Recently in Video Games Category

I bought Borderlands (XBox 360) yesterday, popped in the disk at 11pm thinking I'd play an hour before going to sleep.  When I stopped it was 1:30am.

This game is irresistible if you loved the loot-gathering of Diablo and you get off on the kickback of a gun firing.  The enemy AI leaves something to be desired, but the gun combinations are terrific.  I got a pistol last night that fires incendiary bullets and a grenade mod that splits your grenade up into separate little mini-grenades.  This is only just the beginning, as I'm only at Level 7.

Jeff Gerstmann's review of Borderlands on Giant Bomb really convinced me that I would love this game.  I like to play games mostly on my own, and this game works well either single player or with friends.  A number of critics detail Borderlands good vs bad points, but only Gerstmann accurately described the crystal meth level of addiction that Borderlands can inspire.  Nuff said.

BTW, Fanboy Radio fans will be pleased to know that Oliver Tull is the voice of the Soldier character, delivering funny lines like "Now that's what I call a head shot!" Nuff said.

See More DC Universe Online Screenshots at IGN.com

We all know the development on DC Universe Online is taking forever, with no firm release date yet (sometime in 2010).

I was hoping that either Champions Online (PC only right now, XBox 360 coming later this year) or Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 would be worthy enough to tide us over in the meantime.  Alas, both games have mediocre reviews, with the theme generally being "more of the same, nothing new here to see".  I think the Marvel game is still worth playing, but I will wait until the priced drops to $30 or less.

Given the excitement that Green Lantern has generated over the past few years, how far will the DC game go to incorporate the GL mythos?  We've seen screenshots of Sinestro in his yellow uniform.  I wonder if you can create a bad guy and make him a member of the Sinestro Corps?

Surely the DCU game cannot have Red, Blue, Sapphire, or Indigo Lanterns?  Those are too recent.

Can the Flashes go so fast they become the one with the Speed Force?  Probably not.

Too many questions.  I hope the game will be released in the first quarter 2010.  Nuff said.

This fan event for DC Universe Online was held last month at San Diego Comic Con 2009. The video below doesn't show you anything of the game--just the crazy, wonderful fans who came to eat ice cream and get Jim Lee's autograph on a poster. I can sympathize with one fan who said he had been waiting three years and would buy the game right now!

There's a woman dressed as Mary Marvel (good version) and several DC characters (Wonder Woman, Vixen, Batman, Catwoman) dancing in the room. Greg Miller from IGN is pretty wacky. Nuff said.

Here is a demo of DCU Online, now called an "action MMO", taken at San Diego Comic Con 2009.  The video is a walkthrough and the actual game screen is in the distance, but the description of the game is interesting.  Solomon Grundy helps the playable character defeat "patient zero", a character infected by a mutant virus.  Still no firm release date for this game!  Fall 2009 belongs to Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  Nuff said.

I've bought Wipeout on the Playstation 2, Sony PSP, and now the Playstation 3.  Wipeout HD was released last year in September 2008; I was pretty darn crazy about that game.  The only problem with it was the AI was really hard in the single player campaign--I reached my limit around level 5 or 6.  This locked out certain tracks that would be fun to try.  I was a bit hesitant to buy the DLC, which transforms Wipeout into WIpeout Fury HD.  But it was only $10, what the heck.

Fury is well worth the price--you get an entirely new Wipeout experience as a result of the DLC.  There's a new single player campaign and even better--all the tracks from the original game and Fury are available in the Racebox.  And one of the new race types, Detonator, is utterly mind blowing.  It takes place within the psychedelic Zone levels, but transforms Wipeout from a racer into a shooter.  You don't have to worry about speed, just steering, as you shoot down various glowing orbs scattered around the track.  Given the design of the Zone tracks, this mode reminds me of the movie Tron, with pulsating color and explosions that ripple the landscape.

There's another mode called Zone Battle, where you compete against other ships in the Zone levels.  I haven't quite figured out all the rules to this mode yet.  You try to steer your ship without hitting the walls, holding out as long as you can until you trigger the next Zone level.

Eliminator is really fun as well, putting an emphasis on combat on the regular tracks.  I had to wrap my mind around the fact that by pressing L1, your vehicle can travel in the opposite direction.  It's extremely useful when you know you are ahead of several vehicles--you just flip around and blast them.

Lately I have been buying a lot of DLC, including Big Island for Burnout Paradise and Speed Expansion for Motorstorm Pacific Rift.  Sony Liverpool has really raised the bar for DLC packs.  If you are a Wipeout fan, you won't be disappointed.  Nuff said.

Everyone's talking about Infamous versus Prototype, on blogs, podcasts, even TV shows like X-Play.  The consensus seems to be that Infamous wins that battle.

I'm playing Infamous right now, about a third of the way through the game.  It's great fun, but it's making me think fondly of the X-Box 360 game Crackdown.  I started thinking about that so much that I bought a used copy of the game (after foolishly selling it a few months ago) to answer the question: which is better, Infamous or Crackdown?

Character.

Infamous' lead character, Cole, is well defined and realized.  If you play him as a hero, he's a bit in the Marvel vein, misunderstood by the public, yet trying to do the right thing.  If you go the villain route, you're more like Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy, wrecking havoc for selfish gain.

Crackdown's lead character had no personality at all.  He's a super-cop with no personality, no friends, no cut-scenes where he talks to other characters.

Winner: Infamous.

Story.

Infamous has a story worthy of any Marvel or DC comic.  After a mysterious explosion wipes out half the city, we find out that Cole was at the center of it.  He awakens with electrical powers and immediately must decide how to use them, for good or evil.  No matter which route you choose, there's a mystery to solve which propels the game forward.  Who really triggered the blast and how did Cole get these miraculous powers?  The cut scenes feature artwork that really seems to pop out of a comic book page.

Crackdown doesn't have a good story.  It has three main goals with several sub-tasks.  Three main areas of the city must be rid of crime, each area has gang leaders that must be taken down to reach this goal.  The ending of Crackdown is pretty lame, just a montage of the city with a voiceover telling you what a good job you've done.

Winner: Infamous.

Powers.

Both games have a level up system for the powers each character has.  Cole's electrical abilities have several dimensions.  For each action you take in the game, whether it's taking down bad guys or saving people, you get XP.  You spend these points on new powers that Cole can use.  This helps motivate you to do all the side missions, so you can level up and do more fantastic things.

Crackdown allows the super-cop to level up in a different way.  The more the cop does a particular action--jumping, driving, shooting--he levels up in that area.  He has to level up in order to take down the bigger gangs.  But he also has to level up in order to climb the taller buildings, an important factor in attaining the orbs.

One thing that never levels up in Infamous is Cole's jumping ability.  The super-cop in Crackdown goes through quite a change--by the end of the game, you are jumping like the Hulk.Winner: It's a draw.

Crackdown also has a cool device that levels up the appearance and functionality of the cars as you level up the driving skill.  The cars actually morph into bigger vehicles when you get in them.

Winner: Crackdown, because leveling up affects everything.

City Design.

Infamous and Crackdown each have big cities divided up into different islands.  The city center, where you go in the beginning of the game, looks pretty cool.  The buildings in Infamous get repetitive after a while.  I've seen that same health clinic building in many different areas.  The city also looks quite drab to me.

Crackdown's architecture is much more unique and colorful.  It feels like a real city.  I can easily make it different buildings from far away by their unique structure and color scheme.

Winner:  Crackdown.

Transportation.

Cole gets around the city by climbing buildings and jumping like Sly Cooper (Sucker Punch did that game as well, of course).  Later he gets the power to ride the rails on electrical currents.  He also zooms across electrical wires strung along the rooftops.

Crackdown's main character does all of that, but the way he does it makes me feel like I am more in control.  Cole is really super-sticky whenever he gets close to things.  I guess it makes it easier and less frustrating, but I just feel it's too automatic.

Crackdown has one big advantage over Infamous here.  The character can jump around everywhere, but if you get bored of that, you can grab any car or truck you see and start driving.  The cars are really unique as well.  The DLC for Crackdown gives you some neat additions.

Winner: Crackdown.

Collectability (Gotta Catch 'Em All syndrome).

Collecting shit in games isn't a new innovation.  Yet when I see the blue shards strung around the city in Infamous, I really think that Sucker Punch was inspired by the orbs Crackdown.  Both games have a finite amount of shards/orbs that turn you into a collecting addict.  Sometimes you'll want to stop fighting the baddies in order to stop and collect one.

However, the shards in Infamous look shitty.  A little diagonal object that glows.  WTF.  Crackdown's orbs are bright objects with a unique design.  They have different XP values that you can recognize by the amount of dots above each one.  You won't get the higher value orbs without first leveling up your jumping ability.  Even cooler, the orbs emit a pulsating sound--my favorite sound effect in any game--that let you know if you're around one.

Winner: Crackdown.

Replayability.

Many gamers who have played Infamous want to play it again, taking the opposite path down good/evil to see what happens.  There's motivation in doing that, since Cole has a different power set for each branch.  The problem with the replayability aspect here is that Infamous' side missions are very repetitive.  I've saved about 6 water towers so far.

Crackdown doesn't have much here.  Once you finish the main objective of clearing out the entire city of crime, you can go exploring to find the remaining orbs, or complete the various side missions, like rooftop races.  But there's no gain in replaying it a second time.

Although I have to admit, when I popped the game back in, I was tempted to play Crackdown from scratch just to get those orbs all over again.  Maybe one day!

Winner: Infamous.

Four points to Crackdown, three for Infamous.  The XBox 360 game wins. 

Don't get me wrong, Infamous is a great game and well worth buying.  It does a lot of things better than Crackdown.  But in the end, Crackdown's city design, cars, orbs, and driving just make it more fun.  I was really pleased by the E3 2009 announcement that Crackdown 2 is in development.  Even better, some of the original Crackdown developers who recently left Realtime Worlds are working on the sequel.  Nuff said.

After seeing the trailer for Gran Turismo PSP at Sony's E3 2009 presentation, I was desperate to see some actual gameplay footage.  I've come across this one on YouTube:

This video shows you Gran Turismo (on the Sony PSP Go) in action: the menu system, the car inventory, and a race on a beautiful track.  I'm sold.  Nuff said.

I've watched both the Sony and Microsoft E3 2009 conferences, and IMHO Sony was the clear winner.  I am clearly biased towards Sony as I am heavily invested in the PS3 and PSP 3000.  I turned off my XBox a few months ago and declared my allegiance to Sony.

The best news of E3 2009 was Sony's renewed commitment to the Sony PSP platform.  The PSP Go was introduced, and it looks pretty slick.  Taking away the UMD drive and making the games run on flash memory was a great design choice--long overdue, gamers are already downloading games on their memory sticks.  The Go's internal memory is 16 GB.  It's lighter and easier to carry.  I am not sure about the placement of the buttons and thumbstick, they look awkward, but people on the scene have said it is comfortable.  The price of the Go is outrageous at $250--it should really be $200 or less.