61 Frames Per Second

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• The 61FPS Review: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

  Guest contributor Adam Rosenberg covers games from his secret lair in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, typing, reading and playing the days away as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah. Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. is a fun game. Flying a state-of-the-art combat jet over satellite-rendered landscapes in a game halfway between simulation and twitch thrills just works. The control is simple, the goals basic. But let’s be honest here. You don’t play game about flying a killer plane and look for a reflective experience. You play it for the rush of speed and vertigo, narrow escapes and quick action. H.A.W.X. provides that. Just not enough of it. Read More... Posted Apr 09 2009, 08:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ubisoft, 61fps review, Adam Rosenberg, h.a.w.x., tom clancy, ghost recon advance warfighter, endwar, hawx, graw

• The 61FPS Review: Suikoden Tierkreis

  Let’s get something out of the way first, to avoid misunderstanding: I love Suikoden. I know that Suikoden II is the best game on the PlayStation, and that it is easily one of the two best games I’ve ever played. I left Suikoden III spinning in my PS2 for hours, and I’m not talking about playing it—I’m talking about letting the attract video repeat over and over just to listen to its score. I played Suikoden Tactics from beginning till end, and so help me, I didn’t hate it. I’m telling you this because I want you to understand the depth of my meaning when I tell you Suikoden Tierkreis isn’t for me. Read More... Posted Apr 08 2009, 09:00 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, konami, 61fps review, joe keiser, Suikoden ii, Suikoden Tierkreis, jrpgs

• The 61FPS Review: Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard

  Longtime Simpsons writer George Meyer once stated “Cleverness is the eunuch version of funny.” And Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is just that: clever, but not funny. The game starts with a promising premise: after a long career with many titles under his belt, titular video game action hero Matt Hazard finds himself unemployed as the result of some poor career decisions. So when an opportunity to revive his popularity arises, Matt jumps on it—without realizing his new starring role is a trap concocted by former Hazard gamer Wallace Wellesley, whose life was ruined by the extreme difficulty of Matt’s games. What follows from this setup is an action game starring an action hero who’s world-weary and well aware of his genre’s tropes; but for as much promise as this idea holds, it’s really just an awkward, toothless, and unfunny framing device for a lousy third-person shooter. Read More... Posted Apr 06 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: xbox 360, 61fps review, bob mackey, eat lead

• The 61FPS Review - Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii)

  This week I played my very first zombie game and even though this is not really my genre of choice, I did not hate it. Dare I say I even had some fun? I may have grinned a little at beating up the undead with a mannequin but I deny all accusations of laughing maniacally while running over zombie poodles with a lawnmower. I really am not into horror. I'd rather read the Wikipedia article for a synopsis than watch a horror movie, and so it was with a bit of trepidation that I began Dead Rising: CTYD. Soon my fears were allayed when I discovered this was more like a brawler than a survival horror game. Thusly relieved, I snagged a shopping cart and proceeded to run down the undead like a possessed bargain hunter on 50% off sales day. Read More... Posted Mar 27 2009, 10:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: wii, 61fps review, amber ahlborn, dead rising

• The 61FPS Review: Resident Evil 5

  Resident Evil 4 is one of the greatest videogames ever made. It is top three, desert island material, the one to play before you die. It is Shinji Mikami’s definitive statement as a creator. It is the best three-dimensional game to ever come out of Capcom across all of their internal teams. It is Dark Side of the Moon to Super Mario 64’s Sgt. Pepper. These are not things that can be argued. These are facts. So when every single person that plays Resident Evil 5, whether as a demo or as a finished, ten hour game say that it is just “gorgeous Resident Evil 4", you know they are not damning it. That is a compliment. And an accurate one. Producer Jun Takeuchi and his team of toughs followed the recipe precisely: Mix claustrophobic, over-the-shoulder gunplay, careful resource management and a dollop of flip-the-switch puzzling. Add an adventure through a forbidding village of transformed locals, then some marsh land hiding a water-bound monstrosity, then one industrial complex. Slowly blend in one spooky castle/ruin and one evil laboratory. Garnish with final confrontation that culminates in rocket-launchering a monster in the mutated face. Do battle with human, canine, insect, and various oozing grotesques. Let rest occasionally near save point, serve chilled. It is an expertly-made game, its only serious flaw being the partner AI’s occasionally spastic behavior. Sheva Alomar (or Chris Redfield on a second single-player run) is capable throughout the chapters, but useless in boss fights, especially the last. The addition of a constant partner, whether AI or player controlled, does not change the rules, the flow of Resident Evil as a game. It can, at first, make the game feel quite different, giving combat a refreshed sense of immediacy and panic. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, resident evil, capcom, 61fps review, jun takeuchi, resident evil 5, chris redfield, sheva Alomar

• The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

  It may have taken 20 years, but Dragon Quest fever has finally hit the United States. True, it'll never be as intense--and, at times, frightening--as Japan's fascination with the series, but we only have to look at the past few decades for a reminder of how Dragon Quest used to be a forgotten and overlooked RPG footnote in comparison to cross-cultural hits like Final Fantasy. We've gone from Nintendo Power giving away unwanted copies of the first Dragon Quest (then known as Dragon Warrior in the States) in 1989, to Enix's American branch closing up shop in the mid-90s, to a small push for the outdated and subpar Dragon Quest VII back in 2001; but in 2005, shortly after the Square-Enix merger, the series was essentially re-launched with the phenomenal Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2. Now, nearly four years later, we're in the middle of a DS trilogy remake, the latest release being Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. And, just like DQ's last DS remake (Dragon Quest IV, released in September), DQV stands as proof that there's never been a better time for American Dragon Quest fans. Read More... Posted Mar 17 2009, 10:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: 61fps review, ds, dragon quest, dragon warrior, bob mackey, dragon quest iv, dragon quest viii, dragon quest iv: chapters of the chosen

• The 61FPS Review - MadWorld

  First and foremost, let me say this: I loved just about every second of Platinum Games' debut title MadWorld. If you have a Wii and are even slightly interested in over-the-top violence, I say get the game as soon as you possibly can. If you enjoyed the Wii's reigning champ of hardcore tongue-in-cheek violence No More Heroes, you'll find a lot to love in MadWorld. If you're a fan of Clover Studio's past work, in particular Viewtiful Joe and God Hand, you will probably love MadWorld. If you are a fan of Frank Miller's Sin City and/or black comedy, you will absolutely have a blast with MadWorld. Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get into the nitty-gritty. Read More... Posted Mar 16 2009, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, no more heroes, platinum games, wii, madworld, 61fps review, sega

• The 61FPS Review: Star Ocean The Last Hope

  Star Ocean 4 is a tragic creature. It’s not a great game, nor can it even see greatness from where it is now. Instead, it feels like it was dragged, kicking and clawing, away from greatness by wicked beasts that feed only on the worst excesses of Japanese pop storytelling. So its story is almost unfathomably bad. Here is one Edge Maverick, who goes against what his parents wanted for him by being neither edgy or a maverick. Born on a post-apocalyptic earth, he is but a cog in the government division tasked with finding a new home world for the remainder of humanity. A coincidental calamity sees him promoted to captain of his own ship, with his mission clear: mankind is choking on fallout, so go find a new planet for them. Preferably one without giant man-murdering insects. He immediately loses the plot. Long before he finds himself embroiled in a conflict for the fate of the universe, Edge is compiling his ragtag team of horrifying cosplay clichés: there’s a winged girl in there, and an embarrassingly clad catgirl, and at least two different varieties of space elf. He takes this merry band of awfully voice-acted annoyances across a series of nearly non-sequitur adventures, none of which have anything to do with colonizing the galaxy. Perhaps because he has confused being the universe’s most incompetent space captain with being a maverick, he messes up nearly all of these missions, which apparently excuses him to spend hours and hours as a mopey drama queen. Read More... Posted Mar 10 2009, 06:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, 61fps review, jrpg, joe keiser, star ocean 4, star ocean: the last hope

• The 61FPS Review: Killzone 2

  NOTE: The following review and the grade attached to it are based entirely on Killzone 2’s single player campaign. Stay tuned to 61FPS for a follow-up, post-release examination of the game’s considerable multiplayer component. Guest contributor Adam Rosenberg covers games from his secret lair in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, typing, reading and playing the days away as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah. There may be hundreds of them, but first-person shooters can really be broken down into two categories. The first type of FPS is marked by a strong balance between play, narrative, difficulty and pacing. If that balance is good enough, the game warrants a full playthrough. The other type is competent and even entertaining, but it’s just one more game with a gun. For one reason or another, maybe the challenge isn’t engaging enough to keep me going, maybe it’s the story, this type loses my interest long before the credits roll. Guerilla Games’ Killzone 2 almost falls into the latter camp for me. Had it not been for the demands of this review, I never would have finished the game. I’m glad I stuck it out though. Killzone 2 stumbles in its first half. Unwieldy controls, awkward combat dynamics and an unfocused, impersonal narrative are a lethal combination. But during the game’s back half, everything gels. It just takes some time to get Read More... Posted Feb 27 2009, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: playstation 3, killzone, sony, call of duty, 61fps review, gears of war, call of duty 4, killzone 2, Adam Rosenberg, guerilla games, killzone liberation

• The 61FPS Review: Noby Noby Boy—Part 2

  Over the weekend, I spent half an hour tying my body around a cloud. I’m not really sure why I did it, and I’m not particularly convinced I enjoyed it. Something inside me told me to do it, and after a fashion I succeeded. And then I played Noby Noby Boy for a few more hours. And when I put down the controller I came to a realization: this is not something that can actually be reviewed. Let me be clear: I am not the sort of person that believes that reviews should not have scores or grades at the end. I believe that most games are built with specific goals in mind, and that the value of those goals and how successful the game was in achieving those goals can be measured in a relatively standard way. It’s not objective, and there are exceptional games that bring trouble to the grading system, which is why you see so much hand wringing about review scores (note: that hand wringing is also valuable—it keeps scoring models contemporary and reviewers on their toes). It’s the same thing that happens at almost any school. Noby Noby Boy is one of those exceptional outliers. There’s no implied contract here: you’re not trading $60 for the promise of a solid genre entry that meets all the bullet points and marketing hype. Noby Noby is $5, with the marketing hype being that it is “inexplicable” and the bullet points being “relax” and “have fun”. Without any expectations, it can’t be said that Noby Noby Boy is a failure. But can it also be said that it is a success? Read More... Posted Feb 23 2009, 12:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: review, 61fps review, katamari damacy, psn, ps3, joe keiser, noby noby boy

• The 61FPS Review: Noby Noby Boy – Part One

  So, Noby Noby Boy. Noby Noby Noby Noby Boy. Hoo, boy. Where to begin with this one? Okay, so you know how the PlayStation Network Store has a sort of “poetry bar” section? You know, those little arthouse games that are all about music or movement, where there’s absolutely no sweaty biceps and no casting of firaga? Most people either love those titles for their innovation and high-mindedness, or hate them for their stark simplicity and liberal college pretentiousness. Noby Noby Boy could well be the most polarizing of those titles. It’s the least game-like of all the games on the PlayStation Network Store (unless you count Aquatopia as a game, which unless you are a cat you probably should not). It’s not just that there are no goals. There’s no progression, at least not any you can make significant strides towards. Controls are floppy and obtuse. Graphically, it’s on par with a CG animation demo from the early 1980s. On the other hand, it could become the only game in this loose “genre” that is uniformly beloved. The art style is undeniably charming and completely unintimidating. And because at first glance the game doesn’t seem to have any sort of message, it can’t bludgeon the player over the head with any sort of message. Do you see why this is so difficult? Read More... Posted Feb 20 2009, 01:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: 61fps review, katamari damacy, playstation network, joe keiser, keita takahashi, noby noby boy

• The 61FPS Review: Big Bang Mini

  Big Bang Mini? More like Big Bang Awesome, you know what I'm sayin'? No? You don't know what I'm sayin'? Ah, well then, let me explain... Big Bang Mini is a very unique DS arcade shooter from French studio Arkedo and it's the kind of beautifully unique game that screams "I was made by a small team of devoted and creative people!" (Other recent examples, Flower, World of Goo, LOL, Everyday Shooter) While most arcade shooters allow you to fire and move simultaneously via dual analogue control, Big Bang Mini is entirely touch-screen controlled, so you can only do one at a time. Drag your ship around to avoid bullets, let go somewhere safe, flick up towards the top screen to fire on your enemy targets. Oh yeah, and your ammunition is fireworks. BOOM-KRACKLE-shizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Read More... Posted Feb 18 2009, 12:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, portal, 61fps review, ds, Retro game challenge, big bang mini, south peak, arkedo

• The 61FPS Review: Retro Game Challenge

  I have a confession: every night, the part of my soul that is all id and desire has taken a spirit journey to Japan, where it developed Retro Game Challenge. Of course that’s not actually true. But with an excellently executed premise that is laser-focused on the childhood dreams of the 20-something game player, it certainly feels true. It’s probably impossible to even review the game properly, as RGC is specifically designed to take the sort of person that would review a game and completely disarm them. I will try, but I wanted you to know going in that in this case, I don’t have any arms. Read More... Posted Feb 13 2009, 10:15 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: review, nintendo ds, 61fps review, xseed, Retro game challenge, joe keiser

• The 61FPS Review: Edge

  I am almost certain that over the past three months I've played more downloadable games on my iPod Touch than on my home consoles – and I've been all about Lumines Supernova lately. As expected from any hip new platform that just about anybody can develop applications for, a majority of the iPod games I've tried have been decidedly uninteresting and derivative of other, significantly better, games that I've already played. Thankfully, though, there are small studios putting time and thought into iPod games now and the media player finally has some truly excellent games, even if they still borrow from established franchises. Just as ngmoco's much-hyped Rolando gives me what I always wanted from LocoRoco in the form of tilt and touch controls, Mobigame's Edge gives me what I always wanted from Marble Madness – a cube. Yes, yes, Marble Madness without the marble sounds boring and pointless, but that brings me to what is so awesome about Edge: everything else. Read More... Posted Jan 30 2009, 05:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, 61fps review, edge, iphone

• The 61FPS Review: Game & Watch Collection

  Officially, the cost of the Nintendo DS Game & Watch Collection is “free.” Unofficially, it costs: Way too much luxury income A devotion to spending the majority of said income on Nintendo software, specifically the most popular Nintendo software, rather than the best Obsessive compulsive disorder, to be able to click enough times to actually get into the Club Nintendo Website (slogan: “unable to handle traffic volumes since 2008”). Naturally, I had mine ordered on day one. But was it worth it? Read More... Posted Jan 14 2009, 04:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, 61fps review, joe keiser, club nintendo, game & watch collection

• The 61FPS Review: Valkryia Chronicles – Part 2

  For Part One of the review, click here. As it turns out, Valkryia Chronicles doesn’t hold up all the way through. As one gets closer to the end, the story veers off the path of “historical allegory” and gets lost in its fantasy elements—something about an ancient race with sacred blood that could manipulate their version of oil to make themselves death-dealing gods. Here the story becomes vague and generic, and much, much stupider. If this wasn’t enough to make the ending unsatisfying, the battles also lose their way as the finale approaches. Combat scenarios that previously required the player to think about situations tactically and outmaneuver the enemy became increasingly gimmicky, culminating in a final boss battle that is incredibly simple (not easy, but simple-minded) and cheap. So as the story progression made me roll my eyes more and more, I turned to the game’s saving grace in the end times: the skirmish mode. Read More... Posted Jan 12 2009, 03:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with no comments Filed under: playstation 3, 61fps review, sega, joe keiser, valkyria chronicles

• The 61FPS Review: Valkyria Chronicles – Part 1

  It’s clear right from the outset that Valkyria Chronicles shares a most important trait with the best games in Sega’s legendary catalog: it’s absolutely fearless. It takes its strange concepts—its hybrid third-person action/turn-based strategy gameplay, its unusual pencil sketch artwork, its World War II-inspired mythos—and explores them confidently. It immediately brings to mind the Sega that once upon a time made games about near-future rollerblading graffiti gangs and RPGs where you sailed the clear blue skies. Valkyria Chronicles does a lot of very smart things, but the smartest move here was combining the turn-based strategy of something like Advance Wars with third-person action-based unit control. As soon as you select a unit, you’re on the field with them, controlling where they move, dodging suppressing fire, giving orders. This alone rips away layers of abstraction that normally dog the genre, and as a result, characters feel less like chess pieces and more like, well, characters. The battlefield is made a real place to be understood, and even the war itself feels more terrifying and real. And Valkyria Chronicles, despite its charming pastels and pencil lines, is not afraid to make the war terrifying. It proves this in its earliest cutscenes, when it shows you acts of horror that will leave you wondering exactly what sort of game you’re playing. It’s also not afraid to be completely and ridiculously hard. The threat of permadeath hangs over every unit, and as for the battles themselves, let me give you one example. In one particularly lethal mission, you are left to find the weak points of a seemingly invincible enemy contraption. As soon as you find them, reinforcements come in to stop your assault—and the reinforcements are actually invincible. Surviving the remainder of this battle (and I didn’t survive, not the first three times) requires the sort of lateral strategic thinking that is guaranteed to leave you feeling smug for the rest of the day. Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 04:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: 61fps review, sega, ps3, joe keiser, valkyria chronicles

• The 61FPS Review: Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2

  Given to me 'fore the holiday break, A white microphone and a challenge to take: American Idol Encore 2 for Wii, to play and review whilst home with family. Karaoke with pop songs of past and of present: The Bee Gees, Depeche Mode, Beyoncé, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, the Spice Girls, Bon Jovi, the Fray, The White Stripes, Survivor, R.E.M., and Coldplay. To sing the melody, or hum, coo, or howl, You'd be praised by Paula, chided by Simon Cowell. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, konami, 61fps review, lips, singstar, american idol, karaoke, joysound

• The 61FPS Review: Prince of Persia

  Guest reviewer Adam Rosenberg resides in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where he slaves away daily as a contributing editor for UGO’s Gamesblog as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah. I’m not really sure the title “Prince of Persia” is relevant anymore. After all, in Ubisoft’s latest – a reboot of the trilogy started with Sands of Time – you play a wandering scoundrel: two parts Han Solo, two parts le Parkour founder David Belle and one part Indiana Jones. You could argue that the open-world, Middle Eastern-flavored surroundings might be situated in an ancient, fantasy-world version of Persia, but it just as easily might not be. But hey, that’s brand recognition for you. Prince of Persia is a streamlined spectacle, lighter on challenge than previous series entries but also more visually appealing by several orders of magnitude, thanks to the face-lifted, cel-shaded art design. Meanwhile, the gameplay remains fundamentally unchanged; as the titular (not-)Prince, you’ll still be wall-running, column-groping and bar-swinging, all of it supplemented by increasingly frequent dalliances with magic. But to be honest, there’s not much in the way of "game" in Prince of Persia. It is essentially a massive, player-guided Quick Time Event broken up by occasional displays of QTE-fueled swordplay. Read More... Posted Dec 19 2008, 02:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: prince of persia, ubisoft, 61fps review, jake gyllenhaal, sands of time, Adam Rosenberg

• The 61FPS Review: LittleBigPlanet - Part 2

  My, what a difference a month makes.This time last month I was just about ready to proclaim LittleBigPlanet the late great hope for 21st century video games. Upon completing the on-disc single-player game, there was nothing left to do but explore the multi-player and user-generated options. This is where the game was truly supposed to shine, the "fun" that the advertising keeps referring to. The good news is that local multi-player is pretty great. Most of the pre-made stages include optional challenges that require teamwork and cooperation and being able to turn to your friend and discuss strategies and enact them instantly is smooth and delightful. Playing online, however, is a tremendous crap shoot. There's no way to really communicate, so play goes from cooperative to competitive instantaneously, which becomes a problem when players share respawn points. If two players attempt to cross a bridge and both fail, they return to the continue gate with two "lives" lost and the game ends twice as quickly. Four players and you've got a recipe for instantaneous game over. Read More... Posted Dec 03 2008, 02:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, playstation 3, derrick sanskrit, 61fps review, rock band, super smash bros brawl

• The 61FPS Review: LittleBigPlanet - Part 1

  Many would agree with me the LittleBigPlanet is the most significant game release of 2008. Sure, Spore was a big deal, but it was only the next logical step in Will Wright's Sim series. LittleBigPlanet is a platform for whatever the user wants it to be, a venue for sharing and interaction, and a robust toolbox for imaginative and aspiring game designers. There's no denying LittleBigPlanet is an impressive and forward-thinking new box of toys for the kids, but is it a fun game? With one week of Sackboy inhabitance under my belt, I'm prepared to render my first impressions. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 10:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: little big planet, playstation 3, derrick sanskrit, 61fps review, mega man, dance dance revolution, super mario bros, ratchet & clank, spore, wolfenstein

• The 61FPS Review: Dead Space

  In 1986, the world bore witness to one of gaming’s most important watershed moments, an event whose profound impact on the medium is still seen today, in games released every week. Protagonists, game worlds, sound effects, and art direction; there is no facet of design that this single creative work hasn’t influenced. It isn’t The Legend of Zelda or Metroid. It isn’t Out Run, Adventure Island, Kid Icarus, Bubble Bobble, or Castlevania. It isn’t even a videogame. The gaming legacy of James Cameron’s Aliens cannot be overstated. Ignore all thirty games actually based on Aliens and consider the past twenty-two years of gaming as a whole. Syd Mead’s art and designs cover every game from R-Type to Halo 3. H.R. Geiger’s titular xenomorph is mirrored in hundreds of enemies, even beyond Contra. The group dynamics and character archetypes of Cameron’s protagonists are the template for almost every squad-based shooter ever made. And the forbidding labyrinth of colony LV-426 has defined entire genres, particularly the first-person shooter. This movie is where the space marine, modern videogames’ essential lead, comes from. Aliens made many, many games what they are. But no one game has ever gone as far in recreating the entire Aliens experience – of allowing you to actually enter a dilapidated, abandoned science fiction world full of monsters hunting you from the shadows – as EA Redwood Shores’ Dead Space. The Ishimura and its broken, dimly lit passages, the bloodthirsty and relentless necromorphs spawned from the ship’s dead, the weapons you wield as Isaac Clarke (the pulse rifle and flame thrower being the direct nods,) even Jason Graves and Rod Abernathy’s screeching, dissonant score are all explicitly lifted straight out of the film. The game’s disparate parts conspire to let you actually play James Cameron’s sci-fi survival ride instead of watch it. The gameplay follows the formula precisely: at the start of all twelve chapters in Dead Space, you are instructed to go to a place, locate that chapter’s MacGuffin (a machine that needs fixing, a person, a creature that needs killing,) eliminate a specific obstacle, and survive a constant and seemingly unstoppable, unpredictable threat aided only by limited supplies and unreliable supporting characters. What’s more, Dead Space succeeds, a work that ends up as far more than the sum of its borrowed parts. Read More... Posted Oct 14 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, ea, resident evil, 61fps review, aliens, dead space

• The 61FPS Review: LOL - Never Party Alone!

  Let me spoil this review by saying that LOL for the Nintendo DS has been dubbed the official new favorite video game of the Hooksexup staff. Still with me after that? Okay, here we go... Amidst an interesting array of reviews, some very good, some very bad, and an awareness that the game was designed by the Kenichi Nishi, the genius behind Chibi-Robo, I ordered myself a copy of the online-only and multiplayer-only LOL not knowing at all what to expect. As there is absolutely no single-player capability in the game, I had to wait until a few friends with DSes were around to test it out. Such an occasion occurred not too long ago here in the Hooksexup office when 61FPS mastermind John Constantine, Hooksexup Editor-in-Chief Will Doig, and myself all sat down with a couple of drinks and a DS for each of us. What followed was pure social gaming magic. Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, 61fps review, chibi-robo, skip, Kenichi nishi, lol

• The 61FPS Review: Dragon Quest IV – Chapters of the Chosen

  I’m not going to lie to you. Dragon Quest and I have history. It goes back some twenty years at this point, but our relationship today isn’t one based on nostalgia. Back in 2005, you could say that Dragon Quest and I were in, to put it delicately, an unhealthily codependent situation. Dragon Quest VIII had just come out in the United States, fresh faced and full of gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, newly minted menus and music, and voice work of unprecedented quality. But Dragon Quest has never had much clout on this side of the Pacific, and this was its first time going by its real name instead of Dragon Warrior. It needed someone, anyone to play it. Me, I was a recovering role-playing addict, coming off of a decade of Squaresoft devotion, trying my best to stay off the ability trees, the melodrama, and the menus. I lapsed occasionally into turn-based adventures to save the world. I’d been doing good up until that November, hadn’t touched a JRPG since Shadow Hearts: Covenant the previous winter, but I could feel myself weakening. I just wasn’t strong enough. So Dragon Quest VIII and I found each other at our weakest. Between November 15th and December 1st, I clocked just under ninety-six hours playing Dragon Quest VIII. Yeah, that’s right. Four days of my life. And I loved it. Each Dragon Quest, since the first game sprung from Yuuji Horii’s succulent brain in 1986, is an exercise in purity, a defining marquee in a genre known today for its decadence, bombast, and tedium. Dragon Quest is more often noted for its resistance to change rather than its consistent quality across the years. It’s true, Dragon Quest has remained, across its sequels, spin-offs, and numerous remakes, largely the same game it was two decades ago. The essential play – explore a large fantasy world, fight monsters in a first person perspective, collect items, talk to every single person you meet – has never changed in the core titles. But every iteration finds its elegant formula incrementally refined, and to great effect. Dragon Quest II introduced multi-character parties, III a job system that went on to become a genre staple, and so on and so forth. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, a DS remake of a Playstation remake of the NES original, could be viewed as a step back from the lavishly produced (though still familiar) Dragon Quest VIII, a retreat meant to acclimate players to the series’ transition from home consoles to portables. Surprisingly, Chapters of the Chosen isn’t a retreat at all. It is instead a perfect model of the JRPG as Horii envisioned it, immediately accessible, streamlined from the menu-juggling, command-selecting rigor moral, and trimmed of the excess narrative fat that’s typified the genre since Hironobu Sakaguchi began emphasizing drama over play in Final Fantasy. Read More... Posted Sep 22 2008, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, final fantasy, 61fps review, square-enix, hironobu sakaguchi, dragon quest, jrpg, yuuji horii

• The 61FPS Review: Metal Gear Solid 4 Part 2

  As I mentioned in the first part of this review, Guns of the Patriots is the Metal Gear that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, for the series and game type, passive viewing is every bit as much a part of the play experience as actual player control. It’s misleading, though, to think that Metal Gear Solid 4’s greatest achievement is its presentation. Since its debut on the MSX in 1986, the actual game under Metal Gear’s graphics and story has been about using a limited, often suffocating interface to explore multiple solutions to a problem. A classic scenario: Solid Snake enters a room filled with obstacles (packing crates, trees, stationary vehicles) and a handful of hostile artificial intelligences (soldiers, security cameras, dogs) moving along set paths. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater The goal is to guide Snake passed hostile elements without alerting them to his presence. The environment and tools acquired in its boundaries (anything from firearms to camouflage) create options; you could crawl under cars to avoid detection or tranquilize a soldier to distract the others as you move on. Snake is difficult to manage though; move too fast and you risk accidentally walking into an enemy’s line of sight, fire a gun and you risk being heard. You could make the argument that the finicky and imprecise control of Snake is immersive, simulating the stress and precision of actual stealth, but the truth is that it superficially increases difficulty, masking the rudimentary artificial intelligence’s faults. In Guns of the Patriots, not only has the environment and multiple-solution approach been expanded upon in both scope and realism, but the control has been streamlined to a point where agency is truly in the player’s hands, no longer at the mercy of a stilted interface. Read More... Posted Jun 24 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, 61fps review, metal gear, mgs4

• The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2 Part 2

  Love the one you’re with! My first few hours with Ninja Gaiden 2 were disappointing, an experience colored by high standards and higher expectations. I got over it and am now content to enjoy kicking the heads off of evil ninjas. As far as my overt criticisms go, well, they’re holding true. Gaiden 2’s camera and level design are abysmal, not to mention the game’s numerous glitches. Are severed ninja arms supposed to float in mid-air? The game’s got problems. Ninja claws, however, are not one of them. Neither is the sickle and chain or the enormous scythe you steal from a bunch of werewolves. As much as the weapons and scenarios from Ninja Gaiden 2 sound like a series of bad internet jokes from 2004, these additions to protagonist Ryu Hayabusa’s arsenal make for good entertainment. They don’t make for necessarily great play though. The first impression Ninja Gaiden 2 gives is that its combat, the literal core of its design, is unchanged from Ninja Gaiden 1, but subtle changes have been made. Specifically, countering enemy attacks is now easier than it was in the original game. It makes combat more fluid, allowing attacks to string together smoothly without risking injury or having to wait for an opening in an opponent’s assault. As a result Ninja Gaiden 2 is more accessible than its predecessor. But if a game’s foundation is based on being inaccessible, requiring the player carefully study its rules and practice play, isn’t its design diluted by decreasing the demands of its rules? Read More... Posted Jun 17 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, xbox 360, 61fps review, ninja gaiden

• The 61FPS Review: Metal Gear Solid 4 Part 1

  I’ve spent the last ten years of my life resisting Metal Gear Solid. I didn’t play the series’ opening chapter until April of 1999 and, even then, I only played because it was gifted to me by an exceptionally generous friend. At sixteen, I considered myself a staunch traditionalist. I wanted my games two-dimensional and my gameplay familiar so Metal Gear Solid didn’t appeal to me (I'd be lying, though, if I said its monumental popularity wasn't at the heart of my dismissing it.) It took playing MGS to realize Hideo Kojima, more an eccentric than a trendsetter at that point, had captured the gaming zeitgeist in two discs of content. Basic play in MGS was little more than a polished version of the original Metal Gear’s, but its presentation and narrative ambitions were a new face for gaming, every bit as redefining as Mario’s first hop-around Princess Toadstool’s 3D castle. MGS’ in-engine acted-cutscene, dramatic-instance formula remains the template for storytelling in videogames to this day. Read More... Posted Jun 16 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, 61fps review

• The 61FPS Review: Ninja Gaiden 2 Part 1

  When Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden finally released, it was mind-altering. No three-dimensional action game played as well, looked as good, or had its raw scope, and no one in the world was expecting it to deliver as it did. After all, the game had been vaporware for half a decade. Remember when Tecmo announced it as a game for Sega’s Project Katana (the development codename for Dreamcast)? How about when it was supposed to be a Playstation 2 launch title? By the time Team Ninja announced that they’d be releasing it as an Xbox title, I was starting to wonder if the game existed at all. When no screens or video of the game materialized for another three years, it was fair to assume that Gaiden was destined to be little more than trivia fodder. But then February 2004 rolled around and there it was. That month will, in my mind, always be a benchmark in the history of action games. Ninja Gaiden has aged well in four years, its multiple revisions and expansions right through the Playstation 3 remake Ninja Gaiden Sigma proving its foundation to be sturdy and engaging. 3D action games broadly, however, have surpassed it. God of War brought bigger, more exciting environments and enemy confrontations while improving accessibility and even Ninja Gaiden’s immediate forebear Devil May Cry added more depth in its third and fourth entries. Even the lackluster Heavenly Sword took away Ninja Gaiden’s crown as the genre’s most visceral visual spectacle. I’ve been lukewarm on Ninja Gaiden II since it was announced last year. I couldn’t tell what was wrong. Something about it just seemed so sterile, so rote in comparison to everything else hitting the new wave of consoles. Dynamic limb removal is the big innovation? Really? This is Ninja Gaiden II! Time to redefine 3D action a second time! I realize that’s an unfair expectation to put on a game but it isn’t unfair to expect a modicum of refinement, some change to the established formula that utilizes both hindsight and the power of new technology. That’s why Ninja Gaiden II is, initially, so disappointing. Read More... Posted Jun 09 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, xbox 360, devil may cry, 61fps review, Playstation, ninja gaiden, dreamcast, god of war

• The 61FPS Review: Grand Theft Auto 4 Part 3

  I was hoping to open the final entry in my review of Grand Theft Auto with a definitive statement about its story, to find the game’s essence in the conclusion of its through-the-looking-glass tale of crime, brutality, and the American experience. I can’t. After one month, some thirty-five hours total, of playing Grand Theft Auto 4, I’ve quit. I’m not positive how close I even am to finishing the narrative portion of the game at this point because, not unlike the gameplay itself, there is no arc. After a certain point, the story merely plateaus with no discernible rise and fall. It ceases to be a compelling enough reward to keep playing the game. Grand Theft Auto 4 is a work at odds with itself. It places you in a gigantic world and allows you to do what you will, but you cannot change it. It allows you to build friendships with the characters surrounding you but keeps you always at their mercy, penalizing you if you can’t answer your phone in the middle of a firefight. The cars control with severe realism but the game demands you drive like Sandra Bullock in Speed. Even the slightest police provocation is an arrest-able offense but you can escape them by turning a corner. But most problematic is protagonist Niko Bellic. Read More... Posted May 29 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, rockstar, Grand theft auto 4, 61fps review, new york, niko bellic, sam houser

• The 61FPS Review: Wii Fit Part 1

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit I found myself cycling through all the photos on my hard drive this past weekend, remembering all the good times I had in college and the wacky stuff I've done in the years since. What I didn't expect to see, though, was the radical change in my appearance. I am in no way obese but I'm noticeably lumpier than my sleek and slim sophomore self. My nightly routine of sit-ups was replaced by senior thesis work. Then came the workaday world of sitting on my ass and eating greasy food. I'm not looking to lose a lot of weight or have rippling biceps, and I sure as heck don't have the time or energy to go join a gym. I want an easy way to define my body a little better and have fun doing it. Read More... Posted May 21 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo, nintendo ds, derrick sanskrit, wii, 61fps review, wii fit, brain age