Infamous 2

When I first got my PS3, I got a couple of free games. One was Call of Duty, but the other one was a little game called Infamous. And out of the two of those, I much preferred the second. In fact I’ve preferred it to most of the games I have for the PS3, and is a contender for my favourite game on the console. One thing it did that made me love it even more was it had an ending clearly designed for a sequel. In a film I’d hate that, and in a bad game it’s inexcusable, but I loved Infamous and I couldn’t wait to see where the story went and what new powers you got in the sequel. And... I was disappointed. It’s not the worst game ever; it’s not even the worst game that came out that week, hello Duke Nukem. But it’s definitely not the sequel I was hoping for. Nothing’s awful, but there seems to be a problem with practically every aspect of the game. So let’s dig in.



Story
Right, so I’ll admit the story of Infamous wasn’t perfect. But one thing it did do was seem like it mattered. The basic story of Infamous 2 is that superpowered protagonist Cole McGrath travels to the city of New Marais to gain new powers so he can fight an unstoppable monster, The Beast. While there he gets involved in the dealings of a violent Militia who are trying to rid their city of any superpowered people and have imposed martial law. Now, after the intro you might as well forget about the Beast until about three quarters of the way through. It’s the main villain, the whole point of the story, but about half way through, I forgot it was in the game. They don’t mention it, in fact it just sort of appears at the end, then disappears then they have a chat and it turns out was Cole’s old partner in a shocking twist that doesn’t really make any sense. Oh yeah, spoilers by the way.
There’s really no sense of danger. About half way through you fight the chief of the militia who turns into a huge monster. And then you beat him. And he runs away into the slums. You’d think that things would be getting tenser as the game goes on, but you’ve just beaten the second most powerful thing in the game and you’re only half way through. Later on you fight him again and it’s even easier. Compare this to the first game, where you fight a huge cyborg, you beat him, but then there’s another more powerful enemy. Here, you completely beat him, and then you are still supposed to buy him as a threat. It... doesn’t work.
To be fair the story is no more ridiculous than Infamous the problem is that you just don’t care. Things happen and they either come from nowhere, aka the moment where your friend just turns up with a nuke that you’ve never heard of before, or they make no sense at all, that being the part where you are told to swap powers even though it sounds like a terrible idea since you already have the best ones out of the people you’re allowed to swap with. And you aren’t allowed to say no. So, the story is flawed. It didn’t put me off the game, but it really didn’t make me want to play any more.



Powers
This really annoyed me. At the start of the game they take away some of the powers you have in the first game. Then throughout the game you get these powers back, and they try to claim these are new. So you unlock lots of powers but nearly all of them are just the same as the powers as in the first game. Another trick they have is the ice/fire upgrades. You gain ice or fire powers in the middle of the game, so you’d think you’d gain some cool new powers like fireballs or freezing, but no. You just get upgrades for the powers you already have that look different, but pretty much do the same as the power you had already did. There are new powers such as the ability to pick up metal items and carry them and throw them, which is fun to start with, but just ends up making you have to some really dull and frustrating missions were you have to carry boxes around. And there are some new movement abilities that help you travel better but there are no new attacks. At all. You could claim throwing cars at people, but considering I have never managed to hit anyone with this power, so it doesn’t really count. Because it’s shit. Oh and there’s the amp, which is just a huge electrified tuning fork Cole can hit things with. But it’s basically just an improvement on the awful melee attacks in the first game and nothing new. Sure in most games it would be fine just to leave things the way they are, but this is a superhero game. You’d think they could give you something new.



Enemies
This is a short complaint, but the militia seem to be exactly the same as the reapers from the first game. Not in their story, but they have the same attacks and a similar look. The same goes for the ice warriors near the end, they have very similar looks to later enemies in the first game. And one of the more powerful ice enemies is practically the exact same enemy as one of the robots from Infamous but with ice instead of metal. There are also swamp monsters. Maybe it’s just me, but they really smack of Prototype, a similar game. I can totally see a meeting where the developers looked at it and thought “what good things did they have that we didn’t?” and blatantly ripping off the monsters from there. Well at least you fight them differently to most enemies which brings us to...

Gameplay
I could forgive all the other problems if it was fun to play. So luckily, for the most part, it is. It’s the same as the first game, down to Cole being almost magnetically attracted to walls. But, it’s still fun to roam the city searching for items and the attacks although nothing new are enjoyable. Except, there are still a few problems. Fighting the basic monsters is best with melee attacks. Problem is, there’s only one melee attack button, so when you’re attacked by a group it just means you sit tapping square for a few minutes. It gets old pretty quickly.
And the biggest problem with the game, the problem that almost made me stop playing are the mini-bosses. Not the bosses, no, they’re a challenge, but it’s fun. The mini-bosses however turn up in practically every mission after they’re introduced and they take a completely unreasonable amount of damage. The worst part is they’re not even challenging. They’re easy to beat, it just takes forever. And they are only so many times I can be bothered to fight the same dull enemy that takes about 5 minutes to take out. This really made me stop playing for bit, because I was tired of it. This is not a good sign.



So to round off, Infamous 2 is a similar game to the first, not bringing anything new except a worse story and some dull gameplay. It isn’t however a bad game. I still played the whole game through and enjoyed it. But it’s definitely not a worthy sequel or a particularly exciting game, just mediocre in most ways.

3/5



Back from holiday.

And so I'm back from holiday. I feel I should write about the things I did while I was away, but I know what it's like to hear stories you weren't part of and I don't want to bore you. Well, I probably wouldn't bore, but possibly make you question my sanity with stories of getting lost and turning up in a hotel bar pretending to be irish with no memory and no shoes. Or shouting all the way through Ireland about DOBACK while making a four bed superbed.

These are the sort of things that happen on my holidays, and I had fun. Even when I was stuck in bed for two days due to heat stroke, and when I ran out of money, twice. And when I crashed about 10 on my last night because I'd pretty much been up drinking to the early hours of the morning for 19 days in a row. So just, I had fun, it was a bit weird, and now I'm back. I'll write something people want to read soon, but currently I'm too busy being really tired and getting annoyed at Infamous 2. So now, heres a nice wee song.

Things to keep you amused.

I'm away on holiday until pretty much the end of the month. So I thought I'd collect all the things I've done, but forgotten to post over the past few months for you lot to watch, read and listen to until I'm back.

Distant Thunder
A short student film I was in, written and directed by Jayne Ferris. The actual film isn't online yet, but there's both the trailer and a collection of bloopers to watch.

Trailer
Blooper reel

My Youtube Channel
I've got lots of old videos on here. Most of them are terrible, but even if they are, they're still worth a watch for a laugh. And theres a video of Alan Coull getting it on.

Professor Green
This is strictly speaking cheating. I didn't make this at all. But hey, I'm in it. And so's a hilarious girl. So watch it.

LTWW
I'm featured a number of times on this site. Mainly because I know the people who own it. But still...
So lots of things to read:

Enter the Matrix Review
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill Review
Leprechaun In Da Hood Review

They also have a furiously award winning podcast. The episodes featuring me are Season 2: Episode 1 and Season 2: Bonus Speciale. But hey, it's free so I'd advise you to listen to more than just those two. Either way, here's the itunes link.


So that's it. Hopefully it'll keep you going til I'm back. See you suckas in July.

Cheers lads!

The Wii U might be the worst idea I've ever heard.

I posted on facebook about my dislike of the wii u. But then I explained myself terribly. So after another viewing of the launch video I now have a proper argument as to why this is a terrible idea and no-one should buy it and definately not be looking forward to it.

The Wii U has two screens, one being a screen you look at while pressing buttons that affect what happens on said screen, and the other which is touchscreen that you can draw on or press allowing for more than one set of controls or inventory screen, or various uses. That sounds familiar. Oh wait, it's the exact description of the DS. But let's not be too quick to call this an uninventive non-portable awkward DS. Maybe it's got some interesting new features. So, lets look at the trailer and look at all the many uses this wonderful new piece of tech has. And then take them apart one by one.

1. Switch from the TV to the new controller
The trailer shows a man coming in and wanting to watch the tv, so the gamer switches from using the tv to the controller's inbuilt screen. Well aside from the fact that if you have enough money to buy a Wii U, you'd think you'd be able to watch TV in one room and game in another, theres a major problem. If he switches to the controller screen, then what was on it before? Was it just black, or the same image as on the TV? If it was either of them then playing the game on the TV to begin with just means you're playing a game on the TV, like you would with the current wii, but just with a huge awkward controller. If on the other hand he was playing a game which had different displays on the TV and the controller, then where does what the controller was showing go when he switches the TV's display to it's screen. Does it just disappear and mean you have to press start to see it, like on a normal game on any normal console? Or does it come out on a secret third screen? Nah, that last one was a joke. But it still wouldnt surprise me in the level of nuts this is, if that was true.

2. Draw on the new controller
This is just a blatant rip-off of the DS. Which is odd, considering it's Nintendo ripping off themselves. But any drawing required ingame could easily be done with a wii remote as it's motion controls should allow basic drawing. And the drawing as shown in the video, like drawing as art, would be far easier and allow a real copy if you just got a couple of pencils and a bit of paper. I'm not saying this feature is particularly BAD, it's just when you get beaten by your last generation of console and a writing impliment invented in 1565, then it can hardly be called good.

3. Play only on the new controller

Well this is just stupid. If you were only meant to play on the new controller without the TV then it should have just been a handheld console. But since you need to be close to the wii 2 base console, then it's non-portable. And what is the point in a non-portable handheld? Well, there isn't one. You might as well go buy a DS and you'll have saved yourself a lot of money and shame. Also I like how the game they choose to show in this clips is a variant on Othello, a board game I have in my house, which is more fun to play with real pieces, and has already been made into a video game on the Atari 2600. Very new.

4. Use motion to control with the new controller

It's the wii's motion control again, except instead of a small box the size of a tv remote, you have to use a tablet bigger than the ipad to control it. This is a step backwards. Oh, but you can look through it at the tv screen. Well on the wii you didn't have to look through it, because it wasn't the size of a fucking house. You could look round it, by tilting your head about a centimetre. Whatever anyone says I will be never be convinced this is an improvement. They've just made it the same motion control as they already had but with a more awkward controller than when they tried motion control on the 3DS.

5. Get new views with the new controller.

If you want to see what's happening in a part of the screen you're not looking at in a game, then turn your character to turn and look. Don't turn and look in real life. It means you cant look at both screens and also it makes you look like an idiot. Like the shooting head game on the 3DS that makes you look inexplicably stupid. Also, the trailer shows this feature in that you can see the ball on the ground in wii golf. Which you don't need to see to play the game at all. In fact if you were really playing this game I don't think you'd look at the ball once. So, pointless gimmickery.

6. Stay fit with the new controller.

From what I can tell this is just playing wii fit, but instead of looking at the tv screen, you look at the new controller. I don't get it. What's so much infinitely better at looking at the little screen instead of a bigger and better tv?

7. Take aim with the new controller.

Again, what's wrong with just aiming with a normal wii remote? In this video, the only advantage seems to be it's zoomed in more than on the tv. But I've zoomed in on my ps3 and I don't have a second tv attacted to my controller. No, I just have a zoom button. Far simpler and easier and also less likely for you to drop the new controller and break it, making your wii u useless. Until you buy a new controller, which i'm sure would be really cheap with an inbuilt screen...

8. Play across your new controller and TV.

So from the trailer it looks like you just move your hand on the new screen and it affects the big screen. Pretty much it looks like motion control, except moving a hand across a screen instead of moving your whole body, so I'm sure that'll be fun. Maybe this feature will be used to have a map or an inventory screen on the new controller. Well if so, then let me remind you, inventory screens mean you have to take your attention off the game, so it's better just to put one on a pause menu. And maps can be either on a pause menu or at the corner of the screen like they are in games on every single console except the DS and Wii U. So I hardly think this gimmick justifies buying the console.

9. Make video calls with the new controller.

I can do this on my computer. People have phones that can do this. I don't agree with video calling in general. And the people doing it in this trailer look like the biggest douches on the planet. This is not interesting or new.

10. Browse with the new controller.

Every console can browse the internet. Hell, even the 3DS is meant to be able to do it. Looking at the brower through the new controller is like looking at your computer monitor through a magnifying glass. Sure you can do it, but it's pointless and ridiculous.

11. Share from the new controller to the TV.

If you want to show something to people, say "hey guys look at this, give me a second to find it". Then you can look it up on the browser on the TV and it's not a problem to anyone. If on the other hand you are sitting in the corner like a loser, like the gamer seems to be doing in this video, and then send something while the rest of the people actually having fun are watching something else, then you're just asking for trouble. All I see this being used for is to annoy people. Maybe you're watching the TV then your brother sends you a video of a parrot and you miss your program. You're not going to laugh, you'll be pissed.

12. Get more detail with the new controller.

This is the fact that the graphics are improved from the wii. And they are improved to... the standard of the other consoles of the wii's generation. This is not a great thing, it's just fixing a problem the wii had. It's not doing anything better than anyone else.

So basically, it's a bunch of ideas from different Nintendo products stuck together into one console. Nothing is new, everything has either been done better before or is a pointless gimmick that is more trouble that it's worth. And half of things are both. Maybe you agree with me. Or maybe you think you can change my mind, and to be honest, I'd be glad for you to try. But you won't. Then the wii u will released and you'll buy it. And you'll either be incredibly disappointed, or you'll blind yourself from all the flaws, get taken for a fool by the money grabbing Nintendoeons and just be happy with your new toy, you fanboy.

Doctor Who Review: A Good Man Goes To War

So, we reached the final episode of this half of 2011's run of Doctor Who. There were many questions needing answered and some were, and some were left for the autumn. But was it any good? Well, I'm going to go against most people's opinions that I've talked to raving about how great it was, and say I thought was only good. I didn't hate it, it was a perfectly good episode of Doctor Who. But I just wasn't as impressed as I have been with other episodes this series.

Before I go into my problems with this episode, first the things I did like. Rory was great in this episode. From the brilliant first scene where they talk about him like he's the Doctor then it's revealed it's Rory, to the last, Arthur Darvill did a great job. And for once he didn't die. The idea of the humans being the Doctor's enemies, while he teams up with a set of aliens who would normally be against him was clever. I really enjoyed the character of Dorium, the blue fat alien, kind of upset he wont be back. I liked the cyberships being the same design as they were in the classic series. And I loved the speech by the Doctor to "Colonel Runaway". But it's always good TV when the Doctor gets angry.



There were other good parts but those where the bits that stood out to me. I just thought I'd mention them to make sure no-one thought I hated this episode. No, I really liked it. But that said there were definately flaws. The idea of the Doctor going round collecting his debts was a clever one, but it was terribly done. It reminded of the part in last year's finale where all the characters over the series make a return cameo to deliver a painting to the Doctor. Except last year it was people we knew, this year except for brief 30 second scenes explaining them, we had no idea who these people coming to help were, so they didn't really mean anything. There was a sontaran nurse, but I really don't like the new sontarans so I didn't enjoy him. There was a silurian detective, who I actually quite liked, so that's enough of her. There was the space-spitfire, which seemed really out of place since it came from an episode over a year ago. And there were the returning space pirates, but I hated their episode and all they did was remind me of it, so I wish they hadn't been in this episode. Seriously, fuck those guys.

 

Another returning alien was the cybermen, and it always annoys me when they turn up. Entirely because of the fact that Stephen Moffat decided the Daleks needed a redesign(which was a terrible idea) but has never bothered to redesign the cybermen, who currently still look like the cybermen from the alternate universe, but they cant be them because they dont have spaceships... and so on unnecessary geeky rant. Back to this episode though, I thought the poem was a bit weak. It sounded like something that was meant to sound epic, but it just didn't work for me, I just thought it was out of place. I was disappointed that the eyepatch woman was just another villian out to get the Doctor, I thought there might have been slightly more to it, but maybe there is and we just haven't found it out yet. But I was more disappointed after hearing River's description of "This is the Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further." Which gave me the impression something really epic and world changing was going to happen. But no. I mean it was bigger than the average episode, even in the last series the universe was destroyed then the Doctor created a second Big Bang before being removed from all of time and space. I think that might have been a slightly darker hour than losing one baby. And talking of the baby, it seemed pretty cheap to have that as flesh as well as Amy. I mean it was a bit like playing Mario, you think you have the baby, but then, sorry it's in another castle.



And now for the biggest problem. The twist. That River Song is Amy and Rory's daughter. My problem isn't what the twist was. I have no trouble buying that, in fact I'm looking forward to how it's dealt with. My problem is the fact that everyone seems to be completely blown by it, when I knew it from less than 5 minutes in. Maybe it was because I'd already thought of that as the sort of wild idea that Moffat would write for her origin, but I knew she was there daughter from about the first second in when the baby's name was revealed. Melody Pond, River Song. So I got the twist then, and the big reveal had no effect on me. Maybe that why I wasn't so impressed by this episode. It was all leading up to the reveal, and since I already knew it I was disappointed. Oh well. Overall a solid episode of Doctor Who, entertaining, but nothing better than usual, so disappointing as a half-season finale.

3/5

Doctor Who Review: The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People

This is the second of the two part stories this series and it’s definitely not the better of the two. It is paced too slowly in the first episode with all the events contained in that, taking about twice the length they should have. The main cast act in odd out of character ways, such as Rory tricking the humans and the Doctor, surely if he’d found something worth looking at he’d tell them rather that tricking them into going down easily allowing them to get caught by the gangers and Amy not caring nearly enough about what’s happening to Rory and being strangely offensive to the Doctor’s ganger. Losing the Tardis and the shoe thing are hardly original and I could work out half the twists before they happened. And the Jennifer ganger’s weird powers that no-one else had were never explained, were poor effects and felt out of place with the rest of the story. And there were a lot of weird scenes like that, example: the room with the eyes and the blood clot storyline which just seemed to be really insensitive to people who have them in real life. So normally I’d say it was a good idea but it wasn’t done very well and had definitely been done better before in other stories.


But even though everything I’ve said is true I still managed to really enjoy this story. Maybe it was the supporting cast who, except for one guy I remember literally nothing about and I don’t think did a thing through the whole story, were really likable. Maybe it was the good idea behind the story with the ideas of the gangers and their creepy make-up. Maybe it was the humour, “Time to break out the big guns”, oh Rory. Maybe it was the two Doctors being great fun and done really well. Or maybe it was just the moment where Tom Baker’s voice was dubbed over Matt Smith, in the biggest bit of fan service in this series, somehow outdoing a whole episode about the Tardis. I’m not sure which of these it was, but although the story had many, many faults, it just had a real sense of fun that made it hard to dislike. So not a classic, but still a solid 90 minutes of entertainment. And the cliff-hanger, well, the sooner next week arrives the better.

3/5