Broken D-Pad

Bulletstorm Review

2011-02-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Bulletstorm, a First Person Shooter from the studio that knows how to make first person shooters, People Can Fly (Sadly, EPIC got a hold of them, and created this monster). Grayson Hunt is a space pirate from the Dead Echo of the confederation, who is stranded on a planet because he decided to attack his old boss to settle a score. It's revealed that the boss is a traitor and Hunts ends up getting his own crew killed and blah blah blah. Unfortunately, the story lacks a lot, barely plausible plot, predictable at times and a general bore...but the good thing is........

You're not playing this game for the story. You're playing it for the action. For the skill point system. For the tough-guy-smart-ass dialogue. Sadly it doesn't really deliver on any of those accounts. The action, while epic, was a little TOO epic. Push the envelope of believability, but don't push it, punch it and set it on fire. Too much is too much. I felt as though I wasn't driving the action, but the action was going at its own pace and taking us along with it.

The skill shots were an interesting concept. Killing enemies in creative ways to earn points which you can spend on weapons and upgrades. The upgrades were a little over-played in interviews and previews of the game. The only thing you upgrade is ammo capacity and the ability to use alternate fire. I mean, upgrade firepower, fire-rate, reload times....hell, even customization! But JUST ammo? This displeases me. (Yes, in Anarchy mode, you can upgrade these things, but I'm gonna gripe about Anarchy mode in a bit)

The dialogue is kind of entertaining. I'll give Bulletstorm that. Most of the laughs were in the creative uses of the word dick and tits. The novelty wears off pretty fast though. It seems as though everyone hates each other, Hunt is constantly playing the "tough guy gone soft" card and some scenes I was just waiting for it to end.

Echo mode was what initially attracted me to the game, as that was what the demo was. Echo mode takes a small segment of the game and gives you set equipment and a timer, you just get through as fast as you can while racking up as many points as you can. These scores are then rated and you can compare with friends and the world. Beating friends' scores and bragging about it was fantastic in the demo, got hours of entertainment from this. Playing to beat your friend is a great way to have fun and get better at a game. This would be great if your friends had the same competitive nature about them. But if they're busy with other games, or doing the singleplayer campaign, there's only the world-wide leaderboard to compete with...beating a bunch of faceless names isn't as fun as beating friends. The one thing that frustrated me the most; climbing the leaderboards, and getting no recognition, since there are ALREADY people who have hacked/glitched the scores to make them #1 with impossible scores.

Now...Anarchy mode. This was a major let-down. Not only is it peppered with glitches, it also isn't nearly as fun as promised. The levels are small arenas, you fight waves of ~30 or so enemies and the matches feel like they go on forever. It's damn near impossible to get past wave 15 without having a group of competent players, willing to work together and are also masters of the game. No wonder there's an achievement for completing an Anarchy game from start to finish. That IS an achievement.

Summary:
Story: 2/10
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 5 (I give it a 5, because it started at a 9-10, then dropped once it got very very repetitive)
Multiplayer: 3
Re-Playability: 6 (Only in Echos)

Overall: 5/10

Wait until you can get it used. Very soon.

The Perfect RPG

2011-02-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

I'm particular when it comes to my games. One could say I have high standards, others could say I'm picky. Either way, it takes a lot to really "Wow" me. RPG's are the toughest for me. It takes me a little while to get into them, and once I do, I'd better not want to leave. RPG's are at a disadvantage too, given that a good RPG has at least 30+ hours of gameplay in them. In that amount of time, (depending on the gamer) other games may be released as distractions. There are a few elements to RPG's that make them able to stand the test of other game releases, making you able to persist through the tedious moments (They're RPGs, at one point they all get tedious), and making you want to possibly play again.

Here is (in my opinion) the perfect RPG.

Story

Setting:
A story's setting has to be believable. I don't mind if a setting is unrealistic, or fantasy, futuristic, etc. etc. As long as they stick with a theme, and make everything make sense within that theme, it works. I don't want to see some ridiculously buff creature speaking with a perfect British accent. If they're going to have something brutal looking, make it sound brutal. Mass Effect had this problem, in my opinion. See something brutal looking, and it sounds like a gentleman.....

Main Character:
I'm tired of main characters who don't speak. Link has a voice, we know he does...He goes like "HYAAAAH". Bioshock 1 and 2, "Jack" and "Alpha" never talked. Fable 1 and 2. How can all of these heroes not be able to say a few words? At least Fable 3 got it right and allowed the main character to speak. Some say that they don't need to speak, but really, they aren't relate-able. These heroes had no personality. The only drive the heroes have is that of the over all objective.

Supporting Cast:
A supporting cast should help drive the story, provide side-stories, extra motivation, etc. Final Fantasy X had this DOWN. They had a fantastic supporting cast for Tidus' story. Wakka and Lulu had their past involving Chappu, Rikku being Al Bhed, Yuna's father being a kickass summoner as well. Auron, just being a beast. Th only one I had a problem with was Khimarhi. He rarely spoke, and when he did, it was little more than a sentence or two. The only time you really saw any more of a story to him was during the Mt. Gagazet area, and honestly, who gave a crap about his tribes and stuff? It seemed like such a last minute addition.

Multiple Endings:
I love it when games of all genres have multiple endings, or "New Game+" endings. It encourages playing through again. There's a right and wrong way to do multiple endings though. Bioshock did it the wrong way, in my opinion. The endings were entirely dependent on how many Little Sisters you rescued. That's just one element than you could change to get a good or bad ending. Heavy Rain (though not really an RPG) did multiple endings right. Depending on certain actions you did/didn't do, it affected how the game ended. Of course if you get the best ending the first time (like I did) there's little incentive to play again, with the exception of getting trophies you may have missed. Multiple Endings are nice, but not required.

Gameplay
Combat:
Easy to learn, difficult to master. A phrase uttered by every game designer at one point or another. When games introduce features one at a time, get you used to the system and keep adding to it, that's a good way to do it, e.g. Final Fantasy X. When games throw everything at you all at once, that's a good way to scare gamers off. e.g. Enchanted Arms (though that system wasn't TOO complicated, it still had a learning curve). Games shouldn't have to hold your hand the whole way though.

Customization:
If I'm going to be looking at a character model for hours and hours on end, at least let me change their appearance. If not the physical features, at LEAST their clothing. I can understand when certain dialogue events remark on the character's appearance, or something like that, but when it doesn't even matter what they look like, why not make the player able to decide what they look like? Oblivion did this masterfully, Mass Effect was okay...

In-world movements:
By this, I mean how well the controls are when you're not in combat (if the RPG has break-away combat) and you're just navigating the world. These controls have to be solid. Nothing bothers me more than controls that seem floaty when they shouldn't. Sorry Fable 2 and 3, here's where I have problems with you two. It feels more like you're driving the character and merely suggesting where he/she goes. You should be able to control them, solid as a rock. I push left, they go left. I push right, they go right. It's called a controller for a reason, it controls, or at least that's the original intent.

Graphics
Interface:
Menus are very frequent in RPG's. There's a lot of information that needs to be brought to the player. Stats, HP, MP, inventory, equipment, etc. All of this info needs to be able to be seen quickly, easily and smoothly. Simple interfaces are great. They function as an interface, and nothing more. Final Fantasy X (I reference it a lot, I've noticed....probably because it's one of the best RPGs ever, in my opinion) was able to nail interfaces down. Without some navigation tutorial, I was able to quickly and easily find items, equipment and able to compare my currently worn equipment with something I've picked up with ease. It's not a flashy interface, because it doesn't need to be.

In-game:
Graphics are not extremely important. Hell, people still play Final Fantasy VII even though they look like megablock characters. One thing that does kind of bother me though... it's when game developers take an existing model, color it differently and re-introduce it as a "new" enemy. FFX had this problem. At least make a new character model for a new creature. If there are memory contstraints, that's understandable, but there's still a limit to how many times I can see Flan come in different colors.

HUD:
Heads up Displays are what you'd see when you're not in a menu, but usually when you're walking around in-world. Commonly used for heal and mana, these HUDS take out some immersion value of the game. When you can clearly see a healthbar flashing red when you're almost dead, that takes away from the experience of getting sucked into a game. They do have their place in games like First Person Shooters, however they ruin the feel of RPG's, keep them out. (Fable did this well - The HUD would only show when there was a change to health or mana)

These are just a few of the ideas I've come up with for an Ideal RPG. So, Bioware, Blizzard, Wizards of the Coast, any of you RPG makers...Get to it!

Bulletstorm

2011-01-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

Bulletstorm has been kind of under the radar recently. What with releases of other games from better known studios, announcements of other games around the corner, etc.

The demo was overshadowed by the release of other demos too, sadly. Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 being the culprits. However, Bulletstorm is a game that I've been looking forward to due to the fact that it's being developed by none other than People Can Fly. Who are People Can Fly(PCF) you ask? They're the masterminds behind Painkiller. If you don't know painkiller, first person shooters everywhere need to slap you in the face.

When I rate games, I rate them by their Story, Gameplay and Graphics. This system falls apart when games don't even TRY for one of those categories, this is where Painkiller (and probably...Bulletstorm) come in. They're not trying to have a story. If anything, they'll throw together some dialogue as an excuse for characters to go from point A to B....Their focus is on Gameplay. And holy shit do they deliver.

Bulletstorm takes killing to the next level by providing many, many, many ways to kill creatures and baddies coming at you from all angles. The Demo showed quite a few of these ways, some painful to look at, others hilarious. A few to note: Voodoo Doll - Kicking an enemy into spikes. Fireworks - Shooting an explosive into an enemy suspended in the air. Mercy - Shooting an enemy in the balls, then kicking their face to put them out of their misery.

All of these kills gain you skill points. A currency that will be used not only to brag to friends, but upgrade weapons, buy new ones, expand skills, etc. Who knows what kind of things it'll bring.

Just on the demo, my friends and I have been competing to get higher and higher scores. The demo features a single Echo (mini-level used for competing) and only 3 weapons. All in all, a single play of the demo lasts about 6-7 minutes, or 3-4 if you're going for speedy finishes. But I've wasted hours on it already, replaying it, trying to top scores I've set myself, or my friends have set for me.

February 22nd is the release date...I have mine pre-ordered already.

A look at scary games + Review of Amnesia: The Dark Descent

2010-10-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot to make a game scare me. Jump tactics don't scare me, they make me jump. That's not fear. F.E.A.R. did a pretty good job. It set the atmosphere with great sounds, dark lighting and a good pace of scary moments. However the action moments took from the element of fear. It made it into "just another shooter" for those moments...

Fatal Frame 2: The Crimson Butterfly did an excellent job at making me sit on the edge of my seat. This is a game that combined a greatly disturbing story and scary moments into a game that will be burned in my mind for quite some time. There was one problem with the game. It was that enemy encounters weren't as scary as I had hoped they'd be. There was plenty of "ammo" (film) for your weapon (camera) lying around, and I never felt as though I couldn't fight my way past all the enemies when I came across them.....

Then there's Amnesia.

Amnesia delivers...This is a game that defines survival horror. There are no weapons. No way to fight. Yet there are enemies. Think about that for a moment. You know those moments where you'd find a hungry creature at the worst time in some games, when your only option is to run? How tense was it?

Imagine this...Armed with only a lantern, you're wandering around a castle, searching for someone, when you spot an enemy. Quickly you put away your torch, but it's too late, he's spotted you. He charges. Now you're running, as fast as you can, looking for somewhere to hide. You hear the creatures footsteps behind you getting louder and louder as you run. You hear your own heart pounding in your chest. You run from light to shadow, shadow to light, blinded by the shift in brightness...

You find a cupboard in a room to the side, quickly open it, dive in and slam the door shut.... Then you wait. In the darkness, waiting, you hear the creature zone in. You can hear its breathing. You wonder if it will think to check your hiding spot, you pray it doesn't. Then nothing. No sound at all, just darkness.

This is Amnesia. I have yet to finish this game. On occasion I get to a point where I have to turn it off and get back into reality. Now for the review.

Gameplay
Stellar. Simply put, many many other games should take a cue from this game. To open a door you click with left mouse button, and pull it back, as you would for a regular door. This has a two pronged affect. It makes you feel more like you're in the game and it allows you to open the door just a crack, to see if something is in there that you don't want seeing you. No longer is there just a "Push to open" button. This provides another level of danger as well...what if you're running from something, and all the doors are "Pull to open"...that adds another sense of urgency. Flipping switches, turning handles, opening drawers, cupboards, etc. All able to be done at your own speed you choose based on your mouse movements.

Leaning in games has never been more necessary than in Amnesia. Peeking around a corner adds to the sense of fear, you want to stay hidden, but know what's around there.

Gameplay gets a 9

Story
I won't give too much away, but your name is Daniel. Daniel wakes up in a castle with Amnesia, but finds a note he had written to himself. You find out that you gave yourself amnesia with a potion, and you must kill a man in the castle. That's all I'm giving you. There are two story lines going on at once, one you experience and one that you read about in journal entries, diary pages, etc.

So far the story seems pretty solid, but I've yet to play through the whole game yet. Giving it an 8.5 for now.

Graphics
The lighting in the game is pulled off very well. The physics of objects and such feel very realistic. One complaint however, is that the game is lacking in good texture resolution. At times, mild pixelation of textures takes away from the atmosphere. Other than that though, very good.

Graphics 8.5

Story: 8.5
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8.5

Total Score:

So what're you waiting for? Go get it...or are you too scared?

Crackdown 2 Toy Box

2010-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Like many Crackdown players, I was interested in the idea of making the game a virtual playground and just have fun. The original campaign wasn't long enough and the side missions got tedious once you unlock any kind of mass explosive (Quacker), so making the game about having fun, playing with physics and spawning hordes of enemies to battle with no chance of death sounds like my cup of tea. A friend of mine downloaded the free version, while I went right ahead and bought the full thing, because I'm an achievement whore.

As mine was downloading, he was playing his free version, and that got me excited. I saw all that I expected, and a few more things that I would be able to access once I got the full version downloaded...sadly, this was not to be. Upon loading the game, I was greeted with the friendly "No sound and frozen screen". My 360 is already having problems as it is, so to see this, I thought it was a problem with my console. Unfortunately, this is a problem that is happening with everyone(?) who bought the premium toy box.

Ruffian & Microsoft, get on it! I need my dose of nonsense violence.

Getting Good at Games (How to)

2010-08-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

How do you get good at a game? How do you get great? How do you become pro? These are all questions that gamers have been asking themselves ever since games began holding high-scores. It's nice to be good at a game, sure, but being the best? That's even better. I can summarize this article with 3 words: Practice, Patience, Persistence. The 3 P's. Read on if you would like more detail.

P # 1: Practice.

It's no mystery how people get good at things. Practice is the root of all improvement. However, when you go on Youtube and see videos of people absolutely dominating at Halo, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and other competitive games, you don't see the hours and hours of practice that the players put into them. It is true that some people can pick up a game faster than others, but they still spend hours of time getting good at it. It's said that in order to master something, a person has to spend 1,000 hours of work at it. Most people don't have that kind of time, but really, they do. 2 hours a night, (Less than most "Hardcore" gamers spend) would take you a little less than 2 years to master a game. But practice isn't all you need...you need to have PATIENCE.

P # 2: Patience.

You won't go pro over night. Far from it. Accept this fact and you will find your journey to being the best a lot smoother and more enjoyable. As it was said with Practice, this takes time. Patience also means working your way up to being awesome. A good way to get used to a game is to play through the single-player modes first, perhaps a few times. Do you think that the best Halo players haven't beaten the game on Legendary a few times before? Probably. How about Call of Duty players beating the game on Veteran? Of course they have. Odds are some of the best probably have all the achievements/trophies as well. This shows they can work their way up. Don't dive right into Multiplayer if you're feeling a little hazy about the game, or you think that playing solo won't matter.

P # 3: Persistence

This is the biggest pitfall of most gamers aspiring to greatness. They gave up. Giving up is a nice looking option for someone who has hit a few plateaus in their gaming ability. I have fallen victim to this pattern with a few games as well. I know I'll never be the best at Super Street Fighter 4, so I gave up on getting any better. When we get pounded online, it's not a great feeling. It downright sucks sometimes. Controllers have been thrown on the ground and obscenities have been shouted for stuff that was our own fault. If you're online, EVERY TIME you die, fail or lose, it's your fault. You weren't good enough. (Don't worry, peppy part is coming up) But that's okay. It's called learning. People learn from their own mistakes. You now know "Oh, okay, that's a common sniper spot, I should check there before running out next time." or "Hmmm, I'm not too good with fast switching between triple note chords, maybe I should practice those." Or even "Damn, I should probably not play with this character yet, maybe I should switch to an easier one, until I get the hang of this." To quote the author Richard St John, "Persist through the CRAP. Critisism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure". You'll find a lot of all of those online. Chin up and go for it.

Hopefully this little guide has proven itself useful to you for your coming adventures in getting better at gaming. Just remember, don't see a high-score and think you'll never get there. Maybe the person with that score thought that too...Happy Gaming.

E3 2010 Begins June 15th

2010-06-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Evil Pacman Here:

E3 is almost here! In this week alone, developers have released early footage and information about whats to come this year for there companies and systems. So far we already got footage of Rock Band 3 and the new Mortal Kombat game. Also, we have Square Enix revealing their first glimpse of Final Fantasy XIV. But is this the year where the new systems are revealed? If anything we will see and have our personal favorites of E3 on this blog while its going on to keep y'all updated on whats we are looking forward to here on Broken D-Pad.

What are y'all looking forward to?

Alan Wake

2010-05-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's finally out, I've been waiting for this game since the first time I heard about it, back when it was originally going to be on the PC. So far, I'm honestly not that far into the game, but for the first few hours, I could not put it down. Here are my thoughts:

Alan Wake is a psychological thriller, about a writer who goes to a small town in the mountains for a vacation. He's currently in a writer's block, and is looking to clear his head a bit. But this town has a lot more than what's on the surface. There's plenty of story in the game to keep one interested and wanting to know as much as they can about the town.

Story: 10/10
The characters are very interesting and at time, deranged to the point of madness. But one would expect this from a thriller style game. The story of the town is shown through a local Radio station, with broadcasts and calls from various characters in the game. Again, I'm not that far into the game, but I'm pretty much addicted and don't want to put the controller down. It's a miracle I'm able to write this review.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
This is where things get a tiny bit hazy. The controls are a tad clumsy, jump mechanics are a bit too floaty. Luckily there haven't been too many situations where I felt the floaty-ness took away from the gameplay. The combat is stellar, however. In order to kill enemies that are coming at you from all angles, you have to shine a flashlight, or some other kind of light on them to weaken the Darkness that protects them. Then you can finish them off with a pistol, shotgun, rifle, what-have-you. There are some weapons that do nothing but shoot a mass amount of light, like Flare-guns and Flash bangs. These function like grenades and just take out people like nothing.

Graphics: 9.5/10
The Environmental details of the game are simple astounding. The forest areas and the lighting have honestly raised the bar for graphics. The only complain I would have about the graphics are the people's faces. The mouth movements seem very clunky. Not really getting that much emotion out of the faces of the people.

Final Rating:

RDR: Hour Six Single Player & Hour One Multiplayer

2010-05-18T20:51:00.001-07:00

The Evil Pacman here:

So Hour Six of Single Player of Red Dead Redemption and so far I've found so much stuff to do to make me laugh and pass time like crazy.

There are two things I like to do when I play video games, especially free-roaming games like GTA and Crackdown, and thats find glitches and doing the most idiotic things to make me laugh. Lets start with the glitches and bugs of RDR. So far I've found (and recorded) one major bug, which I don't even know how it happened, but it happened. As I hogtied a town member and threw him on the back of my horse to test out how kidnapping works (yes I'm evil), a townfolk spotted me and alerted the sheriff. That townfolk then ran for his life. I chased after the old bastard to exact my revenge for telling on me, and when he ran towards this hill, he jumped to the left and started running on air. He got really high and kept running, and I shot him and he fell back down to Earth. A big glitch, but if anything a patch can fix it.

Now fun things about RDR. The horse mechanics are great... so great that while you are riding, whether its on a saddle or steering a wagon, your horse knows not to ride off a cliff. Its got a little more sense than that. BUT... the cool thing is that you can shoot your horse in the head... while you are riding it. Therefore, you put a bullet to the head + Riding full speed towards a cliff + Ragdoll physics = Awesome. Try it out sometime for a good laugh.

Multiplayer. Its awesome. I never played GTAIV so I can't compare it to that multiplayer, whether it be the same or different, but nonetheless, its fun. There are a few mechanics they need to work with and some of the levels are too huge for small parties, but mulitplayer deathmatch games are fun. You start off gang battles with a mexican standoff, and the last player (or players if more than one team member survives on one side) gets a head start and an experience boost. That helps especially on maps where its capture the money bag.

Free-roam multiplayer is just as fun, doing group challenges and having the open world to yourself to explore. I joined in a group of friends in a private match of free-roam and we ended up going for the challenge where you knife a bear to death for a good hour. It was a pretty awesome experience and a good way to get experience in multiplayer.

So far, despite the minor bugs and frustrations in multiplayer matches, RDR has me hooked. A good 9.5 out of 10.

Red Dead Redemption: Hour Two

2010-05-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

The Evil Pacman here:

So I picked up Red Dead Redemption tonight at midnight, halfway on a whim, halfway being convinced by my good friend Kirsten, and I'm gonna be giving coverage as I go along with the game in order to convince you to check this amazing title out.

I remember renting Red Dead Revolver a few years back for the PS2 and loving the game and story. It was fun and Rockstar did a good job capturing the wild west feel of a game. So hearing about this title, I expected this game to be even better with Rockstar's reputation for creating games with free-roam worlds. What I didn't expect was an Oblivion sized map, amazing draw distance, smooth controls, and a perfect feel to the wild west world.

The story is about John Marston, and he gets set up by federal agents to pick up his holster and revolver and hunt down his former friends, now turned criminals. His knowledge and vast vocabulary shows what kind of person he is right from the beginning and how he handles himself brings you into the character very well. Upon arriving on train to your destination, you start off on your first mission finding your friend, now leader of a notorious bandit group, and try and talk him out of his situations. Doesn't end up well for John thats for sure. Won't go into detail what happens but he ends up in the nearby town working off a small debt he owes.

When I head back into the first town after completing a few missions, I noticed a few mini-games (Poker and Five Finger Filet) and a silent movie cartoon that had a Rockstar feel to it all over. It seriously made me laugh out loud as I watched it. I also hunted wild animals (yes, you can kill bunnies, birds, deer, snakes, and anything that moves really) and skinned their dead carcasses for anything I can sell at the local shops.

The one thing that made me feel very good about the game is the Horseback riding and the smooth controls. It was so easy to shoot and aim while going fast, and its easy to know when your horse is tired and how to keep the horse from going fast. And if you're following someone, all you have to do is hold A and it will keep you at their pace. It all works so incredibly well.

But this is the end of my review, I don't want to spoil too much of the story, but I will continue playing and let you know how everything else works, especially when I start Multiplayer mode, which is a whole another game.

Clash of the Titans...

2010-04-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

Failed.

This was a movie I was looking forward to since the first trailer I saw of it, sadly, it couldn't hold a torch to the original. Couldn't hold a candle. Maybe a fire-fly, doubtful though.

For all my Final Fantasy X fans out there though, the Kraken looked an awful lot like Sin. Kind of funny, actually.

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2010-04-01T03:37:00.003-07:00

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A Hefty Project

2010-04-01T03:37:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, I think I'm gonna start a little project for the almighty YouTube-ness. I want to play a full game from A-Z and record it, post it up in segments on YouTube and be awesome like that. Figure I'll do commentary over it and such, but I don't know. Ideas?

Bioshock 2

2010-02-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

I recently finished Bioshock 2 and I'd like to review it for the world. Hopefully this will help you decide if picking up the game is worth it or not. In my case, it was worth it. I'll try not to compare Bioshock 2 to the first game, since it's not really a direct sequel. When I like to review or describe games, I have 3 categories, Graphics, Gameplay and Story. A good game has 2 of these, a great game has all 3.
Graphics
I was not disappointed at all with the graphics of Bioshock 2. They're smooth as silk and very very rarely were there jitters. The water effects are fantastic, and the fire/lightning/environmental effects, stellar. Seeing Rapture from actually under-water was a breathtaking experience. You get the magnitude of the city when you're actually walking on the sea floor, and looking up to surface-scrapers (Get it?). There were occasions though, where the graphic quality was a tad blurred, and I had to wait a few seconds for the high-res feel to come back to the textures and meshes. But those instances were few and far apart. Overall, I give Graphics a solid: 9
Gameplay
This is where Bioshock 2 really shines. The use of the Drill, weapons and plasmids. Hacking and mind-controlling. Dashing and ducking. Charging and guarding. All these things made the gameplay of Bioshock 2 a sheer dream. I had so much fun playing and finding new ways to vanquish foes or guard little sisters. The combination of weapons and plasmids was genius. Without needing to switch between using one or the other, one can hold an enemy still with one plasmid while pummeling them to death with the drill, or any number of weapons. A favorite thing I found to do, was set up cyclone traps, have telekineses ready and toss enemies all around the room. Never did I find a fight to be boring or repetitive. Each was a challenge, but not impossible. Gameplay gets a glorious 9.5.
Story
The story of Bioshock 2 is different than the first one, and has little to do with it. However, playing through the first game does give you little connections between the two, but the story is different enough to where you won't be 100% lost. I recommend playing the first one though, both for the connections and because the first game was a fantastic game as well....anyway, on to the story.
You play as subject Delta, the first Big Daddy assigned to a little sister. Without giving too much away, you are on a mission to save your little sister from "Sofia Lamb" raptures new semi-ruler, semi-psychopath. Throughout the game, you find audiotapes explaining how she came into power, who she meets, etc. Through these audio tapes you hear about the story in the first game, with the civil war and revolution and etc. etc. etc. No spoilers here! Without listening to the Audio tapes though, the story is not all that clear...Which is unfortunate, since sometimes you won't find Audio tapes and you may miss some key elements. The story is quite intriguing, but I believe it could have been better. Perhaps giving more history, or making you hear stuff about Sofia Lamb, rather than just finding them in tapes. Not all of us are exploring types, so we may not find it all. I give the Story an 8. Good, not great.

Brief Summary
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 9.5
Story: 8

Total:

Heavy Rain Demo

2010-02-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

I got a chance to play the Heavy Rain demo. A new psychological thriller/mystery game, from Quantic Dream, creators of the Indigo Prophecies, Heavy Rain is an interesting game built around a serial killer known as the 'Origami Killer'. The game has you play as 4 different characters, all relating, in some way, to the killer.

On to the demo. The demo allows you to play two scenes. First scene is with a Private Detective, Shelby. It first drops you in as Detective Shelby, looking for a girl named Lauren, whose son was a victim of the Origami Killer. What first seemed like tedious events, the game uses the right-stick and face buttons to perform tasks. The very first thing you do, is tilt the stick left to open a car door. Then you move with the R2 button and tilting the left stick. It takes some getting used to, but it's not that difficult. Small tasks, like searching for an inhaler, seem like wastes of time, but it REALLY gets you immersed in the character. One such event, (after finding the girl) has you in a huge asthma attack and you're patting your coat trying to find your inhaler. Because I was so immersed, I felt tense just trying to find it.

Combat in the game is all based on QTEs (quick timing events), like "hit X now" or you have 2 seconds to hit Triangle. While this seems not-that-great, it's actually quite fun, and in these earlier stages, it wasn't much of a challenge, though I did mess up once or twice. The best part, (I believe) is that you can mess up these events without facing a "Game Over" screen. The effects of messing up do play a part on cinematic, how much story you get, etc. i.e. In a fight, I first kicked ass, but took a couple punches. The cinematic that followed shows my character with a cut on his head and a slightly bleeding nose, and my character was acting all tough like he kicked ass (because he did). Next play-through of the demo, I wanted to see what happened if I lost. I purposely got the shit kicked out of me. Failed all the events and let some time-out. My character was battered and bruised and bleeding out both nostrils and talking like he got the shit kicked out of him. And just when I thought it couldn't get cooler, he walked with a limp for the rest of the scene. Now THAT is awesome.

The next scene is more on the investigative side, with FBI agent Jayden investigating a fresh crime scene left by the killer. He uses these glasses that can trace DNA in blood samples, collect pollen from the air, check on tire tracks for make and model of cars, etc. Upon first arriving to the scene, you again, get out of a car and check it out.Small actions like pulling out your badge, pushing down to get under police tape get you into the scene faster than anything. I ended up playing through this scene twice as well. The first time, I found a few clues with the awesome glasses, like blood splatters, pollen and various details about the victim. Talked to who I needed to talk to and I only had one option left to say and that was "I'm leaving, see you back at the office." So I figured I was done. Short scene, took about 5 minutes.

Then I played it again. I payed REALLY close attention to things, and found a new area, an area that had clues like the killers tires and where he dragged the body to and from, and his footprints, all this stuff I missed the first time. Just goes to show that this game will have replay value, and a lot of it.

Lastly, they include a trailer for the game that you can only see in the Demo release....and holy crap, it's amazing. This is going to be an intense game...Really intense.

Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies

2010-02-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

Why?

I know this question was probably on peoples' minds back when the 360 was first announced to have 'Achievements' way long ago. But this question just recently popped up in my head today. Achievements cause me great frustration for very little payoff.

I have a few problems with Achievements and Trophies. Firstly, they only amount to bragging rights (as of now) and braggers are pricks. You could be online with someone who has 1000g/1000g points for a game, and they still suck. Because most of the time, the final achievements for games are not that difficult. You could max out a game with a fair amount of time and (sometimes) a decent amount of skill, that I believe every gamer can posses as long as they put their mind to it. So Achievements aren't really a testament to skill, but free time.

The ratio of skill to points is pretty messed up as well. Some games give out achievements (in full) for just completing the game. There aren't really enough HARD games out there as of late. A new game I just played, Bayonetta, the achievements are laughable. In 1 play through I already had 40 of 50 achievements. The next play through I got another 7, I only had to re-traces steps to get the last 3, which were just little secret areas I missed, nothing challenging at all.

If they're to be called Achievements, I want to feel like I actually achieved something. I like it when I try and try to do something, fail and fail, but I eventually get it. I have that feeling of satisfaction.

The most annoying thing though, is when I have 100% finished a game, then Downloadable content gets released. This content adds more achievements. Making my 1000/1000 score turn into a 1000/1250 score. I have OCD when it comes to my games. If I spend all that time getting the full 1000 points, I expect to keep them. Even if I DO NOT get the DLC, I still have a score of 1000/1250. Halo 3 is a prime example.

Maybe one day the gamerscore will mean something more than 'I have a lot of spare time' but as of now, it does not. By the way, copy/paste all this for trophies as well.

Excitement for February!

2010-02-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

The Evil Pacman here!

So February is a month of awesome for gamers, with many anticipated games coming out. Biggest release this month is Bioshock 2! Complete with awesome multiplayer and the continuing storyline of the Rapture legacy. I cannot wait for such a masterpiece to be continued. If you haven't played the first one, the storyline is great and it's a must-play.

But other epic stories, new innovations, and multiplayer mayhem are also coming out this month. Dante's Inferno, where you fight through the nine layers of hell to rescue your love! How fucking romantic is that? Heavy Rain also comes out this month, and if you haven't checked that out, it's something to look forward to for suspense seekers.

Miles Edgeworth will have his own game out for the DS, which fans of the Ace Attorney series will have some more hardcore lawyer action, along with Ragnarok DS at the end of the month. Alien Vs. Predator has a promising lead in scare factor, along with some action packed fun, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has more multiplayer ground wars, although I'll personally stick to my Modern Warfare 2 addiction.

And a small RPG warm-up wouldn't hurt before the release of Final Fantasy XIII next month with Star Ocean The Last Hope International coming out for the PS3. If you weren't able to pick that game up for the Xbox 360, the International version has extras coming out that the 360 didn't, plus a Japanese voice/English subtitle option, which in my opinion, I would rather play in English, but SOTLH for the 360... was pretty bad in voice acting.

All in all, February's Bioshock 2 release will have gamers wrapped up for the month, and Dante's Inferno will be a good epic tale to embark on. Heavy Rain will be a new spin on the suspense genre, and Alien Vs. Predator will make you sleep with the lights on. Happy Gaming!

-The Evil Pacman-

Hello! My name is Dustin Blade

2010-01-31T15:48:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! Glad to be here at Broken D-pad. I am the music man of the group but I would say my drawing is alright. I hope to contribute some interesting perspectives about video games and music.

I am the old fart of the group too! When I was born Nintendo had only been out for almost two years. So I am happy to say I grew up with video games. (excluding all the ancient 70's consoles of course!)

Some of my friends wonder why I chose the pen name "Dustin Blade" to represent myself. To answer that question, it is actually related to video games! When I first got familiar with the internet, I wanted nothing more than to create a website that focused on my favorite gaming series of all time, Mega Man. I created the website Dustman's Domain and it had a HUGE collection of Mega Man Midis. (I did not create those midis) Dustman, one of the bosses from Mega Man 4, was my favorite character. I went by "Dustman" when I first started roaming the net. But the name was used by many people and it didn't stick out. I decided to combine my love for swords (that's right! When zombies take over I won't be RELOADING cause I don't like guns!) and my favorite video game character into my new nickname: Dustin Blade. And there you have it!

I look forward to creating a place that makes you laugh and gives you new insights on certain topics! Thanks for stopping by and check often for updates since we will be doing that rather often! Happy gaming!

-Dustin Blade-

Introduction: The Evil Pacman

2010-01-31T15:31:00.000-08:00

Hey readers,

This is the beginning of a new era here at Broken D-pad, along with new artists and writers, we have more direction with what we are trying to achieve here. This is my introduction to myself, The Evil Pacman.

As a young lad, I grew up with the world of Nintendo at my hands, wrecking face in games like Demon Sword, Magic Darts, and the all time favorite, Hogan's Alley. Yes, I was poor and I didn't get all the awesome games, but I did have TMNT series... and Duckhunt.

Skip a few generations and here I am, drawing and writing for Broken D-pad. There was stuff in between there somewhere, but its not important. Just know that I'm an avid gamer, RPG Fanatic, along with the FPS and Survival Horror (Pre-Resident Evil 4) genre, and the occasional Music game.

My artwork is rough and stylized in the anime-ish section, but most of them will be a bit more realistic in ways. Me being a perfectionist, my comics will be released in according to the schedule I can draw them on. But I will do my best to please and pleasure and bring a laugh to you're hearts... cause thats all the world needs...

Anyways, more stuff you can check on www.The-Evil-Pacman.deviantart.com but all my new artwork for the comics will be posted directly to here. Thanks for reading and support and I hope you will enjoy what Broken D-pad will have to offer soon for the general hardcore gaming audience.

-The Evil Pacman-

World of Warcraft

2010-01-27T01:21:00.001-08:00

Alrighty, so I'm done playing WoW. I've seriously got nothing else to do in that game. It has become so tedious and boring that I feel sick every time I see that login screen.

   I miss the old days of WoW, back when (Sorry for non-wow players) MC, BWL, ZG and AQ were the badass things to master. That's right, old world WoW. Now, it's all these instances that take like, an hour, if that. Remember when it was hard to find groups, and harder to keep them, and even harder to finish an instance before getting sick of people? I actually miss those days. The game was a challenge. It made the rewards more rewarding. Back in the day when if you had more than 1 mount, people shat themselves. Back when Reputation grinding was needed for progression. As in, needed rep to beat areas, not just to get crap.

   Long Chain quests to gain access to areas / Bosses. MC anyone? Getting Keyed for Onyxia? BWL? How pissed were you when those instances were just handed to people once they got Burning Crusade? Then all those epics, which actually felt epic, were replaced by greens. Nowadays, if you're not walking around in all purples, you're a noob. They made WoW way too easy.

   Even the new stuff is not that hard. I mean, back in the day, you HAD to mana-manage. You HAD to have pullers. You HAD to have people who knew how to play their class. If you made one wrong pull, one accidental double pull, odds are your group was dead. But if you look at the majority of instances in WotLK, EVEN HEROICS, groups are spread so far apart, you'd have to TRY to make a bad pull. The first area in AQ20. Wasn't that a fun set of pulls? I was a hunter in those days, and it took timing.

   What makes me really sad is that people can just PUG end-game stuff. Yes. End-game PUGing. When an end-game instance is able to be pugged, that's when things have taken a turn for the worse. Even the difficulty of Onyxia, a re-released single boss instance from Old-world, has been toned down to cater to the masses. 'But wait, they do have a 25-man Ony!' 25 Man Ony, at first glance, would seem harder than 40 man. Less people means harder, right? Wrong. The instance is just as hard as 10 man, which is so much easier than the old 40 man.

   40 people in an instance. It's almost crazy. That's what we used to do, for you people who hopped in WoW post-BC. It took orginization. It took leadership. It took effort. There was a NEED to be in a guild. There was a NEED for officers and ranks in guilds. There was a NEED for the DKP system. 25-mans killed guild raiding, IMHO.

   It's not just the difficulty of the instances that's making me quit either. Remember the days of Warlock summons? Back before the whole 'Meeting Stones' thing, which then became 'Summoning Stones'.

   I've been talking about PvE most of the time, because that's the stuff I know most, but now I want to talk about PVP. Remember when the Honor System JUST came out? It was fantastic. It made it required to gain skill in your classes. You could show off ranks. If you made it high enough in the ranks to earn some Epic Gear, people knew you by name and reputation. They would line up to get in battleground Queues with you, just to feel the power. PvP between servers killed that. It killed the lines to get in BG's though, I'll give them that. And the Arena system was a nice addition, but the ranks should have stayed.

   Mounts were expensive, flight paths were long, Summons were Warlocks only, dungeons were hard, classes took skill, PvP was within the server, Honor was earned and not just handed to you, and guilds were required for End-game. Good bye World of Warcraft. Rather, good bye to what it used to be.

How I play Call of Duty, MW 2

2010-01-08T09:20:00.001-08:00

My First Gameplay video, I used a Flip UltraHD camcorder to record from the screen. That's all I have until I get some way to record other than just a camera on the screen. In the meantime, not bad quality.

First Game Review - Bayonetta

2010-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Lets jump right in;

Bayonetta is the sexy female lead character, who possesses the power of the 'Umbran Witches'. She has forgotten her past and is on a journey to discover it. I'd go more into the story, but unfortunately there isn't much of one. There are 2 rival clans, the Witches and the Sages. These 2 clans were previously harmonious and blah blah etc. etc. No story. Be thankful for the ability to skip cinematics, because the game is riddled with them. Devil May Cry 4 had too many, this one has more....that, or they just felt longer.

...However...

Bayonetta takes the cake when it comes to fast, furious and fun gameplay. The game is faster than most I've played. Even faster than the Devil May Cry series. Now, when I say fast, I mean there were scenes that made the Final Fantasy VII Movie look like a child playing with toys. Thankfully, there is a handy feature in the game called "Witch Time" which is much needed for some of the fights. A very simple move to pull off, and it happens frequently, but you never really get tired of it.

The game was also quite challenging. Even on the Normal difficulty, I found myself dying pretty frequently. Luckily the game doesn't really have a GAME OVER screen, else I'd be face with that every 20 minutes or so. A simple penalty to your end-chapter score is all you take upon hitting 'Yes' to continuing.

The music gets a tad repetitive, but at least they do change it up a bit, and the main theme, "Fly me to the moon", isn't hard on the ears either.

Overall though, I'd have to give this game an 8.5/10. It only lost points for the lack of story. I'm sure I'll keep playing it as well to finish up the harder difficulties. It'll be a while.

Graphics: 9.5

Gameplay:10

Story: 6

8.5/10