Toy Story 3 (Game) (PS3)

For the longest time, big-name feature films would often receive a tie-in video game released on major platforms alongside their theatrical run, either adapting the film based on older scripts or telling an original story related to it; while this model hasn't entirely disappeared, the proliferation of mobile gaming has changed this approach for the most part. The Toy Story franchise is no stranger to such tie-in media, with Toy Story 3 being the last of its kind under the original model. However, the Toy Story 3 game takes a different approach that still remains unique to it, featuring both the expected Story Mode and a highly-lauded Toy Box Mode that served as a precursor to the short-lived toys-to-life game Disney Infinity. While I have had experience with the PS3 version of this game, which is old enough to still have an expired free ticket offer inside, it wasn't a hands-on one, until I decided to look at the game myself while revisiting the series in anticipation of Toy Story 5. Surprisingly, the game actually holds up pretty well on its own, with the Toy Box Mode in particular still living up to the hype even 16 years later.

Second Look - Devil May Cry 2

Note: This review contains spoilers for Devil May Cry 2

Near the end of the production of the original Devil May Cry (DMC1), Capcom struck while the iron was hot and greenlit a sequel. Unfortunately, this sequel faced a very troubled production under its original director, who remains anonymous to this day. When Capcom assigned the second director, Hideaki Itsuno, to the project, he was shocked by the lack of any real progress, which amounted to almost nothing aside from the Stinger animation. With only a few months left, he built pretty much the entire rest of the game from scratch. The end result, Devil May Cry 2 (DMC2), released on the PS2 in 2003 to poor reviews, though it still established some series conventions and had high sales numbers. The game’s development disaster also motivated the team to improve their work, with most staying on for future entries. In fact, near the end of development, Itsuno successfully convinced Capcom to let him direct Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening from scratch because he didn’t want to be forever known as “the guy who directed DMC2.”

In the years since its release, DMC2 has gained a reputation as the worst game in the series, even more so than the controversial reboot, DmC: Devil May Cry (DmC). It really is. However, I’ve also felt unsatisfied with my coverage of the game in the past, both in my review of the original PS2 version and the other when talking about the Devil May Cry HD Collection as a whole. Since I re-reviewed DMC1 in the context of its origin as Resident Evil 4, I decided that even though DMC2 is certainly the worst game in the series, it deserved a better and more in-depth look. As with my re-review of DMC1, this re-review is based on DMC2 as presented in HD Collection.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) (PS3)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009).

With a game as successful as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) (CoD:MW2), making over $1 billion within three months, the future of the Call of Duty franchise would be surely be guaranteed. However, that future would not include series creators Jason West and Vince Zampella. It’s a very infamous and well-documented story, but the short version is that West and Zampella wanted more creative control over Call of Duty (CoD) following Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s (CoD4) success, though Activision CEO Bobby Kotick included a loophole in the agreement that control would revert back to Activision if the duo were ever fired. Soon after, Activision did everything in their power through an internal campaign dubbed “Project Icebreaker” to find a reason to replace the duo during development of CoD:MW2, which included plans to stage a fake fire drill to copy Infinity Ward employee emails. After CoD:MW2 came out and proved a massive success, West and Zampella were fired after renegotiations fell through, with Activision accusing them of “insubordination”. About 40 of Infinity Ward’s employees, numbering around 100 at the time, would quit and leave with West and Zampella to form Respawn Entertainment, who would develop the Titanfall series in partnership with Electronic Arts before later being acquired wholly by EA and making both Apex Legends and the Star War Jedi series. In the meantime, however, Infinity Ward was in the midst of developing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (CoD:MW3), now put in jeopardy without the studio’s founders, and the publisher was in a legal battle over unpaid CoD:MW2 royalties. As such, Activision would seek assistance from Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software to help with development on CoD:MW3, which would see the light of day in late 2011.

That brings us to now, as I now finish my journey through the original Modern Warfare trilogy. I didn’t remember hearing too much from other people around the release of CoD:MW3, but I did remember hearing about the drama around West and Zampella (especially the fire drill story). I was already planning on playing CoD:MW3 to round out the trilogy, but after enjoying Infinity Ward’s work on CoD4 and CoD:MW2, even with whatever criticisms I may have expressed, my curiosity grew about how the studio would handle CoD without any involvement from its creators. Although Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward did their best given the situation, it’s impossible to ignore the effect of West and Zampella’s absence in the final product.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) (PS3)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The explosive success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4) would naturally justify production of a sequel, eventually confirmed and revealed as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (CoD:MW2). While I was in high school back in 2009, this was actually the first Call of Duty (CoD) game where I couldn’t escape discussion about it thanks to the massive hype surrounding it (even a teacher would mention playing it one time during a class discussion). Apart from hearing endless discussion about the multiplayer, however, I was mostly aware of one Mission, “No Russian”, due to its controversial content, which for years was the only thing I knew about CoD’s storytelling and knowingly out of context. Now, with much more knowledge about CoD than I had before, my approach is more informed by not only playing CoD4, which has an incredible campaign on its own, but also the knowledge that this was the last time that Infinity Ward would develop a CoD game with original creators Jason West and Vince Zampella still involved, a story that I’ll save for another time. For now, however, we celebrate this blog’s fifteenth anniversary with CoD:MW2, which holds up surprisingly well in spite of some issues with the campaign.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)

Back in high school, in the far-off era of the mid-2000s, I couldn’t escape discussion about Call of Duty (CoD) from fellow students, particularly the Modern Warfare trilogy (even one of my teachers played Modern Warfare 2 at the time). Despite this, however, I never really touched the games for one reason or another due to my differing tastes in games at the time. I have since played more FPS games, as you can see on this blog, but even then, I still never touched CoD and hadn’t intended to thanks to the series’ increasingly mixed reception. That would change, however, as I learned that the series had more than just the name going for it and actually left a major impact on FPS games and gaming as a whole. As such, I decided that for the fifteenth anniversary of this blog, I would finally do my due diligence and play the Modern Warfare trilogy, beginning with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD4) from 2007, developed by Infinity Ward. I didn’t know exactly what to expect going in, but I walked away finally understanding the game’s appeal and lasting influence.

Katamari Forever

While Beautiful Katamari was the first Katamari game to be absent from a PlayStation console, it would return to the PS3 with Katamari Forever, a tribute to five years of the franchise. I actually remember playing this game when it first came out and liked it enough to consider it my personal favorite of the series, but over time I had forgotten the nuances of the game itself. On booting the game back up again in anticipation of Once Upon A Katamari, this turned out to be because I hadn’t played it since 2011. While I was noticing more flaws this time, I was ultimately reminded why I considered it my favorite, and still is.

Sonic Unleashed (PS3)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Sonic Unleashed.

Back in 2005, Sonic Team had conceived a third Adventure entry called Sonic World Adventure, though development wouldn’t start until after the critically panned Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (Sonic ’06). As development continued, with no set completion date and coinciding with the creation of the Hedgehog Engine, enough innovations distinguished the game from the Adventure style, including the addition of Sonic transforming into a “Werehog” during nighttime, that the title changed to Sonic Unleashed (Unleashed). Additionally, the game saw two separate builds in active development, one for HD consoles (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) and one for the previous generation (PlayStation 2 and Wii). Both builds of the game would launch to mixed reception from fans and critics, with more favorable scores given to the PS2 and Wii builds, though Unleashed would gain more of a cult following over the years and now has a more positive reputation than before (though this opinion isn’t universal).

As for my own experience with the game, I remember getting excited for it after the disastrous Sonic ’06 (which I may still review in the future) to the point that I played the free demo. Upon playing it as a sixteen-year-old, however, I found myself getting stuck too often because, quite frankly, I sucked at it and had a hard time finding certain items to continue very far in the game. Seeing that the fanbase had warmed up to it more, however, made me curious enough that, right after I finished Sonic Colors: Ultimate (Colors), I gave Unleashed another chance. Now at about double the age at which I had played it initially, I found myself liking it a bit more and I could see some of what fans liked about it. However, as it dragged on, I found that the final design had also held itself back from reaching its full potential, no thanks to its technical issues in the final stretch, the Medal mechanic and, most of all, those Werehog Stages.

Second Look - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle

Note: This review contains spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Back in 2014, we reviewed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle, developed by CyberConnect2, and though we were positive, we’ve since grown dissatisfied with how we covered the game then. With the release of the remastered version of the game, All-Star Battle R, we thought that now would be the best time to look back on the original version, originally released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and see how it stacks up ten years later. Not only that, but whether or not an ESRB copy of the game is now worth its aftermarket value (around $55+) versus the amount we paid for it originally (around $40 at SDCC 2014 directly from the Bandai Namco booth). As it turns out, thanks to the recent delisting of the game, your enjoyment may really depend on whether or not you already own it (and the eBay price may not be completely worth it).

Second Look - God of War: Ascension

Note: This review contains spoilers for the God of War series.

In the time between God of War: Ghost of Sparta and the 2018 Norse entry, a new entry in the Greek series, God of War: Ascension, was released on PS3. This not only sought to fill in another gap in Kratos’ story, it was also the first, and so far only, game in the series to feature an online multiplayer mode. While I did play it when it first came out, even getting the Collector’s Edition that came with a mini Kratos statue, I found it to be a largely underwhelming experience with stale gameplay that left me wanting something new. Revisiting this game again over a decade later did not really change my mind all that much, with technical hiccups and the fact that it was the final Greek game arguably making it worse.

Second Look - God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Note: This review contains spoilers for the God of War series.

Following the release of God of War III, a second God of War game was released on the PSP, subtitled Ghost of Sparta, which sought to expand on the character of Deimos teased in the original game and tie up loose ends with Kratos’ character arc. Like its other PSP contemporary, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta was later ported to the PS3, along with its original pre-order content, as part of God of War: Origins Collection, allowing players to experience the games in full HD and with minor gameplay tweaks to better suit the new platform. Much like Chains of Olympus, I had previously experienced the game on both platforms and found myself preferring the latter for its presentation and gameplay experience, and so chose to experience the game that way when reevaluating it. While I did like the game when I played it before, I felt like I got more out of it on my most recent playthrough, appreciating it even more as an integral part of Kratos’ backstory and motivations.

Second Look - God of War: Chains of Olympus

Note: This review contains spoilers for God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Between God of War II and III, two portable games were released to help fill in the gaps in both the release and the story. The second of these games was God of War: Chains of Olympus, released on the PSP and developed by Ready at Dawn, serving as a prequel to the original God of War. Following the release of God of War III, this game and the second PSP game, Ghost of Sparta, were later ported to PS3 as part of God of War: Origins Collection, featuring an HD presentation and gameplay tweaks to bring them more in line with their console brethren. Though I have had experience with the original PSP release and find it to be a good reason to own the handheld, I remembered having a much better time when it was ported to PS3, which was how I decided to re-experience the game while revisiting the original Greek series. Although the game is very definitely showing its age, especially by virtue of having been a handheld game first, I still found it worth playing as a proper installment in the franchise.

Second Look - God of War II

Following the release and success of the original God of War, Kratos’ story was allowed to continue in a sequel, aptly titled God of War II. Notably, although the PS3 was around the corner during its development, the game was developed exclusively for the PS2, due to the developers having a better understanding of the PS2’s architecture in addition to the system having the bigger player base at the time. This game and the original God of War would also be ported to the PS3 as part of God of War Legacy Collection, which was made to promote God of War III and ended up popularizing, if not pioneering, HD remasters of retro games. As with the first game, I decided to replay the second through this collection after having not played it for a little over 10 years, coming away with a much better understanding of its plot and themes than I did previously.

Second Look - God of War (2005)

 

Note: This review contains spoilers for God of War (2005).

While my opinions of the God of War series have been mostly positive, as time has passed, I have not been completely satisfied with my original reviews of the entries centered on Greek mythology, which were originally written around the release of God of War: Ascension. Around the release of God of War: Ragnarök, the idea of revisiting Kratos’ roots resurfaced, and I felt more motivated to do so upon finishing that game, starting with the original God of War from 2005. While the game was originally released on the PS2, and I have played it multiple times on that platform, I decided to replay it through the God of War HD Collection on PS3 due to the graphical improvements made for that port, and in the process realizing I had not touched the game in a little over a decade. After diving back into it following such a lengthy absence, while it hasn’t exactly aged well visually, it has aged very well from a storytelling perspective and remains one of the best examples of a Mature-rated game.

Second Look - Devil May Cry

 

Note: This review contains spoilers for Devil May Cry

While the Devil May Cry series may be more popular than ever, the original game actually started off as more of a gamble, with its roots in the development of Resident Evil 4 (RE4). Fans of both franchises aren’t unfamiliar with the story, but it’s an interesting one nonetheless. The short version is that during development of RE4, the original version, directed by Hideki Kamiya, would have gone in a different direction from traditional Resident Evil (RE) titles by going for something more “stylish” and “cool”. The scenario for this version followed Tony Redgrave, an invincible man with superhuman abilities explained by biotechnology who would fight enemies within a gothic setting through more dynamic combat, while ditching the fixed camera angles and tank controls found within the previous RE games. Series producer Shinji Mikami found this iteration too far removed from RE to keep it within the same series, but instead suggested that Kamiya spin it off into its own IP. After some rewrites that affected the setting and scenario, including some influence from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, this game turned into Devil May Cry (DMC) and the rest is history.

I’m no stranger to the Devil May Cry series myself, as I’ve previously reviewed every game in the series. While I’m not really proud of how I’ve covered most of them, this rereview actually came up during my journey through the Resident Evil series, as I thought it would be more interesting to play it after RE4 with the context of its unique development. In the nearly eleven years since I last played it, I’d say that just like the original RE4, it’s showing its age and although it's rough in places, it still remains a great game in its own right.

Silent Hill HD Collection

Merely one week after the release of Silent Hill: Downpour, Konami released Silent Hill HD Collection, which collected Silent Hill 2 (SH2) and Silent Hill 3 (SH3) for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Upon its release, however, it proved divisive among fans and critics, mainly for the numerous technical issues that plagued both versions of the game at launch. Although Hijinx Studios handled the port, the issues arose from Konami having lost the original source code and providing the developers with incomplete beta builds of SH2 and SH3, which the team had to work around. Fortunately, a patch would later come out and largely fix the issues, but only for the PS3 version, as the 360 patch was cancelled.

Knowing all of this, I still decided that a deep dive of the Silent Hill series wouldn’t be complete without experiencing HD Collection for myself (though admittedly I originally bought it out of desperation to play SH3 on a budget). As it stands now, is the game still filled with issues worth the negative outlook? Yes. Did the patch make the PS3 version worth seeking out? Kind of.

Second Look - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (PS3)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

After the success of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts capitalized on its success with a sequel, The Force Unleashed II. Unfortunately, the end result fared far worse critically, followed by lower sales numbers. As I would learn later on, the state of the finished product came as a result of a rather troubled development, which included an unusually short production period of only nine months. This made me curious how well the game had aged, so I fired up my PS3 copy after over eleven years and played through the entire campaign. Suffice to say, my outlook on it has since lightened up, but its short development certainly held it back from greatness.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (PS3)

Note: This review contains spoilers for the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the Original Trilogy and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

A long time ago, before Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, LucasArts existed as a well-known game studio. They not only made a lot of adventure games for multiple platforms, but also, in their later years, plenty of official Star Wars games. One of these was the 2008 game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a game that bridged the gap between the Original and Prequel Trilogies while introducing the character Starkiller, who had a good amount of notoriety at the time. A year later, in 2009, the game would also receive a release called Ultimate Sith Edition that collected all of the DLC while also offering additional costumes. Twelve years later, I had the urge to revisit the game, both in part to finally play through the DLC campaigns and see how well it had held up after so many years. While still a fun experience today, it has admittedly started showing its age.

Second Look - Assassin's Creed

Note: This review contains spoilers for Assassin’s Creed.

When I last played the original Assassin’s Creed in 2011, I didn’t think as much of it in comparison to other entries in the series and even wrote a review that, regrettably, didn't go into nearly enough detail. While playing the Sands of Time Trilogy on the PS2, however, I was intrigued by this game’s connection to Prince of Persia. After development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time finished, director Patrice Désilets started work on another entry for seventh-generation hardware. As more information about those systems came to light, he considered an assassin character in an open world setting and called it Prince of Persia: Assassin. During development, however, the story and gameplay took on its own identity, which resulted in 2007’s Assassin’s Creed. With this knowledge, I replayed the game and found it not only better than I remembered, but a real breath of fresh air after the overly bloated direction of modern Assassin’s Creed titles.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PS3)

Five years after The Two Thrones, and two years after a failed Prince of Persia reboot, Ubisoft released The Forgotten Sands as a tie-in to the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film. Despite this, however, The Forgotten Sands is actually the collective title of four games set between the events of The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, with a different story and gameplay style between each platform (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; Wii; Nintendo DS; and PSP). Due to timing, the PS3 version of The Forgotten Sands was actually my first exposure to Prince of Persia and I remember enjoying it back in 2010 before I picked up the PS2 games or was even aware of the differences in other platforms. Ten years later, I returned to The Forgotten Sands after giving myself the full context of the PS2 trilogy and, while it did mess with my muscle memory, I still had a good time.

Second Look - Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure + Adventure Packs

Following the end of the Legend of Spyro trilogy with Dawn of the Dragon in 2008, a second reboot of the Spyro the Dragon series was announced for 2010, known as Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, which utilized physical toys that you could place on a Portal of Power to summon it in-game. “Toys to life” was in fact one of the slogans on the box, which was quickly adopted as the Toys-to-life genre to describe other, similar games. I wasn’t fully aware of the game until its launch and at first ignored it, though I quickly became curious about it and found the toy concept interesting, enough to get the Starter Pack as a gift. I ended up liking it enough to try and complete as much of my collection as I could, and later ended up playing the other main games in the Skylanders series while noticing how little Spyro was actually part of it.

After Skylanders: Imaginators, I began to lose interest in the series, eventually selling off a bulk of my collection due to how much space it was taking up, with some harder-to-find toys among them. However, one collection I still held on to was my Spyro’s Adventure collection due to having more sentimental value to me, plus I knew that one day I wanted to revisit the game to see what about the concept made it so magical to me in the first place. After deciding to look back on it for the franchise’s 10^th anniversary, I found that spark was still there, despite showing its age and having a handful of technical issues.