Bulletstorm: Controversy Not Only Sells, But It's Fun Too

In the 1990s, Duke Nukem 3D changed the attitude in video games forever, and for better or worse, gamers ate it up. Ever since, though, the video game industry has been fighting against negative depictions of its collective work in pretty much all walks of life. In response to these allegations that video games have essentially corrupted the youth of America, a ratings system was instituted and enforced, and developers just seemed to step away from certain content being in their games. That was the case at least until the last system generation, which saw developers constantly push the envelope as far as content is concerned, which brings us to today. The latest effort by Epic Games has proven to be not only a great first person shooter, but it also finds itself on the short list for contenders in the category of most controversial game ever.

Bulletstorm places players in the role of Grayson Hunt, leader of an exiled military unit who decides to take one last shot at the man who put a bounty on their heads, General Sorrano. That shot doesn't go as planned and Hunt ends up on a strange planet populated by all manner of mutated beings. Hunt isn't alone though, and is accompanied initially by Ishi, his formerly trusted friend, who is having a bit of a situation. Thankfully, players have a good variety of upgradeable weapons to help them fight through the seemingly endless waves of enemies that stand in the way of your revenge. weapon upgrades are handled via a point system that awards players for killing enemies in unique ways. If an enemy is far away, you can kick an explosive barrel at them and shot it to blow them up. If an enemy is near a spiked barrier, simply kick them onto said barrier. If a group of enemies is clustered together, fire a flail grenade at one and detonate it, bonus points abound. It can be a very fun, and at times quite gruesome affair. This is one of the controversial aspects of Bulletstorm, as critics of violent content in games contend that rewarding gamers for sadistic kills is sending an improper message to younger gamers that play it. they also complain about the use of explicit language in the game, but all of these things are noted on the games "M" rating. Pretty much every video game retailer in the US strictly adheres to the rating system and won't sell "M" rated games to kids under 17. If a parent or other adult buys a game with mature content for a child, that is a fail on the part of that adult, it is not the responsibility of a developer or publisher.

Back to the actual game, though. Bulletstorm is a great experience as far as the single player campaign goes. The story is engaging, controls are tight, and the graphics are pretty good considering this isn't a huge budget annual IP. As a matter of fact, this game may sell more units simply because of the Gears of War 3 beta attached to the special edition, than anything else. It's a trick that Konami much used with Zone of the Enders and it's inclusion of a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2, but as the old folks say, use what you got to get what you want. Besides, on it's own, Bulletstorm is good enough to stand on it's own, and it will do a lot more than serve as a good hold over until Duke Nukem Forever, Bioshock Infinite, and other big name shooters are released later this year. Bulletstorm is, in this humble gamer's opinion, one of the first games of 2011 that can be a part of a few game of the year discussions. Any gamer who loves personality in their FPS should give Bulletstorm a shot, because nothing is as satisfying as firing a sniper rifle and catching an enemy square in the rectum for a "Rear Entry" kill bonus.

What Is Sega Thinking?!?

So, I was browsing through press releases this morning and came across one from Sega. The release was a trailer for an upcoming collection of games they have on the horizon. That collection is simply titled The Sega Dreamcast Collection. Now, this isn't the first I've heard of this game's existence, but I never knew what was actually in the collection. I was a little apprehensive about reserving a copy though, and now I know why. The first problem is that it's only four games, and since I still have a Dreamcast, I have the four games already. Second problem is that the games aren't releases from other publishers, just Sega, but that is to be expected. Finally, the four games on the collection are Sonic Adventure, Sega Bass Fishing, Crazy Taxi, and Space Channel 5. No Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, Alien Front Online, etc. I love Sega Bass Fishing, but not more than Jet Grind Radio. In my opinion, Sega only got half of this collection right, and with Dreamcast games available on XBLA and PSN, this wasn't really a needed collection in this day and age. Sega, save yourself the annoyance of fanboy backlash and make this game a series of volumes like SegaAges was on the Japanese PS2, or make your entire Dreamcast catalog downloadable for those services. Because I honestly hear the flame war about to begin.

S.O.P.H.I.A. Is One Bad Chick: A Look Back At Blaster Master

It has been said that Japanese publishers are fairly nervous about what they bring to the US market, and we typically miss out on some gems in the process of that apprehension. One game that successfully broke that mold and became more popular in the US than it was in Japan was Sunsoft's Blaster Master (Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight in Japan). since the story was told through a few short cut scenes, it was easy to rework the story to make it more palatable
to gamers outside of Japan, and they changed the game's title. With Blaster Master, Sunsoft effectively created a game the size of Metroid, that was also linear like Super Mario Bros, and had a challenge in spots that was on par with Mega Man. Sunsoft unsuspectingly localized a been there, done that, game like Metafight into gaming history and created one of the 8 Bit generations biggest cult hits. The gameplay in Blaster is pretty straightforward. The game is broken into 8 levels that can only be entered after acquiring an item from the previous levels boss. The playfield takes place in side scrolling areas where the player will control Jason's Tank, S.O.P.H.I.A., or they can make Jason exit the tank to get to harder to reach areas. Interior ares where boss battles take place. During the course of the game, S.O.P.H.I.A. will gain new weapons and abilities, like the ability to hover and fire homing missiles. The boss fights are all pretty much the same save for a few different attacks the bosses do, but they all fall with enough shots from Jason's gun or grenades. Sunsoft has tried over the years to capitalize on the long standing popularity of Blaster Master by releasing a port of Hudson's Bomberman as Blaster Master Boy on the original Gameboy, they released a sequel called Blaster Master 2 on the Sega Genesis, a 3D update called Blaster Master: Blasting Again on the Sony Playstation, Blaster Master: Enemy Below on the Game Boy Color, and Blaster Master Overdrive, a remake of the original game, for Nintendo's WiiWare service. Thankfully though, Nintendo's Virtual Console service and they high popularity of the original game have made it quite plentiful if you happen to be looking for a copy.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Lives Up To The Hype And Rewrites The Series' Rules

Fighting games are a a strange breed of game. They can either bring something incredibly new to the table or be the most stale, also ran pile of crap ever. Thankfully, the latest installment of Capcom's long running "Vs." series has proven to be none of the latter with just enough of the former to make it a great game. If you didn't know which game I'm speaking of, it's Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds. MVC3 maintains the three on three tag team gameplay made popular by Marvel Vs Capcom 2 over a decade ago. This time, however, the character roster has been trimmed far below the massive 56 character roster of MVC2, and Capcom chose to change the control scheme from the three punch-three kick layout to a four button layout reminiscent of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom or Guilty Gear. Most launchers, moves that send an opponent into the air, are handled with the "special" button. This makes a major component of MVC3's gameplay highly accessible to players who are unfamiliar to a "Vs." game. While the simplified controls make the game easy to pick up initially, there is a serious level of depth here for any gamer willing to delve into the intricacies of the combo system. Another interesting addition is the "X-Factor" mechanic that temporarily boosts character abilities. The maneuver can effectively change the tide of a match if a skilled player pulls it off in a pinch. The major gripe that I have heard from fans of the series is the smaller roster, but that roster save for a few hiccups is suited quite well for more streamlined competitive fighting game scene. The other concern I can see for many gamers is the new art style actually making the game feel a bit slower. the pseudo-cell shaded 3d art style of MVC3 will cause players to rethink every combo, air dash and cross up they ever learned on MVC2. Another gripe I noticed from reading other reviews is the lag felt in online matches. I played, I observed, and I witnessed no lag whatsoever. Maybe those players were attached to a bad connection, but I digress. The big question is: Is MVC3 worth $60? That answer is different for different gamers. If you are a fan of the genre and can get a lot of replay out of it, then MVC3 is worth every penny, but if you will simply just button mash your way through a few games then tuck it away like a Monopoly board, then you can wait until the price drops.Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a great game, and it might just be worth the decade of hype.

Vanquish: The New Big Thing In Third Person Shooters

So far, 2011 has pretty good as far as modern gaming goes, as I've been able to play some great stuff that was released within the last year or so. One of the games I've had the pleasure of playing has been Vanquish. Now one thing I noticed the first time I played Vanquish were the similarities it shared with another great 360 shooter, Gears of War, but those similarities are very few and when after spending quality time with Vanquish, a gamer can definitely appreciate it not only as it's own game, but as a pretty good game.

Vanquish takes a basic 80s movie premise and gives it a major sci fi shot in the arm. Basically, a group of Russian nationals destroy San Francisco and threaten to do the same to New York if the U.S. government doesn't surrender. Of course, The USA wasn't going down without a fight, so a unit of soldiers was sent in with a researcher from DARPA named Sam Gideon who is armed with the ARS(Augmented Reaction Suit) which is gives Sam extremely heightened movement on the battlefield. Sam has been charged with the rescue of a scientist, Dr. Francois Candide, who was captured by Russian Star.

On the Surface, Vanquish feels, at least in basic mechanics to Gears of War. That isn't a bad thing since Gears has been for a long time, the pinnacle of third person shooters. You'll find a lot of the best parts of Gears sprinkled throughout Vanquish, from the cover and blind fire mechanics to the beautiful sniper rifle play, it's all here. That's where the similarities end though. Where Gears is tense, but methodical, Vanquish is frantic, blistering, it almost reminds me of a bullet hell shooter (and we know how much I like bullet hell shooters). switching weapons is as easy as pressing a direction on the d pad, and dropping the action into a slow motion mode for a few seconds is as easy as pressing a button. The folks at Platinum Games have done a wonderful job with the gameplay, with my only issue being the occasional (very rare) camera hiccup.

Vanquish has proven that fresh ideas and gameplay can breathe new life into a well worn genre. Platinum Games has proven that they have only gotten better as a development house since their days as a part of Capcom's Clover Studio. The bar for great shooters has been reset, and with Gears of War 3 coming out later this year, it'll be interesting to see how Epic responds to the challenge.

A Quick Thought On Damsels In Distress

"Thank you Mario, but your princess is in another castle..." How many times did you see that message and proceed to call Princess Peach everything you were taught not to call a woman? Most video games after the popularity of the 1981 classic Donkey Kong featured some spin on the whole "save the damsel in distress" story. it became even more prevalent after the massive popularity of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. It actually became one of the first great video game cliches, and it is one that is perpetuated today. These tales of a lone hero rescuing his lost love are a bit humorous to me lately with games like Metroid, where the protagonist Samus Aran turned out to be a woman, and even Super Princess Peach, a Mario Bros. game which put the usually helpless princess in the role of rescuer, and Resident Evil, which featured a female protagonist fighting off a zombie horde in nearly every game in the series among others. Most of the women in these games didn't need to be rescued, and the ones that truly needed it would be in a truly messed up spot if he didn't save her. I equate that same sentiment to Valentine's Day, and how people expect to be treated a certain way. It's not that they need anyone to buy them anything, but it proves to be a great thing for both egos if the person seeking a gift is bought one, and the person buying it will feel appreciated by the one who receives it. So consider gift giving (with a person you truly care about) to be an exercise in mutual ego stroking.

unless she's just a gold digger...

RIP Guitar Hero...Hello Monthly Fees For Call Of Duty?

Originally this post was supposed to be on The Capcom "VS." series, but something interesting happened before I got a chance to finish. Activision announced that they were effectively killing off the now unloved Guitar Hero franchise. Now, I dig Guitar Hero as much as the next guy, but I knew Activision was going to kill the franchise through over saturation and releasing multiple sequels within a year will do that. I'm actually a bit surprised that Activision didn't include Tony Hawk in that cancellation announcement. Activision isn't too concerned though, since they still make boatloads of money with their World of Warcraft and Call of Duty franchises. Activision has also gone on record as saying they want to concentrate on developing a bigger community for their Call of Duty games, which in short means they want to start charging gamers a monthly fee to play the popular First Person Shooter franchise. It's almost gotten out of hand how greedy some publishers have gotten, not only will gamers have to pay $60 a pop to buy the game, then they'll have to pay the same monthly fees attached to MMORPGs to play the multiplayer component of that game. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm pretty annoyed by this, but so many gamers are nothing more than sheep who all pay for and play the same thing every 10 months, so I guess that makes me a part of the minority in my disgust in the thought of this happening.