Dishonored: Video Review by Grayson

Gray Reviews: Dishonored

Gray's reviews: Borderlands 2

Gray's Reviews: Black Mesa

Terminal Reviews: Darksiders II

Video Review of SSX by Grayson

Gray Reviews Kid Icarus: Uprising

Terminal Videos: Gray Reviews Twisted Metal

Terminal Reviews: Darkness 2

Terminal Reviews - Star Wars: The Old Republic

Terminal Review: Zelda is Supreme

Gray Reviews Uncharted 3

Gray Reviews Resistance 3

Gray On "Euclideon"

Gray Reviews "From Dust"

Gray Reviews Infamous 2!

(**NOTE: This was originally posted on my other blog on the San Antonio Current Website on June 17th, 2011. I am re-posting it here to connect it to my other personal work from the past and future. If you haven’t read it yet, hope you enjoy.)

Gray Reviews Ocarina of Time 3D!

The term “remake” is one of both business and pleasure, all but certifying financial gain while simultaneously treading a tight rope between enhancement and sacrilege. Once a game has reached a decade or more in age, modern day opinion seems to agree the title is up for a round two of sorts: shine the paint, replace the engine, fine tune the coding, etc etc etc… But when a game has reached a degree of accolade–some lofty level of worship most developers dream their game one day reaching–it seems as if it also becomes taboo for anyone to even utter the ‘r’ word in regards to these olympian feats of video games. Among the myriad of arguments for and against remaking old games, one of the largest proponents of remaking occurred in my very home. My younger brother, now 16, was only 3 when the Ocarina of Time first debuted. Without the full set of nerd motor skills required to beat Ocarina, he neither finished nor remembered ever playing it. He was soon to become part of the new generation of gamers; not unlike how much of youth today enjoy the new Star Wars trilogy more than the original, they are a culture who have a different rubric for modern entertainment. Upon finishing Ocarina on my 3DS, I finally convinced him to play through it, all the time assuring him it was better than Twilight Princess (the only other Zelda game he had ever completed). It took him just 3 days to complete it–without doing all of the side stories nor collecting all of the heart pieces, of course–and after he was done he doled out the dubious grade of “it was alright. It wasn’t like Assassin’s Creed 2 or anything…”

I’m sorry….come again?

Transformers 3 Review!

I had the privilege of going to the aintitcool premier of the third Transformers movie last night; it was a pretty neat experience to actually see blogging/geek idol, Harry Knowles, and hear his funny intro to the movie. Basically, he said that he hated the previous two movies, that there was still stupid shit in the third one but that the last hour of the movie had crazy jaw-dropping 3D action that would win everyone over.
 
Having now seen the film the way it was meant to be seen, it's pretty easy to say that Transformers: Dark of the Moon is far and away, the best of the three movies; yet, to say that T:DM is a good movie is like giving it a commendation for not being as horribly retarded as Revenge of the Fallen.

Gray Reviews Bulletstorm!

(***NOTE: This post was originally written on my other blog at the SA Current website on February 25th, 2011. It is under the name “People’s Gamer”. I am reposting here for my personal blog to maintain all of my work for personal use. In any case, hope you like it.)

At 11:45 pm Monday Night, at a nearby GameStop at 410 and San Pedro, I was struck with a personal dilemma. I had reserved Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm with the intention of playing both games, but I was surprised when I failed to notice that both were debuting at the same time. With only enough cash to purchase one, I kept wavering between the two. On the one hand, I knew Killzone 3 do be a dedicated FPS game with stunning graphics, impressive AI difficulty and an already-storied plot. On the other, the impressive marketing campaign done by People Can Fly studios certainly caught my intrigue and played up a fascinating new FPS game cornered on coming up with creative ways to dismember your opponents. With time growing short, I knew I had to make a decision. Ultimately, after doing some high level calculus and biochemistry to scientifically weigh each game against one another, one detail emerged from Bulletstorm that sealed the deal—the name of the protagonist is Grayson.

Hold on a second…You guys are using my name? In a video game?!

Call me self-centered, but considering the plethora of games that use common names (or worse, let you choose whatever name you prefer), seeing your own name as the main character isn’t a common experience for me. I agree it was a bit of a risk to purchase a game based on such an insignificant detail, but this time it payed off rather well. As a whole, Bulletstorm turned out to be a creative, albeit shallow action shooter with a special zest of charm that makes the whole experience far more entertaining, yet never completely satisfying.
The game introduces us to Grayson Hunt years after he and his deadly colleagues went AWOL after finding out their commander, General Sarrano, had been contracting them to kill innocent people. After looking for answers at the bottom of countless bottles, a drunken Hunt decides to take on Sarrano himself by careening his ship into him. Ill-planned and even worse executed, Grayson and Sarrano crash land on nearby planet Stygia with only one chance of escape. Accompanied by a newly “modified” shipmate Ishi, the two crewmates set off across the gorgeous landscape to pursue Sarrano and escape the planet.

If all of Bulletstorm could be described in a single word, it would undoubtedly be ridiculous. From plot, to dialogue, to combat and to environment, the developers at People Can Fly set off to crank every facet of their shooter to eleven. While some of the concepts benefit from this amped level of pinash, several other features fail to shine and actually suffer from such graphic entertainment. Grayson’s (that never gets easier to write) constant barrage of cliché kill phrases and attempts of cruel humor are smirk-worthy at first, but quickly overstay their welcome and just become annoying. I understand Hunt’s perspective is loose and uncaring when it comes to near-death situations, but I do not need to be reminded every 5 minutes.

The graphics, however, take center stage in this title, as the clashing environments on Stygia are breathtaking and quite florid in design. Lush, tropical jungles and cliff sides clash well with machinery and urban sprawl to create a varied adventure between the two. Grayson and Ishi get to see both nature and mechanical in various stages throughout the game, and one can easily see the high level of scrutiny put into each chapter by the designers. Moreover, the combat mechanics also turn out to be a fresh, though slightly sadistic, look in an otherwise bland array of FPS games. With each new weapon Grayson acquires, there is a list of “skillshots” that the player can attempt to pull off for more experience points. These points are then turned in for ammo and various upgrades. The skillshots vary wildly in terms of difficulty and creativity, with some occurring dozens of times and others you’ll be lucky to trigger even on accident. It is a simple, yet shrewd mechanic that behooves the player to try out every weapon for a decent amount of time, instead of making quick judgment calls on otherwise bland weapons. I quickly identified which weapons would become favorites (as they are blatantly overpowered), but the joy of discovering the dozens of different skillshots kept me switching weapons at each checkpoint.

Unfortunately, the last third or so of the campaign suffers in terms of pace and relative enjoyment. Having acquired all of the weapons and accomplished most of the skillshots, I started to feel the drag and lost the entertainment of shredding bad guys in different ways. By the end, I was playing the game to simply beat it instead of enjoying it. Even more frustrating is the game’s ending, which stands out as one of the most blatant and infuriating attempts to set up a sequel I have seen in quite a while. Although the game provides a wildly unique FPS experience, I highly doubt most people would want to see a second game be developed, other than People Can Fly of course.

When it’s all said and done, Bulletstorm is definitely worthy of playing all the way through. The enjoyment of performing all the many different skillshots does provide enough entertainment value to get you through the story, and some of the game’s action set pieces are equally entertaining. The excessive profanity loses its flair very quickly, and sometimes is just down right annoying, but it is not a deal-breaker by any sense. I am sure most gamers would agree that Killzone 3 probably wins the overall battle in the FPS wars for now, but I am happy I chose Bulletstorm instead, as it is much harder—and more rewarding—to experience something fresh and new in the midst of established franchises and storied science-fiction plots.

See you in the Next level,

Gray

Gray Reviews Vindictus

(***NOTE: This post was originally written on my other blog on the SA Current website on April 10th, 2011. It is under the name “The People’s Gamer”. I am reposting here on my own blog to maintain all of my personal work. In any case, hope you like it.)

Most gamers will agree that the phrase “free to play” is intentionally misleading. Sure, you can download the game, set up a character and have it running without paying a penny, but within a few hours you’ll start to see what else you didn’t pay for—non-existent story, unbalanced combat mechanics, and incredibly buggy gameplay. Fortunately, Vindictus is a rare gem in the free-to-play world that refines the fundamental aspects of online games into simple, repetitive questing that is equally addictive and entertaining, if only to keep you distracted until the next big game is released.

Vindictus comes from the Korean-based game publisher Nexon, which also hosts several other web games for various interests. It traveled to theU.S.market when it garnered several accolades when it was presented at E3 and PAX conferences. As mentioned before, it is completely free to download and play, but for those who wish to splurge on their avatar there is an in-game store that uses their Nexon credit system to buy special items. These can be anything from weapons and equipment to extra storage space or tattoos and new hairstyles for your character.

The majority of the game revolves entirely around a small city hub called Colhen, in which players are given “stories” to complete by traveling to a dungeon and slaying the final boss. These dungeons never last more than 15 minutes, and the difficulty is accurately paced to be simple for those starting out and expertly challenging by the time you reach the level 70 cap (as of this writing, although new content is added to the game every month or so).

For anyone who has ever played an MMO before, the classes are almost exactly as any you’ve played before: A magic user, a damage dealer, and a tank to stand at the front lines and take most of the damage. Unfortunately, these roles never become necessary until the higher level dungeons and most of the game centers on four players spam-clicking the enemy to death. Enemy AI is basic enough to be extremely predictive, but still doesn’t enter the territory of idiocy. Enemies will focus on those dealing the damage, but anyone caught trying to heal themselves or others will not be left alone for long. Recent patches have introduced additional features such as a very basic PvP system for one-on-one duels, an expertise system that is essentially a carbon copy of the profession system from World of Warcraft, and transformations for higher level characters paired with a very simple talent tree for a very small degree of character customization.

Many can argue that the aspect of “grinding” in MMOs is counter productive to having fun with other players, but I have always found myself in disagreement just a tad. The ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle exists in nearly every MMO to date because it is a mechanic that not only works, but it hooks you. Achievement-based gamers have long been catered to by MMOs as they offer a process of repeating the same actions in order to achieve the next level; World of Warcaft is guilty of this, as is Vindictus, yet the biggest difference is that Vindictus doesn’t burn 15 bucks a month… at least, not if you want it to.

While Vindictus certainly doesn’t offer any kind of real depth or central story such that full-fledged or subscription-based MMOs have, it is nevertheless entertaining and a solid game that exhibits style and polish better than many other MMOs out there. After 3 months of play, I still throw in an hour or two a day because my achievement-inner-child is still alive and kicking, and that’s more than enough reason for me.

See you in the next level,

Gray