Still Playing: Burnout 3

I mentioned in my last post that I can't play this game without thinking about my friend's primal, manly scream that accompanied every crash. Well, here it is in all its glory.

And here it is in context.

Now I hope this sound is stuck in your mind every time you play this fantastic game.

Up Next: Burnout 3 Takedown

Oh my my. Oh hell yes.

I'm not big on racing games. I'm not big on sports games in general, but this is one of the most fun games I've ever played.

It's not like other racing games - there are no licensed cars, no boring custom modding or tweaking your stupid steering pistons, and you're encouraged to crash. That's right - crashing cars on purpose and getting rewarded for it. It's absolute adolescent joy. I mean look at this!

I used to play this at my youth group back in the 05/06 timeframe. This one dude, Jae, would always go "YEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!" whenever the car blew up the second time. I can't play this game without that manly shout resounding in my head. It's got the same feeling of a testosterone injection that God of War does. Except Burnout 3 literally makes your balls bigger.

Why I Never Finished It:
This game is LONG. 150+ events to complete - and they're all fairly challenging. As fun as it is, this game can be a freaking beast sometimes. But now it's time to cross it off the list.

Let's do it! Burnout 3 for PS2.

Review: Mega Man 2

Gameplay
Capcom took what was great about the first game and...basically kept it the same. The formula of fighting through a themed stage based around the distinguishing characteristic of a boss remained completely in tact. What was improved upon was the level design. Every level in Megaman 2 is more memorable than the last - partly because you had to play through them a hundred times before beating them, but mostly because they had geniuses designing the levels.

The difficulty stayed the same as well. While not quite as unforgiving on the whole as Megaman 1,  there were definite hair pulling moments. The upside of this, however, is when you finally nail the timing or right weapon, or just happen to get lucky, the sense of accomplishment in those situations is what gaming is all about.

Skip to the 3:00 mark to see "the jump"

The only thing that really felt broken was the platform tools, and only in one specific area. The platform tools are upgrades that allow you to travel great vertical or horizontal distances. The first level in Wily's Castle requires the use of these tools almost non stop, and there is one particular chasm that you have to lay out these platform in pixel perfect fashion or you fall and have to try again. The problem with this is that these tools are limited just like your weapon upgrades - and they don't recharge when you die - only after a continue. So if you missed this chasm jump, say, five times in a row (I must have missed it 50) you are now out of that tool. You can either keep leaving the screen and coming back to respawn the single enemy, kill him and hope for a power pellet, or you kill yourself three times so you can restart the level. The latter option was usually faster.

Presentation

Epic.

As I said about the first one, the game just bleeds style and creativity. Some of the enemy characters were bigger than anything people had ever seen in a video game. And everything was so unique and bold and recognizable. Outside of the weapon upgrade screen when you beat a boss, there were no noticeable upgrades to the visuals, but none were needed. Its just a disappointment that they thought the box art had to look like this instead of making showing the game's true style.

America is stupid

Europe is mentally handicapped

The music though. Ohhhh yeah. If there was a gaming music hall of fame, a few of these songs would be sitting on the throne. Specifically the song from the first two levels of Wily's castle is mother effing epic. It's the music in the video above. The video below shows off the coolest dude in the world playing the metal version.

Shred Town, USA

STUFF I LOVED

- Extremely memorable stages and boss characters - a testament to fantastic art direction
- Top notch music. As hummable as the Mario or Zelda themes.
- Challenging yet extremely rewarding gameplay. You just dont get that sense of accomplishment from modern games.

STUFF I HATED

- The forced use of the platforming tools in the later levels.


In the end, this game is everything the first one was, just polished to a pristine shine. It doesn't get much better than this in the 8-bit library.

REVIEW IN TEN WORDS OR LESS
Perfect challenge. Perfect level design. Cheap platform tools.

Finished: Mega Man 2

Completion Time: About 5 hours
Level: Difficult, son

Yeah man. This one was tough. No cheats either.

Based on the internet, Megaman 2 and 3 are the best in the series, and I can certainly say that I enjoyed the hell out of this one. Really cool bosses, awesome upgrades, tough as nails gameplay and rewarding completion.

Review coming shortly.

Up Next: Mega Man 2 (Mega Man Anniversary Collection)

Incredible. It looks just like the game!

Aw Snap. Now that Portal 2 is done, I’m back on track to take out my original backlog, and that leads me back to Megaman 2. 

The challenge posed by these games seems completely insurmountable on the initial playthrough. Just like the first one, there are devilishly devious traps and challenges to get through, but thanks to the miracle of infinite continues, you can practice over and over until you get it right. And the feeling of accomplishment when you beat a level is what gaming is all about. Plus, there's this incredible song toward the end of the game.

I’ve also resolved (again) to avoid cheating. Not only did I cheat on the last boss of Megaman 1, I also looked up the proper order in which to tackle the levels. No more. I’m doin Mega Man 2 for realz. 
 

I’m actually almost done with this thing. One level to go until Wily inevitably escapes my final blow once again. 

Alright - let's do it! Mega Man 2!

Review: Portal 2

The first Portal has been hailed by many as a perfect game. Like - literally there was nothing wrong at all and every second of the experience was enjoyable - and I agree. I've probably played the first Portal from start to finish 15 times. The only thing that held it back from eternal gaming glory was it's short length - playing as more of a ridiculously cool proof of concept than anything else.

Valve knew they had a hit with the franchise - but did they capitalize on their success or rest on their laurels?

STORY

Not a whole lot happened in the first Portal. Most of the story elements focused on the history of the facility - what happened before you started testing. The atmosphere was thick and GLaDOS was one of the most well drawn characters in recent memory, but as far as plot points - you wake up, figure out how to use the Portal gun and use it to kill GLaDOS.

Portal 2 is full of plot points. Two new main characters are introduced along side the silent protagonist and the vocal antagonist. The first one you meet is Wheatly (voiced by Stephen Merchant) - a friendly, British personality core that guides you through the initial test chambers. Here's a bit about 2 hours in that gives you a feel for his character.

The second new character is Cave Johnson (voiced by J.K. Simmons) - the founder of Aperture Science. About halfway through the game you stumble upon some of the original test chambers in Aperture, and Cave serves as that area's GLaDOS - his pre-recorded voice guiding you through the experiments. Throughout this section of the game, you are privy to the history of Aperture, how it started and how Cave Johnson eventually met his demise.

Cave Johnson

Overall, the eight hour experience yields many revelations - power changes hands, the world is turned upside down, pre-conceptions (among other things) are thrown out the window, and you are stuck in the middle. And while Valve didn't quite capture the sense of mystery and dread which radiated from the first one, the narrative is still one of the best this generation.

GAMEPLAY
The concept of "Thinking with Portals" was solidified for most players in the first game. Valve had the heavy task of capturing that same overwhelming sense of "what-in-the-world?!" in this newest jaunt through the bowels of aperture and they succeeded - to an extent.

The ridiculous number of new tools and gadgets to play with certainly showed that the devs weren't simply releasing Potal 1.5. From light bridges, to reversible gravity beams, to the runny, bouncy, sticky gels, to the redirectable laser beams to the catapults, they really gave you a lot to experiment with - and that's the key word - experiment.

There were a lot of "what if I did this?" moments that really played into the idea of scientific experimentation which fit really well with the theme of the game. And because there were so many new things to tinker with, eventually you end up combining two or three or four different things to reach the end of the level. Really really satisfying to figure out.

Bouncy Goo combined with Gravity Beam combined with Portals

The problem with this is, your first guess is usually correct. In the first game I would do a lot of "What if I...no...maybe if...no...oooh! I know...no..." To the point where I'd literally be staring at the test chamber for 15-20 minutes before I figured out what to do. This one, I would say 80% of the time it would be "What if I...yup, that's it!" First guess was usually right, but even when I didn't get it the first time, I don't think I spent more than 10 minutes in a single test chamber. The biggest challenge was usually simply finding a surface which accepts portals - what you had to do was usually apparent within 1 minute of entering a room based on the layout or angles of walls or some other hint. But you often had to hunt for a white wall or ceiling tile to make it happen. This also created another problem. If you can only put portals on this section of wall or this floor panel, it made it much easier to figure out the solution as opposed to the whole room being portal-ready like so much of the first game was.

Catapult Action

In the end, the game is seriously fun to play, and definitely mentally stimulating - just not to the extent of the first one. On it's own merits though - its spectacular.

PRESENTATION

This is where they sold it. One review compared Portal 2's Aperture Labs to Bioshock's city of Rapture, and that's about as dead on as you could get. The world was already thick with atmosphere and a palpable sense of place, but with the addition of the "Old Aperture Labs" and Cave Johnson's character, you would believe you're playing through a simulation of a real place that exists out in New Mexico somewhere.

The special effects are convincing, the backgrounds and art direction, while fairly "plain-white-wally" were perfect for what they were trying to accomplish. Plus when you get to Old Aperture, the color palette grows exponentially - and really shows off how old the place is with rusted platforms and deteriorating walls. They also did a lot with the lighting effects. If you go back and watch that Wheatly video above, you'll notice how the flashlight creates dynamic shadows that drape all over the silent walls of the environment. On top of all the new bells and whistles, everything just looks better, more polished, and more convincing. The frame rate runs at a much smoother rate and animations are much more fluid. It's polished out the ying yang.

The ridiculous liquid effects of the gels.

The voice acting, as you probably guessed, is some of the best I've ever heard in a video game. While it's fairly easy to play a computer, Wheatley and Cave Johnson were so brilliantly cast and voiced that, again, you could be convinced that these people/robots actually exist in the real world. I'm gonna use a word that's not usually associated with voice acting, but here it goes. The voice acting was stunning.

Stuff I Loved: 

• New Characters - Obviously painstakingly developed and well drawn
• New Toys - All the new gadgets and gizmos to play with really made the experience memorable
• Solid Story - 3 act structure, followed to a T, enjoyed to the max

Stuff I Hated: 

• A little too easy - too much of the game was simply finding a white wall
• Lost the sense of mystery from the story 

Portal 2 is worth $60. Easily. It's worth $120 if you have someone to play the co-op with. I would recommend this to anyone, any time, anywhere. Even that jerk from Green Eggs and Ham would play this in a box, he would play it with a fox.

Review in Ten Words or Less: 
Almost as good as the first. And that's saying something. 

Finished: P0rtal 2 (This Was a Triumph)

Completion Time: About 8 Hours
Co-Op Mode: Not yet finished

Alright - I finished P0rtal 2 last night. While I was extremely impressed with the developer's ability to increase the scope of the game's world and puzzles, I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of difficulty. One review I read complained that the majority of the puzzles were reduced down to simply finding a surface on which a portal could be placed - and I certainly agree. The new elements like the gels and the light bridges, while really interesting, were much easier concepts to grasp than the idea of continuous momentum in the first portal.

Anyway, I still loved it and found it totally charming. Review coming shortly.

Portal 2: Co-Op Impressions

I got my first taste of Portal 2's co-op mode this evening with my buddy, Eddie. Hot mashed potatoes, man - it's fantastic.

As you've probably seen from the TV commercials, player 1 and player 2 play as two different robots. Each of you has the ability to open two portals - leaving you with the mind-bending possibility of four total portals to work with. Valve really outdid themselves in this mode, the amount of thought and creativity that went into the level design of each of these test chambers is ridiculous. So far I haven't been stuck for more than a minute or two in the single player, but the co-op mode gave me that sense of utter brain-drain that I got from the first game. But more importantly, the sense of accomplishment for solving a particularly tough test.

Atlas and P-Body feel like Pixar characters.

Here's how the mechanics work in co-op. Each of you can lay down two portals, but travel can only occur between linked portals. So one dude lays down orange and red portals, and the other lays down blue and purple - you can only go from orange to red or blue to purple - not red to blue or orange to purple or anything like that. However, that's not to say that all four portals won't come into play at once. There was a particularly exciting test where you had to fling yourself across the room using two portals only to land in your partner's portal and flung out to the exit. It's hard to explain without seeing it - thankfully, God made Youtube:

GLaDOS is heavily featured in this mode as well, and her character here is more akin to what she was in the first game. She teeters the line between helpful and taunting. You get the sense that she's trying to pit you and your partner against each other by saying that one is doing well while the other is doing poorly. Her voice really rounds out the experience and gives some semblance of a story, albeit a thin one compared to the single player game. 

Overall, this is what 2 player co-op gaming is all about. My friend and I sat on the floor, little kid style, and just had a huge blast trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Tonight, I was ten years old all over again.