Burnout Paradise (PS3)

Genre: Arcade Racing
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Criterion Games
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Price: $29.99 USD
US Release Date: January 22, 2008
Equipment: Sceptre 37” widescreen LCD TV with HDMI cable in 720p, 60 GB PS3, DualShock 3 controller
Completion: Approximately 15 hours to earn Burnout License, additional 5 hours to complete Bike License.


It’s another day for you and me in Paradise.

Burnout Paradise answers the question, “What if you had a city all to yourself to race around in using a wide assortment of cars and bikes and there were no repercussions for all sorts of moving violations, up to and including the destruction of your car as well as other vehicles?” An arcade racer through and through, Burnout Paradise lets the player take corners at high speed, make impossibly tight turns, perform stupefying aerial maneuvers, and of course, completely and utterly annihilate any car in the city, before it pops back unharmed.

Paradise controls like any other arcade racing game on the market. The default layout uses the triggers for the gas and brake, but can be changed to use the face buttons for gas, brake, reverse, etc. The starting car and bikes are nothing too special, but still give a fantastic sense of speed. New cars are awarded after completing certain races, winning a certain number of events, gaining a new license, or by taking down special opponent cars speeding around the city. The vehicle progression is steady and rewarding; a stable full of cars is available after only a few hours of play. Any event in the city can be chosen right from the start of the game and tackled in any order. It’s even possible to completely ignore an entire event type and still “finish” the game. Events include point to point races, circuit races, time trials, road rage (where the objective is to make a specified number of opponent cars crash in a given time limit), stunt runs (where the objective is to score a set number of points by driving stylishly and recklessly), and marked man (where the objective is to reach a destination without crashing too many times while being pursued by aggressive opponents).

Nearly every intersection in the city is an event opportunity. Simply pull up to the light, smoke the tires, and go racing. Cars can be changed at any of a handful of junkyards around the city and drive-throughs offer repair, nitro, and paint services. While this menu-less system leads to a very immersive experience, it means that there is no way to quickly retry a failed race, or to change vehicles without driving back to the starting line or to a junkyard. Luckily, a new event is never very far away, and junkyards are evenly spaced around the city.

Since Paradise encourages driving as fast as possible, the city generally whizzes by, but at a flawless 60 fps. When details can be seen, they look fantastic. All the cars are shiny and reflective, with a large number of intricately detailed paint options. During crashes, slow-mo kicks in, and it’s possible to see tiny pieces of glass and twisted metal fly everywhere. Oddly enough, there are no driver models except on the bikes. Perhaps seeing what a head on collision at 120 mph would do to a driver in an open wheel race car would bump the rating up to M for Mature.

Just like any other EA game on the market, the soundtrack is extensive and varied. Hard driving rock, funky R&B beats, catchy pop, and even some smooth classical tunes make up the one and only radio station in Paradise. Music is interspersed with chatter from DJ Atomica, who can be a tad annoying. He also serves as the game’s tutorial, but he only mentions how to do something once the player’s already done it, which leads to quite a bit of trial and error.

Online play is seamlessly integrated with the single player mode. Just hit a button on the d-pad, invite a few friends, and go racing. All times from the single player mode are also uploaded automatically to the world-wide leader boards.

Being a Burnout game, the crashes are epic and spectacular, but no longer the focus of the game. In previous Burnout titles, the “Crash Mode” was the primary mode, with pure racing taking a back seat. Crash Mode is now know as “Showtime” and is relegated to an option while racing around the city. Nevertheless, Paradise is still very much an arcade racer, and still very much about crashing as an art form.

One other interesting thing about Burnout Paradise is the developer’s commitment to regular updates to the game. Since hitting shelves almost a year ago, a number of free updates and expansions have been released that do everything from fix bugs and glitches, to adding a day and night cycle, introducing motorcycles, new multiplayer modes, new cars and trophy support. Other packs have been announced that will expand the city with additional islands, add local multiplayer, and a new car with a brand new boost system. Not all of these will be free, but this type of continued support for a game that could easily turn into a yearly-release shovel-ware franchise is rare and very encouraging.

Arcade racing, blistering speed, spectacular destruction, beautiful environments, and fresh content updates: don’t think twice, it’s just another day in Paradise.


Heath Says:

I’ve always been a fan of the Burnout games for the Crash Mode. I could do arcade racing in any one of a hundred other games, but the Burnout series gave me the opportunity to take these amazing, high-performance machines and crash the shit out of them. In Burnout, crashing wasn’t something to be avoided, but embraced. It was my responsibility to crash these cars, simply in order to see how much devastation I could wreak with a two ton hunk of metal and an internal combustion engine. With Paradise, crashing is no longer the main event it was with the previous games, but rather a featured player. That saddens me, but the racing itself in Paradise is much better than in the previous games, so it balances out.

That’s not to say there are problems, of course. It would be great to have the option of restarting a race in the middle, or to retry a failed race immediately instead of quitting out and driving all the way back to the start line. A real tutorial mode would be helpful, and eliminate certain frustrations (such as trying to figure out how to quit out of a race). Also, even with all the updates, there are still bugs that are very obvious, both minor and major. Minor: new cars don’t accumulate mileage until they’ve been repaired and driven back to the junkyard. Major: if a bike is selected as your primary vehicle when loading up your saved game, trying to switch back to a car freezes the system, and the only way to fix it is to repaint the bike before returning to the junkyard.

If I’m being honest, though, all of those issues don’t really bother me when I look at the game as a whole. It’s just way too much fun to drive really, really fast and break things in the process. Plus, the updates keep the experience fresh. You can’t beat it for 30 bucks.

Final Verdict:

LittleBigPlanet Online Beta (PS3) Impressions

I'll be honest: I didn't think LittleBigPlanet was a game. I thought it was more of a tool, and would only be fun if you're the type of person who enjoys spending hour after hour modding games. Just call me Mr. Wrong.

LittleBigPlanet certainly has those tools to offer, if that's your thing. But it's also a solid platformer, has single player and multiplayer (local, online, or a mix of the two) modes, and offers almost unlimited replay because all user-created content is available at your fingertips.

In my short time with the game (I got my beta key on Wednesday, didn't get a chance to play it until Thursday, and the server shut down the following Sunday), I played through the introductory levels that teach the player how to play the game and create their own content, and checked out as many user-created levels as I could. There are levels inspired by just about every game, movie, TV show, and other intellectual property you could imagine: Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario, Mega Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Simpsons, Batman, etc. There are also completely original levels. Quality varies, of course, but there are some real gems. It never ceases to amaze me how many talented and creative people are out there.

I'm looking forward to LittleBigPlanet's retail release if only to see what sorts of things people can do who didn't get into the private beta. Stay tuned to Kitsune Games for a full review of LBP!

Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360)

Eternal Sonata

Genre: JRPG
Developer: tri-Crescendo

Publisher: Namco Bandai

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Price: $34.99 USD (Xbox 360)
US Release Date: September 14, 2007 (October 21, 2008 on PS3)
Equipment: Xbox 360, 32” Vizio LCD @ 720p.

Completion: Completed main campaign in 35 hours.

I know what you’re thinking. An RPG about Frederic Chopin on his death bed… He dies in the end, right? Maybe. Feel free to suspend your knowledge of history for the rest of the review.

The game begins with a remarkably youthful looking Chopin on his deathbed and rapidly transitions to a dream world where we start to meet the actual main characters.

That’s right Chopin fans, he isn’t the primary character in his own game. He is an important character. Being the main character falls to Allegretto, Beat and Polka, who fit right into your Japanese RPG stereotypes. Without getting too far into the plot, it rocks an RPG framework. Your teenage heroes must go out and save the world / their people / something important. In doing so they learn about themselves. It is nothing ground breaking but it is a solid framework to build on.

The combat is reasonable and you are eased into it. You have a choice of regular melee or special attacks, and you can use as many of either, if you have the time. When you reach your first combat instance you are given a tutorial on how to do the basics of fighting. There are several levels of proficiency you unlock as you proceed through the game called Party Class Levels. The higher the Party Class Level, the more you have to contend with during combat. Starting at Level 1 you get an unlimited amount of Tactical Time so you get to stand around and think about what you are going to do for as long as you damn well please. The Action Gauge only runs down while you are moving or hitting things, and that’s about all you can do.

As your Party Level progresses, you run out of Tactical Time and your Action Gauge gets shorter, but you get access to blocking and counter-attacks as well as the Echoes meter and Harmony Chains. Regular attacks charge the Echoes meter up in groups of 4 and 8, up to a maximum of 32. When you use a special attack after charging up the Echoes meter, you get a damage bonus. If you have charged it to at least 24, you can trigger a Harmony Chain. This allows you to execute up to six special attacks in a row, two from each of the characters in combat. Devastating, if you pull it off.

A word about light. This is important to the world of Eternal Sonata, as it determines what kind of special attack you can use. The characters all have a list of special attacks they can use, but you are only allowed to carry two each for light and dark onto the field of battle with you. If you are standing in the shadows, you can use your dark attacks, in the light your light attacks. This has no effect on melee at all.

Controls are easy to use, all you really need are the ABXY buttons and a directional stic. Refreshing. There’s a music mini game where you find pieces of music laying around (no, really) and then play them with NPC’s that are scattered around the world. You get to play composer, which is kind of cool, but the pieces of music that go together don’t always make sense. Once you play the music correctly, the person you were playing with is so happy they give you some equipment.

Saving is done at save points, which are sprinkled liberally around the countryside. I never felt like I was unreasonably far away from where I had last saved, nor were they every few feet. One of the most interesting features that I have never seen in a game before was the ability to turn on more controllers and let other players control characters during combat. Nobody ever really mentions this and when I found it, it blew me away. I do not have four controllers to test this with, but it looks like you could actually have one person control the world map and let three others deal with combat instances. It’s not exactly seamless drop-in multiplayer in the “classic” sense, but it is quick to use and if it gets your girlfriend playing, all the better.

The graphics are really strong. The real world, and you only see one room in the real world, suffers quite badly from the Next-Gens and is basically just different shades of brown. All the way from Auburn to Buff. In Chopin’s dream the world is lush, vibrant and often simply beautiful. The characters are well designed and easily recognizable from one another. The characters clothes however are static and do not change with their armor, though I understand they will have dress-up available in the PS3 version. There is no blood, ever. Even when somebody gets stabbed. The animations have their hiccups. When the characters are moving, in combat or in cutscenes, they generally look great. When just standing around they never seem to put their arms all the way down. They just hang there in space, held out from their body just a little like they’re trying to form an A. I’m not sure if it was a stylistic choice or not.

Speaking of style, this game is clearly from the land of anime. Everyone has giant eyes, skinny limbs and is cell shaded. This is done very well and is scaled with age. Chopin looks more like he’s in his late 20’s but Allegretto and Beat both appear approximately the age they’re supposed to be – 16 and 8, respectively.

The sound is excellent. The soundtrack is beautifully put together and fits into the game well. It is unsurprisingly based on Chopin’s works. Sounds in combat and in the world are crisp. The American voice acting is good, most characters have voices that really seem to work with their bodies. There are a few exceptions to that, such as Salsa and her magical changing accent. It’s no deal breaker, but it just doesn’t stand up to the quality of the rest of the game.

Shini Says:

All in all, I enjoyed this game. I like me some JRPG and it filled that niche really well. The combat was occasionally frustrating but the first time you do 250,000+ damage and heal everyone in the party in a single turn it is well worth it. If you like anime and RPGs then this game is for you. If you are a music nerd this game will make you feel really clever because you get what Claves’ name means. The Encore Mode, while ratcheting up the difficulty noticeably, maintains playability of the game without becoming unreasonably hard. Encore mode is probably in the 50-60 hour range to complete and has a few extra side quests and weapons. Good news for anyone who wants all of the gamer points or achievements the game has to offer or wants a longer game.

There are interludes between the chapters where you are shown a slideshow of places Chopin lived and a narrator… narrates his life. I found it interesting. A little depressing, too. The photography is excellent.

That said – I am still not sure exactly what happened in the ending. It was a good ten minutes of confusion before you get to the real ending of the ending. You just need to keep watching until it tells you to go away. It does tie everything up pretty well, but I still feel confused by it.

If you’re hankering for some JRPG, get this game. I give it a four out of five.

Spore (PC)

Genre: Sim/God-Game
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Maxis
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Price: $49.99 USD
US Release Date: September 7, 2008
Equipment: Windows XP Pro PC, Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 2.13 GHz, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, 2GB RAM, HP 23" widescreen monitor @ 1920x1200
Completion: Approximately 15 hours to reach the 10th rank in Space Stage.


Don't call it Sim Spore, but don't call it the Second Coming, either.


Spore allows the player to create an organism and follow it from the tide pool all the way to space. Along the way, simple and intuitive yet robust editors give the player control over how their creatures look, what they wear; where they live, work, and play; the type of vehicles they pilot, and even the style of spaceship they launch to explore the galaxy.

The heart of Spore is the editors that allow the user to create nearly everything in the game. Beginning in the Cell Stage, options in the creature editor are rather limited. Once the creature steps out of the water, though, the only limiter is the player's imagination. There are a large number of limbs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, mouths, noses, wings, and other things to make a creature unique, and they can all be painted in any color of the rainbow. Upon reaching the Tribal stage, the creature design is set, and the editor changes to accessories: backpacks, head wear, masks, and armor. The editor changes again in the Civilization Stage, allowing the player to make buildings for their creatures: homes, workplaces, entertainment centers; as well as their transportation: land, air, and sea. Finally, the Space Stage editor gives numerous options for galactic travel. All the other creatures and civilizations in the game are created by other players, and are distributed over the EA network.

While the ultimate goal is space, each of the five stages has distinct gameplay and objectives. The Cell Stage is all about eating enough plants or meat to get bigger and stronger and eventually make it to land and the Creature Stage. Here, the objective is to further the development of the species by banding together in packs and hunting or befriending other packs of creatures. The pack will migrate over time to bigger and better nests, allowing a larger pack. Once the pack is large enough, they will form a tribe. In the Tribal Stage, the focus is less on the individual creature and more on the interactions between tribes. Again, those interactions can be hostile in order to eliminate other tribes, or friendly so they will be allies. After the other tribes have been conquered or befriended, the Civilization Stage begins. The user's creatures form a city and send out recon units to gather spice in order to fund their new-founded empire. They can use this spice to trade with other cities and eventually buy them out peacefully, or take the opponent's spice fields by force and crush enemy cities with military units. Only after the entire planet belongs to the player does the Space Stage begin. The player's civilization launches a spaceship that can be used to explore the galaxy, terraform new planets and colonize them, buy, sell, and trade with other space-faring nations, or go to war with and conquer them.

Everything to do in Spore is handled with an easy control scheme that is simple and mostly intuitive: left click to move or attack, right click to select, hold to swing the camera around, and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. The editors are equally easy to use.

In every stage of the game, Spore looks great. The game is fully 3D, with bright, vibrant colors and fully detailed environments. Animals and structures are all user-created, but plant life is not. Even so, there is almost an unlimited variety of species of plant ranging from tiny grasses to gigantic trees. In the Space Stage, the first time zooming out from the planet's surface into space, then into the solar system, and eventually seeing the entire galaxy on screen is breathtaking.

One of the truly groundbreaking things about Spore is its procedurally-generated animation and music. Not only does the game generate animation on the fly for how any given creature will move, but it does the same with music, depending on the types of parts that were used to create those creatures. It works surprisingly well.

What doesn't work so well is the Space Stage. It's designed as the ultimate sandbox, allowing for go-anywhere, do-anything gameplay, but it doesn't completely deliver on that promise. Yes, it's possible to change everything about a planet, from its atmosphere level and temperature, to the color of the soil and water, to the type of plants and animals that live on it, and even the shape of the planet itself. However, given the fact that there are perhaps millions of planets in the galaxy, the idea of modifying planets to this degree quickly loses its appeal. Space also provides the option of interacting with other empires by completing missions for them. These missions have a few basic categories: FedEx (collect and deliver), recon (scan a plant or animal species and bring back the information), or extermination (eliminating diseased animals); in which there is a bit of variation, but not enough to keep them fresh for very long. Then there's expansion. Just like in the other stages, there are two ways to expand: by establishing trade routes and eventually buying out other star systems or eliminating the inhabitants and taking over their planets. Trading with and ultimately purchasing new territory takes a long time and is very expensive. War is less costly outright, but finishing one, especially against a large empire, can take just as long, if not longer than trading. The reason for this is that anytime the player is at war, their existing colonies will be attacked by the enemy constantly, forcing the player to return and micromanage them by rebuilding turrets, buildings, and sometimes entire cities. Lastly, there's the overall objective of reaching the center of the galaxy, which is unfortunately protected by a gigantic, extremely hostile empire. Simply flying too close to one of their star systems brings an immediate declaration of war. The actual act of attempting to fly through their territory in order to get to the galactic core is an exercise in futility.

Spore is ambitious, ground-breaking, interesting, frustrating, and unpolished. There is so much potential that isn't fully realized. Some parts of the game are genius and inspired, while others are baffling and inexplicable. Procedurally-generated animation and music is the future of gaming, but Spore has too many issues to be considered a classic game.


Heath Says:

There were parts of Spore that I had a lot of fun with (such as the creature creator), and there were parts of Spore that I had the opposite of fun with (such as much of the Space stage). I liked the Space stage at first, until I realized that anytime I was at war with anyone it meant I would constantly be micromanaging my colonies. At one point, I just began ignoring my people's pleas for help, until I realized that they literally had no defenses (even with turrets and attack vehicles) against the enemy. If I didn't rush back to help them, the enemy spaceships would continue blasting away at my colonies until they glassed the entire planet. Don't even get me started on trying to reach the center of the galaxy. It's impossible; which is not to say that no one has done it, but it takes much more luck than skill to achieve.

There's also the issue of the DRM included with Spore, in that it requires online authentication, and the number of installs are limited. What happens if the servers required for authentication ever shut down or the install limit is reached is anyone's guess. Be sure to check out Kitsune Game's article on DRM in games for a more in-depth discussion of the issue.

Perhaps my biggest complaint about the game is one that I never thought I would levy: Spore is in fact a game with structure, objectives and advancement towards an ultimate goal, but I think I would prefer it if there was a pure sandbox mode included. The Space stage is like a sandbox, but it has a lot of roadblocks. I would love a freeplay mode that became unlocked after finishing the Space stage that allows you to go back and revisit any part of the game with no limits of any kind. Sadly, that isn't the case, and now that I've played through Spore once, I have no desire to play through it again.


Final Verdict:




Second Take by NordicRev:

Spore promises an entire universe in a box. What you really get is an endless character creator with flat, repetitive, and ultimately boring game play.

Expect anything in the game to have lasting effects on your species? Expect disappointment. Your species doesn't evolve based on what you've chosen. You just randomly add new parts as you see fit. Bored with having four legs? Add four more! One head not enough? Add three more then change it two minutes later if you want more or less! And if you think that having extra legs helps your speed or that extra claws would help your ability to kill things you'd be about as wrong as the banks were when they thought sub-prime mortgages were a slam-dunk investment.

Fundamentally, the problem with Spore is that all game play in all of the sections is the same and by the time you get to the Space Stage you're already feeling like the game is passé:

In Cell Stage you gather red bits, green bits, or both and fend off other creatures by killing them and collecting their parts.

In Creature Stage you either become a predator (red bits) or a social animal (green bits) and collect body parts when you defeat/befriend the other creatures.

In the Tribal Stage you develop technology to either woo the other five tribes (exactly five every time) with music (green bits) or spear them to death (red bits).

Then you're in the Civilization Stage and get a little variety!

In the Civilization Stage you can build tanks and kill cities (red bits) or build cars to take missionaries and convert cities (green bits) or build caravans and trade with cities until you can buy them. Regardless of what you choose at this stage your only goal is: get airplanes, build your flavor of airplane (trader plane, evangelist plane, or fighter plane), and throw as many planes as possible against a city until you take it over. If a plane dies, you click on a city and press a button and a new plane appears instantly.

This is where I lost interest.

The Space Stage (what little I played) doesn't seem much different except that there's more micromanaging without the luxury of trading for spice.

For anyone looking for the complex choices of Civilization or actual strategy, Spore does not deliver. Really there are better games for every section of Spore. All of the parts of Spore, when taken together, do not transcend into the title of greatness or even just good. Unless you're the type of person that thinks most games go downhill after you're done with character creation this game amounts to a $50 flash in the pan. You'll play it, have penis shaped creatures with names like "whatyourmomsawlastnight" streamed to your universe from other players' accounts (thank you, Internet!), and shrug.

Returning to Regularly Scheduled Programming

Wednesday October 1, 2008 Kitsune Games will be back on track. We'll have new reviews, new news, and new opinions. We'll also have a couple of new contributors. So stay tuned!

Star Trek! I mean...Guitar Hero 3! No..wait...

Okay everyone, don’t panic. Just pretend that it’s Tuesday.
I honestly would have had something better prepared, but I got caught up in the past recently thanks to DOSbox and Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game and it’s sequel Judgement Rites- both from Interplay (published in 1992 and 1993 respectively)

I give you content by virtue of this press release by Activision (a GOD among Video game companies...even if you kids just don’t know why). It does, of course, relate in all ways to Guitar Hero 3. I am going to attempt Psychobilly Freakout on Medium on Guitar Hero 2 afterwards as a celebration. I will also fail, miserably for the first twenty tries.

Ahem.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 23, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — After warming their amps in the basement garage to rocking sold out shows at Stonehenge, fans of Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) wildly popular Guitar Hero(TM) franchise will now be able to shred like never before with the next iteration of the game that will be available this fall. The new game will be released on the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Wii(TM) video game system from Nintendo.

Turning it up to 11, Guitar Hero fans will channel their inner rock god using Gibson Guitar’s Les Paul and Kramer models as the industry standard. In addition, players will experience an incredible number of newly added features and explosive content including a new multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a bevy of exclusive unlockable content and authentic rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer game modes will also allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true legendary rock status.

While continuing to retain all the key features from their prior legendary performances, fresh downloadable content will be offered on multiple platforms, and players can now shred to a killer set list from many of the gnarliest rock songs ever recorded. Delivering more master tracks than ever before, strategic partnerships have been secured with all the major and independent music record labels and publishers to allow unrivaled access to their deep history of music catalogs, along with supplying artists’ original recordings for even greater authenticity.

The initial list of face-melting awesomeness includes:

* Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
* Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
* Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
* The Metal (by Tenacious D)
* My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
* Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
* Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
* School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
* Slow Ride (as made famous by Fog Hat)
* Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
* Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

For the first time ever, Guitar Hero fans will also be able to thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform. The exclusive Gibson guitars will include innovative features such as removable faceplates that will allow fans to later personalize their guitars and make it their own, and a new button color design that will be integrated for an even greater authentic feel and rock experience. Gibson Guitar’s Les Paul model will be the battle axe of choice, and an industry standard for all rock gods on the Xbox 360(TM), PLAYSTATION(R)3 system, and Wii(TM). After much anticipation, PlayStation(R)2 system fans will also be receiving a new exclusive shape as well, the classic Kramer guitar, also a Gibson brand, popularized by hard rockers and known for its body design, pickups, electronics, and construction for furious finger fretting.

“The development team at Neversoft has been exceptional, and we’ve been able to incorporate a host of fresh new online and multi-player game play modes, along with exciting content into this version of Guitar Hero that our fans have been asking for. Also, many of the top bands and songs we’ve tried to get in the past are now on board, and we’ve definitely got some giant aces in the hole to say the least,” said Dusty Welch, head of publishing at RedOctane. “In addition, offering a new line of Gibson wireless guitars for each platform is going to truly add to the authentic rock star experience like no other.”

The next iteration of Guitar Hero, published by RedOctane(R) and developed by Neversoft, is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information about Guitar Hero, please visit the dedicated community site www.guitarherogame.com.


What's funny is that I think the most important part of this post is the information contained within the first Paragraph. I mean c'mon...a Star Trek game that has The Micheal A. Stackpole listed as one of the designers? Who could resist that?!


...anyway...


~fin~

Interupted transmissions!

OMG! wer did Evry1 go!
You may, or may not, have noticed that things have been just a teensy bit quiet here at Kit Games. There have a been a few issues on both sides of the Country that have kept us staff from making regular updates, but fear not! We've got some content coming to you this week, so check back very soon. (y'know...like..monday or tuesday. Soon)


Nass

News For The Week Of May 4th

Another week, another post. On time, once again.

• Advergaming powers activate! Shape of an H&M shill! I totally don't get this in it's entirety... Never really dug the Sims too much, so maybe it's just over the top of my head here, but shouldn't advergaming still be making gaming... uh, cheaper? Where's the goodwill for the people who you might want to soon sell your affordably priced fashionable clothes to? Or are gamers not included in that demographic?

• Now I've said in the past that Consumer Affairs is basically worthless. They have a tendency to write to the lowest common denominator which always leaves me feeling like someone is talking to me like a rather dull sheep. Fairly often I'll read something there and it's kind of like they don't actually have someone checking things for grammar or flow before they are posted. Some of the stuff they have is good info, do not get me wrong, but this article on video games is not some of that stuff. Take every gamer stereotype and have some drunken travel hippy (you think I kid...) rehash it for you in a semi-cohesive manner and there you go. Have these people ever actually tried to immerse themselves into gamer culture before writing an article? What's that? No? Curious.

• Oh my god. Seriously? Srsly? It's not like this kid said "OMG VATECH SHOOTZES WAS SO AWZOMNLFDSKL!!!1" and built the map. This had to take time to do, the kid was proud of his work... He just had really bad timing. And a hammer is a deadly weapon? what the hell? There is so much wrong with this whole thing I don't know where to start. Which also reminds me, why didn't they arrest the other kids in the school who played the map? They were doing some terroristic training, you know?

• WoWcard? WoVisa? Are you kidding me, a World of Warcraft Visa card? I want to dismiss this out of hand, but you know... No annual fee, a fairly reasonable APR after a 12 month 0% rate and a full penny on the dollar (one 'reward point' per dollar spent... almost like xp!) goes to buying you more months of WoW. A WoW player with half-assed financial skills could be playing for free indefinitely just based on monthly purchases. Or every time you buy another 2000 gold, it's like Bliz encourages that and gives you a free month's worth of play for it. Huzzah!

There will be more. There's always more.

I'm Not Making Any Friends, Either.

I really want to dismiss this out of hand. But I cannot entirely disagree with Save the Children's statements, though there is no real methodology to the conclusions they draw. The gist of their study being that since kids are given more things that are insulating (ie: video games, ipods, TV) to the outside world, they don't interact as much as they could or should with others and it retards their ability to make friends or deal with people. Now, mind this was determined via a survey of primary (in the colonies we call it elementary) school teachers.

This is where I agree and disagree. Children don't find these insulating devices and pastimes on the ground. I'm pretty sure in most first world countries they cannot go ahead and get a job down at the textile mill to buy these things themselves. You get where I'm going with this? Don't think I'm singling parents out, either. I'm looking square at you too, primary school teachers and staff.

Here's the trick... As children, they are in our care. Ready yourselves for some Hillary Clinton style bullshit right here: it takes a village to raise a child. There, I said it. Especially in this day and age where people are increasingly busy and insulated from the surrounding world.

Technology is no more evil than a rock or a tree. It all comes down to how you use it. The problem here is that parents are just giving their kids these implements and turning them loose into the world. Once loosed upon us, they become our problem. When they are herded into a school that I as a taxpayer paid for, they become society's problem. Schools should be largely gadgetry free. You step into those buildings and that shit gets shut off. Anything else gets confiscated until either the end of day or until the parent can come on in and get it back.

Like everything else that some application of technology gets blamed on, this comes back to the human animal. Kids don't need less technology (they probably do, but that's an argument for another post), they need to be taught how to use it and deal with it, and when to turn it off.

Dear Jack: An open Letter to Jack Thompson

Right now I'm training to kill! Thanks to my "murder simulator" Super Contra for the Nintendo Entertainment system. Surely you've heard of this video game. It's the one that sent John Rambo over the edge just before his murderous rampage that killed a bajillion cops and law enforcement officers.

Now despite the fact that the FBI and secret service (where exactly does the secret service figure into this?) have released several claims that the county Sheriff did in fact draw "first Blood" as it were, the fact of the matter remains that Rambo was a avid player of Super Contra...according to all of his POW buddies. In fact he played Super Contra all the way through his tour of Duty in 'Nam! Everyone knows that Super Contra was yesterday's Counter Strike...and EVERYONE knows that Counter Strike is today's premier Murder Simulator!

Back on Track, Jack. I'm training to kill. I'm practicing running with my nondescript machine gun and firing wildly forward, down and up at an angle. I've almost mastered all the powerups that I'll surely find here in the real world (I'm not sure you know what that is Jack) and soon I'll be coming after every pixelated bully that's ever picked on me!

Oh yes Jack, Video games are teaching me to kill. Pac Man really fucked with my head. Dark rooms, taking pills, seeing ghosts...scary shit man.

mmmm Sarcasm.

News For The Week of April 27th, Curt Edition

There it is.

• It's beautiful, it's Katamari... It's Beautiful Katamari. I thought they were done making these things, but whatever. I"m not going to get upset over a Japanese LSD trip on a disc. It's fine by me.

• Playing games makes you green, huh? All that item management, wearing gear for as long as it'll last you, hording items... I can see that.

• This isn't specifically game related, but it can be used in the application of games, and it is really awesome, so in it goes. 3D, cheap, in your living room.
  

Maybe more news next week.

News for the Week of April 20th, Unbelievably Late Edition.

There was a fair bit of news last week, and it's Wednesday already... Yeah. This is going to be a quick update, basically for the sake of posterity at this point.

That is why I bring you news for the week of April 20th, Jack Thompson's Worst Week Ever edition. Just so I can get him out of the way before this week's news. Plus, everyone likes seeing a massacre chaser take a beating, amirite?

• So there was that thing in Virginia last week, and someone let our favorite rabid bat on TV. Then Crecente from Kotaku put that segment under the magnifying glass and went to take a peek at the lies he was touting, of which there were plenty.

• Then the media machine he has so diligently milked for years begins to turn upon him. Mr. T was on MSNBC's Hardball and got taken to task about his statements that the VT shooting was video game related when the police found no evidence of video games being related to it at all.

• But then there was some good news... Still for us, I mean. Just so we're clear. Take Two and JT settled their suit basically barring JT from ever suing or threatening to sue Take Two; he will not communicate to Take Two or anyone doing business with them any accusation that Take Two committed any wrongdoing by selling its wares and he will make any future contact with Take Two through their lawyers. Now, he can still criticize the content of the games they make and act as a council (though I do not know who would use him as council now) in a lawsuit against Take Two. Good for him.

• Then Jackie starts to go a little bit crazy again. Gaming site Kotaku won't bend to his steely will, so he asks the... FBI... to look into them for him about threats made in their peanut gallery. On the internets. No, I am totally serious.

• I guess the FBI didn't have the guys at Kotaku up against the wall fast enough for Jack, so he went ahead and added their parent company, Gawker Media, to a suit he filed in March against the Florida Bar Association. It's interesting to note that he added the entire Florida Supreme Court to the same claim back on April 11th. These three entities are conspiring against his - wait for it... wait for it! Freedom of religion. His religion compels him to fight Take Two, Kotaku and the Florida Supreme Court! He will not stand idly by as multiculturalism invades to destroy his religion! No no, I'm not shitting you. Give it a read. (pdf link)
  

I suppose if misery loves company, Jack must be really damn miserable. Man just needs to simmer down and spend some time with his wife.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Nintendo Wii)

Genre: Party
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montpelier
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
Price: 49.99 USD
US Release Date: November 19, 2006
Equipment: HP 23" widescreen monitor with composite cables in 480p, standard Wiimote with Nunchuk attachment.
Completion: Approximately 5 hours for the single player story mode.


Bunnies don't give gifts. Bunnies don't understand bowling. Bunnies never close doors. They also have a penchant for kidnapping Rayman's Globox buddies and forcing him to participate in sick and twisted minigames for their amusement. Daaaaaaaaah!!!


Rayman is controlled by the player, but the bunnies are arguably the stars of the game. They're evil and scream like maniacs, but it's hard not to like them, especially as the game progresses. The story mode lasts 15 days, during which Rayman must successfully complete 3 minigames and a final stage each day in order to escape the bunny prison. If Rayman completes 4 minigames each day, he gains either a bonus costume or a song for the jukebox in his cell.

The minigames are fun, quick, and varied, and utilize the Wiimote and Nunchuk in interesting ways. Bunnies don't give gifts, so Rayman has to deliver a present (a lit stick of dynamite in a box) before it explodes by running as fast as he can. Bunnies don't understand bowling, so Rayman rolls a barrel down some train tracks to knock down ten bunnies at the end of the line. Bunnies never close doors, so Rayman must keep four doors shut at all times as the bunnies behind them relieve themselves. Bunnies are fantastic dancers, however, so Rayman can rock out with them in a DDR-style dance contest. The final stage on each day is either a first person on-rails shooter where Rayman takes a plunger gun to a horde of bunnies, or a race against three bunnies on mounts.

Each minigame has a slightly different control scheme, but they're all very simple and often intuitive. Hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk vertically, then shake them up and down quickly (simulating running), then press A to unleash a kick to an unsuspecting bunny, and aim the Wiimote while he's flight in order to score a goal against the bunny goalie in soccer. Strike down (like beating a drum) with either the Wiimote or Nunchuck as bunnies cross the platform in tune to the music to earn points in DDR. Aim with the Wiimote, fire with the B trigger, and shake the Nunchuck to reload in the shooter stages.

Rayman and the rabbids are in full 3D, and the art-style is clean, simple, and cartoony. Bunnies dancing and grooving to the music are fantastic to watch, as are all the other animations. What few CGI cutscenes there are look great.

Bunny screams are surprisingly hilarious. The thunk of a plunger onto a bunny's face is solid, and the resulting muffled protests sound as expected. There are a half-dozen "bunny-mixed" tunes for the jukebox, including Misirlou, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and La Bamba that are fun to listen to, and even more fun to play in the DDR game.

Shooter stages are first person perspective, while most other games are third person. There are no serious camera issues, as there aren't any platform-like games that require free camera movement.

At the end of each day, the game is autosaved.

Difficulty is a mixed bag. Some games appear more than once, and are harder the second time around. Others only appear once, and range from effortless to hair-pulling. None of the games are impossible, but some may require multiple tries to complete. Certain games are unnecessarily difficult due to either the control scheme (turning the Wiimote to steer while flying is a pain, and would have been much better with the analog stick), or the Wiimote being unresponsive (tilting the Wiimote to tilt a board on screen).

Despite beating each other with spiked clubs, getting blown up with dynamite, having worms infest their teeth, and being smacked in the skull by a ball-peen hammer, bunnies never bleed or appear worse for wear. They do scream a lot, though.

The storyline in story mode doesn't make much sense, especially the ending, but that's not really the point. Outside of story mode, there is a score mode which awards additional bonuses for high scoring, and a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players. Some minigames support simultaneous play, such as the shooter and DDR games, the rest are turn-based affairs.

Raving Rabbids doesn't have much in common with other Rayman games besides Rayman himself. It's definitely not a platformer, though, so it's a refreshing change of pace.

As a party game, it does just about everything right. Some of the situations Rayman and the bunnies are in are outright ridiculous, and getting some friends together to play only increases the fun factor. Even without friends, it's still entertaining.


Heath Says:

Rayman Raving Rabbids is a great rental. For 50 bucks, though, there's just not enough play. I finished the story mode in under 5 hours. If it ever drops to 20 bucks, or if you have friends over all the time, then I'd say it's worthy of a purchase. Since I rented, I never actually got to experience multiplayer, but I bet it's a blast. I laughed my ass off more than once during the course of the story mode. The DDR games and the plunger shooters are my favorite parts. Hell, if Ubisoft released Rayman Plunger Wars or something, I think I'd buy that. This game really shows off what's possible with the Wiimote and Nunchuk. I think Sports is still the king, but Rayman proves the Wii controls are not a one-shot gimmick.


Final Verdict:

Editor's Note

The news might be a little late this week due to Shini having to work on projects from his real life job today. I believe Nass is still around as well, but also swamped with real life work. This is still a young blog with kinks to be worked out, but I'm proud of what we've accomplished so far. Our dear Heath recently acquired a Wii so be sure to check back soon for reviews from that! Thank you for reading Kitsune Games! Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

Hell, Frozen.

Nothing has been said here yet about the events that occurred at Virgina Tech yesterday, because it's really not the focus of this blog... Not until Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil started beating themselves off for the media about how video games are a serious factor in this tragedy.

Then, it's our thing.

The whole situation there is a mess. If teachers could Baker Act students they thought were legitimately unstable, if the police and campus police had reacted differently after the initial shootings, if if if... I want to see what experts who study the psychology of people who do shit like this have to say before I start pointing fingers at anything. You know who else does too? Rush Limbaugh.

I was shocked when I saw this over on Kotaku. I don't particularly like Rush, and I don't agree with him most of the time. Maybe getting off the drugs helped him a bit. Any way you slice it, I think it's... surprising to see a fairly major pundit saying things like:

• "Not every video gamer goes out and murders 33 people on the college campus though. There's more to this than that. We can find all kinds of societal problems and ills, but the fact of the matter is that whatever you would look at as a bad influence -- video games as you mentioned -- it may desensitize people, but it doesn't turn everybody into mass murderers."

Things that are actually logical. Video games are pervasive in modern society. They come on your computer, they come on your cell phone... There are even cameras with games on them now. It all comes down to spotting people with severe problems like this before they become a real threat to others.

Louisiana Has Got To Pay.

The Honorable James Brady, a US District Court Judge, ruled that the state of Louisiana will have to pay 93,000 dollars to the Entertainment Software Association. This will cover the lawyers fees for the showdown over House Bill 1381. You know, the one that Jack Thompson helped write.

You would think, as a sane and rational human being, that would be pretty damn cut and dried as far as bills banning sales of 'violent' video games is concerned... Not so much when your profession is politics. Louisiana Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, said that he's going to go ahead and put another, very similar bill through the grist mill.

Now unless I'm mistaken here, this is the Louisiana that has New Orleans in it. There could be some other Louisiana that I've not heard about that does not contain New Orleans, what was the state's largest port city. I'm just saying, at this point, maybe you all should be more concerned about what the hell is going on in there than making sure you get the terrified parent vote... because at some point, the terrified parent vote is going to be terrified about the drug dealers coming out of New Orleans who have no qualms about killing people and less terrified about their kids being sold Manhunt 2 for their family friendly Wii.

News For The Week of April 13th

On time this week. Look at that.

• Bethesda buys Fallout IP. Freak. Out. Right. Now.

• ID says they're freakin' awesome. Are they? I haven't really cared about their last... Whatever they've made since Quake 3, so they can go fuck themselves because I paid money for that turd. Has Quake 4 even come out? I don't mean to be... Yeah, I do mean to be mean. Everything that has come out of ID since Quake 2 has been crap. They want to talk about their engine being worth using? Until that new IP doesn't smell like their last 5 titles, all I have to say is: cracker please. Pass me the sunchips.

• David Jaffe sez he'd have left the Blu-Ray drive out of the PS3. Him and basically everyone else. Yeah, back to badmouthing the PS3. Almost not needed with that 82% drop in sales in the UK. Sure, meaningless. 12% is meaningless. 80% means that there's no one left to go "aw man I cannot wait to spentz my monies on the Playstations 3 if only they were in stock!" on the forums. They'll just sit quietly watching folding@home until a good game comes out. If I saw an 82% drop in a fairly major market, it'd be crappy pants time, which is preceisely why I do not make my own console.

• I've avoided him so far... But man, Uwe Boll is special. Special bad. If anybody missed it this week, a scene from Postal (the movie) was leaked onto the intertubes. Not that big a deal because it's an Uwe Boll movie and by that proxy, a flaming turd. Well, this flaming turd was making fun of 9/11, which set a few people off, not too surprisingly. I guess in all reality, I would not have that big a problem with someone making fun of 9/11, but this is a semi-literate son of a bitch that routinely shits out worthless rehashes of games that I, in some cases, liked. So fuck him. Boy, I am happy today.

• To end on a high note: Blizzcon 2007! Insert laughter here.

Wii Like To Have Fun

We here at Kitsune Games strive to provide gaming journalism of high quality. It shouldn't be that foreign a concept, but in the pantheon of gaming websites, magazines, and other publications, the quality of writing ranges from excellent to absolutely terrible, with results skewed severely to the low end.

Allow me to demonstrate my point with an example you may be familiar with. A number of articles have popped up recently about the Wii. Specifically, about how it may be a fad. This sort of thinking isn't necessarily new, after all, questions had been raised about the motion controls long before anyone actually played the system. Now, however, almost six months removed from the Wii's launch the idiots have come out of the woodwork again.

"The Wii is a souped-up Gamecube."

"It's gimmicky stupid childish nonsense."

"Impressive, but so were the Razor scooter and the Furby."

"Some control schemes are more difficult than with a standard controller."

These people call themselves journalists. Shocking. Let's have some facts, shall we, rather than pointless hyperbole.

Yes, the Wii is based on Gamecube architecture, and is about twice as powerful as its predecessor. Source: http://wii.ign.com/launchguide/hardware1.html

Nintendo certainly has a reputation as a family-oriented company, but there were M-rated titles on the Gamecube, and there will be M-rated titles on the Wii. To name a few: Godfather, Mortal Kombat, Scarface, Farcry, Driver, Splinter Cell, Manhunt 2, I could go on. Source: http://wii.ign.com/index/games.html

The Wii has sold about 6.6 million units worldwide, a ratio of more than 2:1 versus the PS3 in the same time frame. It's only 3 million units behind the 360, which had a year head start. Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/

The Wii is currently available on approximately 1% of retail store shelves across the US, whereas the PS3 and 360 are available on 94% and 77% of retail store shelves across the US, respectively. Source: http://www.itrackr.com/home.aspx

Buying a Wii online isn't much better, as the only options are resellers on auction sites, at a premium of $100-150. Source: http://www.wiitracker.com/

The only people who would refer to the Wii as childish are insecure adults. Swinging an actual bat, golf club, or tennis racket is perfectly acceptable, but mimicking those motions in the comfort of your living room is childish and gimmicky? What seems more like "play": pressing buttons and moving sticks on a controller, or performing physical actions that are directly related to the activity on screen? Is it really possible for a system that has 2 or 4 buttons and one analog stick to have a more difficult control scheme in any game when compared to systems with 8 buttons and two analog sticks?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a hardcore gamer. I'm proud to say I started gaming when I was 5, and have been doing so for two decades. I have a varied collection of gaming consoles, and a sizable gaming library for each one. I own a Nintendo Wii. I do not own a Microsoft Xbox 360 or a Sony Playstation 3. That is not an accident. I don't have anything against Microsoft or Sony, nor do I have an affinity for Nintendo. No, I based my buying decision on the quality of play. Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? Whoever pushes more polygons, or has exclusive licenses, or owns higher profile development houses, or has a better online shopping scheme doesn't mean anything if the experience of playing the games is poor. I'm not saying I can't have fun playing the 360 or PS3, I'm saying that the Wii is more fun.

The Wii will have been out in the US for six months on April 19. But you still won't be able to buy one without waiting in a long line early on a Sunday morning, paying $100 or more over retail online, or simply getting lucky, and it might be that way for some time to come. And yet, you can walk into almost any store at any time and pick a 360 or PS3 off the shelf. Are Wii buyers childish? Are they buying into a fad? I don't think so. I think they know what's fun, and the hardcore gaming journalists are more interested in their gaming "cred."

News for the Week of April 6th

I'm not going to say anything bad about the PS3 this week. Just want to give myself a break from that.

• Now this is not specifically video game related, but it's JT, so it is. I guess the Florida Bar was investigating JT because of how he spoke to a judge. Not very nicely, as it would turn out.

"Here’s a tip, Judge, I don’t just practice law. I save lives from reckless jurists like you."

• Yeah. If someone who is not a lawyer tried that shit in a courtroom, they would lose. As it turns out, when a lawyer tries that shit in a courtroom, they lose. Funny.

• Did you hear about that Rock Band game, mentioned just a few posts down this very page? You sure as hell better have. Gamestop, in a desperate attempt to pay their mortgage, posted prices for the inevitible Rock Band Accessories. Not so much says Rock Band developer Harmonix. They still haven't decided how much these so called accessories are going to cost. For all we know, the drum kit is just going to be the abxy and shoulder buttons.

• Kids, addicted to games?! Oh Noes! Seriously though, 1200 respondents to a Harris poll cannot, with any means of accuracy, give us a reasonable view of game addiction in 8-18 year olds. I'm just saying, I know Harris as a internet and telephone survey company. Who in their right mind hands some guy on the phone off to their 8-18 year old kid? If we're talking online polls, 10% are probably outright fraud and that's not even starting to address the 'digital divide' of class. If this were a study of several thousand children performed by an institute of some kind, say a college with a recognized addiction study or youth psychology program, then maybe I'd care. Until then... If I had a DS when I was younger, I would have played for 10 hours a week just on the bus to school.

Now I'm all worked up at being pissed about stupid polls.

Dead Rising (Microsoft Xbox 360)

In honor of Zombie Jesus Day, I present the Dead Rising review.





Genre: Third Person Action
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Price: 53.99 USD
US Release Date: August 8, 2006
Equipment: HP 23" widescreen monitor with component cables in 720p, standard 360 wireless controller.
Completion: Approximately 15 hours.


"Willamette, Colorado. Population: 53,594. Distinguishing characteristics: Jack shit. About the only thing to do in this town is kill time at the shopping mall."


If you've seen George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, you know the setup for Dead Rising. There's a mall in a small town that's filled with zombies and a handful of survivors. Your job, as freelance photojournalist Frank West, is to survive for 72 hours until the rescue chopper returns. Along the way, you can take pictures, bring survivors back to the safe room, take down nutjobs who've lost their minds after seeing the dead walk, and kill a shitload of zombies.

Frank's not alone in his endeavor. His primary contact is Otis, a mall security guard equipped with a two-way radio. Otis calls you on this radio. A lot. Some of his information is useful, but most of it isn't. There are also a couple of Federal Agents on hand to deal with the zombie outbreak. Everyone else in the game falls into three categories: zombie, survivor, or psychopath. Zombies and psychopaths are there to kill you, or be killed. Survivors are there to be saved, or be turned into zombies.

What better way to deal with a zombie outbreak than being trapped in a mall? Almost anything on screen can be picked up and used as a weapon. From benches to trashcans to CDs to bowling balls to shotguns to nerf guns, there's always something handy to take out some living dead. Who hasn't wanted to knock someone's head off with a home run swing? Or crack them in the face with a 2x4? Or bisect them with a chainsaw? Dead Rising lets you do that to any zombie you meet.

The game looks beautiful. The character models are quite detailed, and the cutscenes show them off really well. Hundreds of zombies can be shown on screen at once, all looking and shuffling differently, and the frame rate remains silky smooth. Blood and viscera in HD is stunning.

Voice work is well done. None of them are recognizable names, but they're all good. There's not a bad one in the bunch. The music fits the action without being overbearing, and sound effects are solid. The sizzle of a zombie's face being burned off with a hot frying pan is spot on.

Controls are nice and tight, although the camera can get a bit wonky in certain spots. The camera has been a problem in every third person action game ever, though. The melee combat controls are perfect, but the ranged combat controls are not. Throwing an item or shooting a gun requires entering a targeting mode, which means Frank can't move and shoot at the same time. In a game that is otherwise extremely polished, the somewhat sloppy ranged controls stand out that much more.

On a related note, whenever Otis calls, Frank is rendered impotent. He drops whatever he's doing in order to answer the call. While Otis blathers on, Frank can't use any weapons or his camera, he can't lead or carry survivors, and he often gets gnawed upon by zombies. Of course, this interrupts the call, prompting Otis to call back and reprimand you for cutting him off. Otis is such a bastard.

Saving is something that has been maligned by other reviewers and players. There's only one save slot, and Frank has to go to the restroom in order to save. If Frank ever dies, the player is given the option to load the saved game, or start the storyline anew while keeping Frank's current stats. This is practically necessary in the early game, because Frank simply doesn't have enough health or item slots to progress very far. The argument could be made for starting Frank out at level 10, which would lessen the amount of restarts. On the other hand, restarting the game allows for correcting earlier mistakes, like saving more survivors, or taking out more psychopaths. That said, there's nothing inherently wrong with the save system.

If there's one place where Dead Rising falls down, it's the boss fights. Zombies are human. Or at least, they once were. So it follows that Frank can take their heads off with a sickle, or slice them open with a katana. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is a supposedly regular human who is nearly immune to every type of attack, whether it be a sledgehammer, lead pipe, pistol, or shotgun. It doesn't matter who you are, if you take a rifle round in the forehead, you're dead. If you take a full load of buckshot in the chest at point blank range, you're dead. If a ten pound sledge slams into the side of your skull, you're dead. The bosses don't follow those rules. If the bosses were challenging for some reason other than the fact that they cheat, Dead Rising would be a perfect game.

Multiplayer is nowhere to be found, but there are rumors about co-op play being included for a Greatest Hits version. After the 72 Hour mode is complete, there are options for Overtime and Survival, the latter of which where Frank tries to stay alive for 5 days straight, without saving.

For 360 owners looking to add a solid title to their library, they can't go wrong with Dead Rising.


Heath Says:

Since I enjoy picking out the bad in games, let me reiterate the bad in Dead Rising. Ranged combat sucks. Bosses cheat. I can't kill survivors once they get back to the security room. Otis is the bane of my existence. However, it's way too much fun to spit in a zombie's face and then burn it off with a red-hot skillet. Dead Rising was in my collection until I got rid of my 360. It's so good, I'll probably repurchase it (the Greatest Hits version anyway) when I get a 360 again. That's the best endorsement I can give it.


Final Verdict: