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• Anything Less Than the Best is a Felony: Arkham Asylum Might Be the Best Batman Game Yet

  Batman is awesome. I would never say that Batman wasn’t awesome. Batman is only a tool though. A conceit, a platform, a set of rules to tell entertaining stories with. There’s something people tend to forget every time a new Batman game gets announced. Bats hasn’t had a very good videogame career, but everyone seems to think it has to do with the medium. It isn’t that videogames starring Batman are usually bad. It’s that everything starring Batman is usually bad. There are three good Batman movies to four terrible ones. There is one good Batman cartoon, and four others that can physically damage three out of five human senses. There are a number of very good Batman comics. There also happens to be over one thousand Batman comics that suck. As of 2009, there is one excellent Batman videogame (NES), a handful of okay Batman games, and close to twenty that are trash. Not trashy. I mean the sort of thing you put in the garbage. After watching a playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum’s first twenty minutes, I’m willing to say that Rocksteady Studios has the potential to make the first great Batman game. No fanboy hyperbole here. It actually looks that good. Read More... Posted Mar 03 2009, 08:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, gears of war, metroid prime, eidos, yakuza, batman, rocksteady games, arkham asylum, harley quinn, epic, wb interactive, the joker, commissioner Gordon, batman arkham asylum

• 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

• Sailing the Internet Seas, Historical Preservation, and The Great Rumble Roses vs. Silent Hill vs. Metroid Dance Party Throwdown

  Beware! Sail too far to the east, brave soul, and you will come upon that most dangerous of seas. The sky changes to a sickly fresh bruise color, all angry purple and yellow, and the waves will toss madness and froth against the bow. Even the sturdiest ship, the steadiest mind, will be shaken by the foul humors waiting for them beyond the horizon. Ye have been warned. Beware! Beware the internet! I got lost in an internet vortex this afternoon. It all started innocently enough. Smooth sailing, reading Multiplayer’s interview with Steve Papoustis about Dead Space: Extraction. This led to Matt Hawkins’ Fort 90, and that’s when things started to veer off course. For anyone unfamiliar, Matt’s one of NYC’s great games journalists, but he’s also a madly prolific renaissance man. Fort 90 is a dangerous place, dense with images and text. It’s an easy place to lose your bearings, and that’s what happened to me. Matt linked to the Garry’s Mod work of one MrWhiteFolks. MrWhiteFolks made some spectacular high resolution images of No More Heroes character models stripped of their cel-shading. Very cool stuff. He also made this: Oh there’s more. Much more. Read More... Posted Feb 26 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metroid, no more heroes, resident evil, silent hill, gears of war, halo, resident evil 4, dead or alive, dead space, mtv, silent hill 2, dead space extraction, gmod, silent hill 3, rumble roses, fort 90, garry’s mod

• Absolute Sadness: Faith and a .45 Cancelled

  Back before Unsolved Crimes came out, I wrote up a post about how it was one of three games that were going to help change the landscape of mainstream gaming. The other two were Ride to Hell, Deep Silver’s open world, 1960s biker gang fantasia, and Faith and a .45. All games in familiar genres, (DS-born adventure, sandbox, third-person shooter), but all games set in decidedly unfamiliar locales. Post-apocalyptic cityscapes, alien jungle worlds, and surreal cartoon countries are a dime a dozen in videogames, but how often do you see a couple of young criminals in love getting chased across Depression-era America? Just thinking about it makes me want to play. That’s why I’m heartbroken. Deadline Games announced today that Faith and a .45 has been put on hold indefinitely due to publisher disinterest. I can understand why, unfortunately. It’s hard enough to launch an original franchise in the best of times, let alone in a year when developers are closing shop, publishers are consolidating, and players are spending their money on food and rent rather than entertainment. Faith and a .45 was more than just a fresh face in the shooter landscape, though. Even beyond its unique setting, Faith and a .45 is one of the only games I’ve ever seen made for a major console where love takes center stage as a theme. Read More... Posted Jan 30 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, gears of war, deep silver, ride to hell, deadline games, unsolved crimes, Faith and a 45

• Trailer Review: Resident Evil 5

  Game Trailers has posted some new Resident Evil 5 in-game footage, and does it look pretty. I am consistently amazed at how heart-pounding they have been able to make this game, even though it seems largely set in bright sunlight. I find it impossible not to be a little nervous when I hear those wailing sirens that sound when enemies are near. Maybe it's because I've been playing so many old games over the last year, but the way the camera wobbles when slap a dude disorients me. Was it that dramatic in RE4? I can't remember. Watch a guy and a girl kick and shoot some undead suckers back and forth, just for giggles. The footage, called "Zombie Ping Pong Montage" after the jump: Read More... Posted Dec 12 2008, 03:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: trailer review, gears of war, cole stryker, resident evil 5

• Achievements and Trophies and Unlocking, Oh Meh

  Amazing things are going to happen in 2009. In the first third of the year, we’ll be playing a trifecta of raw, unadulterated Capcom goodness in the form of Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 will finally come out and not look anything like the concept footage shown at E3 2005, we might find out just what the hell Alan Wake is, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll turn out that Final Fantasy XIII is actually a videogame and not just a three minute clip of a chick with nice hair. Home might even come out! Instead of the adorable little freak version of you that putters around your Wii games – or your Xbox 360, which is the exact same little freak but with hands and a selection of shirts from Old Navy – you’ll get to have a version of yourself that is iPod commercial ready, with glossy hair sharp enough to cut a Nomura character. You’ll get to go bowling, wonder why no one’s playing Warhawk and show off all your trophies. And you will have trophies, rest assured. Come ’09, Sony’s making them an obligatory component of any and all PS3 games. I don’t necessarily think achievements and trophies are a bad thing, especially for the type of player who enjoys setting themselves inane goals outside a game’s explicit ones. I just don’t understand why they have to be a necessary feature in every game. Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 03:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, street fighter, xbox 360, wii, bionic commando, street fighter 4, mega man, gears of war, mega man 9, street fighter iv, mii, final fantasy xiii, resident evil 5, alan wake, achievements, killzone 2, trophies

• How Chicago Inadvertently Penned an Anthem for Dead Anime Fathers

  The other day, I was browsing a retail establishment when Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" came over the store speakers. Suddenly, I felt very sad. It was an interesting reaction and not one I would have had a few years ago. Having surrendered my youth to the modern day equivilent of potato mines (retail), I'm familiar with the safe music that's piped over the speakers to keep the masters and beasts complacent. I would never give Chicago another thought ever again if not for an Elite Beat Agents scenario involving an anime girl's dead father. Surely I'm not the only one who's come to associate games with certain licensed songs. The Japanese have been sneaky about it since we were kids: Mario's invincibility music is lifted straight from Jesus Christ Superstar and more than one tune in the early Mega Man games sounded like a tribute to Guns n Roses and/or Metallica. But legitimate songs being used in games (or to advertise games) is quickly becoming popular and I'm increasingly interested in the association aspect. This doesn't apply so much to games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which usually have you belting out tunes in a club, or possibly a fancy club. I'm referring to instances where a song is used to define a game, or an in-game scenario like the ones in Elite Beat Agents. Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 06:47 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: guitar hero, rock band, mega man, gears of war, elite beat agents, game music, nadia oxford, super mario, gears of war 2, music association

• Gears of LittleBig Fable Music: Considering the First-Party Blitz

  October brought its true fury and grandeur to New York today. It took three days, but the nattering leftovers of summer finally drifted out to sea like so many dead leaves and left behind the lowlight and intent wind so particular to the month. Walking down the street, I could smell it, looming like bonfire smoke and Halloween parades: game season. I hold no love for the business structure that sees some ninety-percent of the year’s most ballyhooed games releasing all within a tight ten week window. It leads to sensory overload and, for the devoted gamer, it adds to already-big backlogs. But I’d be lying if I said it isn’t always exciting. All of the hype, all of the previews, leaked screens, developer showcases, and high, high hopes all lead here and it always begins in October. Holiday 2008, as it were, is going to be a particularly interesting season considering that it is gaming’s first to witness true third-party agnosticism. Nigh on every publisher from East and West is releasing their biggest games on any and all platforms available. (There are rare exceptions. See Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles, Valve’s Left4Dead, and a number of Wii titles.) This brings even closer scrutiny to the console holders' offerings; more than ever, first-party games need to be system sellers. They have to act as ambassadors, convincing casual and hardcore gamers alike that if they put money into such and such a system, there will be more where that came from. Read More... Posted Oct 03 2008, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, playstation 3, motorstorm, resistance, nintendo, microsoft, xbox 360, wii, sony, gran turismo, gears of war, animal crossing, halo, fable, wii music, lips, banjo kazooie, ridge racer

• Fifty-Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

  It’s hard to overstate our love for Kurt Kalata’s Hardcore Gaming 101. Every time HG101 runs a new series retrospective, it makes me punch myself directly in the forehead while wondering either a) why didn’t I think of this or b) why have I never heard of this game before? Option b was the dominant thought while I was checking out the most recent update. HG101 contributor Jave has a look at the unlicensed Genesis and NES monstrosities known as Action 52. I’ve never heard of Active Enterprises’ Frankenstein Monsters before reading the piece, but now it’s a moral imperative I seek them out. Unlike the myriad bootleg NES and Genny game cartridges that jammed variable numbers of existing games into a single package, Action 52 is a collection of fifty-two originals, all of them apparently awful. The retrospective is a great read on its own but particularly interesting is the theory Jave floats in his introduction: terrible games lead to good games. Read More... Posted Jul 29 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nes, hg101, gears of war, genesis, dark sector, kill.switch, action 52

• Where is Joe Madureira?

  If you read mainstream American comics in the 1990s, odds are you have an opinion on Joe Madureira. Controversially named by Wizard magazine as one of the ten most influential comic artists of all time (others on the list included Jack Kirby, Osamu Tezuka and Will Eisner), Joe's work on Marvel's Uncanny X-Men and his creator-owned Battle Chasers single-handedly launched the American manga craze that is still being felt today. He abruptly quit comics in 2001 to follow his dream of working in the video game industry. Not a whole lot has been seen of him since. Joe contributed to the all-around meh Playstation brawler Gekido, then worked on Tri-Lunar's Dragonkind, which vanished when the company went out of business. After several years of delays, Joe finally saw the release of a game with his direct influence in the 2007 PC MMORPG Dungeon Runners. Ever heard of any of those games? No, I didn't think so. Read More... Posted Jul 18 2008, 07:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, legend of zelda, where is, gears of war, x-men, thq, e3, comics, darksiders, joe madureira

• Bringing Sexy Back: Susan O’Connor

  Back in the day, Hooksexup had a motto: Good writing is sexy. In the past ten years, as Hooksexup’s grown out of its spunky, firebrand early days and into its current incarnation as a mature, established purveyor of cultural commentary, the motto has disappeared from the magazine. But it lives on in everything we do. Good writing being sexy is a belief we cannot shake, a universal truth that colors all of our endeavors, and it’s at the heart of 61 Frames Per Second. Painful as it is to say, good writing is still rare in games. Dialogue, expository text, all writing really, takes a backseat to the creation of every other asset in a game. Hell, in some cases, I’ve seen promotional materials better written than the game they’re humping (I’m looking at you Metroid Prime 3. Suburban Commando called, it wants its dialogue back.) That’s why Susan O’Connor is sexy. Recently named one of the most important women in games, the fact of the matter is that O’Connor is one of the most important people working in games, period. Read More... Posted May 28 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, metroid, gamasutra, bioshock, bringing sexy back, susan o'connor, gears of war