Thoughts about inFAMOUS

Sucker Punch Productions has done it again! They have made another great title with solid gameplay, great controls and well written story. The game has just about everything going for it. The open world is large much like a GTA environment. The upgradable powers are worth the investment and the amount of playing time equates to good bang for the buck. Every PS3 owner should buy this game because it is very enjoyable and entertaining.

If you play both paths, good and evil, you would probably get about 20-30 hours out of this title. I played the game on the Hard difficulty setting and was challenged while not being frustrated very often. I only finished the game as the good alignment and still need go back and play through the evil side. I probably won’t get to do this any time soon though because there are other games I want to check out that I recently purchased. I should be able to give it another try sometime later this summer.

I do have a few minor points I want to comment on however…

One of my few complaints with inFAMOUS is that the main character lacks the recognizable and memorable aspects that Sly Cooper possessed. Without looking it up online, I can’t even remember the main character’s name – which happens to be Cole MacGrath. His visual features and design are also a bit forgettable. I am sure that the developers felt that Cole’s jacket would be a unique trait, but it doesn’t really work as well as it could. The gray visuals of the entire city fall into the typical ‘next-gen’ mentality making it look like a lot of other games on the market today. Sly Cooper had a stylized look that really worked for it and made it stand out from the pack. Obviously this game has a serious tone with regards to its story and that is a big difference compared to the Sly Cooper series, but it could still have used a more unique look especially since the 2D/Flash style cut scenes were done so well and had a lot of panache.

There are a few other minor technical issues that gamers might notice as well, like some models that LOD or pop into view when you are traversing the world at a fast pace (i.e. while riding the train or wires that connect to buildings). There are a few surfaces on the facades of some buildings that are difficult to climb because of extruding geometry. There are some collision surface issues where you can actually fall into an object and not get out without reloading your saved game and there was an occasional crash that made me restart as well. Even though these bugs (and probably some others) exist, they don’t detract from the overall experience of the game. It is worth pointing out that these issues exist with many games on the market because you just can’t test every possible scenario that can occur in a game this size. Overall, I found the game to be very solid from a technical aspect.

At any rate, don’t take my word for it. Go out and give it a shot. I don’t think you will be disappointed!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

One of the games I was really looking forward to seeing at E3 this year was the new Batman game Arkham Asylum. The game was practically everywhere on the show floor (i.e. Sony, Eidos, WB).

From what I could tell, the game looked almost complete. The gameplay was focused around a mix of action and stealth mechanics. The game’s visuals (from the level I saw) were pretty desaturated and bland, which was a bit disappointing because I am getting pretty worn out on gray visuals. The combat and combos seemed fluid, but the moves themselves were more reminiscent of slow motion. I would have rather seen the character’s animations move faster and have more snap than feel like Batman was moving through molasses. The other point that bothered me a bit was the camera. It was very poppy during combat and it could get annoying during fight sequences in its current state.

Even though my initial impression left me slightly underwhelmed, I will continue to look for this game when it comes out and decide if I should invest in it after I read some reviews. Like many gamers, I have been waiting for a good game to hit the shelves with this license, but tend to be continuously let down. I guess we shall see.

In the mean time, check out this pic I took of the Collectors’ Edition of the game. Looks like you get a Batarang (which was massive btw) along with a case, a journal and a few other odds and ends. Not sure I will buy it myself, but I thought I would share it with everyone nonetheless.

And below you can see that they also had the Batmobile at the show. Not too shabby.

E3 2009

It has been about a week since I was at E3, so I figured I would upload some pics from my trip. It was good to see E3 back at the LA Convention Center this year; however, it didn’t feel like the E3 of old. The expo felt as if only half of the publishers in the industry had booths and their displays were very minimalistic compared to the over-the-top antics that we had seen in the past. Basically, there were walls, carpet, monitors and game kiosks.

I guess you could say that is all that the show needs to have especially with how the economy is performing this year, but after attending E3 for over a decade I have come accustomed to seeing it shine with more pizzazz.

Hopefully, next year’s show will gain a bit more momentum and have even more product to evaluate. It only took me a half of a day to wander the expo and observe everything there was to see and there were only a handful of products that I would say were really worth checking out. I will post more pictures from the show soon – stay tuned…