Posted: 15-11-2010 | 16:09:22Category:Playstation 2Comments Off
Like Bayonetta and MadWorld before it, Vanquish weaves an experience so wickedly over-the-top that if Michael Bay, John Woo, and Robert Rodriguez were melted down and rebuilt as a single sentient being, their collective minds would still be blown before the opening credits had even finished rolling. Well, perhaps not by the opening sequence as Vanquish’s story and cinematics are surprisingly dull. They border between comic book-esque absurdity and the most boring and cliched exposition on par with Hideo Kojima’s worst, and as with Bayonetta they drag on far longer than they should. As a vehicle for the action the story does a barely passable job, but you could literally interchange any character or plot point with those of a random Saturday morning cartoon, sprinkle copious amounts of the F-bomb on top, and still end up with roughly the same outcome.
When everyone finally shuts up, though, Platinum proves that awesome action and tight gameplay are truly its expertise. I can best sum up Vanquish as “Gears of War meets God Hand at x5 speed… in space”. You play some utterly forgettable tough guy doing his best (or worst?) Wolverine impression. The real star of the game is Not Wolverine’s Augmented Reality Suit, which comes equipped with jet thrusters and a shape-shifting armory of robotic death deliverance. The jets will allow you to quickly slide from cover to cover while shooting enemies in slow motion or dodging incoming rockets, and is what most differentiates Vanquish from being just another Gears of War clone (which is actually just another Kill.Switch clone, for the record).
The DARPA-developed experimental weapon system (aka “BLADE”) allows the player to carry three different guns in addition to explosive and EMP grenades. Nothing special there really, but any time one of the weapons has full ammo and the player picks up another one, that specific weapon is automatically upgraded. Unfortunately, it’s not a system that facilitates effective usage of your full arsenal; instead, I spent the entire game running around exclusively wielding my trusty HMG while never even touching my other two slots so that the respective weapons would be continuously leveled up. Annoyingly, all your hard work is erased if you replay a mission or start a new game, so it’s best to just focus on the three weapons you truly care about and completely ignore the rest.
Aside from the solid and exciting gameplay, what I really loved about Vanquish was the sense of an intense, ongoing battle between two factions. Most of the enemies are human-sized robots who will utilize the same cover you and your military comrades do but are easily felled by a quick headshot, yet there are plenty of increasingly large boss machines to contend with as well. The fact that it all takes places in an impressive space station just makes the illusion of an epic war saga that much more potent. Again, too bad the plot and canned dialogue can’t complete the package.
There’s been a lot of drama surrounding Vanquish’s alleged short play time. My first playthrough, in which I racked up 1039 kills and died seven times (as opposed to Eurogamer’s ridiculously newbish 54), took 3:52:01, according to Vanquish’s own end-game stats tracker. I doubt this tracks cutscenes, but when individual chapters can take as little as one to two minutes to complete, it’s not at all unheard of. All of this while looking for hidden statuettes and maxing out every weapon, too.
Some would look at the brevity of the experience as a negative, but Vanquish is a genuine breath of fresh air in a world choked to death by games like Fallout: New Vegas wear out their welcome long before the 50+ hours required to complete them have been met, and titles like Quantum Theory artificially expand their playtime by including one too many waves of enemies every possible chance the developers get. It’s fast, furious, and most importantly, fun. So much so that immediately after I finished the game, I started over again on a harder difficulty. Whether you rent or buy, there’s no denying that Vanquish is simply worth playing.
Square Enix has announced that three new expansions priced at $10 each will be coming to the eight year-old MMORPG Final Fantasy XI in 2010, with each expansion set to release simultaneously in all markets for all platforms.
With Final Fantasy XI about to enter its eighth year of existence, the amount of fan support the game continues to receive is nothing short of phenomenal. Not only does the game still inspire fan conventions like Vana Fest, but the developers are still creating new content for players to partake in. At this weekend’s Vana Fest, Square Enix announced three Final Fantasy XI scenario add-ons set to release throughout 2010, at $10 each. The three packs will release in all territories simultaneously, and will be available on all three FFXI platforms–PC, PS2, and Xbox 360.
The three expansions will be named Vision of Abyssea, Scars of Abyssea, and Heroes of Abyssea, with the first expansion (Vision) due this summer. Players will need to have acquired two previous expansion packs–Rise of the Zilart and Wings of the Goddess–to access these three new add-ons.
Any FFXI fans still out there? Are you looking forward to trying out these new parts of that world, or has your vision shifted to Square Enix’s next MMO, Final Fantasy XIV?
They’re calling it P3P — as in Persona 3 Portable.
Atlus announced today that the PlayStation Portable port of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 would make its way Stateside this summer.
Apparently, the developer is skipping over Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Personal 2: Innocent Sin (which never got a US release anyway) in their PSP port series of the super-popular role-playing games.
Persona 3 PSP (or P3P) came out in Japan in November 2009. It’s an “enhanced” version of the PlayStation 2 original with the option to play through the game as a female character with altered story elements as a result. Also, the battle system is tweaked to more closely resemble Persona 4 for PS2.
An ambitious re-imagining of Konami’s spine-tingling masterpiece, Shattered Memories proves itself an innovative, if flawed take on one of the forefathers of the survival horror genre.
My first exposure to Konami’s Silent Hill series of scare-fests was back in 1999, fresh off of a week-long bender of Resident Evil 2. Ready for even more malformed monsters and mutant crocodile menaces, I was somewhat surprised when I powered my Playstation on to find an incredibly different environment than RE2′s Raccoon City. Instead of facing a horde of genetically altered flesh-eaters, I was met with twisting camera angles, hauntingly melodic background music, and faceless creepy crawlies straight out of Jacob’s Ladder. Silent Hill’s titular fog-infested locale was frightening in a much more psychological sense, creating a general sense of uneasiness and anxiousness that offered a nice change of pace from RE’s conventional Romero-esque scare tactics.
The franchise hit a high point with the scarring Silent Hill 2, a journey through the psyche of a tortured widower that garnered both critical and commercial acclaim; after a relatively successful direct sequel to the original with Silent Hill 3, the franchise slowly headed back to obscurity with the remarkably dissimilar Silent Hill 4 (originally not even a Silent Hill title), then ran safely back towards the horror conventions it tried so hard to stray from with the American developed Silent Hill: Homecoming. Despite its masterfully frightening origins, the Silent Hill series fell victim to contrived and confusing plot twists, as well as several inherent gameplay issues such as unwieldy cameras and a slow, cerebral pace that proved too taxing for survival horror fans accustomed to Resident Evil’s gut-wrenching pace.
Find your way way through Castle Oblivion with these secrets.
Reverse/Rebirth Mode To get Reverse/Rebirth Mode where you play through the story as Riku, simply beat the game once as Sora.Special Cards:
Complete the following requirements to unlock these cards for use in your deck.
Ansem Beat Reverse/Rebirth mode and obtain from a chest in Castle Oblivion.
Axel Enemy Card Progress through the story
Demyx Enemy Card Atlantica: Key to Rewards after beating Reverse/Rebirth
Diamond Dust Beat Riku’s story and obtain from a chest in Castle Oblivion.
Getting Mushu and Xigbar card Go to Hollow Bastion and use key of rewards and there will be two chests one containing Xigbar
Larxene Enemy Card Progress through the story
Lexaeus Beat Reverse/Rebirth mode and obtain from a chest in Castle Oblivion.
Luxord Enemy Card Agrabah: Key to Rewards after beating Reverse/Rebirth
Marluxia Enemy Card Progress through the story
One Winged Angel Beat Riku’s story and obtain from a chest in Twilight Town.
Roxas card (Doubles attack strength) Go to Twilight Town in Sora’s mode and enter the treasure room. There should be two chests with one of them containing the Roxas card.
Saix Enemy Card Traverse Town: Key to Rewards after beating Reverse/Rebirth
Ultima Beat Riku’s story and obtain from a chest/shop in Castle Oblivion.
Vexen Enemy Card Progress through the story
Xaldin Enemy Card Monstro: Key to Rewards after beating Reverse/Rebirth
Xemnas Enemy Card Wonderland: Key to Rewards after beating Reverse/Rebirth
Zexion’s Card Beat Riku’s story and retrieve from a chest in Destiny Islands.
