Shooter Saturation

So Homefront and Crysis 2 came out last week. Personally, I don't see the appeal of Crysis as anything more than a glorified tech demo. And Homefront is unremarkable in every way possible. They're not bad games per-say, they just don't do anything that hasn't already been done better by other shooters. Homefront's saving grace is an above-average, battlefield style multiplayer, but even then, how much longevity will it have with Call of Duty, Halo, Killzone, SOCOM, and countless other military-themed shooters available.

Killin' things.

Crysis 2's multiplayer faces the same challenge as Homefront. Ever since Call of Duty 4 broke the game industry out of its wash, rinse, repeat formula with World War 2 shooters, every developer under the sun wants in on the M-16s and UAVs too. Now the market is as full of terrorist hunting as it was Nazi shooting back in the days of the PS2. There are people other than Nazis and terrorists that have done bad stuff.

We're Oscar Mike!

MLB 11 The Show is the Best in the Series, but is it Hall of Fame Worthy?

You can only rest on your laurels for so long. After releasing what, in essence, was the same game with various minor improvements for the past four years, Sony Computer Entertainment San Diego finally decided to overhaul the golden goose with the release of MLB 11 The Show.

The big ticket item this year is the introduction of "pure analog" controls. Similar to the 2K Sports baseball franchise, the new control scheme is meant to imitate the actions of the on-screen athletes through movement of the analog sticks rather than the basic button press system of old. 

Analog pitching has the player selecting a pitch and a location. Then, instead of the meter-based system from previous games, you pull down on the right analog stick until reaching the yellow bar that represents a perfect release point. Once you reach the bar, you push up in the direction you want the ball to go to. 

As a result, you have a far greater impact on the success (or failure) of the pitch, which was previously decided based on the rating of the pitcher.

Analog hitting is similar to pitching in that you pull the right stick down, then up again. The big difference with hitting however, is that you have to time when you start to pull back carefully. If you pull the stick back and hold it there for a few seconds before pushing forward, the contact you make will be far weaker than if you do it in one smooth motion. This means you have to watch the pitcher's delivery and decide when the time to start your swing is right.

Compared to pressing the X button to swing, analog hitting is far more tactile, and there is a greater sense of gratification when you square a ball up on the barrel and hear the beefy thud of the bat, as opposed to the puny click that resonates when you make contact on the handle of the bat.

The weakest of the three is analog fielding. When a fielder catches the ball, you push the right stick in the direction of the corresponding base. The more accurate your motion is, the more accurate the fielder's throw will be. If you hold the stick down longer, the throw will be harder. The problem is that the fielder will make an errant throw far too often, even if you make a perfect motion with the stick. This makes the system feel unreliable and too often you'll be hoping the fielder makes a decent throw regardless of how well you completed the motion.

The Show features all the basic modes such as exhibition, season, and franchise, as well as their trademark mode Road to the Show, where you create your own prospect and guide them to the bigs. In this mode, you play exclusively as your athlete from their perspective. The big improvement to Road to the Show this year is that you are constantly being rewarded for your actions the field, as opposed to previous iterations which only rewarded you for completing appointed goals.

MLB 11 The Show's biggest issue is the computer opponent's intelligence. The computer refuses to swing at anything outside of the strike zone, regardless of how well you throw a pitch. Too often I've had the computer in an 0-2 count and it refused to chase perfectly executed curveballs and sliders that a real major leaguer would have. This adds a level of frustration where you should have been rewarded for working ahead in the count and using your pitcher's out-pitch, only to have the computer act as if it knows what's coming. Another oddity is that some of the real life player models have heads that don't match the proportions of their bodies. For a baseball simulator, seeing a major leaguer who looks like they've had their head shrunk by a witch doctor can take you out of the experience quickly. 

MLB 11 The Show looks great. The constant improvements to the lighting and stadiums draw you into the experience, and the majority of the player animations are smooth. The game requires a large install when you first start it up, however, and even then, load times are exceptionally long. One last small gripe is that The Show's soundtrack has to be one of the worst in any game, but you can easily turn it off so no harm done.

MLB 11 The Show manages to replenish a stagnant franchise with a solid new control scheme to compliment the game's stellar looks and large list of modes. If you've been out of the game for a while or are new to The Show, now's the time to grab a bat and take a few cuts.

Dragon Age 2 Dreams Big, but can't Quite Reach its Own Expectations

Bioware's games have a history of taking the player on wild rides through exotic locales. Dragon Age 2, however, feels like it's spinning its tires in the mud, it comes so close to taking you somewhere but never actually moves. It's not that the story is bad, Dragon Age 2 just feels like a victim of its own ambition.

Dragon Age's story is told by Varric, one of Hawke's companions, as he recounts Hawke's life over the past decade to a mysterious interrogator. As Varric begins with each new segment of Hawke's life, the game drifts back in time and the player takes over as Hawke with Varric (among others) riding shotgun. This approach to storytelling, while unique in games, creates a disconnect of sorts between the player and the characters as the game pulls you out of the proverbial matrix and skips ahead a few years. The story also, rather curiously, never reaches a satisfying conclusion, instead opting for a cliffhanger ending that will perplex those who haven't explored the series' canon.

The biggest flaw of Dragon Age 2 is that it confines the player to the city of Kirkwall for almost the entire story, save for the first half hour and brief trips to the outlying roads and mountains. This wouldn't be an issue if the city didn't consist of four districts and a few buildings, all of which feel confined. The result is a story (which rapidly loses steam after act two) that paints Kirkwall as expansive and monolithic, but feels drastically undersized. 

When it comes to actually playing the game, Dragon Age 2 is as solid as they come. The combat has been sped up from the previous entry in the series, and as a result, conveys a sense of organized chaos. You and your four companions will rush into battle far quicker than the clunky shuffle dance of Dragon Age: Origins, and the various attacks they perform have been exaggerated to almost ridiculous levels. Like Origins, however, you can pause the game at any time and issue individual orders, then unpause and watch as Hawke and company carry them out with bloody efficiency.

Like all Bioware games, Dragon Age 2 boasts some of the strongest characters and voice acting in the industry. Those familiar with high fantasy will get a kick out Varric, a clean-shaven dwarf who sports a crossbow named Bianca, and Frenris, an elf with a hulking two-handed sword and a brooding demeanor that would feel at home in a Twilight movie. Conversations and missions involving specific members of your crew are, without a doubt, the best part of Dragon Age. And the one positive of the narrative structure of the game's story is that you get to see how the relationships of these characters evolves over a decade.

Overall, Dragon Age 2 is a game that shows flashes of brilliance only to be sabotaged by its own ambitions. Thankfully it possesses the Bioware hallmarks of great characterization and solid gameplay to support the shortcomings. For all its faults, Dragon Age 2 will still provide hours of entertainment, it just stands a hair below the elites of the genre.

Achievement Unlocked: Romance Completed

 So Dragon Age 2 is due out next week. I already have the feeling I'm going to enjoy the new characters. They always seem to be the strong suit of Bioware's games. You can check out the (as far as I know) full lineup at  http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/world/characters/ or a slightly more detailed look at them at http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age_II. Personally, I find myself intrigued by Hawke's (the player) brother Carver and sister Bethany. I can't recall a previous game that gave the player such an in-depth family that stays with me through more than the first act. Isabella seems to be the romantic interest that Bioware is showing off, but I find her a bit too... "loose" for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, she's a site for sore eyes, but I'm fond of Merrill for whatever reason.
          
Which brings me to the title of this post. I've played through just about every one of Bioware's games since Knights of the Old Republic, and have followed the various romantic storylines to their conclusions. Bastila (KOTOR), Silk Fox (Jade Empire), Liara (Mass Effect), Leliana (Dragon Age), and Tali (Mass Effect 2) were all, for the most part, good characters. My problem is that each relationship ends with a (poorly acted and awkwardly animated, with the exception of Tali) love scene, you are awarded an achievement for your (I hate using this word but...) conquest, and the game becomes oblivious of the time you've shared. Didn't the game just spend the last however many hours trying to convince me that this was a person, an honest-to-goodness human being worthy of my adoration. I don't want to be "rewarded" with a scene of Commander Shepard and Liara clumsily rolling around on a bed like two Barbie dolls being smacked together. Then (if that wasn't bad enough) every time I want to have another conversation with her it's,"Oh, hey Shepard! The developers totally didn't have my voice actress record anymore lines so I'll just repeat this until you finish the game. Off you go." I thought what we had was special! All I'm saying is that it makes the girl look like just another damn piece of loot at the end of a quest after you spent the whole quest telling me how this ain't just another damn piece of loot at the end of a quest? I'm not saying that I truly love the girl and want to spend the rest of eternity with her. It just annoys me that the developers so easily break the illusion of reality and strong characterization that they worked so hard to build.

I never liked Barbie dolls anyway...