Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC)

As the Katamari series continued to show success, a new console game was made following the handheld Me & My Katamari. In a departure from previous titles which were on the PlayStation family of systems, this new game, Beautiful Katamari, was released exclusively for the Xbox 360; the intent was to go multiplatform, however only the Xbox 360 version ever got made. After mainly sticking with the PlayStation line for the longest time, since it has most of the games I want to play, Beautiful Katamari was on my radar when I finally branched out to the Xbox systems, and so I played it once I got the chance. At the time, I did not buy the DLC, which I would later check off my shopping list when the Xbox 360 store was shutting down, but I would not revisit the game again until the announcement of the upcoming Once Upon A Katamari.

As of this writing, I have yet to resolve some issues I have been having with my Xbox 360, so it was fortunate that I was able to play this game again, DLC included, on the Xbox Series X as part of the backwards compatibility program, though I will admit to playing with a DualSense through a converter to make it more comfortable for me to play. On my most recent playthrough, I liked it more than I remembered, though my feelings remain mixed.

Silent Hill: Downpour (Xbox 360)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill: Downpour.

Like previous western-developed Silent Hill titles, especially Silent Hill: Homecoming (Homecoming), Silent Hill: Downpour (Downpour), originally released in 2012, has proven contentious, with a divisive reception from critics and longtime fans even to this day. It doesn’t help, of course, that Downpour ended up as the final main game in the franchise ever, with no future plans from Konami as of this writing. It also doesn’t help that its rocky development led to some notable changes. For one, Konami handed development to Vatra games, a Czech studio whose only other title was the critically-panned Rush'n Attack: Ex-Patriot, the 2011 sequel to Rush'n Attack (originally Green Beret) from 1985. Series mainstay Akira Yamaoka also left Konami around this time, with Daniel Licht of Dexter fame filling in as the composer and Korn set to provide a song, “Silent Hill”, that served as the main theme. Even the main concept of playing as a criminal, eschewing the series’ tradition of playing as ordinary people, met with some resistance during early development and focus testing, with those who didn’t want to play as “a bad guy” (ignoring James Sunderland’s actions in Silent Hill 2, it seems).

Since I played Downpour years after the fact, however, I went in without any nostalgia for the series, so the knowledge of its development didn’t affect my outlook that much, if at all. As for cost and accessibility, Downpour didn’t fare as well as Homecoming. When Sony announced the closure of certain storefronts, which they quickly backpedaled on, there was a brief point where you literally could not find a single North American PS3 copy on eBay and I couldn’t find it in the wild. As such, I bought a complete Xbox 360 copy (with a rather beat up case) on eBay for about $55, though that price may have gone up by the time of this posting. Like Homecoming, I also played it on an Xbox One to eliminate the possibility of a perfect circle scratch (a fate worse than death for a Silent Hill title). After three full playthroughs (more on that later), I honestly found Downpour the most underrated of the western Silent Hill titles, even with its very noticeable flaws, and believe the hate towards it is overblown.

Silent Hill: Homecoming (Xbox 360)

Close to the release of Silent Hill 4: The Room (SH4) in 2004, a Eurogamer interview with Masashi Tsuboyama confirmed the existence of a sequel while debunking a rumor that it had the subtitle Shadows of the Past. Following this interview, fans wouldn’t hear any additional information until series composer Akira Yamaoka confirmed in 2006 that the development team planned on returning to the series’ psychological roots a la Silent Hill 2 (SH2) and that they were playing with a “fear of the light” concept. At E3 2007, Konami would later formally announce the fifth entry as Silent Hill V, later titled Silent Hill: Homecoming (Homecoming), for release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles. However, Konami would also reveal that instead of Team Silent, Homecoming would go the route of Silent Hill: Origins (Origins) and be handled by an American developer, The Collective, later named Double Helix Games after a series of mergers. Information released afterwards also revealed that many of the original ideas didn’t make it into the finished product, but that the team wanted to stay true to the essence of the series while improving combat.

Homecoming’s full release would come in 2008, to mixed reception from critics, but would never see a Japanese release for unknown reasons. Fan reception also proved divisive, with some more receptive of the Americanization of the series while others viewed it as the worst entry in the series. Like Origins, Homecoming is also pretty easy to come by and is perhaps the cheapest one on the market, with my physical Xbox 360 copy only setting me back about $20 (I went for this platform since I could actually find it in the wild). Having no nostalgia for the series, I went into Homecoming with an open mind and played on an Xbox One to eliminate the possibility of dealing with the infamous perfect circle scratch. After completing two full playthroughs and viewing all five endings, I feel a little torn. While certainly very American in its approach, and pretty flawed, it’s also not as bad as I was led to believe.

Sneak King

Of the three Burger King advergames, Sneak King is perhaps the best-known and the most infamous. It’s the only game to not feature any vehicle-based elements and has only one playable character, the King. However, its stealth gameplay is what draws more attention to it, as it does nothing to help the inherent creepiness of the mascot. When I previously played this game, I didn’t manage to get very far due to what I perceive in hindsight to be a lack of skill, so I decided to give it more of a chance after revisiting Big Bumpin’ and Pocketbike Racer. While Sneak King still doesn’t rank very high on the video game totem pole, I found the gameplay to be surprisingly decent for what it was.

Pocketbike Racer

Alongside Big Bumpin’ and Sneak King, Pocketbike Racer is one of three advergames for Xbox and Xbox 360 that were once offered as an extra with the purchase of a Burger King Value Meal, though I would not actually play any of them until I found them for cheap secondhand. When I first played Pocketbike Racer, I didn’t spend very much time on it due to what seemed like a lack of content, though I recently decided to take a look back on it to see if I had missed anything. Upon closer inspection, there is a little more to it than I remembered, however it didn’t change the fact that it was a mildly ambitious racing game on paper, though a bit unpolished in practice.

Big Bumpin'

Even for a fast food company, Burger King has had its fair share of rather bizarre marketing campaigns, most infamously their on-and-off King mascot. In late 2006, one of these campaigns involved selling a series of three Xbox and Xbox 360 compatible games as $3.99 add-ons to a value meal, those being Big Bumpin’, Pocketbike Racer and Sneak King. While I didn’t get any of these games during the campaign’s initial run, in part because I didn’t own either of Microsoft’s home consoles at the time, I did go out of my way to find them for cheap around the time I actually got an Xbox system. While I did briefly play them then, I recently decided to revisit them to see if I had actually seen everything in those games, beginning with Big Bumpin’. Even after some time had passed, it was just as unremarkable as I remembered.

Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff (360)

Following the release of a video game based on Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2^nd Dimension, another one followed two years later titled Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff. Unlike Across the 2^nd Dimension, however, while the game was available across all then-current Nintendo platforms (DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U), it would also be made available for Xbox 360 rather than PS3, allowing Xbox players access to their own Phineas and Ferb console experience. As I am not a heavy Xbox player, I opted for the Xbox 360 version anyway when hunting down this game simply to have an excuse to use the system, and was fortunate enough to grab a physical copy from a used game store whose inventory was disappearing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. While short, Quest for Cool Stuff is executed well enough that its story feels like it could easily fit into the show’s 104 days.

Dead Rising - A True Classic

In preparation for the release of the PC/Steam port of Dead Rising 3, and to get in the mood of playing it, I’ve decided to go back and play the previous entries in the Dead Rising series, starting with the original Dead Rising, the subject of this review. I have a light history with this game, having watched one of my friends enthusiastically play it on his Xbox 360. However, I began playing the series from Dead Rising 2 (on PS3) and eventually decided that I would need a copy of the original, so I ended up buying one with the thought that one day I would play it. When I finally got around to it, I finally discovered some time in what the “Perfect Circle Scratch” was on 360 discs and what that means (additionally, I don’t remember if my used copy already came with this scratch), so I ended up having to buy another copy to finish the game; because of this I now have both the original and Platinum Hits versions. Since finally going through Dead Rising on my own, eight years after the original 2006 launch, I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, though there are some issues with it that I ended up agreeing with.

Frank West, a photojournalist who has covered wars, is flying by helicopter towards a big scoop, which involves learning what’s been going on in the town of Willamette, Colorado. Since the town has been sealed off from the outside world by the National Guard, the helicopter serves as a means of getting inside unnoticed. As he is flown over he decides to take some photos, but something doesn’t seem quite right, as it appears that the townspeople are attacking each other, something they wouldn’t normally do. Frank decides to head to the center of town and is dropped off on the helipad of the Willamette Parkview Mall and informs the pilot to pick him up in 72 hours, since he hopes to have his scoop by that time. When he descends the stairs to the entrance plaza, he sees zombies outside the mall, as well as a mysterious old man behind a locked security gate asking cryptic questions. Eventually the zombies manage to break through the barricade and, in the rush to ascend the stairs to the mall security room, only four people survive the attack: Frank, Brad Garrison, Jessie McCarney and Otis Washington, a janitor who welds the door to the room shut. Brad decides to leave via the air duct to continue an investigation, but when Frank asks about it he is told that it doesn’t concern a photojournalist like him. Frank convinces himself that whatever Brad is investigating must relate to what’s going on in Willamette and follows Brad into the mall, where he gradually uncovers a vast conspiracy that he has no choice but to continue uncovering even when his life is continually threatened.

Frank West, photojournalist.

During the course of 72 Hour Mode, where the bulk of the story takes place, the overarching mystery set up at the beginning is written very well. A sufficient amount of questions are introduced within roughly the first few minutes in a way that makes the player just as curious as Frank is about what exactly is going on in Willamette. As the player completes the Cases which make up the main story, more answers are revealed to both Frank and the player, which lead to scenes with a genuine emotional impact through all of the highs and lows, in turn creating more of a connection between Frank and the player, as though the player is also a reporter trying to get the facts straight. That isn’t to say Frank doesn’t have a personality; in fact, it’s very interesting to play as someone who’s willing to help others out, not out of genuine kindness, but out of his opportunistic way of getting more information about his big scoop. In other words, he cares more about his own survival and journalistic opportunity than actually saving people.

The supporting characters, for the most part, are also written nicely. It’s obvious that they have more of a stake in the events than Frank does, but we learn enough about them to get a sense of their personalities and histories with each other, something which also extends to the main antagonists. Additionally, the Psychopaths that Frank can fight are interesting in that they can have unique backgrounds and the way they act gives the player a good idea of the kind of people they are and why they went insane, plus they can elicit a genuine emotion from the player; this is mostly tension or fear, but they are also capable of being sympathetic in their histories. In other words, they feel like people and not just a random person you can fight.

72 Hour mode is divided in Cases that the player can complete to gradually unravel the secrets behind the zombie outbreak. Depending on how well the player succeeds in clearing the cases, or if they just outright ignored it, they will get one of six different endings labeled A through F. If the player gets Ending A, the canonical outcome of 72 Hour Mode, they will unlock Overtime Mode, which adds another 24 hours to the story and wraps up the plot. Overtime Mode is worth going through, since Frank, while still very opportunistic, experiences a truly life-threatening circumstance and places more urgency in his survival. The ending, however, is slightly unsatisfactory since one question was never answered, but otherwise all of the remaining pieces of the game’s backstory fall into place very nicely.

When I played Overtime Mode, this walkthrough was a real lifesaver.

As a sandbox game, Dead Rising has some very interesting elements, the most well-known feature being the ability to pick up absolutely anything in the mall and use it as a weapon against the zombie hordes, ranging from beach umbrellas and soccer balls to lawnmowers and chainsaws. It’s satisfying to experiment with the items to see which ones are the most effective and which are simply meant as a joke; if you have no weapons you can go hand-to-hand or use your own spit. Various food and drink items can also be picked up to replenish Frank’s health, represented by yellow squares, and skill books can be picked up to add skill buffs, such as increasing the durability of specific weapon types or the amount of health you regain from food and drink consumption. Learning how all of these items work in tandem and exploiting that is the best way to survive, although there is a particular combination (Small Chainsaw + Criminal Biography (Book) + Engineering (Book) + Entertainment (Book)) that makes the game way easier than intended by making most boss fights a breeze and allowing you to effortlessly carve your way through all but the largest zombie crowds. At that point, the tension comes from having a low level, being under-equipped or ending up between a rock and a hard place.

Protip: Kill this man at all costs.

Even then, there are a couple of annoyances with the weapons you can use. Firearms are a real hassle, since they require you to stand perfectly in place while you aim, so you can’t exactly take cover or maneuver out of the way of oncoming enemies if you choose to do so. There are a couple points when having a firearm does become essential to victory (one of which involves funneling your enemies into a tight space), but apart from that I almost never used them and kept one around as a last resort tactic. Weapons can also break pretty easily without any skill books, so you have to keep a healthy supply of weapons and appropriate books on hand at all times if you want to make it through each day. I’d also count vehicles as weapons, since you can drive them through zombie crowds, so I’ll mention that they have issues as well. It’s very satisfying to drive through thick groups of zombies and gain an absurd amount of PP (more on that later), but the vehicles in general are a little floaty in the steering and it’s often difficult to slow to a stop and get out/dismount in the exact spot you want, which can force you to wade through more zombies to get to your intended destination. Still, the sheer speed of getting to where you need to go is well worth their use.

Dead Rising also has a very slight RPG touch to it by having Frank capable of leveling up via gaining more Prestige Points (PP). PP can usually be earned by defeating zombies and psychopaths, rescuing survivors or taking photographs. Photographs are pretty easy to take, since it’s pretty much point-and-shoot while also allowing you to zoom in and out (plus you can actually walk at a respectable pace while aiming!). Whenever a shot is taken, PP is awarded based on what’s in the photo, which also determines the shot’s overall genre. This is a rather fun and relatively quick way to gain PP, although you have to worry about replacing the batteries every so often, which takes some of the fun out of it. As Frank levels up in general, either one of his stats increases or he gains a special move that can be activated by certain button combinations. There are ways to exploit the game to gain PP much faster (such as Vehicles + Maintenance Tunnels), but the road to Level 50 is actually not a bad one and there’s an interesting thrill in discovering what’s happened to Frank next thanks to the random nature of the rewards.

You'd better love it down here if you want the Zombie Genocider achievement.

As for the other methods, Psychopaths are essentially boss fights that happen in pre-determined locations at specific times. You can easily walk right into one without knowing that they’re there, but you’re often told about them ahead of time by Otis. Psychopath fights can also be incredibly difficult, though the Convicts in Leisure Park really take the cake for being in a moving vehicle with a mounted machine gun; I ended up just hugging the wall to avoid them whenever I had to go through that area after they spawned onto the map. But the difficulty in Psychopath fights can be worth it in the end thanks to the fruitful rewards you can claim, such as Adam (the clown psychopath) yielding some of the game’s most essential aids; defeating him gives you the Small Chainsaw and a survivor named Greg Simpson who gives you access to the Wonderland Plaza shortcut. This shortcut makes it much easier to rescue survivors, although the survivors themselves are dumber than a sack of rocks. Their pathfinding is abysmal and can be a real hindrance, especially when you give them a melee weapon, since then they’ll just happily run into zombie crowds without a second thought, but giving them a firearm suddenly makes them killing machines, which finally gives those weapons a use as well as making the escort experience bearable.

In general, Dead Rising has a mild arcade feel that actually makes for a very enjoyable experience, though I still have a couple major hang-ups about it. The first is Otis, the janitor, who manages to call you on the transceiver at the worst possible times. The transceiver rings incessantly, so you answer to shut it up, but when you do, you can’t move, attack or interact with items or inventory in any way. If you get hit during this time, the call automatically ends and he’ll call you again a few seconds later; answering this call will result in Otis chewing you out for hanging up on him and restarting his rather long-winded explanation. On top of that, he hardly ever has anything useful to say, sometimes just telling you where you are in the mall. While Otis is annoying though, that’s nowhere near on the level of the game’s 72 hour time limit, or roughly six hours in real time (game time is real time x 12, so one real second is twelve game seconds and five real minutes is one game hour). The idea behind the 72 hours isn’t bad, since it creates the time frame of the story, but the way this is handled results in more of a frantic race from Point A to Point B, rather than a game where you can sort of take your time, and often there is very low margin of error during a Case and deviating from the set path can have disastrous consequences (unless you’re doing this intentionally).

Time is known to pass quickly in this realm.

One final sticking point is the save system. You only have one slot per account, so if you decide to do another game mode while in the middle of another, you’ve lost all progress in the original mode. If you die while playing the game, you only have two options, those being to load your last save (which may have been hours ago) or restart the game from scratch with a new save. Additionally, you can only save at specific points on the map, mainly in bathrooms, which are more often than not spaced what feels like galaxies apart from each other, creating true panic if you’re desperately looking for one. The saving grace of this system though is that when you start up a new game, your stats transfer between attempts, so if you end up getting to Level 50 (which is actually the level cap), then you’ll be Level 50 with maxed out stats and moves in every mode you decide to play.

Dead Rising also has a lot of replay value, since there are achievements or items that can only be obtained by deviating from the main story or performing certain actions. Spending playthroughs doing so to boost your chances of survival can be well worth the effort, since anything you unlocked will be readily accessible and obscenely overpowered. Also, completing Overtime Mode will unlock Infinity Mode, where the goal is simply to survive as long as possible. However, the zombie density is thicker and Frank must worry about his health, which deteriorates at a rate of one block every 100 seconds, as well as random psychopath and survivor encounters. Careful rationing of food and supplies, along with a solid game plan, and possibly being at Level 50, can really go a long way to surviving beyond the first day (I survived for a little less than four game hours).

Good Luck

As far as graphics are concerned, I would say that the game has aged amazingly well. I remember it looking pretty good back in 2006, but even eight years later the game has retained a lot of its luster. The characters look realistic enough that they aren’t off-putting and the amount of detail is incredible on every living or inanimate object. Sure there’s some clipping here and there and close-ups aren’t as good on some characters, but the draw distance is also very good and the zombies are very distinctive even with the somewhat limited selection of character models. In fact, one of the greatest feats of this game is being able to have so many zombies onscreen at once, with one report saying that up to 800 could be rendered at once. This is really incredible and adds to the feeling of being truly surrounded by the undead at every turn.

There's plenty more where they came from.

While I would consider the voice acting to be another plus, even though some lines are so narmy that they’ve become running jokes in the Dead Rising community, I’d also like to give props to the music. The running themes, such as the one at the beginning, are composed well and the mall music is actually done well to the point that I’d like to own the soundtrack just to hear it some more (killing zombies in a mall for so long will do that to you). Some of the licensed tracks are also very memorable, such as Fly Routine by Hostile Groove or Slave by The Evolutionaries.

Overall, Dead Rising is a great game. The main mystery in the story is executed very well and Frank West is a very interesting character to play as, especially during the moments of genuine emotional connection that the player may encounter. Some aspects bog down the experience a bit, including the incredibly strict timing of the story and abysmally idiotic survivors, but there’s plenty on offer to balance it out, such as a solid amount of replay value and valuable rewards to anyone willing to seek them. My experience with the Xbox 360 library is limited, but I would already consider Dead Rising to be one of the best games I’ve ever played on it and I’d gladly return to it again in the future. If you’re looking for a great zombie game, seek out this wonderful gem.

Gears of War: Judgment - The Gears Turn Faster

Last March, I reviewed Gears of War 3 and mentioned at the end that it would be a while before I played the then-upcoming Gears of War: Judgment. This was because God of War: Ascension came out around the same time and we ended up buying that instead. Later, I would actually receive Gears of War: Judgment as a Christmas present, enabling me to finally play it. About six months later, when I didn’t have school to worry about anymore and I was between things to review, I finally got around to playing the game, finishing the campaign within a couple of days during my free time. I enjoyed my time and I thought the new developer, People Can Fly, created something worthy of being an entry in the franchise. At the same time, though, there are a couple of annoyances that do hold it back a little.

Gears of War: Judgment serves as a prequel to the previous games in the Gears of War series, taking place during some early point in the Locust War. Kilo Squad, led by Lieutenant Damon Baird, is on trial by Colonel Ezra Loomis under accusations of treason for stealing COG experimental technology while on a mission at Halvo Bay. The trial serves as a framing device for Kilo Squad to give their testimony on what happened, switching back and forth between the past and present to transition between each member’s testimonies.

Colonel Loomis is kind of an ass.

Personally, I thought the story was written pretty well and was generally easy to follow, although at times I needed a reminder on why a specific action was happening. As this takes place in the past, the personalities of Baird and Cole are different than the games later in the timeline, but the vocal chemistry between them adds some depth to their friendship by giving more specifics to the audience. Because of this, we can see how they are able to stick together for so long in the main games and hearing their dialogue is fun. Two new additions to the Gears of War Universe are Cadet Sofia Hendrik, a former reporter who went to the Onyx Guard academy before her assignment to Kilo Squad, and Private Garron Paduk, a former Gorasni soldier who was originally a Major in the UIR, but became a Private with the COG through the Open Arms Program and got assigned to Kilo Squad. These two are very interesting characters, written in a way that you’re aware of their back stories, but their personalities are pretty well fleshed out and let you get to know them as people. Allowing everyone a shot at giving testimony was a great idea since we get to know everyone better and are allowed to hear multiple sides of the same story. Granted the stories follow the same timeline, but the idea is still brilliant and executed very well, especially since all characters are playable this way.

The way the story is played through though could have used some work. Each chapter is divided into a number of parts, each part consisting of an introduction to a new part of the environment before fighting through at least one wave of Locust and then moving on. After a few sections it gets pretty formulaic and it’s easy to see when a fight is coming, especially if the map layout is suspiciously firefight friendly, but over ten hours of it gets tiring and got me more and more anxious to see the ending. Missions also have a star rating, with improvement on it providing incentive to replay through the levels. However the frequent stops to give the rating for each mission frequently break the immersion, which led to me getting increasingly anxious to end the game. An additional replay incentive is the Declassified goals, which add a modifier to the mission and give a boost in increasing your star rating, along with adding additional testimony for Kilo Squad by filling in details they would have otherwise neglected to mention. Since I did all but a couple Declassifieds on my first playthrough, I don’t really know if the additional testimony changes the game at all apart from the narrations in the past. Still, it’s a neat idea that deserves mention for allowing more self-imposed challenges.

Triggering a Declassified mission requires finding this glowing logo.

Gameplay is mainly the same as previous games, but with tweaks to make it flow faster. Switching weapons is now done with a single button, Y, and grenade throwing is done such that you can still go through the setup to aim with LB and then throw with RT, or you can just simply hold LB to aim and then release the button to throw, or, more simply, just tap LB to throw in the direction you’re facing. In addition, the game introduces a new Locust type called the Rager, which starts out as a normal Locust equipped with a Breechshot, but physically changes to a melee-focused enraged form that can only be quickly disposed of with headshots; the one Declassified I intentionally skipped included waves of almost nothing but already enraged Ragers. A number of weapons are also introduced for the first time, those being the Booshka, a grenade launcher which fires ricocheting rounds with a delayed fuse; the GZ18 Marzka, a UIR sniper rifle; the Breechshot, a Locust sniper rifle without a scope, Stim-Gas grenades, which create a field that heals anyone within its range; and the Tripwire Crossbow, which fires rounds that are useful when setting up a defense against waves of Locust. These additional weapons are all very responsive and easily lend themselves to differing play styles throughout the campaign, though if you choose to go after all the Declassified missions you will be forced to change things up anyway. In any case, new weapon variety is always welcome to prevent things from getting stale and these weapons end up making sense in the long run thanks to the game’s setting.

Things are about to get Ghnasty.

Graphically, the series is almost identical to Gears of War 3, but there are slight improvements to the color palette that helps things stand out a bit better on the battlefield, though I would chalk that up to the campaign taking place mostly during the day with clear skies. However, this just shows off how good the lighting is and it’s always pretty cool to look at. Sound design is the same from the last game, but is no less impressive, and the sound which indicates the end of an encounter remains as satisfying as ever. Voice acting is also good, displaying a good emotional range and chemistry between characters.

As a bonus, earning 40 stars unlocks the Aftermath campaign, which takes place during the events of Gears of War 3. At some point during that game, Marcus Fenix sent Cole and Baird on a mission to find a ship and reinforcements for their assault on Azura. With Clayton Carmine, the duo returns to Halvo Bay and run into an old ally, Paduk, whom they haven’t seen in years. Paduk begrudgingly helps them on their quest, since his people made camp there and he knows the area. I liked playing this storyline, since I finally got closure on what happened to these characters during Gears of War 3, specifically why it took them until the final act to show up again. The campaign is also pretty short, maybe a couple hours, and its gameplay is basically Gears of War 3 (complete with graphics) but with all of the tweaks from Judgment, minus the tedious stopping between sections, star ratings and Declassified-type modifiers (though this makes sense given its spot on the timeline). I highly recommend playing this after completing the entirety of the Judgment campaign.

One of the first shots of Aftermath.

Before I end the review, I’d like to briefly discuss the Multiplayer. Normally, I don’t play online and, unlike my Gears of War 3 review, I don’t have an Xbox Live Gold account. So, in the interest of still wanting to discuss it, I tried the offline options to see what each thing was. Thankfully you can play offline with a second player and/or with bots. However, none of the modes were really that fun with two people. Sure the bots add some variety and increase the enjoyability, but my brother and I both concluded that all of the modes would be infinitely more fun with three or four people locally to provide more variety. Fortunately the new OverRun mode, in which players take turns defending or attacking an E-hole cover, is very fun regardless of having only two people around, although I must say that, due to the assigned roles of the characters and having pre-determined loadouts, the mode reminded me a lot of Team Fortress 2. That isn’t really a mark against it, just merely an observation; also, OverRun is sadly the only mode where a player can play as the Locust and Down But Not Out and Executions are no longer there (there are too many additional changes to list in this space). In addition, the new Free-for-All mode is basically a nice way of saying Gears of War now has a Deathmatch mode, though our conclusion about the number of people needed to make the game fun still stands.

I’d like to make one final complaint, which is that three Multiplayer modes, Execution, Master-at-Arms and Breakthrough, can be seen in the menu, but trying to select them has the game telling you to buy the DLC in order to play them. I have no idea if these were added to menu from an update or they were already on the disc, but I don’t like the idea of having a game tell you to spend money on it so you can do more things, even if you never intended to do so. If this was through an update, then it’s more understandable (though no less annoying), but if it was already that way from the start, then I have a problem.

Gears of War Judgment improves on the formula in all of the right ways, introducing tweaks to make the gameplay faster and creating greater replay value through additional modifiers and star ratings. While the story is pretty well-written, the frequent stops erode at the immersion and make the campaign unnecessarily tedious. However, it’s still a very fun game to play and the unlockable Aftermath campaign provides some much-needed closure on what happened to Baird, Cole and C. Carmine during Gears of War 3. This is a must-buy for Gears of War fans, plus for those who are only interested in the Multiplayer, I don’t think you can really go wrong. The gameplay may be getting a little more formulaic, but I’d still be willing to buy the next game and see what they’ll do next.

Second Opinion - South Park: The Stick of Truth

While I hadn’t seen much of South Park beforehand, having seen a handful of episodes and the movie (South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut), it wasn’t until I saw a preview of the then-upcoming game, South Park: The Stick of Truth, the subject of this review, at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, that my interest grew. From what I had seen in that preview, I knew it would be imperative for me to see every episode of South Park I could in order to get the most out of the game, which I did over an extended period of time. While the preview I saw was from THQ, the company would unfortunately go bankrupt, causing the game to shift hands to Ubisoft for release, in turn leading to a number of delays (to the point where the penultimate 3 episodes of Season 17 (“Black Friday”, “A Song of Ass and Fire”, and “****ies and Dragons”) that lead up to the game, collectively known as the Black Friday Trilogy, made numerous jokes about it). Even then, from the small snippet of gameplay in 2012 to the night before the game’s release in 2014, I knew it was a game I wanted to play. Having played the game, with this review delayed by school work and my Bionicle Heroes review, I would say the overall investment in South Park was worth it to the very end.

You play as The New Kid, whose appearance you get to customize, who has just moved into the quiet little mountain town of South Park. When The New Kid’s parents insist he go out and make friends, he comes across Butters Stotch, who takes him to see Eric Cartman, the Grand Wizard of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, who currently holds the Stick of Truth as part of a LARP campaign. Soon after The New Kid joins in the game, the Stick of Truth is stolen by the Drow Elves of Larnion, the enemy of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, and Cartman tasks him to retrieve the Stick. What starts out as a fairly simple game of LARP eventually turns into something much bigger than anyone involved could ever think possible.

The eponymous Stick of Truth, right before being stolen by Drow Elves.

Due to having heavy involvement from series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the story of The Stick of Truth feels and plays out just like an episode of South Park, especially in how the characters interact and how everything blows further out of proportion the more events play out. Numerous references and call backs are made to the show throughout, so only those who have already seen the show will get a good number of them, but they are still inserted such that prior knowledge is not required in order to enjoy the game. Of course, with South Park being a comedy series, the game is extremely funny, with every humorous moment, of which there is plenty, hitting more often than they miss; the show has its own ups and downs in regards to its humor, but, like the Black Friday Trilogy preceding it, this is one of South Park higher moments when it comes to laughs. Some of the jokes are based in pop culture references that will eventually make the game more of a product of its time, but the way they are executed is so hilarious that, unlike other games that do this, I don’t really mind it in the slightest. In essence, if you play this game, you are definitely guaranteed a laugh.

Once you join Cartman’s ranks, you not only get to choose your name (though everyone else calls you a different name(s) anyway), but also your Class, of which you have a choice between Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew (if you play as a Jew, damage output increases the lower your health is); I chose the first, mainly because I haven’t played many RPG’s that use a Class system. You can also customize your armor and weapons as you go, mainly to befit your Class, although the leveling-up system (not to mention some side quests) may require you to change your equipment a number of times over the course of the story. Certain scenarios in combat may also make you change out your weapons a few times as well, but you will find a strategy you’re comfortable with in no time. Interacting with residents of South Park also nets you Friends on Facebook in-game, allowing you access to Perks that can really help you depending on your play style.

Combat itself is similar to that of Penny Arcade’s Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series, having the turn-based system of Rain-Slick 3 and 4, but also having timing-based attacks like Rain-Slick One and Two. When you or your buddy (one of a select group of South Park characters) initiates an attack during combat, timing is very important, in that you have to press a button(s) at just the right moment in order to maximize the damage you deal to an enemy. These attacks can either target single enemies or a whole group of them (when multiple are present), and the ever-changing tactics of some enemies can make you make some important decisions on how to approach a given situation, including whether to use a ranged or melee weapon on a target. Some special attacks require PP to pull off, but they are often worth it in the end, such as being able to jump and perform a massive ground pound or having Princess Kenny summon a unicorn to ram an opponent(s). You can also use your Mana to fart on enemies (this game’s form of magic), with stronger farts requiring increasing amounts of Mana; this is the only stat that does not regenerate after an encounter. Certain residents of South Park can also be summoned, such as Jesus, in order to take care of an enemy, but only once per (in-game) day; they also all give their own excuse for not being able to take on bosses (some of whom are actually pretty easy to take down, even on a higher difficulty).

A small sample of combat in-game.

There are also a number of collectibles to be found in the game, including Chinpokomon and a number of useful items. Some of these items, however, are very miss-able, meaning you can’t go back and retrieve them once you’ve gone through certain story points, which can hamper one’s experience with the game a little bit. To this end, learning from my brother’s frustrations with this during his playthrough, I tried to get everything I could whenever I could, though I also used an online guide to make sure I grabbed everything.

The graphics of this game are very impressive, especially considering an engine capable of advanced 3D graphics was used to accurately replicate the 2D construction paper cut-out look of the show. This helps the game look and feel just like an episode of South Park, further increasing enjoyment of the writing and gameplay. Due to Parker and Stone’s ties to the development of The Stick of Truth, the two of them, alongside the returning South park voice cast, give performances that help the whole experience feel even more authentic. This is not getting into the background music, which generally would not sound out of place within the show (it even includes the show’s signature banjo music and ending credits theme), along with some (often humorous) recycled sound and music clips from the show that offer extra enjoyment for dedicated fans of South Park.

Once you find Jesus (among others), you can summon him during
combat once per day.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is not only a great South Park game, but also an amazing RPG experience in general. The whole thing feels as if it was ripped straight out of the show, providing a faithful South Park experience to those seeking it out. Prior experience with South Park is not required to have fun with the game, so fans of, or newcomers to, RPGs (within the appropriate age group) can safely be encouraged to seek it out, as it is very accessible to players with little to not experience in the genre, although watching the show beforehand is a necessity to understand and laugh at the numerous references and call-backs to previous episodes (I would highly recommend watching the Black Friday Trilogy at a minimum before playing The Stick of Truth for the first time). Admittedly, the game doesn’t take that long to get through, clocking in at roughly 12-15 hours depending on your actions, but getting the full South Park experience alone makes it all worth it in the end.

I Am Alive (Original Concept)

Ever since I Am Alive was first announced at E3 2008, I was intrigued. I found the concept of it fascinating, the idea that you must survive the aftermath of an earthquake in Chicago until the military arrives, all while making hard decisions along the way. So engaged was I that even when I had become aware of its troubling development history, including shifting the developer from Darkworks to Ubisoft Shanghai, I stuck alongside it and even pre-ordered a copy the day the option was open. It took a long time for them to put it out, but I’m glad that they stuck with their vision and released a game that, despite the troubled development cycle, managed to pull it off wonderfully and even go to depths I never knew it could.

The story of I Am Alive follows Adam Collins, a 27-year-old office worker who happens to be in Chicago when a 10.9 magnitude earthquake strikes. After three days, Adam manages to dig himself out of a large pile of rubble, only to find the city in complete ruins. The first thing that concerns him is finding his ex-girlfriend, Alice, who he still has feelings for; this is because he wants to make sure that she’s safe. As he begins his journey, he finds out that there’s a base camp somewhere in the city and if he can get there within a week, the military will come and rescue whoever is there. With this new knowledge, he finds himself having to make some difficult choices, banding with fellow survivors along the way as he tries his hardest to survive the powerful aftershocks and overcome his greatest obstacle: the city itself.

Chicago before the quake.

To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure at first what to think about the story, considering that there’s a very novel concept for a game but people have been burned before when it comes to other media with the same premise. However, I was surprised by just how well the developers pulled it off. While some time is spent establishing just how much of an impact the earthquake had on Chicago and its surrounding areas, as well as hints of how it affected the economy, they went for an interesting twist and decided to spend a majority of the game showing us how the quake affected people on a smaller scale. By gradually dripping out information through each character Adam comes across, the player is able to, by the game’s end, weave this incredible tapestry of personal suffering and just how far people would really be willing to go to survive or protect what they cherish most. The major revelations that come up about each character can be very shocking and enlightening and by the end we are forced to ask ourselves if we’d react any differently were we in the same situation as them.

Adam gets pretty roughed up during his journey.

What helps this is that each of the survivors is rather unique in that while their descriptions make you anticipate one thing, their personalities are actually more three-dimensional and go deeper than appearances. For instance, soon after the game begins, you find a survivor who is heading for a refugee camp, which is where you meet other survivors like Peter, a disabled ex-fire captain responsible for setting it up. Peter at first seems ineffectual to the player, but he quickly demonstrates that he doesn’t let his disability get in the way of helping the others out, especially when he consoles the survivor you met regarding his losses. When you find out about the military arriving in about a week, Peter asks you to go out and see if anyone else is alive so that they can all be treated and rescued at once, which sets up part of the basic structure of the game.

One of the first, and major, survivors you come across is Riley, a female doctor determined to save as many people as she possibly can. When you find her she’s in the middle of a supply run in a hospital and is surprised to see Adam. She has a warming personality, though she is initially a little hostile toward Adam before he explains his intentions. After they gather up supplies, she leads Adam outside the hospital to another important character, Virgil, an African-American former soldier trying to protect a group of survivors. Like Riley he is at first unsure about helping him, but only because their supplies are limited and they have a large group already. When Adam mentions the refugee camp, Virgil gives the matter a lot of thought before deciding to go to the camp as well. I liked that there was some back and forth between each of the characters, as well as the survivors, and that they carefully discussed the matter by taking several factors, including the environment and the possibility of aftershocks, into account. It showed that, even in the darkest of times, people can still work together and reason out a solution which works for everyone, an element which is expanded upon at the refugee camp itself. Rather than go with the grim future a lot of disaster media tends to go with, they instead show the camp gradually forming a close-knit community who is more than willing to help each other survive such an awful tragedy and see a better tomorrow.

Riley as she appears in the game.

Of course that doesn’t mean there aren’t people in the game who will try to stand in your way. As you go back and forth between the camp and other settlements, there are groups who either can’t be reasoned with or wish to see others, including Adam, dead. This is where the combat takes over and it works surprisingly well. It’s simple, but effective, with Adam being able to switch between different weapon types on the fly. The blunt objects available to him are mostly ones he finds in the environment and ranged weapons are hard to come by, along with limited ammo. There are also some throwable weapons, also in short supply, including the almighty gas grenades. The smoothness of the combat is excellent, but I also like that this is really more of a last resort type of thing, since some encounters can be diplomatically talked out of and the survivors can join your party back to the camp. Other ways of dealing with survivors, especially hostile ones, would be to use the environment to your advantage, with one trap mirrored from the first E3 trailer where you can sacrifice a precious water bottle to force a group through glass and let you be on your way. Water is a little like gold, which can influence how encounters play out, but at one point in the game you find a cache of it and must decide what to do with it, which is one of the most important decisions to make in the game. I won’t spoil what can happen, but it’s interesting to play the game multiple times just to see how much different it can turn out.

Water is also a pretty effective healing item.

Overall, I liked that the gameplay, rather than be a complete dystopian lone wolf scenario, instead focuses more on gathering up enough people and supplies for the expanding refugee camp. I suppose I could liken it to the earlier Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, but on a smaller scale (there aren’t an infinite number of survivors you know). Adam is still heavily focused on finding Alice, which he does eventually accomplish, but he also realizes the value of teamwork and how that can be effective in accomplishing your goals.

As far as the graphics go, I found them to be very good. The game is rendered in a way that it seems to have its own style, but in a way that takes full advantage of the systems it’s released for. Chicago is heavily detailed and the city is lovingly reconstructed with some minor artistic license here and there in order to make certain sections work well for the game. There is no loading times anywhere, as the game seamlessly transitions from cutscenes to the game world and everything is loaded at once. I also liked the voice acting and music, both of which are really top notch quality. Emotionally driven performances combined with a very moving orchestral score always make for a good combination. I especially love a recurring piece that serves as an effective leitmotif and highlights a lot of the more memorable moments.

The Northstate Bridge is home to one particularly climactic moment.

I Am Alive is a fantastic game. Its premise is pretty unique and pulled off exceptionally well. The characters are all three-dimensional and the main themes not only get us to think about what we would do in the same situation, but also how we can be better prepared for it. Where Darkworks began, Ubisoft Shanghai finished and the end result is a game I’d recommend anyone to try out.

Unfortunately, this game doesn’t exist, though I wish it did. Happy April Fool’s Day!

Guest Review - Banjo-Threeie

Today, Trophy Unlocked is proud to present a guest review from The Autistic Gamer. The text below this paragraph in yellow is the text he has presented to me to post in his place. Here, our guest review is of the highly-anticipated Banjo-Threeie:

After waiting as long as we did for this, I'm overjoyed that we finally got to play a PROPER sequel to Banjo-Tooie. Guys, this week I have the distinct honor of reviewing Rare's collect-em-up platformer masterpiece Banjo-Threeie. Without any further ado, let's get to it.

Story

Banjo-Threeie takes place thirteen years after the conclusion of Banjo-Tooie. Banjo-Threeie begins with Banjo, Kazooie, and a host of familiar faces having a party at Banjo and Kazooie's place which has been fully rebuilt since Grunty's attack in the last game (Bottles makes a rather funny and risque joke about contractors!). They are celebrating the anniversary of Banjo and Kazooie's original triumph over Gruntilda (yet, oddly, Tooty is neither present nor mentioned) when their celebration is interrupted by a sudden thunderstorm. They crowd inside the tiny house, with Mumbo crammed hilariously up against the window to witness a flash of lightning and what would appear to be Gruntilda's shadow on one of the walls of the area. Sure enough, the witch is back. Using a very powerful spell that can only be used once every 13 years under the full moon, Gruntilda has regained not only her original powers, but several more, making her essentially a demigod. Mumbo watches as a newly-empowered Gruntilda returns to her lair, certain that nothing good can come of this.

After a beautifully rendered cutscene and some more exposition, we find out that Grunty stole the Crystal Jiggy from Master Jiggywiggy's temple and is using it to break the world apart and reassemble it as she pleases. Banjo and Kazooie must chase after her, recovering Jiggies and bringing them to Jiggywiggy himself to build the only thing that can counteract the power of the Crystal Jiggy should it fall into the wrong hands.

Gameplay

True Banjo-Kazooie gameplay! We get to explore lush, huge worlds, collecting Jiggies and doing quests for weird animals; CLASSIC! Banjo-Threeie is a MUCH bigger game than its predecessors, sending bear and bird from the hub area of the Jiggy Dimension (a lush island floating in empty space) to both all-new worlds like Shimmerlight City and Grimy Grotto and twisted recreations of BK and BT worlds called "Grunty Worlds". The game has a total of twenty-six to explore, each with its own ten Jiggies to find as well as new moves from both Bottles and Jamjars with Bottles being found in the Grunty Worlds and Jamjars in the normal worlds. In order to make progression more natural, most of the duo's moves from the previous games have been lost and are re-learned through the game's main storyline. However, that doesn't mean that the mole brothers haven't come up with some kick-ass new moves in the interim. Abilities like the Honeybear Hover, Breegul Barrier and Superbear Slam are welcome additions to the duo's repertoire. Mumbo and Humba (long since married) combine their magic to give bear and bird ten new transformations like the Lobster, Hawk, and Super Mech, wherein Banjo transforms into a Gundam-like robot piloted by trigger-happy Kazooie. Hands down the most fun BK transformation EVER, especially when Gobi, tired of the duo constantly smashing him for his water, attacks them with his own mech in the Gruntified version of Gobi's Valley.

Of course, who could forget about Rare's re-inclusion of Stop 'n Swop? In addition to porting the XBLA releases of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie to all platforms Banjo-Threeie is playable on, collecting all of the Stop 'n Swop items in Banjo-Kazooie and transporting them all the way to Threeie will unlock an entire new world: the illusive Fungus Forest as it was originally designed (albeit with updated geometry, of course). In the very center of that area is an apology note from Rare stating, "Sorry we took so long.". You are forgiven, Rare.

Graphics

Banjo-Threeie, even despite coming out over a decade after its prequels, puts the others to shame graphically. Each of Banjo's hairs and Kazooie's feathers is individually rendered for a fantastic, Pixar-like gaming experience. The characters, while still cartoony in overall appearance, have been overhauled to look even better than the original gameplay trailer of Watch_Dogs. It's truly a sight to behold these beloved characters in such vivid detail.

Sound

Returning triumphantly to the franchise, the incomparable Grant Kirkhope composed the entire soundtrack for the game. Utilizing both remixed tracks from the original games and all-new tracks along with an entire symphony orchestra, the soundtrack of Banjo-Threeie is, literally, music to my ears.

Of course, you can't discuss the audio of this game without mentioning how amazing it was to hear our favorite characters in full voice acting for the first time. The casting was not only perfect, but well executed as well with veteran comedians Jack McBrayer (30 Rock, Wreck-It Ralph) as lovable, naive Banjo and Catherine Tate (Doctor Who, The Catherine Tate Show) cast as the bombastic Breegul, Kazooie. The two of them have surprisingly perfect chemistry and work well with one another, but the entire voice cast is just spectacular. Alan Rickman (Harry Potter, Dogma) performs Master Jiggywiggy exactly as I would have hoped and I never tire of hearing the amazing Rob Paulsen (Animaniacs, Bravoman) pulling off the voice of Bottles and Patrick Warburton (Family Guy, The Venture Bros.) voicing Jamjars expertly.

Overall

This was a game worth waiting for. Banjo-Threeie is about as close as you can get to perfect. Truly, Rare has returned to glory with this release. ...except that this game, regrettably, never happened. Maybe in some parallel universe, there's a parallel me raving about how amazing this game is. Unfortunately, that's not what happened, but it's still fun to think about how amazing this game COULD have been, given the chance.

Happy April Fools Day from Trophy Unlocked!