Saturday, September 5, 2009

Super Mario World Review (SNES)


Since receiving my SNES, I have played a great deal of Super Mario World which happens to be the game that was first packaged with the system during its retail years. I have to say, this is a really good Mario game, I expected it to be decent of course. But after playing Dr. Mario on NES and knowing they never made a Mario "4", I would think that Nintendo could never match the godliness of Super Mario 3. Not impossible but I would have been surprised, does Super Mario World live up to the Mario in its name. HELL YES.

First of all, this game greatly took advantage of the SNES to make it better than the original Mario, and it even becomes it's own unique experience of a game. Mario World does employ the pattern system utilized in past Mario's, mostly in the style of the original one during the first or third castle raid. It took the idea of the pattern system to proceed through the level and did it more times than I have ever seen in a Mario game. Mario is mostly trial and error, but Super Mario World makes you stop and consider your options like Mario 3 does.

Super Mario World is clearly newer and graphically superior to the first three Mario games, but the question is whether its a successor to the original Mario Series or a stand alone game? I would have to argue stand alone, because it equals Mario 3 in game play variability but it doesn't exceed it. Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World are equally good games, i'm surprised Super Mario World could even match Mario 3. It does as far as I see, the thing is it overdoes the level progression pattern system to the point that you get stuck from a huge guessing game that would likely not get resolved in the first few hours.

Also, Yoshi is advertised on the cartridge, but he only comes in every now and then. Yoshi has some benefits as an accompanied friend to Mario, but I really didn't enjoy using him and preferred to leave him behind. I remember having a Yoshi-like character in the form of a dinosaur on Crash Bandicoot...2 I think, that was what Mario World SHOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOSHI. Granted be it's an unfair comparison because the Bandicoot wasn't around till the release of the Playstation, but when you give an animal like Yoshi, he has to have a big advantage or a skill NEEDED to go through the level. Yoshi really hasn't done that so far, so I forget about him pretty quickly.

Overall, Super Mario World is a game you will regret not having as soon as you do get a copy. So if you don't have it and want another game, get Super Mario World, you shouldn't need my encouragement.

I give this a 5 out of 5

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #58: 9/5/09

This question came to me when thinking about list. This will become much more clear to you as time goes on.

Question #58: Do you like Top lists?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Geeksquisite Diary: SNES Bundle (unboxing)

3D TV's overhyped?


Article

This kind of 3D doesn't need a special TV; rather, you just need a set of stereoscopic glasses, the likes of which you've probably already used once or twice at the movies in recent years. Or even at a games show, to play some WipeOut.

Now let me get this straight, 3D is a gimmick, an optional media going experience at the movies or at home. Now Sony is promoting 3D TVs, which are obviously going to be $2000 TVs at the base price. 3D hurts my eyes as it does others, so nobody is going to want to watch 3D on a TV ALL THE TIME. And I suppose the 3D TVs will have the option to turn off the 3rd dimension, but seriously, WHY do you need to buy a 3D tv? if movies come with 3D glasses, and using a 3D TV requires glasses, whats the premium features of owning a 3D TV. Tell me and maybe it will justify others buying these 3D TVs, but it makes no sense to me because if movies can come in 3D with glasses, and it takes a firmware update to make all the PS3 games work. What do you need the TV for????

Halo: ODST (Live Action Trailer)

Guys I know I've been saying how I would prefer a Halo movie to be CGI and not live action. But and that's a big but, if that live aciton movie looked like this I would be totally in. The trailer shows a few ODST soldiers getting into the heat of battle and fighting off the covenant. It is simply amazing, Microsoft and Bungie certainly know how to market their mega blockbuster franchise. Enjoy!

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #57: 9/4/09

This question came to me when thinking about all the great tv shows I love that ended way before their time. I'm looking at you FOX.

Question #57: What is a show you Love that you wish didn't end so soon?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Geeksquisite #46 Game Edition: Please Sir May I Have Some More Demos?

TJ, Rob, Ed, and Smarty talk about a megaton of demos. Bartman, Call of Juarez, Wet, Lost Planet, and more. Join us for a few hours of nonsense and hi jinx.

Episode 46

Podcast available via Itunes

Police Swarm Bungie Studios

Link

Kotaku Writer Stephen Totilo posted a very hilarious story here, where someone caught a Bungie employee carrying a sniper rifle replica through the studio. The problem was that somebody called the police thinking it was a shooter, and so Drama ensued.

Walking with that sniper rifle must look intimidating, and of course you would be worried if you didn't know that can't be a real weapon because it resembles one from a game. Nothing bad happened when the police came according to Totilo, but he said the police insisted more discreetness when carrying around such intimidating mock ups.

Totilo even posed with the sniper



Looking at the sniper, first of all, that's not very easy to handle let alone use, and wouldn't a sniper be hiding somewhere instead of walking around so casually. Don't forget that snipers shouldn't be that big to begin with unless it's open warfare, but really, I laughed over this misunderstanding and i'm sure many others will too.

Would you like a MAG Beta Code?


Via Twitter (Gametab Article)

Sony is giving out beta codes, and according to the Gametab article you can win one too if you slave over your computer all day waiting for the next question. Why would you want to do that? well they will only award it to the first 6 people who get the question right. For those who carry an Xbox 360 and have been playing 1v100, this should be a breeze for you ;)

Just in case you want to avoid clicking twice, here is Sony's Twitter. Good Luck!

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration

Here is a video from Collegehumor chronicling the past 100 years of special effects. The video is a great montage of how far effects have come and is a great watch for anyone unfamiliar with the special effects milestones of the past.

Bonk: Brink of Extinction Announced

Hudson, the developer of the classic TurboGrafx-16 Bonk games have recently announced how they're releasing a new Bonk game with the subtitle "Brink of Extinction" for Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, and the Playstation Network. Since I never owned a TurboGrafx, the first Bonk game I played was Super Bonk on the SNES. It was a pretty awesome game, where you could transform into various different types of Bonk, and then also become large or small. You could go into the mouth of a Dinosaur, and mess up all of his internal organs. The game was pretty crazy.

Hudson had this to say about the new game:
About Bonk:
It is the start of a new age and Bonk has returned at the turn of the tide as the world faces extinction. Our loveable caveman is back and has brought his huge head with him. A doomsday comet, surrounded by smaller chunks of debris, is on a collision course with Earth. A strange magnetic field around the comet seems to be driving most of the planet’s weak-willed creatures crazy, and smaller bits of debris are smashing into the jungle near Bonk's home. Bonk must undertake a perilous journey that will take him to the very center of the planet to save the world.

The Return Of The Most Widely Requested Classic Platformer
Story Mode with Co-Op play. Play alone or have a friend join you any time.
An entire new adventure with Bonk as he swims, bites, climbs, jumps, runs, and head-butts his way through jungles, deserts and volcanic caverns
Search for help along the way: power ups, check points, and extra health are the staple for every adventuring caveman.
Transformations are back and weirder than ever! Now Bonk can transform himself into eight different forms by eating meat or encountering Primordial Ooze. No enemy is safe from the boy with the super noggin!
Multiple other modes and adventures are available as add on packs

New Features:
Online play for the first time in the series.
New enemies with wide variations in personality/abilities. Beware the Raptor Unicycle Tank!
Next generation gameplay meets retro brand: Classic 2D platforming in a 3D world.
Collectibles will have you searching the entire prehistoric world
Download Content to keep the experience going


They also released some screenshots, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

This looks pretty much like everything you'd want out of a new Bonk game. Crazy new enemies, more costume power ups for Bonk, the good ol' 2D side-scrolling headbutt action, and co-op play both online and offline. I think Hudson is definitely taking the game in a good direction, and it's nice to see this classic franchise revived. They haven't released an official date yet, but they've said the game will be coming out in early 2010. So, until then, just check out the images below, and visit Bonk at his Myspace page, where you can find him coercing all the fine ladies.

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal Review

Tales of Monkey Island, as some of you may know, is a re-boot of the classic monkey island franchise. Like most adventure games today, it's episodic, and it's made by Telltale Games, who have pretty much dominated the adventure game market recently, and have a handful of staff that used to work at Lucasarts.

I played the game on PC, however it's also available for download in the Wii. As always, you play as Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™, and yes, they use that trademark symbol jokingly in the subtitles yet again. You start off aboard your ship and have to solve a puzzle to try and save Elaine. After that's finished, you're presented with a nice looking title screen, accompanied by the classic Monkey Island theme we all know and love. Then you end up on Flotsom Island, an island that has it's winds blowing inward, so no ships can leave from it, meaning you're stuck there. You spend the game trying to find your way off of Flotsom, and get into many various pirate acts.

The story in the game is fairly good, but the game really benefits from it's characters. Over the course of the game, you'll meet up with a local reporter that you try and impress with your pirate acts, a pirate glassblower who blows glass unicorns, a crazed doctor who wants to cut off your hand, and many others. These characters are all appropriately voice acted, and are fairly over-the-top. Not to mention, the facial expressions on both Guybrush and the other characters are simply FANTASTIC, and really add a lot of life to the game.

The only bad thing I can say about the game is it's controls. Instead of having standard point and click controls, they either let you walk around using the mouse, by clicking and holding in a direction, or you can walk around using WASD. Both methods aren't particularly good, however I did get used to moving around with WASD after a while.

The game will take you about 2 hours to beat if you don't get stuck, and don't skip past the dialogue, Which I find is a good length for an episodic game. I did manage to get stuck a couple times, however this was just due to me over-thinking what I was supposed to do. Some of the puzzles take a stretch of the imagination, while others are pretty simplistic.

Overall, Tales of Monkey Island stays faithful to the franchise, and is funny enough on it's own, without relying on references of past games for it's jokes. It's a genuinely great adventure game, and worth checking out if you like pirates, or adventure games, or if you just want to play a funny game.

I give Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal a 4 out of 5

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #56: 9/2/09

This question came to me when thinking about all the game demos we talking about on the podcast today.

Question #56: Your favorite Demo?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Guy Ritchie to Direct Lobo


Link

Well this is a surprise, seems the buzz over Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes film gave him the job of giving Lobo his first stand alone movie. There is another movie but it's a Christmas special, i'm not kidding and you probably agree that doesn't count.

I didn't know anything about Lobo but I did my research, and he seems like a cool character. The only problem is so many characters come to mind when I read about Lobo, so i'm worried that he won't stand on his own in the DC universe.

Guy Ritchie making a comic book film is interesting to me, because we always associate well known names with good movies we want to be made. Yet Sherlock Holmes looks pretty damn good, I actually can't wait to see what Ritchie does with this character.

Trailers of the Month: August 2009


Ed's Picks

The imagination of Doctor Parnassus Trailer

Yes it has Heath Ledger, but I dismissed the movie because I knew it would capitalize on his death like The Dark Knight did. I also knew they would have to fill his screen time in with one of several actors named, I actually had no idea they would use them all. So now this movie seems interesting to me, it’s a great concept of changing the character with different actors at a time. Plus it looks fun.

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer

Recommended by Movie Blog owner John Campea, I was surprised. This looks extremely good, and its actually exciting me to see a movie based on the idea of a single man bringing down the entire US system, and yet I support the guy because of the filler in the beginning about his family. Sign me up.

The Wolfman Trailer

I agree with everyone else, it’s a remake that stays true to the themes of the original including the period and using the technology of today to make it even better.

Legion Trailer

In the first 30 seconds I see a sweet little old lady, in the next minute I see a sweet little old blood smeared lady climbing the walls and a movie dealing with God and Angels. Sounds like an interesting premise with action, cool.

Astroboy Trailer

Yes you’re probably going WTF. But really, watch the trailer and tell me you didn’t smile once. I love the cast, I love IMAGI Animation, I love Animation in general, and this looks like plain fun with some heart.


TJ's Picks

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Trailer

It's been an awfully long time since I throughly enjoyed a Terry Gilliam movie. He's one of my absolute favorite directors to watch work. For the first time in what feels like forever he seems to be going back to his roots. The films that made him a legend, from Holy Grail, to Brazil, To The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Of course I'm interested to see Heath ledger's last performance but it's a serious back seat to me simply wanting to get my fill of the great Terry Gilliam.

The Lovely Bones Trailer

I feel like we've been waiting forever for this film to come out. Now that we have our first look I couldn't be anymore excited. The movie is based on a book about a girl that is murdered and is inbetween worlds trying to help her family deal with the grief of loosing her while helping to solve the case of her murder. Peter Jackson is one of those guys that is on my very short list of directors that hasn't made a bad film. I enjoy King King, yes!

The Wolfman Trailer

I'm so disappointed that the film isn't coming out this October. It's coming February 12th 2010 I believe. But if it means they are making it better then I'm all for it. Benicio Del Toro looks like it might be the most inspired casting of the last decade. While I'm not a huge fan of the directore (Jurassic Park III) it really looks like from the trailer that they got the tone right and thats huge.

Law Abiding Citizen Trailer

I didn't even know about this Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx movie until I saw this trailer a week ago. Usually that isn't a good sign if I don't even know what your movie is. It comes out in a few weeks and looks rather interesting. I'm typically not into thrillers but this one has got me excited. Sadly it looks like one of those thrillers where the ending will probably be a let down but still worth taking a look at.

Legion Trailer

Paul Bettany is one of my favorite character actors and almost always gives his best. Even when he's not in the best movies he's always fantastic. Then there's Dennis Quaid who is a bit more hit or miss but usually solid. Oh and did I forget to add there is a battle between Heaven and Earth. Angels warring against the planet trying to kill the child of a small town girl being protected by Paul Bettany a fallen angel. This should be a ton of fun at the movies.


And there you have it our trailers of the month. Hope you watched and enjoyed.

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #55: 9/2/09

This question came to me when thinking about how good Zombieland looks. The movie is coming out pretty soon too should be a lot of fun.

Question #55: What is your favorite Zombie movie?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

*New* Super Mario Wii coming this year


It's a nice!

Get ready this November for the New Super Mario Brothers, the first game I played on my Nintendo DS was pretty awesome. It's a welcomed addition to the Nintendo Wii library i'm sure, and having a 4 player gameplay option will certainly make this an enjoyable party game. I mean really, WHO DOESN'T KNOW WHO MARIO IS!

I find this interesting in the article:

If Nintendo stays true to their track record of releasing their main titles in November, then we can expect to see this game likely release on or around November 15th. -Matt Furtado

That's quite a claim to make that i'm sure most people could agree with, especially since it is around my birthday. If Nintendo made a bundle with their console and this game, I'd be very tempted to get it.

Modern Warfare 2 Knife Throws Debut

Easily the most anticipated game of the year for the majority of gamers and the industry has just got a lot cooler. This new clip of gameplay from Infinity Ward shows some of the headquarters gameplay. Also how many times can it be said but holy crap are those graphics insane. Just look at the rockets wizzing and the bullets bouncing, it's just CRAZY!

So in the clip below towards the end we get to see a new way to kill. Throwing your MUTHAFUCKING KNIFE at a dudes HEAD. This game can't come soon enough.

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Trailer Impressions


Rockstar has just released the first trailer for the newest GTA IV DLC on their website, and as you can see above, youtube. I did enjoy The Lost and The Damned very much, so the DLC so far has been very good. This trailer does not disappoint, and apparently, we'll get to see a lot more of Liberty City's techno night-life. There was also what appeared to be nitrous in the trailer, so possibly we'll get some car customization. At one point we also see some guys fighting in a cage, it looked a bit like Fight Club to me, perhaps we'll have underground cage matches? There's also a couple new cars in there, too... at one point I noticed something that looked like a new Super GT, but the best new car I saw was the freaking GOLF CART! Also of mention is a part in the trailer with a parachute... definitely reminds me of San Andreas a bit. The new character you play as doesn't seem to be gay tony, because at one point, we see him making out with a chick. However, the whole trailer seems centered around the story of Gay Tony, and a lot of the characters seem to be pretty funny. It seems like this expansion will be a bit more humorous than GTA IV has been in the main game, or previous expansions. Be sure to look for the content later this year when it hits stores on October 29th.

Geeksquisite Diary 8/31/09: New XBOX 360 ELITE



A few of the DVD's I've bought over the course of the last few weeks. Also I just bought and XBOX 360 ELITE. WOOTS

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #54: 9/1/09

This question came to me when thinking about how much people argue over this particular debate.

Question #54: Mac or PC?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Bad Boys 3?


It has Martin Lawrence, it's going to suck.

I've seen both Bad Boys movies, and the first one was appealing for the pairing of Lawrence and Smith back then (now, I realize that was youthful ignorance of actual acting). And the sequel was liked because it's Michael Bay, explosions make everything better for that guy...except for Transformers 2.

By the way the article talks about a 3rd movie, it sounds like it would be way over budget. Will Smith is better than this crap, and if Martin Lawrence wants more funny for his stupid acting then he can get out. We already made the mistake of giving in to Chris Tucker for Rush Hour 3, and look how terrible that turned out.

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #53: 8/31/09

This question came to me when thinking about how pissed I am I needed to buy a new console.

Question #53: Has your Xbox ever Red Ringed?

If you'd like to submit a question just send an e-mail to geeksquisite@gmail.com with the subject line Question of the Day.

Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section, thank you.

Disney acquires Marvel


Um, I wasn't expecting this.

Well wow, I was really looking forward to the growth of Marvel but now Disney bought Marvel. Marvel is good on its own, but perhaps Disney will "interfere" somewhat with the Marvel lineup in the next couple of years.

If this were 5 years ago, i'd hate this news. Heck, I wouldn't care either because Marvel wasn't snowballing like they are now. To me this is a damn shame, because I was looking forward for Marvel to grow as a company and present some steadfast competition. In that regard I hate this buyout, however, John Lasseter who is the Chief Creative Director of Disney likes to leave companies to do their own thing. Lasseter MADE SURE 2D Animation stayed alive at Disney (hence The Princess and the Frog movie this December).

So I would hope that Lasseter recognizes Marvel for all the creative work they have, and let them develop on their own.

Geek Spaces: Aaron

This is my first...and most likely last Youtube video. I don't really like being on camera nor am I very coherent while speaking on film. Plus I'm like one, in a million guys on youtube doing the same thing, but TJ wanted us to do our room and gaming set-up tours, so heres mine. I just hope everyone else does theirs or I'll feel really stupid.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Mini Ninjas Demo Impressions

Mini Ninjas is an action platformer being developed by IO Interactive. The company is well known for making the Hitman series, but they have also worked on stuff like Kane & Lynch, and Freedom Fighters. So why would they suddenly make a cartoony action game? who knows, but it's a welcome change of pace, in my opinion. There aren't enough good action platformers nowadays.

The first thing I noticed about Mini Ninjas when I started up the demo is how smooth the framerate was. Everything seemed to be chucking along at 60fps, and I didn't experience any slowdown at all. The graphics, while not technically superior, have a really nice art style to them, and everything looks very clean-cut. There's a sort of LittleBigPlanet style to the graphics, except maybe less crisp and more smooth. Much like LittleBigPlanet, the character designs, and the voice acting are all super-cute, as well. There's a certain amount of charm to everything in the game, and the animations are also nice and fluid.

Lets talk about the actual gameplay, though. Mini Ninjas is your standard beat em' up. The game plays like a simplified version of Ninja Gaiden, you swing your sword at dudes on screen, as well as shirukens and caltrops, and there's even various Ninjutsu you can use, including a fire technique, as well as a replacement technique, where you can pretty much possess an animal and use it to fight, or to find various collectibles.

Ah yes, what platformer wouldn't be complete without collectibles? The demo had a few different types. Tiny Statues (which didn't seem to do anything), Flowers (which you could use as an offering at various hidden shrines, as well as combining them to make potions), coins (for buying stuff, duh), and I suppose you could conciser the caged animals as a collectable, since it keeps track of how many you free.

There's a lot of variation in the gameplay as well, at one point you might be fighting a bunch of guys, at another point you might be wandering around enjoying the landscapes, or you could be fishing, you can level up your ninja and get new abilities, and since you're a ninja, there's even a stealth mechanic thrown in there. The three characters they give you in the demo all have different strengths and weaknesses, however, it isn't quite as dramatic as something like Trine or The Lost Vikings. All of this variation keeps the game interesting, so much so that I even went back and played through the demo a second time.

So far there's only 2 big problems that I have with the game. First, it seems too linear. The level I played in the demo had a few side paths you could take, and there's plenty of space that you can move between, but you're still just moving forward through the stage. I was hoping for an open world game, but so far it seems like this isn't one. The second problem is the difficulty. I played through the demo on the default difficulty first, Normal, and it turned out to be really easy. Then I turned the difficulty up to Hard, and it seemed more like what normal should have been. I understand the game is being made for kids, but I kind of wished they would make the game a little more challenging.

Overall, I really enjoyed the demo, and might give this a rental when it comes out. Be sure to look out for Mini Ninjas on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, and DS when it's released in September.

Geeksquisite #45 Movie Edition: Goodbye Summer

Geeksquisite #45 Game Edition: Goodbye Summer

TJ, Rob, Ed, Aaron, and Smarty talk about a bunch of August trailers including, Legion, The Wolfman, Avatar, and more... Also a few mini reviews of this summers past movies including G.I. Joe, Ponyo, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, and much more.

Podcast available via Itunes

Section 8 Demo Impressions

Section 8 is an upcoming first-person sci-fi shooter being developed by Timegate Studios and published by Southpeak Interactive. I got my hands on the demo earlier, and I must say I was quite impressed.

The demo is multiplayer-only, however, there is an offline mode with bots, if you're into that kind of thing. I couldn't find any way to adjust the bots' difficulty, so that part seemed way too easy, and pretty pointless. The main focus of the demo is the online play, and it's surprisingly good. When you join a match, you select a spawnpoint on the map, much like the Battlefield games, except, instead of spawning there, you drop into the zone through the atmosphere. It's a pretty awesome looking sequence, and through my time with the demo it never got old. This also allows the teams to use some strategy. You're able to drop anywhere on the map when spawning, but the enemy can set up Anti-air guns to take you down before you even hit the ground.

The game plays mostly like a game of battlefield, you spend your time going to different computers and hacking them... which is pretty much just like capturing a control point in Battlefield. They also thrown in a few other objectives after a while, such as protecting a VIP, or protecting a convoy. It reminds me a bit of how the multiplayer in Killzone 2 was structured, except not quite as rock-solid.

The controls in the game are sufficient, and unique. Now, the thing about unique controls is they normally don't work, but here I found the learning curve to be quite low. The most interesting part of the game is that it has a lock on feature, letting you lock on to your opponents, provided you're at a close enough range. I feel kind of torn about it... while it doesn't take as much skill to take down an enemy, it also takes more skill to avoid being locked on to. If an enemy goes out of your sights, then you lose the lock on, and it takes a couple second to re-charge. Granted, they can still shoot at you manually, without being locked on, but this seems to add a bit more depth and strategy to the combat that isn't seen in many other multiplayer shooters.

The biggest problem with Section 8 is that it feels like a low-budget game. I had some framerate issues multiple times in the demo, and the graphics are just okay. I definitely don't think this game will replace any of our other beloved first-person shooters, but I definitely think people should give it a chance. Check out the demo, and keep a look out for the game when it's released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this September.

WET Demo Impressions

WET is a game I've been interested in for a while now, and when I heard there was a demo released on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, I just had to check it out. The game is published by Bethesda and developed by Artificial Mind & Movement, which has mostly done licensed titles in the past, such as Spiderman: Friend or Foe, and the Iron Man video game. While they might not have the best track record, WET still brings a lot of promise to table.

The demo starts off with a pretty cool, yet pretty cheesy cutscene of a negotiation gone wrong. The game's voice acting, while not particularly spectacular, is exactly what you'd want out of a game like this. The style in the game is reminiscent of a few different things, but the majority of it seems to be based on Grindhouse (mostly the first half, "Planet Terror"). Much like Grindhouse as well, the game isn't afraid to throw f-bombs all over the place. The whole game has a nice look and feel to it that isn't seen often, except maybe in something like No More Heroes.

But enough about story and style, let's get into the gameplay. The demo is broken up into three different parts, all showcasing different gameplay mechanics. In the first part of the demo, it's your standard 3rd person action game. My first impression was that they pretty much took the Stranglehold engine and used that to power the game and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that turned out to be true. That may not be the best game to compare your game to, since Stranglehold was kind of bland at points, and a bit underwhelming overall, but WET manages to change things up a bit. You still have the same ol' dive and shoot in slow motion mechanics as stranglehold, and there's also a wall run in there where time will slow down, but the best move by far is the slide move, which I like to call the powerslide. Your character basically slides across the floor, shooting tons of dudes in slow-mo, and it looks pretty fucking awesome. You also get a katana, and some pole swinging, which reminds me a lot of Prince of Persia.

The second part of the demo focused on a crazy super-stylized mode (Pictured to the left) where the only colors on the screen were shades of red, black, and white. instead of your dual pistols you had in the first part, you now have dual uzis, and you seem to pretty much be invincible. This mode is pretty awesome, and reminds me a lot of the art style from Killer 7.

The final part of the demo, and my personal favorite, had you riding on top of cars down the freeway, chasing these shady looking characters and shooting them in the head. Every now and then, you reach a scripted point where you have to do a QTE command to jump to another car or avoid some explosion or something. The whole sequence looks really good, and makes you feel like you're in some sort of crazy action movie.

The biggest problem I had with WET so far is the controls. The game doesn't quite feel as fluid as you'd hope it'd be. I don't know if it's the character's animations, or just the control method, but it feels like lost potential when you look at all of the other great stuff in the game. Another thing that bugged me was the difficulty of the game, the whole thing seemed too easy. I'm hoping there will be a difficulty option in the full game, but if there isn't, I'm going to be severely disappointed.

One more thing I should mention before I wrap this up is the excellent soundtrack in the game. The game has a lot of kickass tunes that sound exactly like they came out of a Quinten Tarrentino movie, and the game benefits from it. The soundtrack is not heavily dramatic with any sort of orchestral score, but it's wholly original, and provides the right amount of intensity to the situations you find yourself in, in the game.

If you guys haven't checked out the demo yet, I suggest you go download it, it's definitely worth your time. You guys can look forward to the full game when it's released September 15th, 2009 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Geeksquisite Question of the Day #52: 8/30/09

This question came to me when thinking about how bad I want some Taco Bell.

Question #52: Favorite Fast Food Joint?

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