Genre: FPS/Action/RPG

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Developer: Eidos Montreal/Nixxes Software

Price: $29.99

I remember the first time I played Deus Ex back in 2000 on my best friend’s PC. At the time, the graphics were amazing, and the combination of first person shooter and RPG was addicting, and pretty new to me. The futuristic, cyberpunk setting and complex, conspiracy laden story had me hooked from beginning to multiple endings.

I passed up on the sequel: Deus Ex: Invisible War, mostly because I heard it just wasn’t that good, and failed to live up to the expectations set by the groundbreaking original.

When I heard that a new Deus Ex was releasing, 8 years after the sequel, and a whopping 11 years after the original, I was skeptical. When I heard that it was a prequel, set before the events of the first game, I was downright convinced that Deus Ex: Human Revolution, would be nothing more than a mediocre cash in on a series that could have been so much more. I was so, so wrong.

Deus Ex takes place in the year 2027, 25 years before the events of the first game. The world is in a state of transition, as some impressive new technology has altered the lives of human beings everywhere. Human cybernetic enhancement is a groundbreaking new technology, and numerous biotechnological corporations have sprung up to capitalize on this latest advancement in human evolution.

Of course, not everyone is sold on the virtues of cybernetic augmentation, and various multinationals have split from the government, and have begun to execute their own agendas in this brave new world.

Players control Adam Jensen, a former police officer and current head of security at the Detroit based biotech firm, Sarif Industries. Without giving too much away, Adam finds himself victim to a horrible act of terrorism at Sarif. His girlfriend, Dr. Megan Reed, and four other scientists are kidnapped in the same attack, and Adam is unwillingly subjected to extreme augmentation to save his life.

After recovering from the incident, Jensen returns to Sarif and attempts to pick up the pieces, as well as track down those responsible for the attack on Sarif. Since this is Deus Ex, his journey naturally leads him through all sorts of dark conspiracies and corporate espionage. Part of the fun of the game play is uncovering all of this and getting to the truth.

Gameplay is a mix of first person shooting, stealth, and role playing. While exploring the hub worlds of Detroit and Shanghai, players will come across NPCs (non-player characters), that will give Jensen side missions to complete while following the main storyline quests. The game itself is pretty linear, but the ability to roam around the environments as you see fit does give it that open feel. It’s not Skyrim, but it’s also much more polished and tightly designed.

While being augmented has seemingly put Adam on the “pro-augmentation” side of the debate, players have more control over how the story progresses, and ultimately ends through a few key actions/choices that they encounter in the story. Naturally, I won’t spoil what they are. While, for the most part, Adam is not a huge fan of the augments forced upon him, they certainly come in handy. Over the course of the game, players will be awarded experience points for completing tasks. This xp will unlock Praxis points, which is used to purchase upgrades for Adam’s augments. For example, there is an augment that lets Adam fall from any height without causing physical damage to him, and another that lets him spot enemies through walls. Praxis kits can also be found tucked away throughout the environments, which encourages exploration.

Speaking of exploration, one of the things that I really enjoyed about Human Revolution is how you are rewarded not just in items and xp for exploration, but by discovering alternate routes/paths in the world that ultimately offers a lot of choice in how you tackle your objectives. It is possible to go through the entire game without triggering a single enemy alarm, or killing a single enemy (boss characters not included).

Ah, boss battles. Deus Ex, fortunately, has only a few boss battles scattered throughout it’s lengthy campaign. Unfortunately, most of those boss battles are exercises in tedium and frustration, and are my only real gripe with the game. An example of a particularly frustrating battle had me battling an enemy in an environment that would sporadically electrify the floor. If you are not equipped with the augment that negates electric damage, this battle is harder than it needs to be, not to mention that the boss is immune to melee attacks. This sort of design is counter-productive to the “open” nature of the rest of the game. You are free to upgrade Jensen’s skills as you see fit, so running into a scenario where victory hinges on you having a particular skill is annoying.

Thankfully, that is truly my only real issue with the game, and I enjoyed exploring the world, finding and reading the numerous books, emails, and pocket pdas scattered about, and earning experience points by finding hidden paths and secrets.

Visually, the game is sharp and crisp, with wonderfully detailed environments, and a very clean look. If the screens here remind you of Metal Gear Solid, that was intentional, as the developers have cited the Kojima Productions series as one of many inspirations for the look of Human Revolution. Even so, the game has a unique look all it’s own. I found it very atmospheric, and my only regret is that I wish the city hubs were a little bit bigger. Detroit and Shanghai were visually compelling, and I wanted to explore more of it, instead of the teases of a larger area.

VERDICT: BUY – Deus Ex: Human Revolution surprised me with it’s fun story, enjoyable and clever game design, and atmospheric world. Fans of games like Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, and Fallout may find a lot to enjoy here, despite the frustration of the boss battles, and the tighter scope of the level design. It is a worthy sequel to the stellar original title, and hopefully sets the stage for more tales in this intriguing world. It’s my pick for sleeper hit of 2011.

Genre: Action/Adventure

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Developer: Spicy Horse

Price: $29.99 (USD)

I never played American McGee’s original Alice, but I found myself drawn to the sequel due to it’s intriguing concept and atmospheric art design. I didn’t know much about the title beyond it being a dark tale inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Ironically, Alice in Wonderland isn’t exactly one of my favorite stories to begin with. It never quite grabbed me like other fairy tales.

With that said, I dove into Alice: Madness Returns with pretty moderate expectations. I often find that going into new things with moderate expectations helps to avoid the disappointment that often comes with hype. Although, by the time I had got my hands on Returns, I had heard many negative things about the game. I shrugged them off, preferring to make up my own mind when it comes to what I should and shouldn’t enjoy (and then write a review for others to read, of course!)

First things first, however. For the uninitiated, Madness Returns continues the adventures of Alice Liddel, a young woman driven insane by the suspicion that she has murdered her family in a horrible fire. To deal with this trauma, Alice’s subconscious whisks her away to Wonderland, which, while beautiful, is also full of danger, and problems of it’s own. At the start of Returns, it is a year after the events of “Alice,” and she has been released from the Rutledge Asylum and is living in an orphanage in what looks to be Victorian London.

Despite undergoing treatments and coming to terms with her doubts about the truth of her parent’s death, Alice is still haunted by visions of Wonderland. I won’t ruin too much of the narrative, but it isn’t long before Alice finds herself transported into Wonderland once more, and is forced to dive deeper into her darker secrets while saving Wonderland as well.

The narrative is, for the most part, well told, although occasionally disjointed. The story is told through well animated 2-dimensional cutscenes, but often, bridges between the various scenes seem to be missing, and the story can be hard to follow. Which is a shame, because it is rather interesting, and strives to touch upon the complexities of a damaged mind, but most of it seems like random events barely held together by the plot. Then again, that’s very much like Alice’s brain, so perhaps it’s brilliant storytelling. In either case, I sometimes found myself wondering exactly what the hell was going on, but in the end, had my head wrapped around it.

On the graphical front, Alice: Madness Returns is a rather nice looking game. Alice in particular, especially in Wonderland, looks wonderful, and has some amazingly lifelike hair physics that causes her dark locks to dance and sway with each movement.

The environments in Wonderland are vibrant and detailed, which is a stark contrast to the drab and dreary streets of London, which serves as small bridges/hubs in between chapters. Enemy designs are interesting, and sometimes genuinely frightening. Human NPC characters are kind of freakishly grotesque on the aesthetic level, but are pretty low detail and are a visual low point on a graphical level. Overall though, Madness Return’s look is cohesive and pleasing, and one of the driving motivations of the game beyond narrative is simply seeing what fantastical environment Alice will find herself in next.

Gameplay is refreshingly straightforward and simple. While many games strive to be more cinematic in their presentation, Alice simply feels like a video game. No pomp and show here. It’s a third person adventure game through and through, with easy to grasp game play mechanics.

Each chapter pretty much has you getting from one end of an elaborate level to the next, with combat interspersed between light puzzle solving and some, to be honest, frustrating platforming. The combat and puzzle solving were the most enjoyable parts of the game, as Alice gets some fun weapons/skills to utilize against foes. These weapons can be upgraded by spending teeth you collect  scattered throughout the levels. The puzzles are nice and simple diversions. There are also a lot of secrets to uncover, either through utilizing Alice’s shrinking ability, or finding floating pig snouts hidden throughout the world that will open up secret passages. The use of Alice’s shrinking skill are a source of both some clever game design, and some frustrating game design. Which brings me to the platforming…

The platforming sections are simple and forgiving at first, and Alice is blessed with the rare ability to triple jump, and glide her way across gaps. Unfortunately, the latter half of the game features some excruciatingly frustrating sections in which the controls, which clearly weren’t designed for platforming, and the bothersome camera, led to many an untimely death and checkpoint restart. These sections soured what was otherwise a rather pleasant and enjoyable trip to wonderland, and by the end of the game, I was so angry that I couldn’t really revel in my completion of the game.

VERDICT: RENT – Which is a shame, because, in the end, Alice is a visually interesting, conceptually compelling, and refreshingly old school gaming experience. I struggled with my final verdict on this game, because I initially rented the game, and enjoyed it so much that I bought it, only to kind of regret the choice after experiencing the frustration of the last two chapters of the game. Because of this, I can’t help but recommend it as a Rent. It’s a game of decent length, with many satisfying moments and game play, but the frustrating platforming segments hampers what could have been a sleeper hit of 2011.

Genre: Superhero/Sandbox

Platform: PlayStation 3

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions

Price: $59.99 (USD)

inFAMOUS is one of my two favorite new IP’s of the generation (the other is Uncharted), so when I got my first look at the sequel, inFAMOUS 2, I can’t tell you how stoked I was to be once again filling the electric shoes of Cole MacGrath.

I was fortunate to land access to the inFAMOUS 2 User Generated Content (UGC) beta back in April, and you can find my impressions of that here: http://selectstartgames.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/infamous-2-beta-impressions/ (so I won’t be going into too much detail about the UGC in this review, as it’s mostly unchanged from the beta, with a few tweaks and userface improvements), and I was blown away by the improvements Sucker Punch Productions have implemented in the two years between inFAMOUS 1 and 2.

I usually comment on the visuals of a game at the end of the review, because I tend to place them at a lower priority to other factors of the game, but inFAMOUS 2 is such a visual improvement over it’s predecessor, that it hits you in the eyes like a, er, bolt of lightning…*ahem* (Hey, I could have gone with “the visual improvements are…shocking…heh,” so don’t give me that look…).

InFAMOUS 1 was certainly not an ugly game. Especially when it came to the level of detail in Empire City. InFAMOUS 2, on the other hand, feels more cohesive all around. Character models no longer look generic and bland, and the New Orleans inspired city of New Marais is adorned with incredibly sharp and detailed textures, atmospheric effects like depth of field and motion blur, and the city itself has more diverse locales.

A slum looks like a slum, and a Red Light District believably looks red lighty. It doesn’t feel as copy/pasted as Empire City (how many bowling alleys does one city need? Apparently, hundreds in Empire City. Hey, they love their bowling).

Cole’s animations have also been improved, and he feels better situated in his environment, and hosts more context sensitive adjustments to his patented parkour acrobatics and lightning flinging skills.

This brings me to the controls, which are, amazingly, even tighter than the already tight original. Cole still suffers from “sticky fingers,” but it doesn’t feel as out of your control as it often did in the original. Very few times did I find myself being “sucked” towards a piece of wall or pipe that I didn’t intend to climb on.

His movement speed as been increased, both on foot, and while grinding on power lines, rail ways, and coasting through the air on his Static Trusters. This improvement makes traversing New Marais infinitely more enjoyable than in inFAMOUS. Additional traversal skills like the Ice Launch and Firebird Strike (and one more I won’t spoil, as it’s really rather surprising that SP put it in the game), opens up a lot more options in how you get from point A to point B.

Mission structure is unchanged from the original (or any other open world/sandbox game out there): You travel to mission icons on the map, and trigger the mission. Finely animated cutscenes and solid voice work from a talented cast help to draw you into the main character’s plight, even if the story isn’t as compelling as the “Hero Origin” of the first.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the plot of inFAMOUS 2, but some of the story beats either felt unexplained (even when filling in the details with 29 Dead Drops scattered around the city), or rushed. With that said, Cole, Zeke, Kuo, and Nix, make fine protagonists, and the villain of the story, The Beast, who’s coming was prophesized at the finale of inFAMOUS, was compelling.

When Cole arrives in New Marais, he not only has to find the Blast Cores, with the help of Zeke, Kuo, and Doctor Wolfe, the man who helped create the Ray Sphere and the Blast Cores, but he also has to contend with “anti-mutant” religious zealot Bertrand, who has New Marais under lockdown with the help of his Militia.

I also really enjoyed the development of Cole’s troubled relationship with his best friend, Zeke, and I was actually shocked that I liked Zeke as a character in this outing, as I found him incredibly irritating in the original. I also feel that Cole’s new voice actor, Eric Laden, did a fantastic job of emoting, and making Cole feel like more of a human being, instead of a wooden cliché. He’s still a bit of a dick, but he’s more likeable than in inFAMOUS, and Jason Cottle’s portrayal of the character.

In fact, most of the cast I thoroughly enjoyed, even Nix, who is an over the top Fire and Napalm Conduit who represents Cole’s darker karmic side. She’s from New Marais, and has a troubled past and a twisted sense of justice.

For those that fear that the great comic book style cutscenes are gone thanks to the fancy new graphics engine and in game cutscenes, don’t worry. There are still plenty, and they are just as cool as in the original, and used to punctuate some of the story’s major plot points.

While inFAMOUS 2 doesn’t have a world as deep feeling as Red Dead Redemption, there is plenty to do while going about Cole’s journey to gain access to the 6 power cores he needs to obtain in order to become powerful enough to stop the Beast, who has arrived ahead of schedule and put a monkey wrench in Cole’s plans.

There are random street crimes that occur, ranging from muggings to hostage situations, to a mad bomber leaving ticking time bombs that Cole must defuse (and unravel who did it).

There are also 60 side missions to undertake on top of the 40 story missions, Dead Drops to collect, and, literally, hundreds of Blast Shards scattered around the city.

All of this content could be overwhelming, but inFAMOUS 2 manages to marry all of these features in a way that makes sense, and always serves the game play. Let’s take the 60 side missions for example. For every 10 missions you complete, you unlock a new ability for Cole, which you can then purchase with the experience points you get for completing missions, defeating enemies, and completing stunts.

By completing stunts, you also unlock new variations on your standard 4 power sets: Blasts, Grenades, Rockets, Shockwaves. Not to mention your Ionic powers, which are devastatingly powerful attacks that deal massive damage to the enemies they encounter.

Take out a few Militia goons with a few blasts of your Alpha Bolt, and you unlock the Pincer Bolt, a blast that splits into 3 bolts and slams into an enemy for increased damage. Stick some sticky grenades on a certain number of enemies, and you unlock a new grenade type. Collect enough Blast Shards, and Cole’s energy reserves grows, allowing him to use more of his attacks before his energy depletes.

This is all incredibly fun to do thanks to a combat engine that was great in inFAMOUS, and has gotten even greater in inFAMOUS 2. Cole has 50 powers at his disposal this time around, so there is really no shortage of fun ways to take out the various enemies he encounters in New Marais.

The third person shooting is just as solid as it’s always been, and the way the game encourages combining your electric skills with your parkour skills is fun and rewarding. I can’t say I have any complaints about the combat overall, but Cole’s new melee weapon, the Amp, isn’t as precise as Cole’s other skills, mostly due to the lack of a lock on function, so the game relies on spotty auto-targeting to hit foes (which can lead to an innocent, and stupid, bystander getting a face full of amp when you meant to hit that swamp creature). Even so, the Amp is one of my favorite additions to the game, as it really is satisfying to take it to enemies and wollop them into submission.

Each of the game play elements in inFAMOUS 2 feed into one another, and you are always hard pressed to keep from picking up “just one more…” whether it be Dead Drops, Stunts, Blast Shards, or Side Quests.

If there is one thing I can really say about inFAMOUS 2, it’s that it is very cohesive. From visuals, to game design, to controls, to music. Speaking of, the musical score is just as fantastic as the first game, with a wide variety of tracks that really nail the New Orleans vibe Sucker Punch was going for. It’s a great mix of musical styles, and although the sound mixing is spotty (the city is oddly quiet at times, with very little ambient noise), the soundtrack and sound effects (in particular, the Amp, which makes a great crackling noise when finishing off enemies), are very stylish and satisfying.

One of the other major elements of inFAMOUS 2 that it weaves rather well into it’s game play is the Morality system. Not as deep as an RPG (which makes sense, as inFAMOUS is NOT an RPG, so no Mass Effect or Fallout Style dialogue options here), but fitting very well with the comic book theme the game presents, players are given the option to be heroic or infamous as they help Cole prepare for his confrontation with the Beast.

The game rewards both styles of play. If you help and heal people, and make choices that reflect the good, the city will appreciate you more, help out by attacking your enemies, and your heroic power set will be more tailored to precision, non-collateral damage inflicting skills. If you are a jackass, causing mayhem (which in itself is it’s own reward), you will be given more destructive powers, but also have to contend with citizens that will routinely run up and try and knock your lights out, the local police, as well as the general baddies in the city like the Militia.

The two karmic states; good and evil, lead you to two radically different, and excellent finales. The moral choices in the game aren’t very complex, and are pretty black and white (like many comic books were in the day; where villains were just…bad, and heroes were unfathomably good), but they give a nice context surrounding your playstyle (some folks like to watch the world burn, others like to make it a better place; unlike other sandbox games, the game’s tone will reflect which side you are on).

And of course, there’s the UGC. It’s still in it’s early stages, so the content isn’t as huge as it’s nearest brethren, LittleBig Planet, but there is plenty to keep you coming back to inFAMOUS 2 well after the ending credits roll on Cole’s story. I’m particularly excited by the improvements and features Sucker Punch has teased at releasing in the future pertaining to UGC, but the tools available to creators are surprisingly versatile, and the variety of missions already on the servers is impressive. Not every mission is going to be a winner, but there are definitely some great ones out there (and don’t forget to give my series of the missions “The New Marais Ripper” a play!).

VERDICT: BUY – I can’t recommend this game enough to people who just want to have some good old fashioned fun. The game feels good to play, whether you are a saint or a sinner. There is always some game play element to reward your karmic choices, and the new traversal improvements and skills make exploring New Marais a blast. If you were a fan of inFAMOUS, then inFAMOUS 2 is a no brainer. If you never gave inFAMOUS a try, I recommend you do, as the narrative and dialogue in i2 have multiple call backs and plot points that are directly related to the first. And besides, it’s still good fun too, even without all the bells and whistles of this new entry.

Hey folks! It’s been pretty busy for me lately, so I haven’t been able to update as often as I’d like, but today is rather special for me!

As some of you are aware, I was in the inFAMOUS 2 User Generated Content (UGC) Beta back in April (I wrote some nifty impressions on the beta here:

http://selectstartgames.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/infamous-2-beta-impressions/).

With the beta over, inFAMOUS 2 developer Sucker Punch was trying to roll over as many of their favorite UGC missions as they could from the beta to the final game. Last Friday, yours truly was contacted and asked if I wanted my 3 part series, “The New Marai Ripper” featured on the UGC site, because they really liked them.

As you’d expect, I was like, “Hells yeah!” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to upload the missions to the server on time, so I spent last weekend recreating all 3 parts from scratch and re-uploading them. True to their word, Sucker Punch has the series featured here: http://www.infamousthegame.com/en_US/infamous2/community/ugc.html!

To find the missions directly, here’s Part 1:

http://www.infamousthegame.com/en_US/infamous2/community/ugc/mission.html?missionId=fb19deb2-5c08-420a-9efa-5775f52b4f06

Part 2:

http://www.infamousthegame.com/en_US/infamous2/community/ugc/mission.html?missionId=8b7181f9-4a9e-4826-88ed-91e081b7920b

And Part 3:

http://www.infamousthegame.com/en_US/infamous2/community/ugc/mission.html?missionId=8f496b53-cf56-4a86-b9fc-ef0e05cc702f

You have to log into the UGC site with your PSN ID, then add the missions to your inFAMOUS 2 UGC Queue. When you boot up the game, head to the UGC menu in Options, and set your filter to “My Queue.” The world should then be auto-populated with whatever missions you put in your queue.

There are some pretty awesome missions featured on the site, so give them all a try!

At their pre-E3 press conference, Konami Digital Entertainment has announced HD Collections for fan favorites Zone of the Enders and Metal Gear Solid.

The Zone of the Ender’s HD Collection will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and include ZoE 1 and 2. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will be available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and will include Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker.

The Metal Gear Solid collection is slated for November of 2011, while the Zone of the Enders collection is slated for some time in 2012. It’s hard for me to type this through my tears of joy. It’s going to be a long wait for these two collections to hit, but it’s worth it, as all 5 of the titles in these two collections are some of the best gaming experiences of the last generation.

No other details have been given concerning features/content, but I’m expecting the standard locked down framerate, Trophies/Achievements, and anti-aliasing for those nasty jaggies.

I’ve been holding on to my BC PS3 so I can keep playing some of my favorite PS2 titles, but with these constant HD Re-masters, it’s looking like Backward’s Compatibility is becoming a feature of the past.

UPDATE: This story just keeps getting better and better: Konami also revealed a Silent Hill HD Collection, featuring HD Remastered versions of Silent Hill 2 and 3 (arguably the best two in the entire series). I don’t know if I can take much more of this awesomeness. Forgive me, I think I’m getting a little verklempt…

Variety reports that Oscar nominated director David O’Russell has left helming the “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” film due to “creative differences.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m fricking ecstatic about this news. I’ve never seen “The Fighter,” and I have no doubts that it was a good film. I also really loved “Three Kings,” but I personally don’t think O’Russell was going down the proper path for an Uncharted film.

I understand that gamers would like a movie based off of one of their favorite gaming franchises to truly represent how quality a game’s world, characters, and story could be, but come on, guys, Uncharted ain’t that franchise. It’s a popcorn game with fun characters, an over the top story borrowing heavily from pulp adventure icons like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.

What O’Russell wanted to do was markedly different from the goals and objectives of the Uncharted franchise as a whole. I don’t care how talented of a director you are, if you completely miss the point of the subject you are bringing to the screen.

If you want to do a gripping film about a family of “treasure keepers” trying to protect ancient secrets from the mob, then don’t call it “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.”

Now that O’Russell has departed, people are wondering if front-runner for series protagonist Nathan Drake, Mark Wahlberg, will be leaving as well. Odds are; yes, he’ll probably be stepping down, as well as Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, who were also attached to the project.

This has brought the debate to who should step in to play the key roles of Drake, his friend and mentor, Sully, and his love interest, Elena. Uncharted fans are keen on Castle and Firefly star, Nathan Fillion. I fall in that camp as well. Anyone who has watched the show Firefly has seen more than a passing resemblance to Fillion’s Captain Malcolm Reynolds to Naughty Dog’s Nathan Drake.

Some would like to argue star power is necessary for a big budget film like “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.” I disagree. I don’t think it’s necessary for such a thing when the license is strong, as Uncharted clearly is. Look at Bryan Singer’s “X-Men.” Despite Patrick Stewart’s role as Professor X, the bulk of the cast, and the film, rested on more than just a few unknown actors and actresses, and cast the main role in the film, Wolverine, to then unknown Hugh Jackman. The film was a resounding success, and was one of the films that pushed the “superhero film boom” we now enjoy.

Keanu Reeves. Lawrence Fishburne. Two actors with very low profiles, with Fishburne coming off of critical and commercial “bomb” “Event Horizon (I actually really loved that film, but not until a few more viewings). Yet “The Matrix” is considered one of the best sci fi movies of all times (despite mediocre sequels).

Tobey Macguire. Wilem Dafoe. Hardly the most popular actors at the time in mainstream circles, and yet “Spider-Man” grossed over $800 million world wide. “Silent Hill” is, arguably, one of the better video game to film adaptations, and it was successful in the box office despite having a non-mainstream cast.

A rock solid script, and actors right for the part will make “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” a hit movie. O’Russell’s profile has certainly skyrocketed since “The Fighter,” but that profile doesn’t guarantee a hit movie. Hollywood has become too obsessed with “faces” to sell movies, when movie-goers just want to see a good film, damned if it stars Tom Cruise or Will Smith.

I’d like to see Fillion play Nathan Drake. I’d like to see Emily Rose play Elena Fischer. I actually don’t mind DeNiro as Victor Sullivan (although Harrison Ford would be a brilliant choice, as Sully is often hinted at as having adventurous exploits in his youth before becoming father figure/mentor to Drake).

Uncharted fans want a good Uncharted film, not necessarily a deep, complex drama or vast departure from the themes that make the franchise appealing in the first place. Would “Raiders of the Lost Ark” have been the same if Indiana was a secret agent working for the pentagon and tasked with recovering nuclear warheads? Nathan Drake isn’t a “treasure keeper.” His familial ties are still a closely guarded secret, but I doubt it turns out the family line was tasked with protecting “national treasures.”

I’m glad O’Russell has stepped down, and now my hope is that Sony will pair the franchise up with a director that respects the source material, and can craft a decent movie. If only Stephen Sommers hadn’t blown his load with the first Mummy movie…

Genre: Sandbox Building RPG
Platform: Windows
Developer: Andrew “Redigit” Spinks
Price: $9.99 (USD) Available through Steam

I’m sure many of you have heard of a little game called Minecraft, developed by indie developer Markus Notch. For those that have not, I’ll describe it’s basic gameplay briefly, as Terraria shares similar game play elements. Minecraft is a 3D “sandbox building game,” which is emerging as a new genre in the industry.

The core mechanics are simple: you are presented with a randomly generated world, and are free to explore it to your hearts content, mining for resources such as wood, iron, dirt, and more, and then using those resources to, well, “craft” things.

Hence, “Minecraft.” You mine and craft. Simple enough, and yet it doesn’t seem terribly compelling as a game play mechanic. Needless to say, Minecraft has proven to be addicting to thousands of gamers, and has made Markus Notch a lot of money.

Now, onto Terraria. Take that core Minecraft gameplay described above, and apply it to a 2D, 16-bit (Super Nintendo era) action rpg that shares more than a little passing resemblance to a side scrolling Final Fantasy game, and you’ll have Terraria.

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t jump on the Minecraft bandwagon. Call me a graphics whore, but while the game play sounded intriguing, the 3D visuals looking ripped straight from a PlayStation 1 title didn’t appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong, Minecraft is a hell of a game, and I urge you to look up some videos on Youtube showcasing the genuinely remarkable things people have created with the game, but for me, personally, the visual aesthetic didn’t do it for me.

Terraria on the other hand, is like a boost of nostalgia injected into my aging gamer veins. I’m a sucker for 8-bit and 16-bit graphics. The 2D sidescrolling game play also had me intrigued. The reasonable price tipped me over the edge. I went into the game not entirely sure of what to expect, or even if this type of game would appeal to me, but it didn’t take long for the title to suck me in.

The best way I can review Terraria is to describe my experience with the title, as the game play is often emergent and unpredictable, but in the best way.

After booting the game and creating my avatar (an FF style version of myself, of course), I was allowed to create my world, which I uncreatively named “World 1″ (sad, I know). The game then took a few moments to generate World 1, and I was spawned in a random location; for me, a flat land filled with sand. The only objects in my inventory were a copper pickaxe and a copper axe.

The pickaxe allows you to dig into dirt, rock, and sand, collecting it as you destroy it. The axe allows you to chop down trees, collecting wood and acorns. Acorns can then be planted into dirt to grow more trees (which can then be harvested for more wood and acorns, and so forth).

You are alone in this world but for one NPC that acts as a guide. My wife has named him “Stan.” Right clicking on Stan will bring up a text box filled with useful information on how to play the game. He’s your in game guide, but pressing “Shift” + “Tab” will bring up an in game web page allowing you access to gaming forums and support for the game. Both Stan and the forums proved to be invaluable at the start of the game.

After acclimating myself with the controls, I proceeded to leave the desert behind and start collecting wood, as Stan suggested building a house is top priority, as there are many dangers in Terraria, such as slimes. Building a house is relatively simple. Taking the wood acquired through chopping down trees, you lay out a rough foundation of your house; side walls and ceilings. Once my outline of my house was complete, and I was protected from the slimes that love to pounce, I was able to really begin my adventures.

I created a workbench, which is vital to producing various useful items in Terraria. Using the workbench, I created doors for my house, a table, a chair, and a wooden sword. The wooden sword was much more effective against slimes than my pickaxe and axe. With doors on my house, and a sword in my hand, I set out to exact some justice against those pesky slimes.

Each slime I killed gave me gel, which I eventually combined with wood at my workbench to make torches to light my way and my home. After killing a bunch of slimes, and exploring some more of my randomly generated “World 1,” I returned back home and built a furnace out of rock I had harvested. The furnace allows you to create items such as glass from sand.

The glass can then be turned into bottles, which, when placed on a table, becomes an alchemy set that allows you to create potions for help from mushrooms found throughout the world.

Building a house is vital, as come nightfall, deadlier enemies will appear and assault you. Having a home is protection, and building walls (they cover the background around your home), will help keep them from spawing inside of your dwelling.

Generally, it’s best to stay inside when night hits, but you are rewarded for venturing outdoors at night with random shooting stars. These stars can be collected, and used to upgrade your mana (which fuels various attacks and items), or used to create mana potions that restore lost mana. Deadlier enemies will also drop better spoils than the gel and coin that the slimes drop.

It’s best to build multiple homes as you travel across your world, because this will encourage other NPCs to populate your world. There are a few different NPCs: The guide (“Stan”), the Nurse, who restores your health, the Merchant, who sells items and equipment, and the Demolitions Expert, who sells bombs and such.

These NPCs will only appear in your world when certain criteria are met (for the Merchant, the player must have accumulated 54 silver). The Guilde will always be in your game, and will occupy the first home you build. Only one NPC can live in a home at one time.

While worlds are randomly generated, they have a few standard characteristics, such as lakes, forests, a dungeon, and many, many caves to explore. Exploring these caves is paramount to finding rare items and minerals that can be used to create newer armor and weapons.

I’ve been playing for hours, and I’ve yet to see a fraction of the 200 items available to find/create. There are even bosses scattered in the depths of the world that drop rare loot. I’ve seen videos of people with rocket boots, light sabers, and guns. The game feels like a mix between Final Fantasy, Mario Brothers, and Castlevania/Metroid rolled into a surprisingly addicting package.

The game taps into some inate sense of discovery that seems to reside in all humans. The game is full of “just 10 more minutes,” and never seems to get old. I am compelled to keep mining, and mining, and mining, gathering that rare silver ore, or rubies, or iron, so I can craft just one more item, or build one more home; with bed, so I can set a new respawn point and not lose precious time respawning leagues away.

Speaking of death, you will die a lot in Terraria. Fortunately, the penalty for dying isn’t terribly stiff. You will drop half of your money (which can be recovered by going back to the spot in which you died), and you will respawn at your last respawn point. As mentioned above, creating beds in your home (make sure the home has solid walls made of wood or stone), and right clicking will set that home as your new respawn point. I make it a priority to build a home near my current expidition location, and create a save point there.

The main thrust of game play is discovery. Carving out new trails in sand and dirt and stone in search of more loot/resources. Using the keyboard to maneuver is not my ideal method when playing a 2D sidescroller, but so far, there is no way to use a game pad (although the murmurs of an XBLA version of the game gives me hope that we’ll be able to apply joystick controls in a future update).

The character is a little floaty, and attacking and avoiding enemies can be a little spotty, but overall, the game is solid. Visuals are nostalgic and simple 2D sprites that wouldn’t be out of place in a Super Nintendo title, so no complaints from this old gamer. There is no narrative beyond what you craft for yourself, as this game is purely about discovering the world around you, and battling enemies.

All of this is wonderfully enjoyable by your lonesome, but Terraria lets you join up with up to 8 other players for some multi-player exploration, and even PVP. I’m not a big PVP fan, so I haven’t ventured into that territory yet, but playing Terraria with another live player adds to the fun of the game. Having that extra pair of hands, so to speak, is useful, as often, one player can fend off enemies while you hurriedly build shelter or open up a new cavern. The enemies are surprisingly tough, so venturing out at night is a lot easier with that extra help.

VERDICT: BUY – Terraria is a game that I can’t recommend enough, especially to fans of retro visuals and addicting game play. The feeling of discovery when carving a new path and uncovering a hidden cave or environment is exciting and pushes you forward more than a flashy cutscene. Gathering resources and then using them to craft new items and equipment is addicting and satisfying. The game is charming, addicting, and fun. What more can you ask for in a game?

I tend to try and keep a cool head about most things, observing and evaluating before making any final judgments. The same applies to the PlayStation Network outage that occured on April 20th, 2011, and continued until May 14th, 2011. My thoughts on the matter were kept fairly low key, as I like to keep these sorts of dramas off of Select/Start Games. But now that the dust is settling, I can look back on the whole event with a clear head and weigh in.

Initially, I didn’t realize anything had gone wrong on April 20th. PSN was down, and there was apparently maintenance going on. As the hours, then days wore on, millions of PlayStation 3 owners began to suspect foul play, and Sony wasn’t saying much. Eventually, they posted an update on the PlayStation Blog detailing that they had shut off the PSN due to an “external intrusion.” Upon hearing this news, my mind immediately jumped to “Anonymous.”

I’m sure many of you have heard of the “organization that is not an orginization” known as Anonymous. For those that don’t, they are a group of individuals who make it their modus operandi to leap from life to life, striving to put right what once get wrong, and DDOS various other organizations such as Scientology and Westboro Baptist Church. Recently, they targeted Sony, for bringing litigation to George Hotz, aka, GeoHotz, for releasing confidential security keys for the PS3 across the internet.

The case with Hotz was eventually settled, but not before Anonymous declared that Sony had “stuck their penises in a hornets nest,” and will therefore feel the wrath of Anonymous. After a DDOS attack; a bit of “hacking” that will bring down a website, keeping people from accessing the page, Anonymous declared that that wasn’t the end of their battle against the evil corporation known as Sony. They declared that they were organizing a massive boycott of Sony at their stores located across the world.

To be quite honest, I’m all for boycotting. If Anonymous wants to express their discontent with Sony through boycotts, I’m all for it. Do your thing. Personally, I don’t purchase Activision products. These sorts of acts by consumers aren’t hurting other consumers that don’t care if you like the product or not. I’m fine with that. Anonymous also declared that the boycott was only the start of an attack on Sony the likes of which had never been seen.

The boycott, which took place on Saturday, April 16th, 2011, didn’t go as planned, however. Turnout was practically non-existent, despite big talk on various irc (internet relay chat) channels. The following Monday, Anonymous declared that they were ceasing further attacks on Sony. It seemed like the drama of the previous month was at an end. Until two days later, when the PlayStation Network was shut off by Sony. Most people recalled the threats by Anonymous, although, not so surprisingly, Anonymous denied being responsible for this attack on Sony.

As the days went on, Sony revealed more and more information concerning the attack. It was an external intrusion by a hacker, and the personal information of 77 million users had been compromised. Everything from names, addresses, secret question answers, and most troubling, potentially credit card information. Ultimately, it was revealed that our CC information was safe and encrypted, but not before millions of people cancelled their cards.

It didn’t take long for the gaming media to jump on this story like vultures to a fresh carcass, and soon people were ready to storm Sony’s headquarters in earthquake ravaged Japan and tear the building assunder. I wasn’t part of this “blame Sony” camp, because, well, shit happens. Networks get hacked all the time. It just so happens that this breach happened to a service we have personal interest in. If the story was that the Pentagon had been hacked (which DID happen, in 1999), most of us gamers wouldn’t have batted an eye. But since it’s our beloved gaming console and PlayStation Network, people were livid.

I can’t say I don’t understand the anger and rage, because I do. What I didn’t get then, and don’t get now, was the bulk of the rage being directed at Sony. “They should have protected our information better, they should have told us as soon as it happened, I’m never trusting them again, I’m selling my PlayStation 3 and getting an Xbox!!” On the first point, it’s hard to determine how protected and encrypted our information was.

Earlier misinformation had people assuming that there was no encryption whatsoever, and that passwords were stored in plain text. Turns out that that wasn’t the case. That Sony’s security systems were not only up to date, but that passwords and other information (like our CC information), was, indeed, encrypted.

On the second point; I can  understand people being upset that Sony didn’t inform us all sooner, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they didn’t know of the extent of the breach, like they said. Or, maybe they simply panicked, bickered amongst themselves of how to proceed, then eventually decided to hold off telling us until they knew more. I think both are reasonable assumptions, and I think it’s a mix of the two.

To the third point, I understand that as well. Trust in the company has been shattered for some. For me, I can’t say I’ve been terribly shaken by this breach. As I stated before, these things happen. When our personal information is stored anywhere, it is at risk of being accessed by unauthorized parties. What’s even more staggering and disturbing to me is that you can search the names of many people close to you on Google or other search engines, and be presented with a startling amount of information about that person.

For fun, I typed in a close friend’s full name, and was given her city and state, her birthday, her work place, her work address, and her home address. That was from a simple Google search. Typing in my own name didn’t reveal nearly as much information, but my name, city and state, and birthday were present. Most of this information is easily accessible. Since our credit card information was protected, I don’t see a reason to continually be pissed at Sony for that aspect of the case.

Moving on, a few interesting wrinkles in the scenario played themselves out during the 3 weeks that the PSN was down. Firstly, in Sony’s report to Congress about the outage, they disclosed the information that, in one of the files found during investigation of the breach, there was a text file with the message “Anonymous, We are Legion.”

Anonymous has repeatedly declared innocence, but it is hard to take the word of a known cyber terrorist group in this matter. Anonymous prides itself on not having a particular structure or leadership. It could very well be that the core members of Anonymous were unaware of the attack on PSN. However, it’s very possible, and even more likely, that one of their fringe branches, using the Anonymous moniker, were responsible.

Secondly, Anonymous themselves became the victim of their own “external intrusion,” or I should say, “internal intrusion,” as a member of their own group “went rogue,” and hacked the IPs and personal information of the administrators of Anonymous’ website, and shut it down with a DDOS attack, the same type of attack they used in their fight against Sony.

Thirdly, a man who claims to be the “face” of Anonymous, has stepped down, citing disapproval of how “OpSony” (the name of the operation to attack Sony and their higher up employees) was carried out. Despite the group’s insistence that they have no structure or form, they are quick to describe themselves as such, and even have a “central command,” so to speak. These individuals are trying to now distance themselves from the incident with Sony.

I used to be one of those individuals that didn’t have a particular beef with hackers. I think they are often talented individuals, who are doing what they do for their own interests. I read books, comics, and play video games as some of my hobbies. I viewed hacking as their hobby. Not so much anymore. My whole perspective on hackers has soured during this debacle.

I’ve been denied access to services that I pay for (DC Universe Online, Hulu Plus, PlayStation Plus), as well as being denied the option to buy many of the games that were slated to be released on the PSN during the month of April (those games have yet to come out still, which has impacted not only my gaming, but more importantly, the publishers and developers that work hard to produce this content for us, and earn a paycheck to feed their families).

Maybe it’s because I work in the gaming industry myself that I have a vested interest in its success, but I get absolutely furious when I think of the many developers who have been financially hurt by this crisis. This wasn’t just an attack on Sony by the self righteous hacker who decided to attack a video game manufacturer. This was an attack on the industry.

Sony is a major player in gaming and they will not be hurt too horribly by this (sure, they’ve lost millions of dollars in revenue, but they are a multi-billion dollar corporation, they’ll recoup those losses fairly quickly), but those smaller developers who don’t rake in billions a year, have been hurt the most by their game not releasing on the PSN for three weeks. Release schedules are often meticulously planned to maximize exposure and potential revenue.

April was a relatively dry month for releases on the network, meaning some games (such as Outland, from Housemarque), had the chance to get some maximum exposure. Three major console titles also released the week of the outtage; Portal 2, SOCOM 4, and Mortal Kombat, each having an online component, and some exclusive tied to the PlayStation 3 and PSN. I imagine that the developers of these games are not pleased with the timing of the cyber attack.

I’m all for people doing what they want with their consoles. Sony wasn’t suing GeorgeHotz for hacking his console, and yet Anonymous waged this battle against Sony based on that concept. The suffering of millions of PSN owners, PS3 publishers, and developers, was due to a gross misunderstanding of the situation by Anonymous, or some fringe arm of Anonymous.

The PSN has been restored in part, with players being able to play online again, with word that the PlayStation Store is expected to be up by the end of the month, and I believe that eventually this will all fade to memory, but the damage to Anonymous is much more long term, I think. I’ll never respect the group, despite agreeing with some of their causes (such as exposing Scientology for it’s many genuinely harmful affects on people’s lives), and they have done a lot of damage to their name by not policing themselves thoroughly if this PSN attack was truly orchestrated by one, or many of their own.

I certainly hope that this mess is behind them, and maybe the group will be more discerning and thorough when deciding to wage “war” against companies like Sony. As far as evil corporations go, I don’t think Sony is in the top 5. They make consumer electronics, not nuclear warheads. My PS3 isn’t going to cut my throat in my sleep, or eat my pets. Not yet at least. There are more worthwhile causes for these hackers to battle against, my gaming toy ain’t one of them. So leave it the frick alone.

Hey, folks! I know it’s been awhile, but it’s been a crazy busy few weeks for yours truly! However, I come today with some little, hopefully not bannable tidbits of information from the recently began inFAMOUS 2 Beta from Sucker Punch.

I’m not sure how much is allowed to be discussed concerning the beta, but I’m keeping it general, and hopefully will not get into too much trouble.

I was certainly surprised to find an invite in my mailbox earlier this week, and eagerly downloaded the 1.9gig install. After loading up the game, I was given a brief video tutorial about what to expect from the beta. After the video, I was in the shoes of Cole McGrath; Electric Dude.

As you’d expect, the first thing you notice (if you are a long time inFAMOUS fan, such as myself), is the visual upgrade. Sucker Punch finally upgraded from the modified PS2 Sly Cooper engine used in inFAMOUS 1, to a full fledged PS3 engine, and it shows. Texture details are as sharp as ever, jaggies are smoothed away by some form of anti-aliasing (not sure if it’s the same MLAA used in God of War 3, but the game looks smooth, so no complaints here), and the lighting appeared solid (the beta “hub” as it were, is set in the daytime, so not much dynamic lighting could be surmised immediately).

After taking in the visual upgrade, I fiddled with my controller and HUD settings to get things just right, and proceeded to explore the island of New Marais. Inspired by New Orleans, New Marais immediately sets itself apart from inFAMOUS 1′s Empire City by being more lush, colorful, and “humid” feeling. From Red Light Districts, to towering cathedrals, to dangerous swamps and moody cemeteries, the city just feels more engrossing and mysterious.

The beta is only locked to one island, but there is plenty to see, and it’s all very visually distinct. I had no problem differentiating between the slums and the suburbs, and the main boardwalk, to the theater district. It’s the perfect backdrop for a superhero tale, and I can see why Sucker Punch would pull from New Orleans, instead of the now overused template of New York (I have no problems with New York, mind you, but its used in so many games the locale has lost a little of its magic for me).

For veteran inFAMOUS fans, you don’t have to worry about Sucker Punch fiddling with what isn’t broken: Cole moves just as fluidly as he did in inFAMOUS 1; moreso, actually. I found the controls to be even tighter and more responsive, with an improved framerate. Overall, the framerate seems to be pretty locked down. Aiming and shooting was also responsive, and it was simply a joy to move around.

Cole’s power set is limited in the beta, but there is still plenty to play around with. His Static Thrusters, which allow him to hover through the air for short periods has been amped up (no pun intended), and he moves much faster and farther through the air. Also, his Induction Grind, enabling him to grind on power lines, and even up special fixtures on the sides of some buildings, is faster, making moving across the seemingly larger map much quicker and more fun.

Another neat bonus to his traversal powers is a boost jump when Cole is standing atop a vehicle. In an impressive burst of electric light, Cole launches himself upward into the air, allowing you to reach power lines above, or maybe just get that extra height to evade an enemy.

On the offensive side, Cole’s abilities in the beta were familiar, with some welcome twists and tweaks. His standard shock bolt ability now comes in more than one flavor; a series of electric balls that fly out like bullets towards an enemy, a longer range electric arc bolt to tag enemies at a distance, and what looks to be a horizontal line wave of electricity that flew outwards and hits more than one foe if they happen to be closer together.

Without spoiling the abilities of his Grenades and “Force Push” abilities, they also have interesting, and useful versions. These powers are still mapped to the familiar R1, Square, and X buttons,  but with the press of the Left Digital Pad, a menu pops up on the left side of the screen, and Cole can switch to any of those new versions on the fly by cycling through them with the press of the corresponding button. It was surprisingly intuitive, and I found it solved the issue of adding access to more powers without having to pause and load a menu screen.

Melee was never inFAMOUS’ strong point, so I was interested in trying out Cole’s new melee weapon, the Amp. Fortunately, it proved to be a rather satisfying addition to the combat, and considering that Cole can now run completely out of juice (meaning no standard electric bolt attacks when he’s completely drained), the Amp comes in handy. A meter fills up as damage is dealt to the enemy, and when it is full, a press of the Triangle button will pull over a devastating finisher move. It’s a fun weapon to use in a bind until you can recharge and go back to ranged attacks. I really enjoyed just getting up and wailing on baddies, so I have no complaints about Cole’s new tool.

Now, what good are all these cool traversal and offensive skills if there is nothing to do with them? Fortunately, that’s what this beta is all about! At the start, there are already a few missions created by some of the Sucker Punch developers available to explore. I only managed to play a few that first day, such as a Skeet ball mini game, in which Cole was using his force push ability to try and launch a beach ball into floating rings for points, and a few narrative missions, which had Cole doing things from helping Zeke impress some ladies by reliving one of his “epic” adventures, and a tale that weaved in player choice (such as helping or not helping save a man’s kidnapped son).

What was impressive to me was the variety of missions possible. When I first heard of Sucker Punch adding UGC to the game, I simply thought it’d be a simple matter of tools that let players create mini-games to pass the time between single player missions. I was delighted to find out how wrong I was. Players are able to craft rather complex games and stories, and while it doesn’t seem to have the level of depth as LittleBigPlanet 2, it’s a worthy addition to that game’s “Play, Create, Share” subgenre.

The creator tools seem overwhelming at first, despite having descriptions of what some of the various knobs and scripts and levers do. After deconstructing a few missions myself, I was able to build the foundations for my own story based mission (which I hope to make good enough that it will be featured on the actual disc; if not, then it will always be uploaded to the community anyway!).

The content that can be created is conveniently broken up into categories such as “Chase,” “Assassination,” “Puzzle,” “Platforming,” and “Narrative” (to name only a few of the options available, that not just serve to be the foundation of your content, but for helping other players filter the content they’d like to see).

When creating your works, you can use an empty template, in which you craft all of the content yourself, or load up a template, which will give you the basic starting scripts to get you going. For example, the “Narrative” template will load you into the editor with a simple mission of “Talk to Zeke, then talk to the Cop,” if anything than to show you how the various game logic can be used.

I imagine that those that master the tools available will able to craft some rather fantastic stuff, especially if LittleBig Planet, and ModNation Racers is anything to go by.

I would have been extremely content with Sucker Punch if they had simply given me a game that was just like inFAMOUS, but with a 2 slapped onto the end and some minor improvements. Instead, they have given me a sequel that not only looks to improve over the original 100 fold, but also the chance to weave my own tales within the inFAMOUS universe, and experience, literally, hours upon hours of countless additional content long after the single player story is done.

The beta is certainly rough, as most betas are, but what is there is remarkably polished, and can only improve over time as far as additional tools and tweaks go. If anything, it’s made the June 7th release of the final game that much harder for me.

At the moment, there aren’t any specific rules on forum conduct, but please keep things clean (for the most part!), and no harassing one another. Most importantly: Have FUN chatting about games!

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