The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Let me explain exactly why you should be excited for The Witcher 2. It all starts with the sidequest I got to play during a hands-on demonstration of the game at Atari’s offices in New York. Tomasz Gop, Senior Producer at Witcher developer CD Projekt RED, was on hand to walk me through the game and answer some of my questions.

The demo opens with the protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, in the middle of a dwarven town, presumably on his way to a tavern – though, that’s entirely up to the player. What transpires is completely optional, “Not all players will actually get to see it, because of the non-linearity that we have in the game,” says Gop. “The locations are just one of the aspects of [the non-linearity]. So depending on how you play, you go here or there, some things are only shown to you if you choose this or that.”

Optional content is nothing new – after all, Fallout 3 famously gave you the option to nuke an entire town and multiple quest lines - but when I explain the care and depth that went into this simple side-quest, you’ll understand that Gop and his team are doing something very special.

Ahead of Geralt is a collection of dwarven buildings, huts, and shops divided by vast stone walls and set against an ominous mountainside. “It’s actually been quite complex because Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of the books about the witcher - he has described dwarven interiors and buildings and…well, it wasn’t that much of a reference. He gave us, ‘Dwarven interiors are like a reflection of their souls, they’re really harsh on the outside, and really warm on the inside.’ What do you do with that?” asks Gop.

What they did was create a space that looks lived-in and teeming with life. I head down the stairwell before me and approach a tavern entrance. At the door to the tavern is a man, and the beginning of the side-quest that progresses the demo. The problem, it seems, is that some people have been found murdered, and Geralt has been called upon to help solve the crime. Thanks to his experience, Geralt is a sort of fantasy CSI detective, able to make conclusions about what kind of monster may have committed the killings based on the state of the bodies.

From there, Geralt is to head to a crypt outside of town to examine the bodies, but I wanted to do a bit of exploring first, so I headed into the tavern. Inside were dozens of villagers, Geralt’s bard Dandelion, and a smattering of simple bar games. Each of the bar games is a simple mini-game. Arm wrestling, for example, has you using the mouse to keep a slider within a moving safe zone, while fights play out like a quick-time event.

I then spoke to Dandelion, who offered up a new song to which Geralt was not interested. The banter between the two friends shows the sharpness of the writing in The Witcher 2. It’s the kind of clever, compelling, and even funny dialogue you usually only get in a more linear Bioware RPG, not huge, open-world fare.

On my way out I checked my journal to get back to the quest, and I got a peek at the way the quest log is handled. “We actually approached the quest log from a different angle. We described the log as if it was Dandelion who writes the story of what Geralt does,” Gop explains. “If you were to finish the game and print out it out it would resemble kind of a book.”

It goes even further – Gop details what he says is a minor feature, but puts even more emphasis on the openness of the game: “Because of the non-linearity level that we have, we believe that for most people, if they have finished the game and speak about it with their friends and colleagues, it will feel different for a lot of people. So we thought, we will integrate that with social media. You will have the option to synchronize your progress through the game with Facebook or Twitter for others to see.”

Heading out of town and through the forest to the crypt where the bodies are, I get my first taste of combat. The combat in The Witcher 2 is surprisingly action-oriented, though never so fast-paced you can’t get a handle on it if you’re more acclimated to an RPG pace. Geralt has melee weapons, magic signs, and back up weapons like the bomb the developers conveniently left in my inventory. My first move was to toss a bomb into the mob of soldiers attacking me, which stunned them and left them open to brutal finishers. From there things got a bit more complicated, as the group wasn’t afraid to surround me and pound away mercilessly. Blocking and evading are an important aspect of the combat, with successful blocks staggering opponents and leaving them open to attack. Combined with magic like a force push, fireball, and shield, players must use their full repertoire to open enemies’ defenses. The combat, above all else, has a good pace to it, with give and take between opponents and a visceral feel to the attacks.

With the mob dispatched, I headed across a river, through the woods, and into the crypt. The Witcher 2 is a beautiful game – if, like me, you’re a sucker for fantasy worlds that let you run around in the woods, this game is a dream come true.

Inside the crypt, I found the bodies of the dead and made my way to the freshest corpse. From there I was given multiple options to example different parts of the body, and depending on what I found, the plot would play out differently. For example, one wound has something embedded in it, but Geralt can’t get at it without the proper instruments. “You’d actually unlock another branch of the quest, which would give you a bunch of new conclusions,” says Gop. Underneath the corpse, I find Dandelion’s poetry book. Geralt concludes that the murders have been committed by a Succubus. So off I go to question Dandelion and find the Succubus.

On the way back I’m attacked by a giant spider, and even with the demo’s generous health boost, the thing does some hefty damage. “We do not auto-scale opponents. Normally, you’d probably want to run away and come back a few hours later. It’s part of our philosophy – we don’t believe auto-scaled opponents are fun, we believe they take fun out of the RPG.”

I returned to the tavern and spoke to Dandelion, who told me that his poetry book was recently stolen. Geralt hatched a scheme to have Dandelion read the poetry book and lure out the Succubus. I headed out of town to where the Succubus should be and the game put me in the shoes of Dandelion. From there I was tasked with reciting a decent poem from multiple dialogue options. “If you were to read the volume of poetry [beforehand] it would help you in this part,” Gop explains.

After figuring out the right combination of lines, the Succubus revealed its lair and invited Dandelion in. From there I could guide Dandelion back to Geralt or down into the lair. I went with sending Dandelion to his sexy doom, to which Geralt grunted, “Fucking idiot actually went in.”

Resuming control of Geralt, I headed in to save Dandelion and confront the Succubus. “You might fight with her, or you might speak to her,” Gop explained. “If you fight with her and kill her, the quest ends. If you speak to her you will see another way to develop this quest. You can reason with her and find out more about what happened. Depending on how you play, you may have not even been half way through this quest.”

Speaking further on the non-linear narrative, Gop told me the game has 16 different endings, some of which are locked out almost immediately based on early game choices. The game is even more non-linear than the original, which was a decision made based on fan feedback. “We knew from the first Witcher that people appreciate it, because most of the praise that we had was for doing a non-linear story.”

The Witcher 2 will allow players to import their save from the original, allowing for three different openings to the game. When I asked how this affects newcomers to the series, Gop reassured me, “Even though it’s a franchise, we’re not going to do a game that people are lost in.”

As someone who has an old PC and a new-found desperate need to get my hands on this game, I asked Gop about a console version. “We would like to do a console version of The Witcher 2, we never denied that.”

The original Witcher was intended to be released on consoles, but the outsourced port of the game didn’t work out. “One of the main lessons that we learned from this [is that] whenever we want to do a console game, we also definitely should do it in-house. If we ever approach The Witcher 2 or once again The Witcher 1, we’d definitely do it in-house.”

If this short demo is anything to go by, The Witcher 2 is going to be a serious force this year. Even against the likes of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Dragon Age 2, CD Projekt’s latest looks to offer the most depth, maturity, and non-linear storytelling of any upcoming RPG – I can’t wait.

Read more »

Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a modern-day excursion through the seedy drug cartel business, the setting of which includes the Mexcian city of Ciudad Juárez, a town situated steps away from El Paso, Texas. It's unsurprising that the area's residents aren't entirely enthralled about what they consider a glorification of the drug-related violence they've experienced.

Juárez is regarded as one of the most violent cities in North America. More than 3,000 people were murdered within its borders last year as the result of drug trading - that's more than eight murders every day, on average. On the other side of the border is El Paso, one of the biggest 20 metropolitan areas in the US and, in contrast, a city that's rated as one of the safest in the country.

The border between the two cities is one of the most intense and storied areas throughout the entire continent. That makes for good fiction, which is why the game exists. Nevertheless, El Paso County Sheriff's Office Commander Gomecindo Lopez believes it's inappropriate.

"In games you get hurt, you die and you get another life. In real life, you only die once. This goes along the lines of narco-songs that portray cartel leaders as heroes, but both are a gross misrepresentation of who they are. They are criminals," said Lopez in a Reuters interview.

Laurencio Barraza, who works with children in Juárez, commented, "Lots of kids say they want to be a hitman, because they are the ones that get away with everything." Ubisoft's new game, he says, will only make things worse. "This glorifies violence, as if victims were just another number or another bonus."

In response to the criticisms, an Ubisoft spokesperson said, "Call of Juarez: The Cartel is purely fictional and developed by the team at Techland for entertainment purposes only."

"While Call of Juarez: The Cartel touches on subjects relevant to current events in Juárez, it does so in a fictional manner that makes the gaming experience feel more like being immersed in an action-movie than in a real-life situation."

Ubisoft has no plans to tweak the game, which is slated for launch this summer. Little has been released about the game, but you can check out its official site for a few bites of info.

Read more »

Homefront

If you are looking for a new game for your console, then you might be interested to know that a new game called Homefront is soon to arrive by early 2011. Basically, Homefront is an upcoming first-person shooter video game that was developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ and comes with a tag line “Home is where the war is.” This game was written by John Milius, the man behind the Red Dawn and the co-writer of Apocalypse Now.

For those people who are not familiar with the story, this game is set in the near future America 17 years from now where a nuclear-armed Korean’s People Army invades the US. One of the major portions of the story focuses not only on the growth of the North Korean force, but also on the economic downfall of the US.

Homefront is basically a speculative fiction that will focus on the fall of the US so in this game the player will be invited to be a part of the American forces and make use of guerrilla tactics, take command of various military vehicles and utilized advanced drone technology. This game will come up with a vehicle- based 32-player online warfare that will make use of dedicated servers.

This game is intended to be launched for various consoles such as the Xbox 360, PS 3 and PC. However, the minimum system requirement for this game has not been provided yet. In addition to what has been mentioned about this game, this game will also feature fictional physics that will surely attract more players to play the game.

Homefront’s gameplay was also completely revised and focus more on a cinematic and character driven experience. And aside from being a single –player gameplay, this upcoming game will also come up with a multi-player component that focuses mainly on a large scale vehicle based combat. It will also feature a new battle points system that will allow players to purchase weapons, gears and vehicles. Players will have the chance to earn points by getting kills and taking objectives.

Homefront will be released in North America on March 8, 2011 followed by Australia on March 10, 2011, March 11, 2011 in Europe and April 29, 2011 in Japan. THQ is very confident that this game will become and hit and there were also some rumors that even this game has not yet been release, THQ is already planning to come up with a sequel. So always keep posted for more details.

Read more »

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assasssin's Creed 2 was a major success and game of the year contender for 2009, continuing the saga of the assassins against the templars in brilliant fashion. Initially, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood was a disappointment. Fans were expecting a new setting with new characters in a new time period. They also weren't expecting a game so soon. They felt cheated, as though Ubisoft were trying to simply cash in on an already successful game engine.

VG Chartz went behind closed doors to see how the newest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise is playing out as well as getting some hands-on time with the new multiplayer features. One thing is certain, Ubisoft definitely isn't phoning in Brotherhood.

The demo for the single-player began with the same trailer shown at the Ubisoft press conference, with Ezio heading toward a church as a carriage exits. Guards attempt to stop him but they are mowed down by arrows from afar. As the villain exits the carriage with armed guards, more assassin's come up to aid Ezio, evening the odds.

It then fades to a scene of Ezio in bed with a woman when the villa falls under attack. The first new feature of Brotherhood is then shown off as Ezio rides his horse through the town surrounding his villa toward the wall.
He then climbs the outer walls of the villa and mans the cannons to stave off enemy cannons and siege towers. Eventually a siege tower breaks through and Ezio has to engage in combat. The combat system has been rethought to be more action oriented rather than feeling like a minigame. Bonuses in combat are awarded for striking early and fast. Kill combos will positively affect your ability in combat as well.

The main location of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is then revealed to be Rome, which will be more than three times the size of Florence from Assassin's Creed 2. Rome will feature many famous locations such as The Parthenon.

The final single-player feature displayed in the demonstration was the ability to call upon your brotherhood of assassins. This can be something as simple as killing a single opponent on a roof to taking out a line of several guards with arrows from the rooftops. They actually showed a recreation of the E3 trailer done in actual gameplay, calling in fellow assassins to fight the new enemy type: The Swiss Guard.

Off we were then to get some hands-on time with the multiplayer aspect of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. This honestly left me feeling very mixed. The mode they made available to us gave you a target while another player was targeting you. Points are earned for killing your target, particularly with style. Points are also earned for successfully evading a predator to the point their contract is cancelled. The problem here lies in successfully being stealthy against a human opponent.

For instance, I once was stalking a target while hiding in a bale of hay. They were heading straight for me, but then starting taking a wide berth around the hay bale. As they passed, I jumped out of the hay and right into the arms of my predator. Even though I had remained invisible on his radar, he visually saw me dive into the hay and waited for me to come back out. The game mechanics gave me no way of knowing he was near.

The other problem I had was a lack of countermeasure. The developer later told me there are smoke bombs that stun predators and a pushing tactic in case your predator confronts you face to face. The problem was I never knew I was about to die until the blade was in my back. The whole multiplayer process feels like a great idea that really hasn't come to fruition successfully yet.

Nevertheless, I paid $60 for Assassin's Creed 2 without multiplayer and the single player portion of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is shaping up to be a familiar and yet vastly improved experience, estimated to clock in at a bit over 15 hours of story. Here's hoping they get the multiplayer component up to the standard set by the rest of the game.

Read more »

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Hype is a strange thing. It can kill a game that was decent by creating high expectations before the game is even out. This has made many a disappointing game seem even worse because it had been hyped as a great game for so long. There is a positive side to hype though. When you spend months waiting for a game and hyping it up to be amazing, and the game actually delivers then you have one of the best gaming experiences you could ask for. I’m happy to say that Metal Gear Solid 4 lives up to its hype and delivers in almost every possible aspect.

In Metal Gear Solid 4 you play as Solid Snake, a covert operative that has been the main character for most of the Metal Gear Solid series. The storyline is the culmination of all of those previous games, so I highly suggest that you watch one of the story recaps to better get your head around all the characters and throwbacks you’ll be seeing while playing the game. The storyline is most definitely worth the effort, although highly confusing at points, and it is easily one of the most involved and interesting stories in recent gaming. The story is mainly told through cut scenes, during which you’ll be given the option to see flashbacks by pressing “x” or to look through Snake’s eyes by holding “L1” which often shows off just how much of a lecher Snake really is. With those options in mind, there is still an awful lot of watching in this game, and if that isn’t your cup of tea then this game might not be your thing, although given the quality of the game itself I suggest toughing it out or just skipping the cut scenes.

Some new features to the Metal Gear Solid world make their debut in Metal Gear Solid 4, and all of them really add something to the game itself. On the gunplay side of the game, you now have the ability to customize your weapons. At first this seems like an unnecessary addition, but I actually found it amazingly useful for changing up my favorite gun (the M4) for different situations. These customizations are either found on the ground, or bought from a mysterious gun vendor called Drebin, from whom you can also buy an assortment of weapons, ammo, and certain items. On the sneaking side of things you now have what is called “Octocamo”, which basically is an automatic system for using the same camouflage system used in Metal Gear Solid 3. During Metal Gear Solid 4 you will usually be wearing a suit that will automatically change appearances to camouflage you with your surroundings when you are pressed up against a surface and wait for around two seconds. Not only does this mechanic allow simple designs like grass or snow patterns such as were possible in Metal Gear Solid 3, but it also allows for some very interesting patterns when you are camouflaged into carpet or a steel grate. The suit can remember two patterns from wherever you care to take them from, which you can set the suit to manually along with several other preset options. Personally I saved a pattern from a steel grating and a tile floor.

The presentation of Metal Gear Solid 4 is near flawless. From a technical standpoint, the menus were simple and easy to manage, the game had no bugs that I ever noticed and everything just had a polish to it that you don’t often see in games. Beyond the game looking polished, it’s the little additions in the menus like a camera of what’s happening at your HQ at all times, and the Japanese symbols included before the English words on the menu that makes everything seem so perfectly well thought out. There was nothing menu wise that I thought I should be able to do but couldn’t. The only technical hiccup I ever noticed was a single guard that didn’t seem to know where I was even though everyone was on alert and there were many people already shooting at me. A single mishap in a 26 hour play through is nothing to write home about however, so I’m not really going to worry about that. There are a good number of loading times between areas, none more than 5 seconds to my recollection, and the game took a very strange route for its install times. There is a large install time (around 10 min.) at the beginning, and there are also smaller (around 2-3 min.) install times between acts. None of these were really an issue for me, but I can see where one might get annoyed by it, especially if they wanted to switch between acts a few times for whatever reason.

The visual presentation is very often breath taking, especially during the cut scenes and certain unforgettable moments of the actual gameplay. My only gripe is that the shadows during the cutscenes are very jaggy and it is actually fairly noticeable at points. That is an incredibly small problem though, and may not even be an issue for most. All in all the game looks beautiful.

The audio presentation of the game grabs you right from the main menu with one of my new favorite musical scores from gaming. The ambient noise works well during all of the sections of the game, and is especially noticeable during times when you are sneaking through a live battlefield. The songs are memorable and at points old songs from the MGS series are used to help the gamer remember a certain fight or event in the previous games of the series. The use of the old songs is incredibly nostalgic and really adds to the atmosphere of some sections of the game.

The gameplay is amazingly varied and gives you an incredible amount of choice for a decidedly linear game. During Metal Gear Solid 4 your job will usually be to get from one point to another. The great part about this is the number of ways that you can actually get to that point. If you feel like sneaking that’s certainly an option, with all kinds of different paths for you to take. On the other hand, if you’re a more violent type then you can run in guns blazing and just dash your way to your objective. The choice is yours and isn’t even kept to those two major choices since you can easily find a happy medium between the two. Personally I enjoy sniping, so during these sections I would often sneak through an area on my stomach and take out anyone that got in my way from afar with my silenced M4. Along with the aforementioned sections of gameplay, there are also boss fights and other random sections that you play that couldn’t accurately defined as shooter or sneaking. I am honestly impressed with the amount of polish that these sections got while being such small parts of the game. None of them really came across as a minigame, but instead a story driven section of the game that you got to play. Almost like a playable cut scene. All in all the gameplay was amazingly fun, with an amount of choice and diversity in what you do that I rarely see.

The value of Metal Gear Solid 4 is far past the sixty dollars that you will spend to play it. Along with the main game, which can take upwards of 30 hours to play through the first time, you’ll also be given ample reason to play through again on harder difficulties (which I’m probably going to start doing myself fairly soon) as well as multiplayer options through Metal Gear Online. The online aspect of the game is a lot of fun, but my only gripe is that there didn’t really seem to be any game modes where sneaking was encouraged. Perhaps I just haven’t found these game modes, but until I do there will definitely be something missing from Metal Gear Online for me.

Overall this game is an incredible experience and a definite must have for any PS3 owner. Even if you’ve never played a Metal Gear Solid game before, I still suggest reading up on the storyline and picking this game up, you won’t be disappointed. That is actually exactly what I did since I had only played Metal Gear Solid 3 before playing the fourth installment in the series, so it is definitely possible to catch up on the story without too much effort.

Read more »

Valkyria Chronicles

The recent trend within storytelling in gaming has been to move away from linear storylines and lean on the side of player freedom, allowing a person to choose between options and in a way make their own story. While this is commendable in some ways, there is still a lot to be said about a great linear gaming experience, and Valkyria Chronicles shows exactly that. The game plays exactly how a linear game should play, putting in new functions that lend new options to the player and telling a mature story without ever resorting to gore or excessive bloodshed to prove its own maturity, something that is not often seen in a game whose story is centered on war. It also succeeds in making one of the most engaging and accessible battle mechanics to any Strategy RPG I have played.

The combat in Valkyria is easily one of the greatest achievements of the game. It changes up the regular SRPG standard in a way rarely seen. Your role in these battles is acting as the general commander on the field. At the beginning of the battle you are given information on the goals as well as the obstacles ahead and allowed to pick and choose which members of your squad will be starting in the positions available. Each turn you are given a certain number of command points which you can use to issue special commands that up certain stats of your squad members or heal a character in dire need, or you can use the points to take control of one of your squad members. Once you have chosen a squad member the camera dives into your strategic map, coming to rest in a behind the shoulder view of your chosen squad member. You now have control of the character, running with the left analog stick, manipulating the camera with the right analog stick, toggling through weapons with the square button, and taking aim with the R1 button. The character cannot move around infinitely, however, and is given an AP bar which will steadily decrease as you move your character wherever your heart desires. Once you have found a good position, or run your AP bar dry, you can then press R1 to go into a first person view and take aim at your preferred target. Head shots do more damage than body shots, a display on the upper right will tell you how many shots you will take as well as how many shots it will take to kill the current target, and a circle around your crosshairs gives you an idea of the precision of your current weapon. Once ready, you then press the X button to let your bullets, or grenades, or weird exploding lance rocket-like thingies fly.

Most of the strategy of Valkyria Chronicles comes from managing your command points as well as positioning your squad members effectively. The command point management is difficult because command points can be saved for a second turn or used for special orders, and a single character can also be used multiple times during any given turn if you have the necessary command points (albeit with a decrease in available AP each time you use them more than once in a single turn). Utilizing your command points well is often the difference between defeat and victory, and is always important if you are looking for a good rating at the end of the fight.

Squad member positioning is another key factor because every soldier with unlimited ammo (shocktroopers, scouts, engineers, and the machine guns of tanks) will let loose whenever they see an enemy coming, and also because crouching in cover greatly reduces damage and negates the possibility of head shots. These two things make where you position your soldiers for your enemy’s turn almost as important as what you do during your own turn. Placing a line of soldiers where you think your enemy is intending to go can kill off an enemy without wasting any of your own turns, and keeping your squad members in cover is essential to making sure they get out alive.

It is also important to take out the enemy’s leaders while protecting your own. There are certain characters in the game that are denoted as leaders, and having these characters alive during a fight will give you one more command point for each leader alive. This means that you will almost always have all three leader characters out during any given fight, which is one of my few pet peeves because I would’ve liked the punishment for not using the main story characters to be less severe. Though you can certainly play through the game without using them, you’ll just have less command points than the maximum possible.

There are essentially 6 different unit types in the game. The tank, which houses the squad commander, is fantastic for taking out other tanks, clearing up a group of enemy soldiers with a well placed explosion, and knocking down almost any obstructions it comes against. On the negative side the tank takes two command points to use instead of one, and has a fairly low AP amount.

Scouts are basically as their name describes, they are armed with a rifle and one grenade per turn, have extremely high AP, and are especially useful for catching sight of hidden enemies in tall grass. Their attack power and defense are fairly low however, so they can’t deal with an entrenched enemy very well and can easily die if they get caught in a crossfire.

Shocktroopers are your all around soldier, with no specific downsides to using them. They carry a machine gun and have probably the second highest defense , with about half the AP of a Scout. Shocktroopers are usually best used to run into heavily entrenched enemies and take them out using either the machine gun or one grenade per turn.

Lancers are your anti tank troops. They don’t run very fast, but have around the same AP as Shocktroopers. They only have a lance as their sole weapon, and are extremely bad shots with it. You can think of a lance as a goofy rocket launcher. When going against enemy tanks, Lancers and your own tank are really your only option to taking them out. They are provided with their maximum of three rockets to begin with and then gain one more each command turn. Lancers have very high defense from explosives, but not as high bullet defense so they are highly susceptible to snipers, which brings us to the next unit type.

Snipers have easily the lowest AP, it can be difficult to move them to where you want them, and their low defense means you won’t be running them through gunfire for very long. However they come with the best accuracy, the ability to zoom in on targets, and the ability to kill enemies with a head shot with a single round. Snipers have the same ammo worries as Lancers, however, as they start with only their maximum of three rounds, and gain another each command turn.

Engineers are probably best described as a support class. They have AP around three quarters of a scout’s and a comparable defense with easily the worst offensive capabilities. This weakness is tempered by their ability to disable enemy mines, repair tanks, sandbag walls, and refill the ammo of any squad member by touching them. Whenever you plan to use a lancer or a sniper for more than three turns engineers are your best bet, and they are the only means by which you can “heal” your tank.

One slightly unique function of the battle system is what happens to your characters when they die. When a squad member’s health goes to zero, they are knocked out on the ground and their mark on your strategic map is crossed through. You are then given 3 turns to get to and touch that character with another soldier to call a medic and safely evacuate the character out. If you do not do so by the end of three turns, or the enemy touches the fallen squad member before you do, then that character is dead and gone for your entire play through (presuming they aren’t one of three main story characters who instead are gone solely for that fight). During especially difficult fights you will find that you have to balance your objective with trying to reach the fallen, and it is fairly likely that you will lose a couple of soldiers through out the game. I really enjoy this system because it adds permanence to the death of a side character that (along with reading the back story of the side characters) can actually make you miss your fallen comrades somewhat (R.I.P. Nadine).

The other side of this mechanic is that the death of a character or two is not as detrimental as it probably would be in other games. Due to reasons I will touch on later, the members of any given class are all fairly equal in stats and are therefore mostly interchangeable for your strategies. This doesn’t mean that they are all carbon copies of one another, however, as each of your characters will have some perks or detriments based on their given side story. These vary from Walter who is cocky and therefore has a chance of lower evasion skills when his health is high, to Rosie who has a debilitating allergy which has a chance to drain her health whenever in a desert environment, or Lynn whose hard working attitude gives her a chance to take two actions in a single turn instead of one. These attributes add nuance and complexity to how you organize your squad, and also serve to give each of the characters their own story and personality.

The first thing that should clue you in on Valkyria’s linear storyline is the menu set up itself. All of the menus in Valkyria are managed through a book-like interface. From this interface you can choose to continue the story, go to the headquarters to manage troops and equipment, look at the medals you have achieved in combat, and read up on weapons, people, and “historical” events. The “Chapters” tab which encompasses the storyline is easily the best and most important consequence of this menu style. In this tab you unlock battles you can play as well as storyline events that you can watch. What makes this interface great, is that once you have unlocked any cut scene or dialogue, you can come back to that scene as many times as you want. This is a fantastic way to give the player the freedom to watch their favorite cut scenes as many times as they want, and I can tell you that I have watched a particular scene from Chapter 11 at least five times. You don’t have the same freedom with the battles on your first play through the game, but if you decide to go through the story again, you’ll then be able to do the battles as many times as you want.

The “Headquarters” tab allows you to manage the members of your squad, the equipment your squad is wearing, as well as use your experience and money earned. At the Command Center you are able to choose which 20 members of the 50 or so available candidates you want to use in the upcoming battles, which can be especially important if your current squad contains soldiers who may have allergies that will be detrimental in the next fight (I still want to know how people can be allergic to metal). In the R&D facility you can satiate your commercialist desire by spending your hard earned cash on upgrades to weapons and armor and various options for outfitting your tank. The “Training Field” is where you will utilize your experience points to level your characters. One great thing about Valkyria Chronicles is that you don’t level characters individually, but you instead level them as a class. This makes all of the members of any class mostly statistically interchangeable and works very well with the game’s death system, allowing you to miss the character that is gone, without completely screwing over your play through. After you have chosen who will be in your squad, the “Squad Barracks” can be used to choose what specific weapon model each character will use and view various information on the squad members themselves.

Valkyria’s storyline centers on the plight of a small country stuck between two battling behemoths. The East Europan Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation are fighting for dominance of the entire continent of Europa (just change the “a” to an “e” and you’ll have a good picture) while the citizens of the tiny neutral country of Gallia try to ignore the conflict and go about their daily lives. Before too long, the rich resources of Ragnite (basically powers everything in the game from streetlamps to mortar shells) in Gallia are too tempting for the Empire to pass up, and they begin to invade. Gallia has long had a policy of universal and mandatory military training, and you take command of one of the squads of militia formed to fight off the coming Empire.

There are a lot of things that the storyline of Valkyria does well that should be commended. While there is very little blood in the game, the story delves deeply into many mature themes such as racism, death, and the idea that even though you are at war, the people on the other side of the battlefield are still human beings with lives and families to go back to. It is very refreshing and I am happy to see that the developers used the general atmosphere of a war movie extremely well when making their story. Also interesting is the aspects of life that the game totally ignores. Based on attributes there are some characters who are clearly homosexual, but this is simply treated as a random attribute that has very little bearing on the narrative or the stats of the character. It is an extremely mature and commendable way to deal with the subject, and I hope other developers take notice. The story is not perfect of course, there are a few clichés (every JRPG needs a love story right?), and a few cringe worthy moments mainly stemming from the inclusion of the Squad’s pig mascot, but Valkyria gets far more things right with the story than it does wrong.

The second thing that Valkyria does very well from a story aspect is giving a meaningful personality to all of the 50 characters you’ll have the ability to use. Every single squad member has a back story, their own voice acting, and their own attributes that make them unique. There’s enough variety in there that I think that everyone will find some that they really enjoy using and listening to (Walter, Cherry, and Herbert are all hilarious). You also have a lot of incentive to use every single available character, since using them for a few battles will unlock more of their back story as well as another attribute. This has been the main focus of my second play through.

There are a couple issues as far as technical presentation goes. When looking through waving grass or smoke there can sometimes be significant frame rate drops. These are few and far between however, and do not affect the actual gameplay at all due to the turn based nature of the game. On the other side, the menus of Valkyria are close to brilliant, as reading all of these events from a “book” is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also allows the player to go back to any scene that they care to watch again -- something that I hope JRPG developers in general pick up if not the book interface as a whole. The load times are fairly short, with probably only 10 seconds when the battle starts and then nothing else throughout. These loading times were tested using the optional install however, so I am unsure of how they would change without it.

The visual presentation of Valkyria is nearly breathtaking. The pseudo-watercolor aesthetics really catch the eye, and are accentuated by the painting-like border that is always on the edges of the screen, giving the game the look as though you are playing it on a canvas. With the exception of enemy non-leaders, the character models for are very unique, with very few characters looking anything like each other. I think the only little annoyance I have with the visual presentation is that no one has lips. This is a small issue, but becomes extremely obvious when two characters try to kiss. Also the "talking heads" motif common in SRPG's is used perhaps more than I would like, but I can understand that one wouldn't want every scene to be a cutscene since it's nice to be able to control the tempo of the conversations.

The music is top notch, a very nice score that will stick into your mind. I think my only complaint is that they use certain songs too much, and I wish they had spread the song use out better so that you are less likely to get tired of any given song. The voice over talent of Valkyria is great in both English and Japanese. I played through my first time in English and I found very few annoying voices, and the acting during cut scenes was usually very believable even in the more emotional scenes. As I played through my second time in Japanese I noticed a couple voice talents that will make any anime nerd happy (Maximillian being Lelouch from Code Geass for example). Also a major upside to Valkyria’s audio presentation is that there is very little text left unspoken. Unless you are being briefed on a mission every single sentence that is uttered by a character is voiced.

Even with the great presentation, Valkyria’s best aspect is its gameplay. The combination of strategy with a unique interface makes for an extremely fun battle system that has been the main impetus for me starting a second play-through. The story missions are all unique and you will find yourself fighting trench warfare across deserts, reclaiming hostages, and doing demolition work on key strategic Imperial strongholds. No two missions feel anything like each other, and the variety among them is very commendable. My only qualm with how the game played was the inability to change the sensitivity while aiming. This can make aiming with a sniper rather difficult as you try to get the crosshairs just barely where you want them. This is a minor annoyance due to the game’s turn based nature, however. The story is also extremely fun to play through and watch, with many epic moments that I find myself watching again and again.

Value is probably Valkyria’s worst point. My first play through clocked out at 32 hours, which is shorter than a lot of JRPG’s. This is tempered by the idea that Valkyria’s design takes out much of the grinding that can take up your time in other JRPG’s, so I would argue that 32 hours in Valkyria is much more value than 32 hours in your average JRPG. Another upside is that Valkyria has a lot of replay value, with more side characters to learn about as well as a great gameplay mechanic and medals to earn. I do wish that the medals had been adapted to trophies, since it seems like they are practically set up for it already, but such is not the case. There is the promise of further playtime through downloadable content in the future that allows you to try your hand playing on the Imperial side of the war, but as there will be a charge involved I can't really count this as a plus side for value's sake -- however true Valkyria die-hards will be happy for the further playtime and story development.

Those who have read all my reviews and are keeping track (so basically the staff editors and my immediate family. *waves* HI MOM!!) will notice that this is easily the longest review I have ever submitted. This game deserves nothing less. I love this title and have very few complaints. The gameplay is addicting, the story is engaging, and the characters’ personalities are very interesting. On the downside there is a lot of use of the old “talking heads” motif within JRPG story telling, some slowdown in specific points, and no one has lips (yes I’m still harping on that). Basically, if you are a JRPG fan and you don’t give Valkyria a shot, you do yourself a disservice. So go out and buy it if you own a Playstation 3, or go borrow one if you don’t, because this is the kind of JRPG that the Playstation 3 users have been waiting for.

Read more »

God of War 3

After three long years, the conclusion of the God of War trilogy is upon us. And I can say, with absolute certainty, that it was worth the wait.

The player reprises the role of Kratos, legendary military commander and “Ghost of Sparta”, in his quest for vengeance - vengeance which can only be fulfilled by the slaughter of Zeus, king of the gods and Lord of Olympus. After travelling back in time to the Great War between the Gods and Titans, Kratos takes the latter to Mount Olympus to launch one final assault, destroying the mountain and all of its inhabitants.

Naturally, this doesn’t work. If it did, God of War III would be rather short. The bolt of Zeus sends Kratos plummeting to (surprise, surprise) the depths of Hades, where he (shockingly) loses all of his magic, and most of his health. Interestingly, this is the fourth time that he’s visited the fiery realm, and it looks completely different each visit. In God of War, Hades consisted of a few rocks, a huge amount of lava and some rotating metal structures with no clear purpose. In the sequel, it was a large wall with some minions on it. But, apparently, the Lord of the Underworld hired a new contractor in the few days between the events of God of War II and III, because it’s now an enormous stone structure with technology that we in the 21st Century could only dream of. Anyway, Kratos somehow manages to retain Athena’s Blades, as well as the Blade of Olympus (the sword forged especially for Zeus which ended the Great War and banished the Titans to Tartarus) which, for some inadequately explored reason, he rarely uses.

Gaia makes no attempt to rescue the warrior, saying that he was no more than a pawn. So it is that Kratos ends up alone for arguably the first time in the entire series. His one ally takes the form of Athena, who sacrificed herself to save Zeus only a few days previous. Even she doesn’t do a whole lot, simply handing him his new weapons – the Blades of Exile – and then disappearing for several hours. All of Kratos’ powers, all of his weapons, his abilities and his items this time around come about as the fruition of his own labours. No Olympian, Titan or human gives him any pity or charity. Not that he needs it; he has the aforementioned Blade of Olympus to annihilate everything that moves and is more than 20 feet tall.

Kratos’ questionable psychology aside, God of War III’s story is fantastic. It is an epic adventure from the fires of Hades to the clouds of Olympus, alternating between exhilarating action and suspense, and never failing to deliver. Traditional cutscenes (all in-engine; no CGI to be found here) progress the adventure, while 2D red-and-black animations explore the psychology of the different characters and, on occasion, recap events from the previous games. Though I can’t speak from personal experience, it appears as though a player new to the franchise could easily jump in without feeling overly lost.

The Ghost of Sparta’s personality is certainly deeper than in previous games. His emotions, rather than ranging from indignation to fury, with occasional bouts of self-pity, are varied. At certain points you can even see the loving, caring side of Kratos (yes, it exists). Not that this means the game is any less violent. Oh, no. In fact, it’s far more violent than either of the previous games. Dead foes spray Kratos with blood, centaurs leak intestines, and with the larger scale (there are far more enemies on-screen at most points in God of War III than ever in its predecessors) comes far more simultaneous bloodshed. It’s fantastic.

The Olympians (with the exception of Hephaestus, whom everybody now despises) are brash, arrogant and power-hungry, as you would expect Gods to be. They all consistently taunt Kratos until the moment that he rams his blade through their hearts. From most of these gods, Kratos gains powers, weapons and items, as well as knowledge about his ultimate quest, the Flame of Olympus which allegedly contains enough power to destroy the gods. As the Spartan slays them, however, the world slowly grows darker and more ruinous. Floods sink the land; the sun disappears behind the clouds; plagues infect those who manage to survive. From the halls of Olympus you often have the ability to glimpse these great and terrible sights, with limited camera control which allows you to observe the environment.

Combat in God of War III is largely unchanged from the PS2 games, and this is no bad thing. There is a reason that the series appeals to so many gamers whom other hack and slash games leave cold - it’s simple. Simple, but effective. Many of the combos from God of War and its sequel make an appearance, including (of course) the Plume of Prometheus, fast and strong enough to defeat even the most powerful of the game’s enemies. The Blades of Exile function in a very similar way to the Blades of Chaos and Athena’s Blades. The basic play style is identical. The one main modification is a new move which attaches the Blades to an enemy, and pulls Kratos towards them. This attack is integral to God of War III’s combat (at least, the way I played it), and is shared by three of the four weapons.

GoW3 marks the first occasion in the series where any of the alternative weapons are actually good. Three weapons complement the Blades of Exile. First, and certainly least, are the Claws of Hades. These are, essentially, the Blades of Exile, except for the fact that they are blue, and they deal less damage. Next up are the Nemean Cestus, which you may remember from the original trailer for the game. These are stone gloves which Kratos can wear on each hand. They are slow, but incredibly powerful, and they can destroy the onyx shields and barriers scattered throughout the game. Finally, my personal favourite: the Nemesis Whip. Forged by Hephaestus, this is an electrically-charged contraption consisting of spinning blades attached to a chain. Incredibly powerful, but only acquired near the end of the game. The fantastic thing about the combat is that you’ll find yourself needing to use each of these weapons (except perhaps the Claws of Hades) in their own time. You will almost certainly have a favourite, but you won’t be able to use this throughout the game.

There is a fifth weapon, but one which is rarely used: the Blade of Olympus. Activating the Rage of Sparta (which works exactly like the Rage of the Gods and of the Titans in God of War and its sequel respectively) allows Kratos to use the legendary weapon for a brief period of time. In my opinion, it is rather useless. The blade is painfully slow, and while it deals a large amount of damage, it’s simply not worth it for the most part. Kratos also uses the Blade of Olympus when he wants to slay a God or Titan, usually with a Context Sensitive Attack (quick time event).

In addition to the weapons, there are a number of items which Kratos gains during his travels. These can be used as weapons, but they have wider uses. The head of Helios lights up dark paths and exposes hidden chests, and the boots of Hermes allow Kratos to run up certain walls, etc. These items are powered by a recharging item meter.

Magic works a little differently from previous entries in the franchise. Instead of each power being accessible at all times, powers are tied to the weapons. This is another reason why you have to vary your weapon use - a very strong weapon may have an all-but-useless magical power. However, like previous games in the series, magic does not recharge, and must be regained from the Blue Orbs found in chests and occasionally gained by killing enemies. There are five types of chest in God of War III:

-The green chest rejuvenates Kratos and restores his health.
-The blue chest restores Kratos’ magic.
-The red chest gives Kratos red experience orbs, which he can use to power up his weapons and items.
-The white chest bestows red orbs, and green, blue or gold orbs (which fill up the Rage of Sparta meter).
-The large chest gives Kratos a collectible item - a Gorgon Eye (three of these increase the health maximum), Phoenix Feather (three increase the magic maximum) or Minotaur Horn (three increase item power - not particularly useful, because this regenerates).

For some reason, Kratos now opens chests with one hand instead of two, with the exception of the large chest. It does make him appear to be more of a badass, but he must get a sore arm after a while.

As with any game in the series, of course, there is more to it than just the combat. There are several puzzles littered throughout Olympus which Kratos must solve, though not as many and not quite as irritating as in previous games. At certain times, the Ghost of Sparta can use the Icarus Wings which he gained in God of War II for flight, avoiding obstacles and rocks, to ascend the mountain quickly. At no point does the game begin to get repetitive. The platforming can be a little finicky at times, but for the most part, it works well.

Backtracking does exist, but it’s not as prevalent as in the original two games. And where it does exist, it’s justified. Kratos doesn’t meander back to where he was ten minutes ago where a door has opened. He plunges to locations which he visited six hours ago, and obliterates everything.

There is one exception to the ever-present fantastic gameplay, however. Namely, the first half hour of the game. This is what Santa Monica promised the entire game would be like, and I couldn’t be happier that they lied, because it’s a giant mess. Yes, the cinematography is fantastic, the graphics are stunning, and the camera angles are incredible. Unfortunately, this makes the game near-impossible to play. Gaia flip-flops all over the place and Kratos goes flying. Destroying huge monsters while clinging onto a Titan isn’t nearly as enjoyable as it sounds.

On the topic of graphics and cinematography, both are fantastic. High Definition has done wonders for the visuals of this franchise. Kratos is immaculately detailed, the environments are incredible, and effects are top-notch. The game zooms in and out at just the right times, to highlight the characters or the world around them, without intruding on the gameplay. This is fortunate, because camera angles were a huge problem, arguably the largest, in God of War and its sequel. The camera changes depending on your position and the direction in which you are travelling. Occasionally, Kratos comes across “Ancient Pedestals”, which allow him to look freely over the landscape (his head controlled by the Left Stick) while giving a short caption at the bottom, describing the scene.

Character performance is also top-notch. The gods emanate power in their voices, and Kratos’ voice actor successfully changes emotions to fit the situation. Lip-synching is near-perfect. The music suits the action, with loud orchestral scores during intense moments of action. There are a handful of sound glitches towards the beginning of the game, but these are rare, and disappear entirely after an hour or so. Other than that, the game runs fine, never (unintentionally) slowing down (though a few intentional slowdowns to highlight the action do exist), and I encountered no other glitches.

I played on God (Normal) difficulty, and I found it challenging, but never cheap. New tactics are required every so often, but enemies aren’t overly powerful. I died some 70 times over the course of the game, but most of this was to do with mis-timed jumping.

The game clocked in, for me and most others, at about 12 hours - slightly longer than the previous games in the franchise. But this is 12 hours of intense action, and of fantastic, quality gameplay. There is always the ability to replay the game on higher difficulties, find those elusive collectibles and earn trophies. You can also use costumes earned by beating the game, and items named Godly Possessions littered across the map which bestow incredible powers on Kratos, which cannot be used until the game is beaten. Then, there is the Challenge of Olympus, which is far more difficult than the Challenge of the Titans in God of War II, and slightly more so than the Challenge of the Gods in God of War. Many “making of” videos are also made available, and it can be fascinating to watch the development process.
In conclusion, God of War III is fantastic. It is an amazing experience: exhilarating gameplay is tied together with a fascinating story and mind-blowing graphics. I would say that it’s the best in the trilogy by quite a long way, and among the highest quality games on the PS3, and it brings said trilogy to a close with a bang. Nearly all of the loose strings in the series are tied up, but just enough are left dangling to warrant another entry in the series. I hope that the next entry does exist, because while God of War III would be an excellent end to an excellent series, I still want more, and that’s a good sign. If previous games in the series have left you cold, God of War III will not suddenly appeal to you. But if you found any semblance of enjoyment in its predecessors, this is a game which must be played.

Read more »