SUPER Rant: Humpty Dumpty Portable is Falling Down

There was no way I could have spent my money on a console which doesn’t have much of a future, right? Well, I didn’t think that it was possible too – until now. I am staring at the grim reality – the very grim reality of what the PSP has to offer in the future – that is, in terms of software. In fact, I think that there isn’t a more appropriate word to describe the PSP games line-up for the forthcoming months than this: Pathetic – it is in every way disappointing and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Alright, let’s get things straight first: I bought the PSP because I wanted to play Medal of Honor Heroes 2, God of War: Chains of Olympus, FlatOut: Head On, and some of the fighting games. I was expecting the arrival of more exciting PSP games within the immediate year and beyond. Sure, there are indeed such titles – Vahalla Knights 2, Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed and one my most highly-anticipated PSP titles, Resistance: Retribution, but for most parts, the PSP software line-up is just dismal.

During Sony’s press conference at the recently concluded E3 2008, much attention was dedicated to the PS2, PS3 and PSN. Why? Simple. There was nothing to show for the PSP – nothing that would make anyone go, “Yay!” And when the time came for Sony to show its software line-up for the PSP, it showed – but the games it showed were ridiculously embarrassing for a portable of such calibre.

Why in the world was Sony showing so many crappy casual titles! Hey, I didn’t buy the PSP to play some casual crapfest – and even if I wanted to play those rubbish, I would have gone to the DS – you know, I can’t stress how many of those casual bullshit the DS has. Oh, great, we have LocoRoco 2, Super Stardust Portable, Lego Batman: The Videogame, Patapon 2! Am I going to be interested in any of those casual titles? No! Okay, the worst is yet to come – BUZZ! Master Quiz. Awesome, so there’s going to be a quiz game on the PSP! I mean, WTF is that! This is the PSP, not a DS or Wii. Heck, look at the trailer for BUZZ! Master Quiz! It is even imitating what Nintendo and other third-party publishers usually do to promote their casual DS and Wii titles. Are you telling me that those are all the MOST exciting games the PSP has in the pipeline!

YES! Those are the most exciting titles the PSP has to offer! Oh wait, there’s still Madden NFL 09 and NBA 09 The Inside. Alright, so another 2 EA recycled games that I can get on just about any other platform. Anyway, I have never been interested in sports games, and will never be, so those 2 games are ignorable.

In fact, the only really good thing to come out of Sony showing for the PSP was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and even that is a multi-platform game. WHAT I want are PSP titles that are hardcore (casual crap can shoo off to the DS, please), and unique (not some multi-platform title that I can get anywhere else) – something like God of War: Chains of Olympus.

I mean, WTF IS SONY THINKING! Turning the PSP into a DS Lite? Turning the PSP into a Wii?

As much as I like to fault the DS for its several crapfest, I still appreciate it for its many gems. Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is a fine example of what a DS game should be like: It is unique, it uses the DS in creative ways, it pushes the DS to its limit – and most important of all, it offers what is ONLY possible on the DS, and not on any other platform.

SONY SHOULD BE THINKING IN THIS WAY – to introduce a PSP game that is unique, uses the PSP in creative ways, pushes the PSP to its limit and if possible, make that a game that is ONLY achievable on the PSP. Instead, Sony is planning to imitate Nintendo with its PSP, thinking that it can capture the market with Nintendo’s way.

Again, WTF IS SONY THINKING! How is it going to capture the market when even developers are losing confidence in the PSP? Don’t believe me? Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War are possible on the DS, but not on the PSP? Assassin’s Creed is possible on the DS, but not on the PSP? 007: Quantum of Solace is possible on the DS, but not on the PSP? As you can see, developers are leaving the PSP on the roadside to rot. And Sony isn’t going to help the PSP by trying to imitate Nintendo and sending the PSP into an identity crisis.

Things are certainly not looking good. A check on IGN’s PSP channel shows that there hasn’t been any significant updates since E3 2008 ended – in fact, the editors at IGN are struggling to update the PSP channel with new content daily. Why? There AIN’T ANYTHING ON THE PSP!

OMG! This year’s not the year for PSP. No, it is not, and I don’t think next year will be either. Hopefully, more promising titles do get announced in the near future. For now, I am counting down the days to Resistance: Retribution.

(NOTE: Valkyria Chronicles was a mistake made by Sony. It is a PS3 game, and not a PSP game, and there hasn't been any plans to bring it to the PSP.)

Game Review - God of War: Chains of Olympus

This game is the god.

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TOTAL SCORE: 9.7/10 ^{CHOICE PICK}

The Good:
Solid plot * A visual powerhouse * Great combat sound effects * Memorable score * Accessible, intuitive, tight and responsive controls * Hidden treasure chests, platforming sections and puzzles provide diversity * Great variety of enemies * Mini-games provide fun diversion from combat * Several unlockables, including collector's edition-esque specials

The Bad:
Levels are relatively linear
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During a console’s lifespan, there would at least be one good game that would be released on the platform – and that game would be such a masterpiece that it would make you rethink what the console is really capable of. The game in question here is God of War: Chains of Olympus – and this game is what Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword is to the DS – it pushes the technical boundaries of the console and introduces gameplay so intense, so enjoyable, so addictive, and controls so intuitive that it sets the benchmark for other games on the platform. God of War: Chains of Olympus is what you’d come to expect from a God of War game: the combat is elaborate and engaging, there is sex and blood, and the entire game is quite simply a satisfying and terrific package that no PSP owner should be without.

God of War: Chains of Olympus takes place before the events of the original God of War on PS2 – so this is essentially a prequel. It is a mythical tale that’s considerably intriguing, with a few twists and turns towards the end of the game to pop in a few surprises. Overall, there is a solid plot in place, but I don’t think there has ever been a need for God of War games to be novels since all you need is a reason for you to go around slaughtering mythical creatures.

After you get past the opening cut scene, the first thing you would probably notice about this game is that it doesn’t look gorgeous – it IS gorgeous. Beyond a shadow of doubt, this is simply the game with the most proficient graphics that the PSP has ever seen – and never once did I think I was playing on the PSP because this game IS a PS2 game on a PSP. The environments are huge and detailed – and there’s not a single muddled texture in sight. The character models are equally stunning – all indications that a monolithic amount of effort has been invested to make this game a visual exhibition. The combat animations are smooth and when the game switches to cut scenes, there is no denying that what you’re getting is of top-notch quality. And when Kratos is engaging in combat with several enemies at any one time, the framerate doesn’t dip even when there are background battles and explosions. With so much details and activities going on, I was expecting long load times to hamper my experience – but what I got was astonishing: The game only loads when you start the game and when you retrieve a game save, and even when the game needs to load, it takes no more than 6 seconds to do so. All in all, this game is an absolute technical accomplishment that would make anyone reconsider the unrealised potential of the power under the hood of the PSP.

The excellent audio here will only serve to complement the visuals. The combat effects sound fantastic and the score fits in so perfectly with the theme and action of the entire game that this wouldn’t be God of War: Chains of Olympus without the score; in fact, the score in this game acts very much like how the Halo score is instrumental in creating a uniquely Halo experience – just that in this case, the score creates a uniquely God of War experience. It’s memorable, and it is immersive.

Beyond the visual and audio, however, lies an equally, if not more, competent component of the game. The combat mechanics are very well-constructed – there are 2 weapons for butchering enemies, magic spells to obliterate large hordes of enemies quickly, and a good variety of tools that can be utilized for specific purposes. As Kratos kill more enemies and progresses through the game, he will also collect orbs of varying colors: Red orbs allow him to level up, making available more moves and abilities for each weapon, magic spell and tool, while green and blue orbs replenish Kratos’ health bar and magic respectively. Gorgeon eyes and phoenix feathers increase the limits of his health and magic and are scattered throughout the game.

With all these taken into consideration, it would not erroneous to say that you would end up with a relatively large number of moves and abilities for your weapons, magic spells and tools mid-way through the game. When faced with more powerful and stubborn enemies later in the game, having the option to use and switch to various moves and abilities at the flip of a finger becomes very much mandatory – but given the limited number of buttons on the PSP, this could be quite a challenge. Fortunately, Ready at Dawn, the brains behind this game, has it all nailed down. Controls are very accessible and intuitive – nope, there aren’t any unnecessarily complicated button presses and combinations to memorize. For instance, to execute different types of combos using magic spells, all you have to do is to hold down the R button and hit the corresponding face button. In the PS2 versions of God of War, the second analogue stick is used to roll off and evade attacks, but since the PSP’s lacking a second analogue stick, something has to be done to overcome the absence of the said. The solution? Holding down the L and R buttons while pushing the analogue stick in the desired direction becomes the choice of control for evading attacks and it works – and not only does it works, it becomes a perfect solution. All in all, the controls are very tight and responsive, but perhaps more noteworthy are how seamlessly they actually integrate into the gameplay.

Perhaps the only gripe I have about this game is how linear some levels are. Basically, you enter a room, and then get locked in by some glowing red force fields with some weird demonic faces on them before some enemies spawn in to take you on. It’s an uncreative and uninspiring way of introducing enemies into the game and locking you into a room would only make the game seem more linear than initially intended. Occassionally, there are some off-beaten paths that you would want to transverse to unlock hidden treasure chests, platforming sections to overcome, and puzzles to solve and while they do add the much needed diversity into the gameplay, they aren’t very difficult hurdles save for a few puzzles which may take you about 10 minutes or so to figure out what to do.

The sheer variety of enemies that you would encounter here does help, though. Each enemy type requires varying combat strategies that will take it down more effectively. Deal ample damage to each, and you’ll be provided with the option of playing a mini-game of timed button presses and analogue stick turns, which when won, will wield more orbs. However, I don’t like the idea of being forced to engage in compulsory mini-games during some instances. As much as I dislike the idea of being forced, I must mention that the mini-games are certainly a healthy diversion to keep things interesting. Overall, the pace of the game feels right and the gameplay is consistently intense throughout.

I took 7 hours to finish this game on normal difficulty. That’s a little short, but is easily forgiven for there are several unlockables, including the god mode difficulty, bonus challenges, as well as behind the scenes and making of variety of videos that you would normally expect to be in a collector’s edition and not in the standard edition of a game.

Final Comments
There is no question that you should get this game – to experience its goodness and to show your friends what the PSP is really capable of. The story is solid and this game’s a visual and audio powerhouse. There’s also a competent combat mechanics, which may seem outwardly convoluted, but is actually not – thanks to the one of the best controls ever to grace the PSP. Unfortunately, this game is a relatively linear experience, but the many hidden treasures, platforming sections and puzzles, mostly easy, but some hard, keep this flaw a minor one. The great variety of enemies that you will face here is also a boon and the mini-games keep things fresh.

Holiday 2008's Best Picks (Part 2)

Mortal Kombat vs. James Bond vs. DC Universe

Mirror’s Edge and Call of Duty: World at War aren’t the only games that you should look out for this holiday season. Part 2 of this special feature will pick out another 2 promising titles for you to drool over.

007: Quantum of Solace

Bang! Boom!

We haven’t seen a 007 game for a while now, but all that’s about to change. Due to debut around the film’s release, this game is essentially one of the many movie tie-ins that come off the conveyor belt every year, which unfortunately, are notorious for being bad. But if current impressions are anything to go by, Quantum of Solace certainly isn’t going to be one of them.

Developed by Treyarch, which is also handling Call of Duty: World at War, Quantum of Solace is anything but your typical action game. In fact, this game is what Treyarch describes as a hybrid 3D person game. What this means is that the game will play out in both first-person view and third-person view. When Bond is moving normally and blowing the hell out of everything, the game will put you into a first-person view. But when Bond is taking cover or sneaking up behind someone, the game instantly switches to a third-person view – now, I take that as a reason for the developers to be able to show off some really fluid and intense attack animations.

The pillar is fatter than Bond.

As a Bond game, gameplay isn’t going to be all about gunning down villains. Let’s just say that this game is part Call of Duty 4, and part Splinter Cell. Utilising a wide variety of weapons ranging from pistols to rifles to SMGs, Bond can easily lay waste to dozens of enemies. There would also be explosive barrels to take advantage of – couple that with destructible environments and you know that you are going to be blowing up lots of things in this game. But at other times, it would be wiser to employ some stealth, sneak up on an enemy and throw him off the balcony than to gun him down and arouse unnecessary attention. All these definitely make for a fair bit of strategy. Besides having the option of choosing stealth or all-out carnage for assault, there would also be sequences in the game where you have to infiltrate a building without anyone noticing, not forgetting that there are some platforming sections as well. Now, that’s mission diversity.

Story-wise, this game will follow the plot of the forthcoming film closely. BUT there’s a surprise – this game will also include the plot from the previous Bond film: Casino Royale. So … … does that mean that we are getting 2 movie tie-ins in one? Like Call of Duty: World at War, Quantum of Solace uses the Call of Duty 4 visual engine too so impressive graphics are to be expected.

007: Quantum of Solace makes its way onto every major platform except the PSP on November 4. Hey, why is PSP excluded from the list again? Well, guess there’s still the DS version for portable action. The DS version is a top-down 3rd person action game, though.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

This road is closed.

When this game was first announced, I was really surprised – well, whoever thought of pitting kombatants against the superheroes from the pages of DC comics? The inclusion of characters like Superman, Batman, The Joker, Flash and Catwoman in the next Mortal Kombat game spices up the already sizzling franchise known for its fatalities – and I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game.

Besides the addition of characters from the DC Universe, a few tweaks have also been made to the controls. For a start, combos are easier to pull off in this game as the combination of button presses isn’t as long and convoluted as past Mortal Kombat titles. Each move has a variation as well – and this variation is known as the pro-move. What this means is that whenever you execute a move, there will be a specific button to hit at a specific time – time the button hit correctly and the move will deal more damage to your opponent, but it also gives you the opportunity to link more moves together. For instance, if you slam an opponent against the ground, he or she will bounce back up to allow you to link more moves together – that is, only if you nail the pro-move.

In preceeding Mortal Kombat games, when you and your opponents fall out of the fight arena, the characters would merely dive to their deaths. However, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe’s about to change that. When you and your opponents fall off the ring this time around, face buttons will appear at the bottom of the screen. What you need to do is to hit the corresponding buttons and continue to deal damage to your opponent.

No! Don't break my arm!

Thus far, the talk has been all about tweaks in the controls. But what about the visuals? Certainly, that has been given the same amount of attention too. As the fight progresses, bruises, torn masks and ripped costumes will form, adding to the overall sense of aesthetics in the game. It should also be noted that while this game will have fatalities, DC Universe superheroes will have what Midway calls brutalities instead of fatalities. Everyone knows that Batman does not kill – and Midway isn’t attempting to change that. But what are brutalities? Simple. Fatalities kill, but brutalities don’t; instead, they bring their opponents to the edge of death, but never to death. For instance, Superman finishes his opponents by pounding them into the ground, which is going to break a few bones, but not kill opponents. It would be really interesting to see the full range of fatalities and brutalities available in this game.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe comes to the Xbox 360 and PS3 in November. Want to see Mortal Kombat characters’ asses kicked by characters from the DC Universe and vice versa? November 10’s the date to mark on your calendar.

Holiday 2008's Best Picks (Part 1)

Call the mirror to the edge of its duty.

Publishers have the propensity to release really promising titles towards the end of every year, perhaps hoping to catch the holiday season shoppers just in time – and this year’s no different. Let’s check out the potential game-of-the-year titles in the offing.

Mirror’s Edge

She knows kung-fu!

Innovation is never bad – though how well the final product turns out is another question altogether. The game wheeling the innovation cart last year was Portal, Valve’s first-person puzzle game, but for this year, we have Mirror’s Edge. When this game was announced earlier this year, it really caught my attention. The first screens and footage of Mirror’s Edge showed that this title certainly isn’t your archetypal first-person game – well, the tell-tale sign is the game’s focus on acrobatic action instead of the usual gunplay.

Alright, it is easy to get confused here. First-person acrobatic action? What’s exactly is Mirror’s Edge all about? Though the story’s a little sketchy right now, it is known that you would be playing as Faith, a woman who is mysteriously wanted dead by the several men in black (literally). No, she doesn’t have any weapons with her – but she does have one skill – and that’s her agility. By means of some rather impressive acrobatics, she jumps across to roofs of buildings with an unprecedented elegance to evade her enemies. Horizontal poles hanging in mid-air are also fair play. Faith’s acrobatics aren’t merely for evading, though – they come in handy when engaging in melee combat with enemies as well. When faced with such a situation, she can disarm them with some kung-fu-esque moves, and then the game gives you the choice of using the weapon. Equipping the said would preclude Faith from executing any acrobatics, but allow her to silence enemies from afar and hence reducing the risk of attaining an injury – it’s essentially an option that you have to weigh.

Taking a water slide.

However, the fact that this game puts you into a first-person perspective while doing acrobatics means that Mirror’s Edge may turn out to be the videogame version of the film Cloverfield – which means constant shakes and distortion are to be expected. How DICE, the developers, will handle this to keep headaches at bay remains to be seen.

All in all, this game’s shaping up to be a unique title. And nope, the beautiful visual style employed here hasn’t gone unnoticed. Mirror’s Edge arrives November 11 on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Whoa, that’s really close to Gears of War 2’s release date.

Call of Duty: World at War

Now you see him, now you don't.

World at War is the latest installment in Activision’s established franchise and this year’s offering is being developed by Treyarch. Unlike Call of Duty 4, World at War is going back to the World War 2 theme – but for the first time, you will get to face off against the Japanese. The game also has you fighting the war from the Russian front, whose campaign takes place near the end of the war.

But how is World at War going to set itself apart from the countless other World War 2 shooters that you and I have played for so many years? For a start, World at War utilizes the visual engine from Call of Duty 4 – and the fact that Treyarch already has its hands on the engine a full year before Call of Duty 4’s release means that there is a lot of time for the studio to further polish the graphical aspects of the game and make them even better. Using Call of Duty’s visual engine also means that Treyarch has more time to focus on creating an immersive gameplay as there isn’t a need to build the graphics engine from the ground up.

How can you ever miss this target?

Needless to say, the crux of the game’s going to be its action. And with regards to that, World at War does have a few tricks up its sleeves. Mission diversity has always been a selling point of Call of Duty games and World at War isn’t an exception. From night missions that require a little bit of stealth to close-quarters jungle warfare with the camouflaged Japanese soldiers to the bombing of Japanese vessels in the Pacific Ocean, World at War certainly has quite a lot of mission variety. Besides mission diversity, Treyarch has also added the idea of alternative paths into World at War – each path offers varying combat strategies and it’s up to you to decide how you want to approach your enemies.

The addictive Pokemon-style collect-em-all multiplayer from Call of Duty 4 is returning as well. What this translates into is the option to unlock more weapons and abilities as your rank increases. Why change a thing that’s not broken? Perhaps more noteworthy is the addition of 4-player co-op multiplayer, which can be played in both split-screen mode and online. The game will increase the difficulty of the missions in accordance with the number of players and their skills.

What is there not to like about World at War, really? Treyarch has been involved in the Call of Duty franchise since the early days and if all is implemented well, this could be the game that would match, if not better, Call of Duty 4 and redefine what a World War 2 shooter should be like.

Be sure to gun down Call of Duty: World at War on November 11 on every major platform except the PSP. Oh my, why are PSP gamers still not getting Call of Duty? Well, get the DS version (which feature richer graphics than Call of Duty 4 for DS) if you want some portable action. And wait, November 11? WTH! It’s a same day release as Mirror’s Edge! Looks like I’m going have to spend more on November 11.

More Holiday 2008’s Best Picks Part 2 soon!

Game Review: Medal of Honor Heroes 2

A worthy receiver of the Medal of Nonsense.

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TOTAL SCORE: 6.9/10

The Good:
Great presentation * A graphical accomplishment * Immersive aural experience

The Bad:
Missions are very linear and lack diversity * Laughable, if not non-existent, A.I. * Hopelessly poor save mechanism * Disappointing online 32-player multiplayer
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Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is a game that could either turn out really good or really bad for the PSP. A game ported over from the Wii, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 could very well be a rushed port should the developers decide to just cash in on the game instead of tweaking and polishing it for the PSP, but fortunately, that isn’t the case. What you have here is the full Wii game minus the on-rails arcade mode in your hands – with the gorgeous cut scenes, voice-overs and online 32-player multiplayer support intact. That being said, the flaws present in the Wii game also gets ported over and during the process of porting the game over, the developers somehow managed to make some components of the game worse. The end result is a game that is graphically and aurally pleasing, but also one that frustrates its players with brainless A.I. mates and enemies and an inexcusably poor save mechanism to the point where you would be inclined to put the game down before it’s even finished.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 deserves a mention for its presentation. As mentioned, the gorgeous cut scenes and voice-overs from the Wii version are all here, so what you are getting is a portable experience that is on par with that of the home console. Graphically, the game isn’t as pretty looking as the Wii version, but that’s an issue that lies solely on the technical side of things. That isn’t to say that this game isn’t a visual accomplishment – because it is. For most parts, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 fares considerably well save for some muddled textures which aren’t that tangible. Unlike the previous Medal of Honor console outing, Medal of Honor Airborne, this game does provide an immersive aural experience – there is a distinctive feel of pandemonium as gunshots and shouts sound through the environments and a very appropriate war theme to serve as an accompaniment to that feel. In this aspect, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is a really great game – a console experience so masterfully fitted down for the PSP, but from here onwards, there is absolutely nothing that is worth your attention.

The 7 missions certainly aren’t anything noteworthy. All in all, the entire single-player campaign would last you approximately 6 hours, which I think is still respectable given that this is a portable shooter. Perhaps more worrying are the very linear levels that not only feel small, but also lack diversity. This game suffers from the same problem as Ninja Gaiden 2: the environments are huge, but when you actually start exploring, you realize that’s it’s less than meets the eyes, with the only difference being the usage of barriers like locked doors, rubble and fences (nope, you can’t jump in this game) instead of the irksome invisible walls as ways to shove you from area to area. This already-glaring flaw is made more palpable by the game’s lack of diversity. Sure, there are the .50 calibre machine gun turrets to man and artillery shells to fire from time to time, but those are merely elements to disguise the shallow run-and-gun formula.

For such a weak single-player campaign, I was hoping that the A.I. would offer some compensation, but there was none in store. The A.I. isn’t merely bad – it is non-existent. You are shooting shadows and hollow statues – there isn’t really anything that the A.I. has to offer that would have you believe that you are actually fighting against enemy infantry. Almost always in the game, enemy soldiers would run to their pre-programmed positions, never once moving away from them until death – not even a grenade could move them, not even a change in my position could move them. That’s right, throwing a grenade at your enemies in this game is a sure-kill because they won’t run away from it! You can count yourself lucky if you see the enemy A.I. moving around, but then you notice they are running circles in (again!) a pre-programmed route, so you could just anticipate them by aiming your weapon at the turning point of the route.

Let’s discuss scenario 2: I was taking cover behind some barrels and the enemy A.I. was firing at me. I then decided to move to another cover so that I can have a better aim. A few seconds later, I was behind my new cover. And what astonishment! The enemy A.I. continued shooting at my previous position. And as I moved out from behind my cover to aim at him, he seemed to be oblivious to it. And there’s scenario 3: I was far away from the enemy A.I. I saw him and he saw me. I had a very clear shot at him, and so did he. He stood still and did not shoot. I tried another technique. I moved closer – and he finally shot, but when I moved very close to him, he ceased shooting. You see, the A.I. has been programmed to open fire on enemies only when they are [insert number here] meters to [insert number here] meters away from him; he won’t open fire on targets any further or any nearer to him. This is the MOST laughable A.I. I have EVER experienced. Don’t count on your teammates to tide you over enemy fire too because they are just as crappy. However, the developers have a way of working around this flaw, but they have done in a way so unfair that it frustrates you. You know what to expect if you have experienced endless enemy spawns before.

Needless to say, endless enemy spawns can sometimes make for cheap deaths. As if wanting to make them cheaper, the developers have (deliberately) implemented a VERY VERY poor save mechanism that only a person who have gone to an anger management class can survive. Let’s just say it has been 30 minutes since your last checkpoint and suddenly, the game ramps up the number of enemies unpredictably and adds in an almost endless stream of respawns and succeeds in killing you. Oh great, now you’d have to restart at the point from 30 minutes ago. And what better word to describe this design choice than retarded? Perhaps the developers were smoking weed or drunk when they were deciding on this aspect of the game – they seemed to have forgotten that this is a portable shooter! Be warned: the possibility of making absolutely no progress in the game despite your 30 minutes playtime in the bus is VERY real. That isn’t the worst thing going for this game’s save mechanism, though. During my time with this game, I also discovered that this game doesn’t save at checkpoints at times. In one instance, I arrived at a checkpoint and quitted the game as my train ride was coming to an end, but when I booted it up again, I needed to restart the entire mission! In another instance, the game booted up to exactly the point I was at the last time. This could very well be the one flaw that could make you put the game down before it’s completed.

And I thought the online 32-player multiplayer could save this game. With 6 maps spread over 3 standard modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag), the offering is a little on the reduced side. While the EA servers handled the games very well such that they are all lag-free and the option in jump in and out of any game is available, there were SEVERAL instances of people hacking the game in my test runs (4 nights of multiplayer matches, each lasting 3 hours) and having the ability to run at an incredible speed, as well as the ability to fire unlimited number of rockets without reloading (OMG!). The other thing about multiplayer is that it feels more about luck than skill – no thanks to the PSP lack of a second analogue stick. The default set-up uses the face buttons for aiming and it feels really clumsy, with subtle movements made impossible. Wherefore, multiplayer is less about landing that headshot or precise shot, and more about hurling grenades and firing rockets and keeping your fingers crossed that your opponents happen to be in the blast radius.

Final Comments
Great presentation here, but beyond that, everything is nonsense. The missions are linear and they lack diversity. That isn’t compensated by the non-existent A.I., and even if it’s existent, its intelligence would only match that of a blindfolded ape firing a rifle backwards. Its hopelessly poor (and seriously retarded) save mechanism and multiplayer glitches have this game deserving the ultimate Medal of Nonsense. Hop in if you are a Medal of Honor fan or are really desperate for some FPS action on your PSP; otherwise, give this game a pass – you aren’t missing anything.

Game Review:GRID

The closest you can get to an actual racing experience.

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TOTAL SCORE: 8.9/10

The Good:
Impressive interface * Strong visuals * Realistic damage system * There is a replay camera * Flashback option available * Considerable diversity of game modes * Total control of your race team * Personalization of name for audio cues and instructions * Long career mode * Solid multiplayer

The Bad:
Replays cannot be saved * Inconsistent audio cues and instructions * Only 45 cars * No tweaking of cars
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2007’s Colin McRae DiRT delivered an awesome racing experience of fantastic proportions, blending a wide selection of vehicles that range from trucks, ATVs to race cars with a visual engine so impressive that the game completely immerses you in it. Coupled with a realistic damage system and one of the sleekest interfaces ever to grace the screen, DiRT was definitely one of last year’s better, if not best, racing games. Now, the development team behind DiRT has returned – and with a paroxysm of optimism and creativity, created yet another winner in GRID.

From the get-go, the first sign of the team’s impeccable sense of design seeps in. The sleek 3D interface from DiRT has been given an encore – nothing ever stays stagnant in the interface. For instance, when you are accessing the different options on the interface, there would be passer-bys strolling along and admiring your cars from time to time. Even the loading screen has been dedicated similar amounts of attention and clicking on an option has been made to feel like you are transiting into another world rather than merely executing an action for the sake of it.

GRID’s unique visual design extends into the gameplay. Built around an enhanced version of DiRT’s already-unmatched visual engine, the peripheries of the tracks are dominated by lush sceneries faithfully recreated to mirror their real-life counterparts. Lighting and water effects are all equally stunning. It’s quite a pity that this is a racing game, so you will pretty much speed past everything without noticing much.

But what’s certain not to escape your attention is the ever realistic damage system, which has been provided with a significant upgrade from DiRT. There is a wider variety of damages that can occur to your cars – doors swoosh out, sparks fly as either side of a bumper falls off and gets dragged on the tarmac, wheels roll out, bonnets get smashed off entirely – and all these are done in a style so immaculate that you would want to watch your car crash over and over again. And that IS possible, all thanks to GRID’s replay camera (accessible at any point in the race and after the race), which offers a considerable amount of views: cinematic, third-person close-up, third-person pull-out, bonnet, bumper, and cockpit, of which the later shows the driver’s hands on the steering wheel, as well as on the gear stick. The only gripe I have about the replay camera is that you cannot save your replays; the moment you exit the race, the replay is gone, which means that you can’t share your driving skills nor your spectacular crash-outs with anyone online.

Complementing the replay camera is the new flashback option (accessible only via replay), which gives the opportunity to rewind the race and start again from a desired point of time, much like in Full Auto. This is certainly a welcomed feature, especially for gamers like me who always have the propensity to screw up during the last lap and the need to replay the entire race because of that one mistake. For others who want more challenging races, there is also the option of disabling the flashback feature.

When it comes to the actual racing experience, GRID is just as competent. In fact, this game is the closest you can get to the real thing – everything seen and heard in real-life happens here. For a start, GRID offers a considerable diversity of game modes, namely freestyle drift, drift GP, downhill drift, touge, midnight touge (where there are civilian vehicles) and Le Mans 24 Hour Endurance races among your typical ones like the standard race (up to 19 other opponents) and time trial modes. The career mode starts rather extemporaneously (and harshly), with the game thrusting you straight into your first race without any prior tutorials – no questions asked: just race until you have enough finances to start your own race team.

And when you arrive at that stage, the game gives you total control of your team – you design the look of your team cars, you hire and fire teammates and you choose your sponsors. While you won’t be seeing design customization options that are as deep as those in Forza Motorsports 2, you can mix and match tons of pre-designed patterns and elements to your liking. Teammates are useful because they can win races and fill your team’s coffers more rapidly. There are also 7 dedicated sponsor slots and as you win more races, there would be increased sponsorship offers – each of them offers varying bonuses, so choosing 7 of them is already creative thinking in process. As mentioned, this game is the closest you can get to the real thing, so even if you finish last in a race, there’s still money to be earned – but of course, if you want to maximize profits, you wouldn’t want to be aiming for a mere finish every time. A tinge of realism is further highlighted in the ability to take up driver offers and participate in races for other teams to earn more money.

The audio cues and instructions that your partner reads out to you when your are driving from DiRT are also back. This time around, though, there is a huge list of first names you can choose from to personalize things a little on the audio side. For instance, if you choose Aaron, the game will acknowledge you by the name of Aaron whenever you enter your garage and when audio cues and instructions are read out to you in the midst of a race. That is unequivocally a nice touch, albeit a small one. The game does its best to praise you whenever you are leading the race and encourages you when you are lagging behind the pack. Warnings are voiced as well. Say, if someone ahead spins out, you would be advised accordingly. However, I found that the warnings came either a tad too late or were inaccurate at times. Warnings of someone crashing or spinning out never materialize for quite a number of times.

The game itself is long by racing standards. Featuring racing regions USA, Europe and Japan, each with a rather large number of races to go through, GRID will last you for quite a while. Completing races will net you reputation points, cash, and trophies, all of which are required for progressing into the upper tiers of the career mode. After the offline experience has been accomplished, you can hop into the solid multiplayer component. The aforementioned supports up to 12 racers with several available race modes up for selection.

All in all, GRID is a great game, marred only by its very few shortcomings which I would expatiate on now. Surprisingly, after all that variety of vehicles experienced in DiRT, GRID comes off short in this department. On last count, the number of cars available here stands at only 45 and that’s really FEW – and this is certainly a weak design choice in the face of such fierce competition in the racing genre. You WILL feel its disadvantages the moment you select your cars for each event – at times, there is only one car that is eligible for a particular race and it hurts. But for those that are included in this game, they are some of the most recognizable car makes and their handling feels spot-on.

Technical reconfiguration (or tweaking) of cars is also suspiciously missing from GRID. Want to swop a tyre so that the fast car has a better handling or have you ever wished that you could upgrade to a better engine so that stock car can attain a higher speed? Nope, you can’t, not in GRID anyways. I am puzzled as to why this aspect was left out of the game. Perhaps the developer wanted you to focus on the racing instead of diverting your attention to tweaking your cars?

Final Comments
DiRT, version 2 – that’s GRID. Well, that isn’t necessarily a negative. In fact, both games could complement each other. DiRT was an excellent racer, and so is GRID. With the exception of this game’s very few shortcomings, GRID has everything you could ever ask from a racing game. Perhaps one of its strongest selling points is that this game is THAT realistic. Learn how to be a race driver here, learn how to manage sponsorship offers – this is the closest you can get to an actual racing experience.

Game Review - FlatOut:Head On

Nothing new, something worse.

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TOTAL SCORE: 7.6/10

The Good:
New soundtracks * Carnage mode from the Xbox 360 version is present

The Bad:
Same game as the 2006 original, FlatOut 2 * Inconsistent visuals * Poorer framerates * Unresponsive controls
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The original FlatOut 2 came out in mid-2006 for the PC, PS2 and Xbox and I played the PC version. For a racer that encouraged carnage (ala Burnout), and whose mini-games involved smashing drivers through the windscreens of their cars, FlatOut 2 was certainly a refreshing experience. Bugbear Entertainment has since remade the game for Xbox 360 in the form of FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage. Not merely content with the aforementioned, it remade the game again for PSP in what could be said as the latest game in the FlatOut franchise: FlatOut: Head On.

Of course, some changes are to be expected. Right off the bat, you will notice that there is a new list of soundtracks, which do well to complement all the crashing and burning. Carnage mode which works much like an arcade mode, has also been brought over from the Xbox 360 version, ensuring that this game will still have some legs after FlatOut mode, which is your typical career mode, has been completed.

Otherwise, this game is still THE FlatOut 2 from 2006, which means that you will get the same number and selection of cars and tracks as the 2 year old original – even the entire FlatOut mode was copied over, so players looking for something new are advised give this game a skip. If you have played FlatOut 2 before, you have experienced FlatOut: Head On. Even if you have not played FlatOut 2 before and are looking to get a hands-on on your first FlatOut game, I would suggest that you head down to your nearest game store and pick up FlatOut 2 from the bargain bin instead simply because FlatOut: Head On isn’t what you’d expect from a remake: improvements to the original. In fact, this game is worse than FlatOut 2.

Needless to say, given the lesser nature of the PSP’s hardware as opposed to the power contained under the hood of the PC, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360, something has to go when FlatOut comes to the PSP. One of the more noticeable downgrades is the visual. The car models look great, but the environments are relatively inconsistent – some look polished, while some are nothing more than hideous bunches of huge pixels. The framerate has also taken a dive, partly due to the large amounts of physic work going on when you are racing, but overall, it is still manageable.

Another trade-off for fitting FlatOut onto the PSP is the controls. For a racer that already has such loose steering, the controls only serve to exacerbate matters. For the uninitiated, the handling of the vehicles in FlatOut 2 is far from perfect. Let’s just put it this way: you’re driving on oil instead of tarmac. The loose handling mechanism already has you struggling with the controls to keep your car on the path in the original FlatOut 2 – and this doesn’t change here. However, the unresponsive controls in this game would only mean that more effort is required to preclude your car from skidding, creating an increased racing difficulty so unnecessary and unjustified.

Final Comments
FlatOut: Head On won’t introduce anything new to people who have played FlatOut 2 before – save for the Carnage mode, this is the same game as the 2006 original – only impoverished. As expected, the graphics aren’t as gorgeous as the console versions and the framerate, while stable, isn’t all that smooth. The loose steering from the original is already enough trouble, and the unresponsive controls here aren’t going to be of much help. As mentioned, this is the same game as FlatOut 2, so if you looking to try your first FlatOut game, you are better off getting the original instead of this PSP version. But if you, by one way or the other, manage to play this game, it would last you quite a while and the mini-games and local wireless multiplayer support for 4 players add the much-needed replayability.

Game Review:Turok

The sum of all flaws.

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TOTAL SCORE: 6.5/10

The Good:
Many ways to tackle a given scenario * Secondary fire mode for each weapon introduces strategy into gameplay

The Bad:
Story seems rushed and uncompleted * Inconsistent weapon damage system * Inconsistent difficulty * Inconsistent checkpoint allocation * Inconsistent A.I. * Environments lack variety * Really poor visuals
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The archetypal bad-guy soldier, the blood-thirsty demons, the mutated bugs and slugs – all too often, these are the enemy subjects of most FPSes. But it seems that someone woke up one day and realized something that everyone else may have forgotten: Dinosaurs. The prospect of wielding a shotgun and blowing up a dinosaur’s brain sounds all too exciting – and that’s where Turok delivers. Surprisingly, it didn’t come out all too well.

Needless to say, for a game with dinosaurs, there is certainly an interesting premise in store. The game puts you in the shoes of Joseph Turok (what a convenient title for the game) who has just quit from a group of mercenaries called Wolfpack and joined Whiskey Company. Coincidentally, Whiskey Company is now on the hunt for Wolfpack’s leader, Kane, who is believed to be hiding on a remote planet and accompanied by his army of soldiers. As expected from such a rivalry-fuelled storyline, Whiskey Company’s ship gets shot down as it nears the planet, paving the way for all the dinosaur action and exploration.

Without doubt, this is a setting that has lots of potential for mysteries and plot expansion. The game delivers on some fronts – constantly drawing on Turok’s past throughout the entire game and explaining how he came to withdraw his Wolfpack membership, as well as construing the existence of giant mutated scorpions on the planet as the experimentation of a proliferative virus by Kane and his men. However, more questions were left unanswered than answered. By the end of the game, I was still puzzled as to why there were dinosaurs on the planet and the connection between Wolfpack and Whiskey Company was ignored for most parts – even Whiskey Company’s motives for wanting to eliminate Kane wasn’t answered. All these make for a pretty stale final fight scene between Turok and Kane and it’s hard not to think that the fight isn’t anything more than a gimmick to display the game’s fight animations, albeit those that are really fluid and intense. Perhaps the setting’s too ambitious, but it seems that the developer really had this great idea, but somehow, they ran out of suggestions on how to continue the story along the way.

Without a solid plot, the game’s left with its action to tide it over. And on that count, Turok is a satisfying experience. The game’s generous selection of weapons, including some unexpected ones, would make even the most seasoned FPS gamer drool. Between the knife, the crossbow and the shotgun, pulse rifle and chaingun (weirdly called mini-gun in the game), you can either choose to opt for stealth or all-out carnage – the choice is up to you. In fact, the game encourages you to adopt different approaches to each scenario by scattering varying varieties of both stealth and all-out weapons at any given area. If you so choose to take a stealth approach, there are tall grasses for you to remain in the shadows, and towers and cliffs that provide excellent locations for some sniping. Players who choose to go for all-out carnage can expect a decent number of covers and explosive barrels to take advantage of. My favorite weapon to use for a stealth approach would have to be the knife. When you are near enough to an enemy, the game will prompt you to knife the enemy via a visual cue, and spectacular knifing animations would be showcased following which. For instance, when you knife a raptor, Turok climbs onto its back before plunging the knife into its head or one of its eye sockets – all in all, it’s a very nicely-done animation and one that will tickle your thirst for more knife kills.

The number of ways to tackle a given situation isn’t limited by the number of weapons, though. You see, every weapon has a secondary fire mode, but the said introduces something more than added firepower: strategy. The SMG is a ‘loud’ weapon, but secondary fire mode equips the SMG with a silencer, effectively making it a stealth weapon. The sticky bomb gun’s secondary fire mode provides you with the ability to lay mines, which really adds extra depth to the gameplay as you can now strategize ambushes. The chaingun’s secondary mode is also useful. For the uninitiated, the chaingun’s secondary fire mode allows you to set it up as a stationary gun turret which will pelt any enemy in its way with a hail of bullets, making it the perfect weapon for tight corners and narrows hallways. On the other hand, the shotgun’s secondary fire mode shoots a flare that distracts dinosaurs, so planting a flare on one of Kane’s men would cause the dinosaurs to maul some of them to death. There are many other strategic and creative ways to make use of each weapon and the game leaves it all to you to experiment with different combinations. To put it the simplest way, there are 101 ways to kill your enemies and the only limit is your imagination.

The secondary fire mode isn’t the only thing going for Turok’s weapons. Almost every weapon in the game can be dual-wielded and there’s nothing more lethal than a pair of shotguns for some close quarters combat. The game also gives you 4 weapon slots, of which 2 can be swopped out with different weapons (the other 2 weapon slots that are occupied by the knife and crossbow are fixed). By the way, a pair of dual-wielded weapons occupies one weapon slot, so in reality, the number of weapons you can carry betters the number of weapon slots available.

I can go on and on about how greatly the weapons in Turok have been implemented into the game, but no amount of praise can save this game from its ridiculous number of inconsistencies. Incidentally, the best part of the game – the weapons – isn’t excused from inconsistency. For a game that has you fighting waves of enemies on an almost consecutive pace, the poor weapon damage system is something worth worrying about. Something must be seriously wrong when you realize that nothing less than 3 to 4 shotgun shells will be able to down a human enemy, which can otherwise be accomplished via one knife stab. And you know there isn’t any logic in this game when 2 sniper shots are occasionally required to silence a human enemy. On the other hand, a single arrow from the crossbow is enough to kill a human enemy – that’s where the weapon damage system performs. This inconsistency doesn’t affect gameplay that much when you are dealing with only a few enemies, but for most parts of the game, that doesn’t happen.

The other inconsistency present in this game is the difficulty, which is largely imbalanced. But it has also got to do with the poor checkpoint allocation and equally inconsistent A.I. Some parts of the game feel genuinely challenging, but there’s nothing worse than the game sending wave after wave of enemies at you with no checkpoint in-between, and that’s when the difficulty tips towards the side of insane. At other times, mutated scorpions are endlessly spawned in for more than 5 minutes – in a way that feels really unjustified. Speaking of checkpoint, I have an experience where the game saved 3 times within 1 minute: there were 3 raptors, and for every raptor I killed, the game saved. And there were the moments where the game didn’t save for long periods of time. Take, for instance, one part of a mission where I had to invade an enemy base, and after killing all the initial enemies, I had to withstand 4 waves of attacks. Upon clearing the 4 waves of attacks, I was forced into a corner and had to repel 2 waves of assaults at close range – all these without any checkpoint to provide a breather.

Next in line is the A.I., which can be really brilliant one moment, but retarded the next. Chucking grenades your way to flush you out of your cover is one technique that you may need to get used to, but at the same time, moments where the A.I. stand still out in the open would be certain to induce a snicker or two. The A.I. is intelligent enough to take cover when you open fire at them, but doesn’t have the common sense not to pop his entire body out from the cover at the exact same spot every few seconds – and when that happens, you merely need to focus your reticule on the spot where he will pop out and nail him when he decides to greet you. You can snipe the A.I. down, but his patrol partner who is only a few meters away from him continues with his routine as if nothing has occurred.

Fortunately, that’s where the inconsistencies end. But hey, that isn’t necessarily a good thing because the remaining 2 flaws present in the game are outright blemishes. One of the drawbacks of this game is that its environments simple aren’t varied enough. For your first few hours, the considerably realistic jungle setting might intrigue you with some really impressive lighting and shadows. From time to time, there would also be sounds of rocks falling and dinosaur screeches and roars, making for a really immersive experience – but only for a short while. But then, you realize that you will be seeing the same damn jungle for the next 9 hours – there is a really tangible feeling that the effects that make the jungle so realistic in the first place are starting to wear off as you progress through the game. On a sidenote, the jungle is very disorientating, so be prepared to get lost for a significant number of times. Sure, there are the interiors of the human enemy bases from time to time to spice things up a little, but they have failed quite miserably in their job. For all the ballyhoo created by the explosions and gunfire outside the bases, there is actually nothing interesting inside the enemy complexes. Ignore this if you count endless supplies of dull walls as subjects of general interest and entertainment – it isn’t until towards the end that the interiors of enemy complexes start to deserve more attention and details.

The poor graphics don’t do the environment much favour either. For a game utilizing the popular Unreal engine, I was expecting something better, but was left severely disappointed. This isn’t a current-gen game (in terms of visuals, at least). Approach rocks, walls, and trees, and all you will see are hideous textures (think big blobs of pixels). Yes, it’s THAT bad. I am really surprised that the bad visuals are even able to make it into the retail version.

Like any other standard shooter, Turok will last you from 7 to 9 hours, but there’s quite a decent multiplayer. There are 7 maps, which isn’t a lot and all the typical multiplayer modes are present, including deathmatch and capture the flag. The great thing about Turok’s multiplayer is that there are A.I.-controlled dinosaur roaming the map together with you and your opponents. Online co-op allows 3 friends to accompany you in 3 different missions. Now, that’s a welcomed bonus.

Final Comments
The weapons are arguably Turok’s strongest point and most players would leave satisfied with its gunplay. However, Turok only delivers a whole lot of inconsistencies beyond that. Though Turok begins promisingly, the story seems rushed and uncompleted. Now, don’t get me started on the variety of environments here – because it simply doesn’t exist. The sub-par visuals sum up this could-have-been-so-much-better game: It’s a classic case of ‘too many little errors pile up to become one big flaw’.

Game Review:Corvette Evolution GT

Limited budget kills the unrealised potential.

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TOTAL SCORE: 7.0/10

The Good:
Sleek interface * Decent number of options available * Handling of each car feels unique and the steering, tight * Track details and features are impressive * Commendable track design

The Bad:
Visuals could have been better * Cars disappearing for a split second * Short draw distance means that you may have to rely on mini-map to anticipate turns * Difficulty levels are ignorable * Lack of online multiplayer
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The DS is becoming an increasingly popular platform for new developers to create games for, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering that a huge budget isn’t really needed to produce a DS game and that the DS already has a huge ready-made market of both casual and hardcore gamers. Island Racing Studios is one such new developer. Its maiden game: Corvette Evolution GT. Judging from its price, this game doesn’t attempt to hide the fact that it is made on a shoe-string budget. However, it did manage to pop in a few wonders and provide a respectable racing experience.

Corvette Evolution GT, while understandably a budget title, isn’t some crap like Offroad Extreme Special Edition or Mini Desktop Racing that Data Design Interactive constantly puts out on the Wii. In fact, this game has all the makings of a DS-game-of-the-year, but the restrictions of a tight budget are demonstrated coherently in this game – and it expectedly ends up falling short in a few areas. That is not to say Island Racing Studios hasn’t done a good job – which it did – by skillfully maximizing the limited funds available.

Right off the bat, you will be amazed by the sleek interface and the options that are available. The single-player mode consists of your typical career mode, quick race and time trials modes, while there is also the option of wireless play for 4 persons, though online multiplayer is suspiciously missing. The selection of cars, while not very wide, is enough. Licensed cars from Audi, Mercedes, TVR and Opel among other brands are available. The handling of the cars is intelligibly independent of each other and overall, the steering feels tight; you won’t feel as if you are driving on the moon like in Asphalt: Urban GT 2.

The number of tracks available is also decent. But what impresses me more are the track details. With tracks hailing from different cities around the world like London, Milan and Barcelona, there is a need to make each track as lively and unique as possible – and that has been accomplished with the fantastic varieties of buildings and other features that populate the environs of each track as you race down the streets of the many cities. I am surprised that I am even able to say this: The track details and features here betters last year’s Race Driver: Create and Race from Codemasters, which was backed by a bigger budget. The said are further complemented by the equally, if not more, competent track design. There is quite an amount of challenging sharp turns to be had in this game and they are implemented with much thought into the various tracks. However, the visual engine powering Corvette Evolution GT certainly does the tracks no favors as the textures feel somewhat muddled – for most parts, they are fine, but again, all could have been better if not for the limited budget.

For all the impressive track details and features, something has to go. And the questionable technical issues instantly come to mind. You will encounter moments where cars disappear for a split second, but what’s more severe is the short draw distance. I have experienced quite a few times where I didn’t know there was a turn ahead until it was too late – turn-signaling signs would suddenly pop out of nowhere in my foreground. It was bad to the extent that I had to refer to the mini-map on the bottom screen to anticipate turns! This problem only occurs for some tracks, though, or more specifically, tracks which have sharp turns after long straight stretches. While this isn’t a total game breaking flaw, it remains a technical shortcoming that will ruin your racing experience to a significant extent.

The other thing that has it going against this racer is the difficulty. There are 4 difficulty levels, but none of which feels particularly challenging. There seems to be guarantee in the game that you will definitely attain 1st in every race – and that by pulling way ahead of the pack by the 2nd lap. This is one game that has really negligible A.I. controlled opponents. Jump in to some wireless play instead after you have completed the career mode.

Final Comments
Corvette Evolution GT is a budget racer, but you can’t expect many funds to be available to a first-time developer, right? But the developer certainly makes full and good use of its limited budget. Needless to say, this game has lots of unrealized potential – the graphics could have been better, the technical shortcomings, solved and the A.I., improved. Unfortunately, a budget title can only go this far.