dimanche 9 décembre 2012

BaraChat's Games of the Year 2012 - Categories

For this year's Game of the Year awards, I've decided to do things in a simpler, more focused way. Last year I had 10 categories with about 5 nominees each and, looking back, I think I might have aimed a bit too high for my first year-ending roundup. After all, I'm not IGN, Gamespot or Edge Magazine, I can't realistically play - or even try - a hundred games per year. The fact that 2012 was clearly not as good as 2011, resulting in less games played this year, obviously has something to do with that decision. Anyway, I'll concentrate on the important stuff, eliminate some categories, maybe have less nominees (except for GoTY) and, if it's pertinent, add a few categories.

So far, what I have is :
  • Game of The Year 2012
  • Most impressive graphics (artistic AND/OR technical)
  • Best story
  • Most memorable gaming moment
  • Best music
  • Best sound design 
  • Best game I haven't tried (yet)
  • Most surprisingly good game
  • Most disappointing game
It's not impossible I add more categories as the year comes to an end, but so far that's about all I have.

mardi 4 décembre 2012

Gaming in 2012 : not what it used to be.

So I finally bought a new MacBook Pro, since my old MacBook - which was over 52 months old - started to show its age very quickly.

Now, having a decent computer in my hands, I decided to buy Diablo III, as I have been a big Diablo fan since the late 90's and spent probably upwards of 1000 hours on Diablo II alone. So I buy the game off Amazon (they had a 20$ off deal for Cyber Monday). I install it (it was a lot longer than I expected, but it's a huge game, so it's normal) and launch the game so I can start playing. Usually things go pretty smoothly from there. You buy a game, you play it. As you have done for the past 25 years. Simple.

Well not with this game. Since it's an online game, I had to create a battle.net account, which I gladly did and create a gamer tag for Blizzard. Simple enough. But even as I lauched the game, it didn't work because I had to activate the full game with the CD-key. I start to think : "Well why this wasn't done while I was installing the game with the DVD? Wouldn't that have been a million time easier?" But hey, no biggie. I enter the CD-key on the Battle.net website. Then it demands I enter my postal code. I do, but it doesn't work since I live in Canada and battle.net has decided without even asking me that I lived in the United States. Seriously?

All right, so let's just change the country on my account settings, right? How hard can that be? For anyone who has used the Internet in the past 10 years, changing account settings is the easiest thing you should ever have to do, unless there's a credit card involved or something. I go into my account settings and it says I can't change the country without asking Blizzard via customer support. Read that line again. And again. WHAT THE FUCK? Seriously? I delve deeper into my account settings and realize I can change the billing information of my account, country and all, in about 12.3 seconds. Which I do. But this doesn't change my account's country. I phone Battle.net support and the machine tells me I have a 20 minutes wait before I can speak to a human being. The other option is to create a ticket, a message to the customer service thing, so they can change my country. But they need governement-issued documents. Read that again. And again. Seriously? I do as told, and now I'm waiting.

So I bought a game like any good customer, paid Blizzard so I can play a f******g video game on my computer and I STILL have to jump through hoops to change my country? Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with them? I can enter and change billing information on the fly - like on any freaking website accross the Internet (I just did on Apple, credit card and all, and it took less than 30 seconds) - but I have to PROVE that I live in Canada with government-issued documents? How fucking pointless and absurd is that?

 It's a video game, for Christ's sake, not some classified FBI material. Why does it have to be so complicated? I bought your freaking game, just let me play it.

I bought a game that I can't play because the online service is absurdly idiotic and pointless. Blessed be the times where you bought a game, popped it in the system and had fun with it. Now you have to jump through 15 administrative loops and waste away hours of your life to simply start up the game. Nice.

Thanks a lot Blizzard, you've effectively pissed a gamer who has been a loyal customer for the past 16 years.

mercredi 14 novembre 2012

Some epic conquest match!

Yesterday I slid Battlefield 3 into my PS3 for perhaps the second time in over a month, as I wanted some frantic online FPS action. I was all set to join a Team Deathmatch and let the bullets fly. Instead, at the last second, I decided that I would let the machine decide which type of match I'll enter. At first it put me in a Rush match. It went horribly bad, my team (and I include myself) was absolutely incapable of defending a single objective for more than half a minute. After the game, I quit and decided to retry the "random" thing on the menu (I confess, I've never liked Rush, I like the idea but I really suck at it). This time it chose Conquest on Golf of Oman with 300% tickets. I was in for something big.

The match itself was pretty damn long, nearly an hour. I had one of my best games in my short BF3 career (103 hours long). I finished 46-19, leading my team in points, shooting down 3 manned helicopters with a tank (one was on the ground), destroying at least 7 or 8 manned tanks, capturing 10 or more flags, nailing 3 killstreak bonuses ribbons, unlocking a MBT medal (worth 10k points) and a combat efficiency medal (for killstreaks, my fourth, also worth 10k points). And it was double XP week for Premium members, so I gained nearly 80 000 points in a single match!

Even with one of my best games ever on BF3, I only finished 3rd and we lost. Two guys on the other team were extremely good, one of them finished with a 64-10 and over 21k points before bonuses. Anyway, it was fun, I hadn't played that epic of a match in a looong time. I used to play Conquest a lot, recording more than a few great matches with great K/D ratio (along the lines of 32-10, 23-2, 28-6, 17-1 and somewhere around 20 1st place ribbons). But lately I've been more focused on TDM, having a lot of fun, but I was not as dominant with guns only (I think I only ever had one 1st place ribbon in over a hundred TDMs). Indeed, my K/D ratio had dropped from 2.2 when I hit level 45 (Colonel) and now it's 1.9.

It was nice to see I could still put up a good fight in Battlefield 3. :)

mercredi 17 octobre 2012

Sometimes I shouldn't listen to myself.

When Mass Effect 3 came out earlier this year, I kept telling myself that I wouldn't try it. After a few days, when the first reviews and players' reactions came around criticizing the game's ending like it ruined their lives and ran away laughing, I thought : "Oh well I wasn't going to play it anyway, so I don't care". And that might look like a very strange behavior, especially since I really enjoyed Mass Effect 2, awarding it close to a 9.5 out of 10. But I guess something about the end of the game really bugged to the point that I didn't want to play the third installment. And, to be extremely honest, I have no freaking clue what it is.

Now I'm glad I bought it. Very glad, I should say. It is turning out to be a very, very enjoyable game. I like how the story is developing and how unpredictable it is turning out to be. After 13 hours I feel like it might be a bit too long if I choose to do all the Side quests. I'm a big side quests fan, usually, but for this game I'm not so sure I want to... The quests are usually quite long and complicated, which is a good thing for the most part, but sometimes the whole thing can get heavy and wee bit tedious.

But overall, I must say I'm quite glad I trusted the clerk at Microplay, who assured me it was a fantastic game if you don't mind the ending. Now that there's a patch out which "fixed" the controversial ending, I might not even be aware that there was a "bad" ending in the first place.

I'm usually quite on the "trust your instincts and nothing else" guy, but this time I've been proven wrong. And it's a good thing.

lundi 1 octobre 2012

The downfall of Resident Evil

I first discovered the Resident Evil franchise in the late 90's, when my older brother was playing through I think what was Resident Evil 2 or Nemesis (RE3). While I only watched and never played those games (they were my brother's), I eventually bought two of them for the GameCube : The Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil 0. I found both games to be very enjoyable, especially for their exquisite pacing. I've always enjoyed games with slow, thoughtful exploration, the fact that everything you find might and probably will help you survive.

Then came Resident Evil 4 which is, I think, one of the most important games (along with Uncharted, Halo, and Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare) of the last decade (2000-2009). That game was and still is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I played through it 4 or 5 times and I never got bored of it. It's simply stunning. There's a perfect balance between each and every aspect of the game. Sure, it basically introduced the 3rd-person over-the-shoulder camera angle which became the norm in the following years, creating a more action-oriented package. But it never - repeat : never - got away from the usual survival factor, the scary sequences/enemies/monsters/bosses, the tense atmosphere, the careful exploration of every corner and cupboard for herbs and ammo. That game still ranks third on my personal list of the best video games of all-time, just behind Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime and in front of All-Time Greats like Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007 and Fallout 3 (that should tell you a lot).

Then came Resident Evil 5, which was a decent game, but it barely ever got a little scary. The only thing that got on my nerves the whole game were the Lickers B (Beta) and the giant insect things near the end (although there were only 4 or 5 of them). And the only reason was because they were so powerful and resistant to damage, not exactly "frightening". The inventory management was very crappy, the enemies mostly generic and the settings not exactly memorable. And Chris lost a lot of respect as a protagonist with his huge bulging arms and the infamous "boulder punching" sequence. To me, it felt as if the developers thought Resident Evil 4 was successful only because it was more "action-oriented", so they decided to aim for that. And I think it just lost the beautiful balance RE4 had established. Again, it wasn't a bad game at all - it was actually pretty good - but it felt like a step down from RE4.

Earlier this year was released Operation Raccoon City which was, for me, an insult to the Resident Evil franchise. Sure, it's a coop 3rd-person-shooter action spin-off, not a canon entry, but it clearly showed which way Capcom was heading.

Then I finally tried the Resident Evil 6 demo. I know you don't judge a game by its demo, because it IS just a demo, but this was something else. My older brother, who played all home-console Resident Evil games (except ORC this year) since the very beginning, told it best. His first words (in french, of course) were "This isn't Resident Evil" and then "Resident Evil 5 was good, but this is just wack".

Like any well-informed buyer, I read reviews and watched gameplay vids on the Internet to get a better idea. I was very, very disappointed with what I saw. It doesn't even look like Resident Evil any more. It actually made me sad. At the very least it seems like Leon's campaign is decent, but the other "campaigns" all look mediocre, if not plain bad. I might very well give it a chance for old times' sake, but this doesn't look promising at all.

Sure, it's Capcom's franchise and they do whatever the hell they want. And they will sell a lot because of the name only. But I know I'm not alone thinking "Well, here's another historic franchise ruined by modernity".

lundi 24 septembre 2012

Sequels, hype and disappointment

In exactly 5 days*, Gearbox Software's Borderlands 2 will be released, and masses of gamers will flock game shops and websites to get their hands on a copy. In a way, I'll be one of them, since I've pre-ordered it back in June, when Canadian electronic store Future Shop had a E3 sale (4 E3-showcased games for the price of 3). However, as much hype as I have for Borderlands 2 - and I have a lot, since I love Borderlands so much it has a spot deeper in my gamer heart than any game this generation, even better ones - I couldn't help but think about the other over-hyped sequels of the past few years and get worried a bit.

Why? Because developers know sequels usually have a lot to live up to, and often try very hard (too hard?) to live up to their expectations and, even worse, gamers' expectations. And even when the critics applaud the sequel, giving it the same grade - or better - than the prequel, I usually find the original better.

The usual route for a sequel is "Bigger is better" where more explosions/guns/missions/treachery/quests/bigger boss fights/maps/powers/monsters/characters/fights/etc. means the game will likely be better. It is clearly not that simple.

Take, for example, inFamous, the 2009 PS3-exclusive open-world title where you play Cole McGrath, riddled with electric superpowers and has to choose whether he'll be good or evil towards citizens of Empire City while completing his missions. When inFamous 2 hit in 2011, with huge bosses, more powers, allies with other types of power (Ice & Fire), more varied enemies and less repetitive missions, most people thought it was a LOT better than the original. I didn't. Of course it had objectively more to offer, but more isn't necessarily better. I felt somewhat connected to the dark, unenthusiastic Cole of the first game, clearly not happy with the situation he was stuck in. The enemy, Kesler, was also a lot more interesting than "The Beast".

The same thing could be said of a lot of sequels. Only this generation, I thought Modern Warfare was vastly superior to both its sequels and Assassin's Creed II a lot better than Brotherhood (haven't tried Revelations). I also liked Arkham Asylum more than Arkham City (although City is objectively a superior game that I loved), enjoyed LittleBigPlanet more than LBP2 (still excellent though), Bioshock more than Bioshock 2 (superb as well), etc. And in some cases the sequel impossibly proved equal to the original, as we have seen with Portal 2 or Super Mario Galaxy 2. But in most cases, the original retains the new-IP "naïve" and "true" feeling of the game.

Why? I think it's because the first game usually has a LOT less expectations, and developers work almost without pressure (from the publisher, from the fans, from the critics and journalists, etc.) and put together a product closer to what they actually wanted to make. It will sound clichéd, but the original game seemingly comes from the heart and not the brain. Whereas there's too much "brain" in the sequels, and the final product often looks like an uneven mix of players' expectations and media pressure.

And I'm pretty sure that, in some cases, the sequel wasn't planned when the first game hit the shelves. And it shows. A lot more than what the developers were probably hoping. It seems like many of them decided to make a second game just because the first one worked, and not because the story or universe was meant to be continued or otherwise exploited.

*NOTE : This was actually written - almost all of it - 5 days before BL2 came out. It has been out for a week, I've played it for a few hours and really enjoyed it. More on that soon!

mercredi 15 août 2012

The most Annoying Things in video games - Part I

I enjoy video games. And if you stumbled upon this blog, you probably do as well. However, as with basically everything in life, there are aspects of gaming that are simply bad or, in this case, "annoying". Why just "annoying"? Because it all comes down to perspective. Something I find deeply frustrating or unfair might very well please another gamer who likes that sort of things. It goes both ways as well. For example, I know many gamers don't like fetch quests found in many RPGs, but I usually don't mind them, especially since most of them are side quests anyways. You get the point. Today we'll talk about difficulty spikes.

Unless you've lived under a rock for the past five years, you've surely heard many gamers complain about the lack of difficulty in today's games. Sure, many games have either 56 checkpoints per chapter, or auto-aim, or in-game guides, or no-death gameplay, or slow-motion shootouts, or lazy A.I., etc. Anything to help the gamer get through the game without any hassle, just entertainment. And, to be honest, it suits many people quite well. I've got some friends who only want to play on easy because they don't wanna be bothered with restarting the same objective all over again, they just wanna be entertained and kill people and think as little as possible. Games are fun, period.

For other, this kind of laziness is basically the fall of mankind. They like it old-school, when games were tough and you had 3 lifes to get through the whole thing, period. They will enjoy Ninja Gaiden and Dark Souls, and will play each and every game on the toughest difficulty setting. They like to be challenged.

Me, I don't mind a challenge from time to time, but I like to play games to have fun and, more importantly, the way they were supposed to be played. In most cases, I will select "Normal" on the difficulty settings the first time I play a game. Sometimes, often for fun because I liked the game the first time around, or for a trophy hunt, I'll select a higher difficulty setting. In other words, I usually don't mind a bit of a challenge.

But there's something that REALLY gets on my nerves when I play a game : difficulty spikes. Obviously no game has even difficulty throughout, that would be boring. But some games go about their business for an hour or two, a few quests including a few fights, maybe a death or two while figuring out an enemy's weakness, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then BAM! you get to fight an enemy, sometimes a boss, who is absurdly stronger than anything you've ever seen. You might die 23 times before you are able to hit him. He has one-hit-kill attacks. You can barely get within 12 feet of his position. You might throw your controller so hard you break your neigbor's car window. And you stop playing the game, eject the disc and return to the shop to yell at the bewildered clerk. I might have exaggerated a wee bit, but you understand what I'm talking about.

Sometimes the enemy (or set piece, puzzle, adversary, race, etc.) makes sense, because you don't have the tools/weapons/skills yet and you've tried to defeat it too soon. Or you just didn't figure out what damages him (that happens a lot). But sometimes it's just too hard, way harder than it ever should be at this stage of the game. Even if it's an game ending boss. Like Crysis' final boss, the gigantic alien mech thingy on the battleship. I played the whole game on the hardest difficulty setting without suffering any major setbacks. A few tough set pieces, sure, but nothing appallingly hard. Then I get to the boss, and I do what I'm supposed to do at the beginning of the fight to make it weaker (those who played the game know). Then I shower him with thousands or bullets/rockets/whatever I have on me. No point, it doesn't affect it one tiny bit. But he can kill me with one attack, even if I'm BEHIND cover. I tried probably 15 times with a few different tactics, even went on www.gamefaqs.com (shame on me, I know, but it's a GREAT website for gaming help). Nothing doing. I still haven't finished the game to this day. And it's a great game.

I know some of you may find that boss easy, or not that hard, but it was the first example that came to mind. I could talk about a boss in Dragon Age II for which I lowered the difficulty TWICE, but still wasn't able to get through half of him and his army. Or that impossible set piece in Uncharted : Drake's Fortune (granted, it was on Crushing difficulty, so I can't complain) that I must have tried 30 times at least. I'm probably forgetting some... You probably all have an anecdote about a game you rage-quitted because of a difficulty spike, and please feel free to share in the comments.

Anyway, that's one of the most annoying things in video games, difficulty spikes.

mercredi 18 juillet 2012

The joy of having no expectation

I'm the type of gamer - and the type of person in general - who really likes to know what's what. In other words, I'm not a big fan of unexpected moments in my life. When my wife and I are going to rent a movie or go to the theater, I usually go on Rotten Tomatoes and/or Wikipedia to look at various things like critics, movie length, synopsis, etc. When I go to the mall I like to know what stores I'll have to go to, how much time I'll stay there, etc. And, obviously, when I buy a game (I very rarely rent one), I'll watch/read reviews, sometimes forums, consult the trophy/achievement list, ask what the length might be, if there's any bonus if it's bought new, who's the developer, etc. I just like to be safe. What happens then when you throw safety out of the window?

I recently went to the local game store where I bought, for 15 dollars, two relatively old PS3 games I knew very little about. In fact I had never read a review nor watched a gameplay video for either game. And I don't think I've ever done that this gen, except perhaps for PSN titles, which were very cheap or even free. Anyways, those games were X-Men Origins : Wolverine and Wolfenstein. In fact I knew so little about the games it so happened that both were made by Raven Software and published by Activision. Not unlike, ironically, one of my favorite "non-mainstream" games this gen : Singularity.

Let's start with Wolfenstein, which I finished, in approximately 7 hours, earlier this week. For the first half I really enjoyed it, thought it was great... but the pleasure didn't last and I somewhat had to convince myself I should finish it. The story was uninteresting because of the way it was presented, the characters were bland and had horrible voice acting (Why would Germans speak english to each other with a German accent? Why not simply speak German with subtitles?), but at least the gameplay was sharp. The powers your character could use weren't balanced at all, but they made some sense and at least one of them was pretty fun to use. The boss fights were OK for the most part, except for one near the end which was completely pointless and boring. Overall the gameplay and original guns saved the game, and I daresay it was a good game. Especially since I didn't except anything from this game, nothing at all.

Now, as for X-Men, it's another thing completely. I have to say I haven't finished it yet, but so far I would say it's probably the best "Beat'em up" or  "GoW-clone" I've played since... well probably the first God of War. The fact that I've always liked X-Men and especially the character of Wolverine (not original, I know) helped somewhat, but the game itself is VERY entertaining. Sure it's a bloodbath, but somehow that negative side got drowned (no pun intended) by the pure joy brought by the awesome gameplay. The "Lunge" game mechanic by itself is worth the 5$ I've paid for the game. And now I feel sad I didn't pay more for the game, or even bought it new, to encourage Raven for making such a great game. It's not over yet, but so far it's a LOT more than I ever expected.

On that note, my PS+ subscription gave me the opportunity to get Gotham City Impostors for free. That's another game I feel ashamed not paying for. Since it's easily worth the 15$ it's asking for. Or it would, if the matchmaking wasn't so broken. But when it works, it's FPS-multiplayer fun very few games could match.

I'm glad I tried those three games without thinking about what they were or how they were rated by anyone. I might do that more often now. I WILL do that more often, even if I sometimes am disappointed by the result.

mercredi 6 juin 2012

Thoughts on a Journey

 A quick glance around Internet or, if you’re kicking it old school like I am sometimes and head out to the store to grab a gaming magazine, you will have noticed that game reviews, by « journalists » or by « normal » gamers, are wildly different from one another. Sure, this last sentence could be a statement made by good old Captain Obvious, but let me explain myself.

Not every gamer is looking for the same thing when he/she plays a game. Of course, most of us are just looking to have fun and/or kill some time. After all, video games are an entertainment medium like TV shows or movies at the theater. However, when you play enough games, you start to look beyond the whole « entertainment » value of a game, which never entirely disappears, but seems to take a back seat to something else.

That’s when you might start looking for a game that will test some skills in a very specific way, like Real-Time Strategy if you’re the armchair general type, online shooters if you’re the competitive soldier with an all-world K/D ratio, deep Role-Playing games if you’re a  mad completionist, Puzzle games if you want to work your brains out, Racing games if you think you’re the second coming of Ayrton Senna, Fighting games for the combo-loving, leaderboard-topping digital master etc.

Or you might be looking for a specific trait in a game. An intense atmosphere like in Bioshock or most Resident Evil games ? Non-stop action à la Call of Duty ? Emotional attachment as in Ico or Enslaved ? Infinite replayability as in LittleBigPlanet ? Nostalgia in Sonic Generations ? The feeling of freedom of GTA IV ? Hollywood script and action like in Uncharted 2 ? Exquisite graphics like in The Witcher II : Assassins of Kings ? The list goes on.

When I bought, then played, PSN-exclusive Journey, one word came to mind. Experience. Journey is unique, like nothing I’ve ever played before or will ever play again. I don’t think we’ll see a Journey-clone like we see gazillions or GTA-clones and CoD-clones. You play through the whole game, likely in a single sitting since it’s pretty short, without hearing or reading a single word. The objective, seen through a gamer’s eye, is to reach the summit of a omnipresent mountain, although it’s hard to pinpoint the exact motivation to do so. You encounter allies and enemies, but not in the usual « video game » sense. And the artistic design is unreal, the places you get to visit - be it desert, cave, snowy moutain - are all a sight to behold. You get the feeling you’re living a unique experience, and that’s what makes the game superb, borderline legendary.

It’s a game I can’t rate properly because most of the usual criterias I use to rate a game (gameplay, storyline, presentation, etc.) don’t really matter. It can’t be compared with « mainstream » games that I usually play and rate, like Portal 2, Skyrim, DiRT 3, Battlefield 3, etc. It certainly wouldn’t get lower than a 9, and probably much higher if I looked at which games got a 9 this generation.

Anyway, it is a great game that you just have to experience, not play.

mercredi 28 mars 2012

What Am I Playing NOW - Part II

So these past few weeks I've gone over more than a few games, traded-in about 8, bought 4 and started/finished some games on PSN I had bought a few weeks/months ago without playing them.

What's new?

The 4 games I bought : SSX, Ace Combat : Assault Horizon, Sonic Generations and DiRT 3.

SSX : Very, very good but somewhat infuriating at times for weird difficulty spikes. It takes quite some time getting used to the controls, especially in some "Survive" events where the track is usually narrower. You move your joystick a millimeter and your character goes flying a 100mph in a unexpected death hole on your left. It gets better when you get the feel for the different events and characters' abilities. But overall, it's a extremely fun game, and it's pretty rewarding as well when you win some races or "Trick it" events (I'm only a third into the career mode and have only done 20/160 events in Explore). When you get the grip of it : how to land tricks and stick together a combo, which characters to use when, how to use the different equipment, it becomes an exhilarating experience.

Ace Combat : Assault Horizon : Haven't started it yet, got it today...

Sonic Generations : I only did a few levels, but so far it's pretty fun, even if in side-scrolling mode it almost gave me a headache for unknown reasons (never happened to me before, pretty weird). I can't really pronounce myself on the game so far but it looks (a lot?) better than Sonic 4, which I feel was off with its controls and level design.

DiRT 3 : I first got DiRT 2, did about 25 career events then lost all my data when my PS3 died. So I went and got DiRT 3 Complete Edition instead of starting it all over again. (It doesn't make much sense, I know). Opus #3 feels more modern and polished, less "extreme" than the previous one, which captured better what rallying is about in its presentation. It's not a bad thing, just a style change. But the important part, the racing, feels as awesome as ever. It's a bit hard on slippery and uneven terrain (I never played a rally game before this one), but it is SO amazing to play.

PSN : Basically, I "finished" Crysis in a few days, finished Sly Cooper 1 HD in 3-4 days, started Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare.

Crysis : I was REALLY looking forward to this game, having heard reviewers and hordes of PC gamers sing its praises for years. I like the fact it gives you a lot more freedom than Crysis 2, you could always decide how to attack a base or complete an objective. The graphics are still amazing 4-5 years later (seriously, how the f*** did they do that?) and the gameplay is solid. Now I haven't finished the game yet, because I cannot figure out how the hell you beat that final alien/mech thing on the boat. I get killed in one-shot even if I'm hiding behind cover, my attacks don't do nothing to him/it. So I'm stuck there, if you can believe it. And it was easy all the way through (even on Hard/Delta). I don't understand... But apart from that, it's a great, great game.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus : I got this game for free (PS+ is worth it if you like to try many, many games, I'm telling you) and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the chance to own a PS2 so that's one of the many gaming classics I've never tried. It's very easy, sure, but it's very enjoyable nonetheless. The story served the game well and was interesting enough, the locations were diverse and fun to play through, the characters endearing (well I did get mad at Murray in those levels you have to protect him, but that's only twice and it lasts about 2 minutes or so) and it simply looks great, HD or not.

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare : Got this one at a surprising discount, the whole game was a mere 25$ (Red Dead AND Undead Nightmare) on PSN (PS+, again). The downside? Both games take about 18 gigs of HDD space together... good thing I've got a 500gb disk then... On to the game then. I liked Red Dead Redemption quite a lot, and was eager to see whether this expansion pack was really as great as reviewers made it out to be. Well so far it's pretty damn good! They did a good job keeping the same locations with those cool and crazy NPCs while going in another direction completely. And hey, who doesn't like to shoot some zombies in the head? No one! It's great fun to explore that world once again. I've only just started though, with only 3 or 4 main quests done and 2 side quests completed.

Side note to developers everywhere : THAT's how you make DLC/expansions worth their price.

What else?

Well I've lost my game save in Skyrim (that REALLY sucks...) so I'll start over again soon enough.... And there's something deeply wrong with NBA 2k12 in-game rating system... Oh, and I'm nearing on lvl 45 in Battlefield 3 multiplayer, I'm currently sitting at lvl 44, with a K/D ratio of about 2.1... You can add The Witcher 2 (360) on my 2012's most-wanted list. I really want to try this game...

lundi 26 mars 2012

Bara_Chat's 2011 Games of the Year Awards!

Here are the Awards for a fantastic 2011 in gaming!

Most impressive graphics
  • Crysis 2
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • Forza Motorsports 4
  • Rage
  • L.A. Noire
Winner : Forza Motorsports 4
Being a car nut, I have to admit I may have been biased when choosing who would win this award. But anyone who played the game has to admit it looks absolutely fantastic, especially the Autovista mode, which is rather enjoyable on top of being very pretty.

And do keep in mind that I have only played console games this year. Maybe having a über-PC would have changed things, as user Youtube videos of Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2 have thoroughly impressed me.

Best Action/Adventure Game
  • The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
  • InFamous 2
  • L.A. Noire
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • Batman : Arkham Asylum
Winner : The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
A pretty loaded category this year (as it is every year) with Zelda taking the honors. It's everything you expect from a Zelda game. Interesting characters, huge world, sheer diversity in places to explore and gameplay to exploit. A true Zelda game.

Best Sports Game
  • NBA 2K12
  • NHL 12
  • Top Spin 4
Winner : NHL 12
Another potentially biased award, since I'm a basketball nut, so it would be logical for me to select NBA 2K12 as the winner of this category. In fact, the fact that I know basketball so well makes me extremely severe when judging a basketball game, especially one who is widely considered "realistic". 2K12 is not bad by any means, but there are too many flaws for such a "great" (according to reviews) game. NHL 12 on the other hand, is a fantastic game, as it has been since its '09 iteration. It might be a bit too hard to score on some occasions, but gaming sports experience doesn't get better.

Best FPS campaign
  • Modern Warfare 3
  • Resistance 3
  • Crysis 2
  • Rage
Winner : Resistance 3
A few surprises this year in this category, most notably the presence of MW3, whose predecessor's campaign was a big pile of poop. But MW3's campaign was a lot better. I also thought, at the start of 2011, that Battlefield 3's campaign would be epic. It was not. At all. And finally Resistance 3, with its finely paced campaign with interesting characters and set pieces, stole the show. It was probably the most pleasant surprise of the year, and it deserves this award.

Best RPG
  • The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
  • Deus Ex : Human Revolution
  • The Lord of the Rings : War in the North
  • Two Worlds II
Winner : The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
I'm usually not a huge RPG fan, but there's something about Bethesda's work that just ticks with me. I absolutely loved Fallout 3, which was probably the game I played the most this generation (about 200 hours). New Vegas was in some ways better than #3, but overall a bit less satisfying. Oblivion is widely considered a masterpiece, and even if I haven't finished it yet, I find it pretty good as well. But Skyrim is something else. The way it plays, the variety of characters and quests, the sheer size of it, everything is amazing. It might even challenge Fallout 3 as the best RPG (in my opinion) of this generation.

Best Competitive Multiplayer
  • Battlefield 3
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • Modern Warfare 3
  • Killzone 3
  • Resistance 3
Winner : Battlefield 3
In this year of high quality no. 3s (honetly shooter fans were blessed in 2011 and I haven't even tried Gears 3 yet...), one stood above the rest with its multiplayer. Battlefield 3, with its gigantic maps, tons of guns, aircrafts, tanks, jeeps, IFVs, to name a few features, absolutely ruled the year. And after seeing a few PC gameplay videos, I'm positive that the complete BF3 experience is even bigger and better that I ever thought.

Best Story
  • Batman : Arkham City
  • Portal 2
  • Deus Ex : Human Revolution
  • The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
  • The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
Winner : (COMING SOON)

Most immersive game
  • Rage
  • Batman : Arkham City
  • The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
  • The Lord of the Rings : War in the North
  • The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
Winner : The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim 
A bit like Fallout 3, Skyrim captures the feeling of the world it's depicting. Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland really felt like a cruel, dangerous and desolate place with a plethora of intriguing places, interesting characters and many, many quests to keep you connected to the world. Skyrim goes the same way, with a world so alive and breathing, you feel like a part of something special.

Best voice acting
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • Portal 2
  • Batman : Arkham City
  • Deus Ex : Human Revolution
  • L.A. Noire
Winner : Portal 2
That's a very, very tough one. All of these games had extremely convincing voice acting that helped propel the story to another level. If I had to choose a complete cast, I'd go with Uncharted 3 or Batman, but one character simply dominated the scene in 2011, and that's Wheatley from Portal 2. Of course GlaDos and Cave Johnson were fantastic, as well as the "personality spheres" in the final battle, but man, that metal ball certainly made me laugh and wonder throughout the whole game. A remarkable job by Valve and its voice actors.

Best sound design
  • Battlefield 3
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • Portal 2
  • Crysis 2 
Winner : Battlefield 3
I've never realized how much sound design can affect the realism of game until I've played Battlefield : Bad Company 2 in early 2010. Of course I've known about the impact of well composed music and jingles in some games, especially in the long run (All of us know the opening-a-treasure-chest jingle in Zelda games or the 1-up in Mario games), but this was something else. The sound made by dropping bullets indoors vs outdoors, the whizzing sound of a distant sniper missing you by inches, the explosion of a rocket on a nearby tank. And Battlefield 3 took that formula and expanded it even further. It's just amazing to hear.

Best music
  • The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
  • The Lord of the Rings : War in the North
  • The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
  • Batman : Arkham City
  • Gears of War 3
Winner : Skyrim
Video game music is nearly on par with the best Hollywood has to offer. Just play a bit of Uncharted and Gears of War and you'll feel like you're watching a $200M blockbuster. However, Skyrim's music was simply mind-blowing, starting with an absolutely superb trailer that sent shivers through your body. That's the definition of Epic.

Game of The Year 2011
  • The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
  • Portal 2
  • Batman : Arkham City
  • Deus Ex : Human Revolution
  • Forza Motorsports 4
  • Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception
  • The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
  • Rayman Origins
  • Gears of War 3
Winner : The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword
Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2011, The Legend of Zelda clearly isn't showing signs of slowing down. It's simply amazing how a video game series can last that long with so many iterations without ever feeling old or déjà-vu. New items/weapons stand next to the traditional ones without feeling out of place, dungeons are as creative as ever, the music is fantastic, the gameplay - while taking some time to get used to - manages to keep you involved like never before, even without HD technology, it's a beautiful game, etc. It really has it all. Nintendo has mastered the art (as we've seen with Super Mario Galaxy and #2) of sticking true to its roots while always improving and innovating.

vendredi 9 mars 2012

Kudos to Sony's Customer Service

So last week I wrote a small post about my PS3 breaking up. I sent it this monday via Purolator and, amazingly enough, I already got it back from Sony. To be honest, I was not expecting it for at least another week, and I was being optimistic, because I've read on forums that it would take like 6 weeks...  Just that makes me happy.

Anyway, great news I got today.

Well since I didn't have my main console for the week, I had the opportunity to finish Gears 3 to round up a great trilogy (more on that in a later post), play a bit of Naruto (good game, not awesome) and Left 4 Dead (Very good at times, but falls short on other occasions). I also bought Halo Anniversary with the power of nostalgia, thinking about all those times I played with friends a decade ago... And I'm very close to finishing Skyward Sword.

All in all, a pretty good week, videogame-wise.

samedi 3 mars 2012

It's a sad day when your console dies.

I've owned a few consoles over the years. Starting with a NES back in the early 90s, then a Sega Genesis as well as a gameboy. The next step was the obvious N64, followed by a GameCube, a Wii, a PS3, a 360 and lately, as you can tell from my latest post, a PSVita. This past year I've bought a SNES as well. And I played on PC for most of the 90s and early 00s as well. You can tell I haven't owned all consoles in history, even if part of me wants to collect consoles as a hobby eventually. Strangely, and very luckily for me, never did one my consoles broke/stopped working.

Up until this friday when my 4-year-old PS3 decided it was time to go. It was, and still is, by a considerable margin, my most played console ever. In fact, for this gen alone, I can safely say that while I own all three consoles and a NDS, I've played maybe 80% of the time, if not more, on that PS3. Now it got the "Yellow Light of Death" and will be on its way this week to Sony for a repair job.

So it isn't a real goodbye after all, I'll see it soon enough. The really crappy thing about it though is that this coming week is the famous March "off-week" (I don't know how it's called in english) in schools around the province. And since I'm a teacher, I've got a week off (9 days in all) as well, and my PS3 decided to let me down just as this thing started. It's really unlucky when you think about it. The positive side of this story is that I'll try more 360-exclusives (just rented Gears 3, L4D and Naruto) and Wii-exclusives games this week, as well as some old PSP games on my Vita as well.

Now that 2012 is officially under way (gaming-wise), expect to read/hear more from this blog as I will finally announce GOTY winners as well as (hopefully) a few reviews and insights on various games from various consoles, old and new (Gears 3, Patapon 2, Halo Anniversary, Skyward Sword, etc.).

samedi 11 février 2012

PSVita pictures and status.

So here are a few pictures of the little machine :


I'm sorry the pics are poor quality and flipped left-to-right, that's because I took these pics with my Macbook's Photo Booth feature. I'll borrow my wife's camera to take HQ pics eventually.

Now I have to say, I don't have a memory card and they don't sell them yet in stores, so I can't download games (which is sad since I have a few dollars left in my PSN accounts), and there are no "physical games" released either. So it's basically a pricey gaming device that I can't game with...

Anyway, it's pretty cool and the menu music is pretty relaxing, so I guess that's a positive.

More to come soon! (I hope!)

vendredi 10 février 2012

I got my PS Vita today!

Yes, even if that thing is scheduled for release in North America for February 22nd, I received it by mail today. To be very honest with you, I was extremely surprised when I opened the Amazon box because I didn't expect the Vita for another 2 weeks or so. And it's not like I'm some huge gaming website like IGN or GameSpot, I'm a high school teacher and I write a gaming blog (and a basketball blog) to entertain myself.

That said, I'm sure many other people have received it as well. It just feels weird, I feel kinda special to have it now. I don't know if I should feel that way, but I definitely do, and it doesn't hurt anybody.

Obviously I have no game and no memory card, so I haven't been able to do much except the required System Update and type in my PSN account, Bara_Chat.

I'll write some more about it when I have tried a game and/or most features.

Oh, and my GoTY awards are coming very soon, only one or two categories to choose from then it'll be all good!

vendredi 27 janvier 2012

Bara_Chat's most anticipated games of 2012

1. Bioshock Infinite : The obvious choice for the most anticipated game of the year. By far. Bioshock was the best game of this generation, in my opinion, and Infinite looks to be the one to knock it off its podium. Just look at one of its video trailers if you're not convinced.

2. Diablo III : Diablo II is far and away my most-played video game of all-time, thanks to its exceedingly addictive Battle.net feature. The series is so legendary it has its own "Diablo clones" a bit like GTA has spawned a enormous amount of "GTA-likes" in the past decade. This game alone might force me to buy a new computer if my Mac can't run it.

3. Borderlands 2 : Borderlands is the one game I fell in love with this generation. The kind of game I loved so much I didn't even see its flaws. It was unconditional mother-child love. It's also the first game for which I bought DLCs. It's not perfect, but I don't give a s***. There will be better games in 2012, but something inside me wishes to play Borderlands 2 above all else. (Then why it's third, because when I fell back to Earth, I realized Diablo III and Infinite will very likely be better games in every single way, and I'll enjoy them as much as BL2).

4. The Last of Us : I honestly don't know much about this game, but the trailer alone convinced me that I will undoubtedly love it. Of course I've always been a huge fan of post-apocalyptic related entertainment products like Fallout 3, Rage, Borderlands (not exactly post-apocalyptic, but similar feeling), Enslaved, New Vegas, I Am Legend, The Book of Eli, The Road, etc. Well, you get the point.


5. The Last Guardian : Granted, we have no release date announced for this game and, given that Team Ico seemingly (and rightfully so) doesn't care about any sort of outside (read : media and gamers) pressure to release the game soon, it's highly possible we won't see it until next year. Still I have hope.

6. Mass Effect 3 : I played Mass Effect 2 last year in probably the worst circumstances possible. At that time I was playing through 4 or 5 games at the same time (or so it seemed) so I "rushed" through games instead of taking time to really experience and enjoy them. It still took over 30 hours to finish this game, but I'm pretty damn sure I've missed many, many things in my playthrough. Anyway, the story was pretty interesting, so I'm very curious of what will happen next.

7.  Far Cry 3 : That my first taste of the Far Cry franchise was the second opus might make a few people facepalm in unison. The fact that I've never even played the original Far Cry will likely make people. I know the second game of the series didn't please the masses as the first one did. But anyway, I really liked FC2 and I'm really looking forward to it.

8. Prey 2 : This game could actually be higher on this list if I had only a few more info on it. I only saw the jaw-dropping trailer last year and I was amazed. Although you have to learn that trailers are purposedly made with the intention to amaze. Indeed, in the past, the final product has already been less impressive than the damn trailer itself.


9. Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance : Now I must admit, I only discovered (not the existence, but the experience of playing the games) the Metal Gear series in 2008 when I bought the PS3 MGS4 bundle. While I didn't understand a lot of what the hell what actually going on, I thought the gameplay was extremely solid and the attention to details staggering. Since then I've played MGS, MGS2 and started MGS3 and I must this is a very solid (oh, haha) franchise. And Revengeance does look pretty amazing.

10. SSX : The last snowboarding game I played was Amped nearly 10 years ago (I'm not kidding) and before that it was 1080 Snowboarding on N64. Let's just say I'm due for a new snowboarding game, and there's really nothing on the market right now (Shaun White's games are basically horrible if you're to trust any game critic in the world. And from the trailers, you have to say it looks pretty damn cool.

11. Resident Evil 6 : Another franchise I'm a big fan of, so it's impossible to leave this off the list. I explained why in a earlier blog post.


12. Tomb Raider : I simply like where the franchise is heading with this reboot. The gameplay shown at E3 really impressed me. And Lara Croft is one fine-looking lady. What's not to love?

That's it for this year's list.

jeudi 19 janvier 2012

I don't know if I should be thrilled or not for Resident Evil 6

As most of you already know, the Resident Evil 6 debut trailer has been released today, generating a lot of reaction from many gamers around the world, especially with its November 20th release. I watched it, obviously, but even after reading an article or two on its features, I can't really say if I'm hyped or not for this game.

Why? Well it's complicated. I've been a Resident Evil fan for over a decade, at first because my brother was a HUGE fan of the first 3 or 4 games of the series, then, with the release of Resident Evil 0 on GameCube, I became a big fan myself. Obviously my appreciation towards the franchise exploded with the fantastic Resident Evil 4, which is 3rd on my all-time list of best video games. Then we saw the release, amid controversy, of the very good Resident Evil 5. It received positive reviews, but the general consensus among gamers was that RE5 was a shorter RE4 with a worse story, less survival-horror elements and probably too much action-oriented. I'm not saying I didn't like it. In fact, it's one of the only games I played enough to actually unlock the Platinum trophy.

With RE6's trailer, it seems like Capcom will be focusing once again on hollywoodian action sequences with survival-horror elements here and there, a bit like a bigger, bolder RE5. And that makes me a bit worried. I certainly enjoyed seeing Leon, Chris and what seemed like RE4's Ashley in the trailer, but I don't know about having 3, possibly 4 protagonists in a single game. As for the action elements, I certainly don't mind a bit of blood-pumping action as we saw in RE4 and scarcely in earlier titles. But for me, Resident Evil is more about that feeling you have that there is always something wrong, something threatening your own existence and those moments where you just walk around, exploring, looking for stuff to help you get to the next save point in one piece. RE5 lacked that atmosphere of survival, except for a few great levels, and I can only hope that RE6 will be closer to #4 than #5.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking forward to RE6 and I can't see myself NOT buying it. I simply hope that it'll be more like RE4 and less like RE5.

jeudi 5 janvier 2012

What Am I Playing NOW - Part I

Happy New Year to everybody! I know I'm a tad late, but I still think it's polite to wish you all a happy year. And I hope that it will be as rich as 2011 was, gaming-wise.

So, in this first edition of "What Am I Playing NOW", I'll start with a game I've only just beaten yesterday : Prince of Persia : The Forgotten Sands. The latest PoP was actually a very, very good game that I enjoyed a lot more than the last cel-shaded outing where you couldn't die. That one wasn't bad by any means, as I enjoyed the relationship between the two protagonists and the artistic graphics, but it was nothing memorable.

So, The Forgotten Sands, let's just start by pointing out that the gameplay overshadowed every other aspect of the game. Seriously, the free-running was incredibly well executed, it felt fluid, intuitive and the regularly added powers all felt natural and added some thrill and excitement to the great wall-running/climbing and puzzle solving. The emphasis on timing in the latter parts of the game really made the game that much more fun. Graphically, let's just say that beige, grey and brown walls ruled the day, even if some settings were pretty interesting in an artist's point of view. The weaker point of the game is the story, which was somewhat original, but I thought it wasn't presented very well. That Djin lady (I forgot her name) really was boring. Anyway, a very fun game, the best Prince of Persia I've played since Sands of Time on GameCube.

There's a game I've only just started that is, so far, extremely fun : Rayman Origins. I'll start by saying I've never played a Rayman game before, except on my brother's iPhone, which was certainly not the best example of what the series have to offer. Anyway, it's bloody fantastic. I LOVE the cartoony graphics and the sheer silliness of the characters and enemies. The "platforming" isn't bad either, while maybe not as sharp as, say, the Mario series (then again, which game is?), but still very, very good. I played the game for maybe an hour after opening it yesterday and I was smiling all the time, and that's a great way of saying that it's very enjoyable. More on Rayman Origins soon!

I've just started Gears of War 2 as well, but I've played only for 30-45 minutes so I can't say much about it yet, except that it looks a lot like Gears 1 (obviously...) but with some tweaks that made it a bit better. Looking forward to play it more!

And, last but not least, The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. I haven't read a thing about the dungeons or the length of the game (it's Zelda, by far my favorite game series ever, I don't want to spoil a thing), but I'd say I'm past the halfway point of the game, or so it feels (yes, I've played so much Zelda games I can actually feel where I am in the story). Let's just say that it's a superb game, predictably, and that Zelda games always find a way to innovate while staying true to their formula. It's quite amazing. I'm still not entirely sold on motion controls, but it feels more natural than it did in the first few hours. GoTY candidate for sure.

I also played a tad of Fable II (still at the beginning of the story) while waiting for my brother to give me my Wii back. It's good so far, but I haven't much to say about it, it's tough to comment on an RPG so early in the game. More to come as well.

I could say I'm playing more game than that (and I am), but all others are basically Sports game or online shooters, and those games you can pop in your console, play for 15 minutes to satisfy some craving, then go on with my life. That's a lot harder to do with Zelda or Fable II. Those games are NHL 12, NBA 2K12, Forza 4, BF3 and MW3.

Games to start soon : Skyrim, GTA IV Complete (yes, 3 years later...) and a few PSN games as well.

See you soon!