will earn you the scorn of readers and PR people alike. Gamerankings and Metacritic are used on the corporate side of things to determine various factors – if you are not in a standard deviation of the meta score, then obviously, you’re full of shit.

Grand Theft Auto IV is not worth a 10. It is a fantastic game, with a great story and solid gameplay, but in focusing on the story, Rockstar North has lost a lot of the freedoms previously presented in the preceding three games (or five, if you count the PSP games). While players can still roam Liberty City at their whim, there is not the wealth of other play options. Cab, Courier and Vigilante missions are back, but work on a one at a time system, while missions for the fire service, ambulance and such are nowhere to be seen. I expected a certain level of cutbacks, but this game keeps you much more tightly bound to the story than before.

There are a lot of little things that are very frustrating. The most frustrating one comes in the form of SMS retries – sure, it’s nice that the game lets you keep all of your equipment in the event that you die (which is now bloody expensive), but most missions start with a ridiculously long drive to a certain point, really negating the point of a retry option. I’m really feeling the length of some of these missions too – would it kill them to have a checkpoint in some of the larger missions (like Three Leaf Clover)?

I’m getting towards the end of the game, and I’m finding many of the missions to be really difficult. The odds really get stacked up against Niko; I’d compare these missions to the Area 52 mission or the final mission of San Andreas, based on the sheer number of enemies you come up against. Fortunately, the game’s greatly improved mechanics make it much less frustrating than it could have been. I want to wrap the game up today so I can get on with my work for this month.

Reviews

Time Crisis 4 (PS3) at Internode Games Network
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (Xbox 360) at Internode Games Network
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Xbox 360) at Internode Games Network

Features

The Warp Pipe at Internode Games Network

Taking a much needed long weekend after busting my ass for two months without a day off. Internode has posted a lot of my stuff while I’ve been away, so here it goes.

Warp Pipe – GTA Retrospective Part 3
Sega Superstar Tennis review
Super Smash Bros. Brawl review

GTA Retrospective Part 2 is up. I need a freaking break after those things. Part 3 coming on Sunday but I have to write it tomorrow by 5, yay.

Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure review posted.

GTA Retrospective Part 2 is not coming together very easily. I am really looking forward to a short break with no work hanging over my head.

First part of the Warp Pipe’s GTA Retrospective is up. Reviews for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Condemned 2: Bloodshot completed. Really need some time off, but before I can have any, the following needs to be done.

– GTA Retrospective Part 2 (Today/Tomorrow, 2,500 words)
– GTA Retrospective Part 3 (Wednesday/Thursday, 2,500 words)
– Army of Two review (ASAP, 1,200 words)
– Castlevania: Dracula X Collection review (ASAP, 1,200 words)
– Advance Wars: Days of Ruin review (ASAP, 1,200 words)
– Professor Layton and the Curious Village (ASAP, 1,200 words)
– Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (Before the 30th, 1,200 words)

I’m not too attached to sleep at the moment, so I might push to get it all done by Friday night.

Turok review posted at Internode. I’ve written a Super Smash Bros. Melee review for them earlier this week, and the first part (of three) of my Grand Theft Auto retrospective will be up in the usual Warp Pipe spot of Sunday.

Struggling with this review for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. Writing reviews of bad games used to come naturally. Condemned 2, Army of Two, Professor Layton, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Apollo Justice reviews all need to be written by the 30th, too.

Edit: Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles review went up just after I hit submit.

Warp Pipe is up. I’ve got 8 reviews and two features to take care of this week, need a little bit of a break.

No More Heroes and Gothic Universe reviews posted.

Army of Two just came in the mail for review too, whee.

New Warp Pipe is up. Plenty of review work to do, having troubles putting words on paper, though.