Mass Effect 3 Take Earth Back trailer.

REVIEW - Uncharted : Golden Abyss.

It's incredibly good-looking.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss does not make the best first impression.  While (nearly) all the mechanics of the PS3 ultragames are here - gorgeous but linear platforming, cover-based shooting, rudimentary fisticuffs and long, lovely leaps - it doesn't feel as instantly comfortable as the first three titles.  

It is, at first, like being read the next chapter in your favorite bedtime story by the parent who doesn't normally read to you - familiar but slightly off, in terms of feel.  The story, the game and you the player require some time to find their groove - but once Golden Abyss hits its stride and you find yourself speaking the game's language, it stops being a conversation about whether or not the Uncharted experience can be delivered on a handheld, and begins to sing. 

The biggest compliment I can pay Golden Abyss is that it does not feel like a B-side or some sort of alternate-reality Uncharted. This is Uncharted - a complete and respectable entry in its series - which, in some areas, actually outpacing some of its console brethren.  

Ah, the jungle.  This is definitely Uncharted.

Presentation is well in keeping with the series' stratospheric standards.  While there are fewer transitional and procedural animations than Uncharted 2 or 3, Drake's leaps, reloads and brawling animations are all smooth, familiar, expressive and iconic.  Sound design is excellent, from music to effects, and as usual the franchise sets itself apart from your run-of-the-mill triple-A fare by way of its sublime voice work.  

Thanks to a leaner script that doesn't weigh itself down with self-indulgent self-reflection (see: Uncharted 3), Nolan North is able to get down to the business of what he does best; cracking wise, staying casual and coming across as a normal, rather flippant fellow who just happens to jump twenty-foot gaps for fun.  

Golden Abyss also benefits from a smaller ensemble than Uncharted 2 or 3.  Like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, there are only five named characters in Golden Abyss, and the narrative and play clip along with the type of exemplary pacing the series hasn't enjoyed since Uncharted 2. It warbles back and forth from tense gunfights to efficient stealth to lazy, backstroking platforming to easygoing strolls through (stunning) environments while exposition rolls, never spending too much time with one before moving on to another.  

Other reviews have passionately complained about the segments in the canoe.  I don't get what their problem is.

Finally, this game is gorgeous.  The only nits one could pick in terms of visual presentation is that the pixels on explosions tend to be larger than other pixels in the game, and the faces of the characters are not as minutely-animated as they are in the console entries.  Other than that, it's rather amazing. I was constantly interrupting play to take snaps with the Vita's screen capture feature, or simply marveling at what, it turns out, is possible on the device.

It took until 2010 for a PSP game to successfully realize a PS2-quality action title - five years into the platform's lifespan - and here we have a Vita game which actually looks far better than any PlayStation 3 launch title. 

It sets a marvelous standard.  As it glides from traditional Uncharted locales like jungles and temples to fare that's never been seen in the series - all of which are utterly breathtaking - Golden Abyss, if nothing else, speaks very, very highly of what we can expect from Sony's new handheld in the future.  

Hope you like swiping.

In terms of design, Abyss trips over itself a bit in the early hours.  There, it repeatedly introduces touchscreen mechanics for standard activities like countering an enemy's attack or boosting an ally up to a ledge.  While this feels very intrusive at first, it quickly becomes second-nature, and far more involving than a standard button press.   Thank goodness the Vita has no difficulty reading vertical, horizontal or diagonal swipes - otherwise, this forced use of motion controls would have been an irredeemable blunder.  

It attempts to sell you further on the Vita's unique functions with tutorials for rotating objects and wiping four centuries worth of detritus from them, or recreating the motions of charcoal rubbings.  Like the brawling, this feels forced and unnecessary at first - and it is - but after its opening hours, the game rarely requires you to make use of them without your consent.  

Instead, it offers them as voluntary side excursions from the time-tested core mechanics of the franchise.  As you wander the world, a little icon will pop up on the side of the screen telling you an opportunity is available to use your machete (swipe swipe swipe!) to cut some bamboo and reveal a hidden trinket, or a relief is near that you can swipe some charcoal across.  

This is a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it often feels like unnecessary time is taken up with the slower swiping motions (and, for the record, rotating an object until the game arbitrarily decides you've seen one hundred per cent of it is just tedious).  On the other, Golden Abyss is absolutely packed with objects to find, secret paths to uncover and clues to ancient ancillary mysteries that wait for you off the beaten path.  

These optional detours, it turns out, feel more compelling when voluntary.  It's lovely to experience an Uncharted game that seems to have so much more to discover than I'm used to, and I'll admit I was shocked - shocked! - when the icon popped up on the side of my screen and I actually used the words "ooh!  Charcoal rubbing!"

Ignoring Abyss's unique side-content, it is - at its core - a great action game, well in line with the mechanics and balance we've grown accustomed to.  You climb stuff, you solve puzzles, you gun down enemies with very well-realized cover-based shooting - and while Abyss's gunplay and platforming isn't quite as elegant as the remarkable action of 2011's Uncharted 3, it manages to overcome this by slightly simplifying its mechanics while maintaining the feel of the franchise.  

The platforming is as basic as it's always been, with the ability to draw Drake's path up a wall throwing its linearity into stark relief.  In general, though, it still feels rather slick and engaging, despite its actual simplicity.  

Bend Studio - developers of the Siphon Filter franchise - attempted to add their own modicum of depth to the shooting mechanics by way of using the Vita's giro to allow you to fine-tune your aiming, but I found this to be an unwelcome addition, as involuntary movements would spoil my shots.  It's easily rectified by disabling it in the options menu, and afterward I discovered I was nailing headshots just as comfortably as I would, were I holding a Dualshock.  

By the time you've grown accustomed to the slight differences in timing and animation, Golden Abyss delivers a pitch-perfect Uncharted action experience.  It remains a vicious thrill to clear a room of all but one enemy, dash up to him while spraying blind fire from a pistol and slide between his legs at the last moment to punch him in the groin so hard he dies. 

Golden Abyss is a spectacular launch title, and - amazingly - one of the better entries in the Uncharted series.  It taps into the wide-eyed earnestness of Drake's Fortune and the exemplary pacing of Among Thieves, while sidestepping the ironic cynicism of Drake's Deception and, crucially, maintaining the unique feel of the franchise's action.  

More than just a great game, Golden Abyss asks and answers the question of whether or not there is a place for a dedicated, high-performance gaming device in a handheld market saturated with ninety-nine cent cell phone titles, and successfully makes an argument for the existence of the PlayStation Vita.  If nothing else, it says very, very good things about what we can look forward to on the platform.

Like the system itself, it's got so many bells and whistles that it's a bit off-putting, at first.  Once it gets down to the business of what it does best - polished, flying action and high adventure driven by charming characters and a lithe, sharp little whippet of a script - one quickly falls in love.

THE GOOD

• very fun

• absolutely gorgeous

• an excellent cast

• a lean, sharp script with great characters (I hope we see Chase again)

• great music and sound effects

• a ton of little hidden items to search for, off the beaten path

• retains Uncharted's feel:

• slick gunplay, which quickly feels very intuitive

• easygoing, beautiful platforming

• lovely art direction with lots of nice little touches

• a nice variety in some phenomenally good-looking environments

• using the touch screen for co-op moves and melee finishers actually works pretty well!

• y'know what?  I liked the canoe sequences

• aside from the opening, it has excellent pacing - always letting off the throttle before gunning it at just the right moment

• I'm playing a really good Uncharted game on a handheld.  Oh.  My.  Gawd.  

THE BAD

• the pacing in the game's opening is rather tedious as it introduces...

• a ton of touchscreen/motion control stuff that may be off-putting to franchise vets

• the action, while very, very good, isn't as polished as Uncharted 3's - but at least the script is way better

THE VERDICT

Golden Abyss is more that just a great game - it's a great Uncharted game, which redefines what one can ask of a handheld. 

* * *

One more screenshot?  Well, sure. 

In-engine!

5 minutes of Far Cry 3.

A deeper look at some of the footage IGN showed off earlier in the week - looks very nice.

REVIEW - Shank 2.

Children of the eighties (and nineties and et cetera) grew up in a time when cartoons were a huge part of their day-to-day entertainment.  Now that we're adults, we find we still have a taste for animation - and a bit of exploitive, M-for-mature violence as well.  Like the original, Shank 2 is perhaps best described as a "Brock Sampson simulator set in a Robert Rodrigues movie", and is an absolute visual feast, thanks to veteran animator Jeff Agala's art direction.

"Every single action, attack and animation in the title is built to look as striking as possible in its limited 2-D plane, with special attention paid to silhouettes. More than that, the slickly smooth animation is packed with half-second moments of near-stillness to highlight the characters' and enemies' (expressive!) expressions or a particularly cool-looking attack.

It's basically designed to throw a thousand insanely good-looking half-frames at you throughout the course of a level, and it's just delicious that it succeeds in this pursuit. The wonderful muted palette of the backdrops further reinforces the title's cartoon heritage and focuses one's attention on the spectacularly good-looking violence playing out in the foreground."
-from the Shank review-

Unlike the original, Shank 2 is remarkably accomplished as a representative of its genre.  In a significant leap in overall quality, the feel of playing Shank 2 is entirely different.  It is fast, savage and feels absolutely perfect in the hand.

I love this game.



Many of the title's new mechanics seem like window-dressing, at first.  The ability to pick up dropped weapons from foes, the ability to throw items, the ability to counter an enemy by ripping the baseball bat from his hands a tenth of a second before he brains you with it, shoving it in his mouth and kicking it so hard his head explodes in ludicrous gibs.  These initially come across as extras - extraneous little boxes to be checked, in keeping with classic tropes of the brawler genre.

Shank's dodge maneuver, now mapped to the right analog stick, feels particularly strange at first. It's not until a few hours into the game, when you find yourself in a particularly sticky situation, that you discover a profound appreciation for these additions and tweaks - and, crucially, how they are implemented.

Once Shank 2's combat system winds its way into your head, once your fingers begin responding instantly to unconscious intention, the game and its mechanics snap into focus and you experience what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity: it all works beautifully.

It had better.  Shank 2 can be just as brutally challenging as its predecessor - the difference is, when you die in Shank 2, it never feels unfair or cheap.  It's only ever because you brought the wrong tactics to the table, or your reflexes failed you.



Take the above tableau, for example.  Shank has put himself in precisely the correct position to deal with his situation.

He has grabbed one of the enemies and thrown them into the others, knocking all to the ground.  This grants a moment's respite to single out one target - in this case, the brute.  If Shank had, instead, pounced on one of the smaller grunts and attempted to execute a chainsaw grind (hold down triangle for a longer grind!), the brute's rising attack would knock him off his target before he had completed his attack.  By grinding the larger fellow, he'll be able to complete his assault just in time to evade the attacks of the smaller grunts - who don't have rising attacks, and must gather themselves to their feet before taking a swing - and re-position himself for the next series of moves.

You have to be constantly thinking about stuff like this.  You have to be aware that you can grab and attack this enemy while holding them by the throat, but that enemy won't allow you to execute any grab attacks and you're only able to fling them aside.  You have to know when you have time for three shank strikes before a brutal finisher from your machetes, when to switch out your shotgun for pistols, and when shoving a mine up an enemy's ass is wiser than jamming a grenade in their mouth.

It's all very tactical, and surprisingly fast-paced.



Like all the best ultra-fast-paced games, once you begin thinking as fast as the game is moving, you start to see how - in reality - the game is a series of staccato beats.  Each beat is the opportunity for you to execute a move - whipping out your shotgun to blast an airborne foe, for example - where the wrong choice, fueled by an inaccurate understanding of your situation, will smack an eighth of your life bar off.

If it sounds challenging, it is - but it's challenging in the good way.  The way where you're constantly learning about your abilities and the timing of its systems, constantly discovering new tactics and strategies.  It took until my second playthrough, for example, to discover that I could grab a standing enemy, shank him twice, transition into a ground hold, transition from that into a throw, go into a pounce and land on him in a ground hold, haul him to his feet and shank him into the air for a juggle combo.

It's the type of game where you can enter a situation and get your ass kicked six ways from Sunday over and over - but once you come to a clear understanding of its systems and your abilities, when you find yourself in that wonderful gamer Zen state of total immersion, you will enter the exact same fight and dance your way through it in a blinding, zig-zagging blur of throws, shanks, stabs, gunshots, dodges and counters - and walk away from it without a scratch.

In Shank 2, you feel sublimely lethal thanks to enemies and mechanics that twirl and pirouette along a razor's edge of beautiful, frame-specific risk and reward.

You gotta' know when to hold 'em, know when to throw them.

Any negative remarks I could level at Shank 2 could be argued aside as easily as countering a pistol thug's shot.

The cutscenes are compressed, but if I were Klei, I'd compress them too.  They're a small studio with a small budget - a budget that would get hammered by the fees Sony and Microsoft levee on a publisher any time their content is downloaded from PSN or XBL, respectively.  It makes perfect sense to have Shank 2 take up as little hard drive space as possible.

The narrative is anorexic, but we're not sitting down for a period piece or a political thriller, here.  If Shank's gameplay genre is brawler, its narrative genre is an action movie circa 1995.  All we need, in that context, is a flashy rogue's gallery and a series of ever-increasing challenges which establish that our hero is the most badass badass in all of badassery.  In terms of telling that story, Shank 2 is a sterling success.

It understands exactly what it is, and doesn't attempt to overreach or embellish itself with needless exposition, mechanics or features.  It's small, meticulously carpentered to provide the experience its creators had in mind, and - by being the product of such a focused vision, so prepared to address criticisms of the original - it achieves its goal with grace and precision.

I know what you're thinking - and you're right.
That shark is about to get fucked up.

Shank 2 is - as of February 11th, 2012 - the most fun I've ever had with a PSN or XBLA title.  It looks utterly gorgeous, thanks to Jeff Agala's striking, silhouette-conscious style.  Its animation remains slick and expressive without sacrificing the responsiveness its gameplay requires.  Its music is excellent, its pacing never lets up, its construction is deeply considered.

This game is precisely what it means and wants to be - even if that goal falls somewhat short of the triple-A standard.  It's also precisely what a sequel should be - a crazed, gleeful, foaming-at-the-mouth realization of the original's potential, and a definitive entry in its genre.

I've never said that about a PSN or XBLA title before - only ever suggesting that such games are merely acceptable representatives of their form - so rest assured, this is a very measured statement:


Shank 2 is the funnest, best-designed brawler I've played since Bayonetta.

THE GOOD

• fantastic character design, incredible animation

• fun

• the music is genre-perfect

• fun

• striking overall presentation - it's endlessly fun to just watch

• a silly, minimal story that hits the right notes and never gets in the way

• excellent in-game presentation

• the boss fights - rather disappointing last time - are a ton of fun.  You actually fight these guys instead of just luring them into stunning themselves.

• a ton of variety in locales, enemies and miniboss encounters

• the game gives you good reason to switch weapons, on occasion

• the platforming feels very smooth and intuitive

• the combat system is absolutely excellent, and the enemy AI and levels have been constructed to maximize your use of every tactic and talent

• lots of fun

• lots of blood

• hidden trinkets and unloackables to discover

• co-op (basically horde mode) is a ton of fun, and demands real teamwork

• co-op is local and online

• hard mode is seriously hard, totally rewarding and never feels cheap

• all killer, no filler

THE BAD

• the cutscenes are compressed

THE VERDICT

Shank 2 is a definitive entry in its genre, and gorgeous to boot.  Buy it.

Yeah, I had to change it.

Looking at the first Shank 2 review, it's clear something was missing.  I spent like, nine paragraphs trying to explain how well-honed the gameplay was, and entirely ignored its other supernatural strength - the art direction and animation.

That, I feel, was a crime.  So I re-wrote the intro paragraphs and yanked two paragraphs from the original Shank review - which I feel describe it better than I could, if forced to re-write it for the sake of not repeating myself word for word.

Well, I feel I rather hit the nail in very close proximity to the head, with those two paragraphs - so I will repeat myself word for word, instead of trying to rephrase what I've already said.

Also, with all this talk of the Vita lately, it's not a bad idea to remind folks - and myself - that Shank 2 is out, on a platform you own, and is totally awesome.

"It's like graffiti on a bathroom wall."

Did you know that there are like, guilds or clans in PlayStation Home?  I had no idea.

But yeah - enough people, it turns out, use Home to require some sort of impromptu social structures.

My older brother spends a great deal of time there.  He's mastered the Siren: Blood Curse area and the Uncharted area and no doubt a great many other areas too.  When he's not playing LittleBigPlanet (he feels LBP2 ruined the game for the original's more hardcore fans) or Battlefield 3, he'll be in Home hanging out with online friends and playing poker.  Apparently he's become quite the Home poker shark, and he tells me that there's this one guy named iCool or something who's "just a dick" who became offended when my brother rejected an offer to join his "fam."

"Fam?"

"It's like... like a gang.  There's fucking gang warfare going on in Home, man."

"Oh, you mean a clan."

"They call them Fams."

According to him, Fams are some weird, cult-like shit.  "I was in one like, two years ago.  They had this clubhouse and there were chairs all organized in a circle, and you had to sit in the chairs and you couldn't speak unless someone spoke to you first, and you had to like, recruit a certain number of new members.  It was super creepy and weird.  And just the sickest shit - it's like graffiti on a bathroom wall."

Reason #187 to never go into Home.

A short conversation about Golden Abyss.

Today at work I was invited out to - literally - four different parties.  As a general rule, I try to say yes to such invitations - but it's been a hell of a week at the office, and my sleep has been atrocious, and I just want to stay at home and dick around with my Vita.  So I am.  But I felt kinda' douchey about not hanging out with Blue and Kayla tonight, so I called each to say "hey, you're super-important to me."

As Blue and I were chatting, he asked what I was up to tonight, and I told him : dicking around with my Vita, playing Golden Abyss.

"Is it awesome?" he asked.

"It's not entirely awesome, but it's predominantly awesome.  Like, if the choices are between Awesome and Not Awesome, it's Awesome.  It's no Uncharted 2, but let's face it - Uncharted 3 wasn't even Uncharted 2."

* * *

Also - like the above screenshot?  I took it with my Vita.  

You can do that!  With any game!  At any time!  Just press start and the PS button at the same time - which makes it essentially to take in-game action shots, but I can pull out stills like a mofo.

Ohhhh it's a blogger's dream.  Sure it sucks that you've got the copyright stuff in the corner, but c'mon!  No more (or at least less) snuffling around the internet for the screenshots I want!  Eeee!


[update]  Oh, by the way - turns out you can reload by pressing down on the d-pad.  I wonder if there was a tutorial for that and I just missed it? [/update]

Personal note - feely feelings about the Vita.

Today, Blue and I were actually able to take a break together at work.  Back when we were both production workers, we took every single break together and chatted about all things, but such events have become exceedingly rare as our schedules make different demands of us.

We talked about this and that and of course I had to gush a little bit about the Vita.  On the way back up to the office, I admitted that, under normal circumstances I would have never purchased the thing.

"I've never bought a platform at launch like, ever.  I always wait a year or two until it has a decent library."

"So why'd you get it?"

"The only reason is 'cause of the blog.  I got it so I could cover Vita games."

Which is entirely true.  If I weren't writing the blog, I'd have waited until at least 2013 when it had a bigger library of must-play titles - and likely the next form factor and a reduced price - before purchasing the Vita.

That said, at home today, playing through Golden Abyss, I find that I am very, very happy to have the thing.

It's... how to put it...

Today, Duke Nukem Forever co-creator trolled the world when he - of all people - Tweeted

"PS Vita launch feels like the last dinosaur showing up to a mammal convention."

Which I must disagree with.  If all other portable devices - iPhones, Blackberries, smartphones and tablets - are mammals in general, then the Vita feels like a cat.

Mammals tend to get along just fine, and few of us are exceedingly specialized.  We're omnivorous, generalists, and we evolve rather well.  Like man and monkeys, smartphones continually change and redefine themselves and their capabilities - slowly becoming better and better at what's required of them.

Cats, on the other hand, are much like sharks - and much like the Vita's classic Dualshock control design.  In the same way a feline's basic design has changed rather little in the past eleven million years, because they're perfectly suited to what they do, the Vita feels similarly sharp, and similarly honed to its purpose.

It's not a generalist.  It's not omnivorous.  It's a beautiful, slick, ambitious piece of tech - yet, thanks to its history and classic-feeling design, there's a familiar, time-tested elegance to it.

Please don't consider this my 'review' of the Vita.  That will come at a later date, when I've put a suitably large amount of time into the thing.  This is merely me saying that, while I never would have purchased the Vita if not for this blog, I find myself - often - very, very glad I have the platform, and a good excuse to own it.

Kickstarter-funded Double Fine Adventure coming to everything but consoles.

There's a video up over at the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page - which is now just shy of two million dollars - in which Tim Schafer explains what the game's new significantly-more-than-their-goal budget will allow.  Turns out, it will allow Double Fine Adventure to come to PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android devices - along with full English voice work, and subtitles for French, Italian, German and Spanish.

:(  No PSV version.  Makes me want an iPad.

Go hands-on with SSX in less than a week.

EA announced during their SSX podcast which is... good lord, it's over two hours long!  Okay, let me rephrase this:  Joystiq is assuring us that during that ultralong podcast, it is revealed that the demo for SSX will drop on the Xbox 360 on February 21st, with the PS3 demo following one dater - on the 22nd.

What's crazy is that I'm not sure I'll get that demo.  Yes, it's one of my most anticipated games of the current gen, but it's also SSX.  You don't have to sell me on it - I was sold the day it was announced.