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So! From what I can see, every notable game to come this year is out there now, which means it's that time of the year again.....time to pick your damn game of this action packed fun filled year that has been two thousand and SEVEN!
For me, i'm still undecided between two games. BioShock and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.
BioShock had been my serious contender since day one. It was fantastic. Everything about the game just pulled me in. It had a fantastic story, and a lot of extra story content driven by your own desire to find out about the background of Rapture (through finding audio diarys). The plasmids were an excellent mix to the gameplay, allowing you to enter combat scenarios with entirely different play styles and tactics. You could run into a situation guns blazing, or you could freeze/stun someone and come at them with your wrench, or you could hack a security bot to go with you.
It had its flaws (clear cut line between good and evil endings which won't reward you for a change of heart that may very well happen to a few people half way through, some useless plasmids/weapons, some AI issues and the game being pretty easy due to Vita-Chambers) but, for the most of this fall, it was untouched by any other game in my opinion.
Then I played Uncharted, the last big release on my radar and one which I was starting to lack faith in. Although I had been looking forward to it, a few play throughs of the demo had made me think "Day one purchase" to "Hmm, I dunno if I want or not".
However, playing the final game was an excellent experience. The game is really damn good. It plays like a mix of Tomb Raider, Far Cry and Gears. The game looks really great, one of the most graphically impressive game on consoles. The platforming mechanics are very Tomb Raider, specifically the last two games in the series, Legend and Anniversary (which themselves take the mechanics from Prince of Persia/Ico). The jungle reminds me more of Far Cry than anything else, and that's not just because "it's a jungle". It seems like a stylised portrayal of a jungle enviroment which Far Cry also did, compared to, say, Crysis, which is a jungle enviroment done hyper realistic.
The gunplay is Gears through and through, but in my opinion, Uncharted feels a lot more natural than Gears. It has the L1 to over sholder aim, R1 to fire from Gears (with the inclusion of the ability to switch sholders with L3, a feature I believe originated with GRAW), and weapons are mapped to the D-Pad, much like Gears. The cover system is also very similar to Gears, although everything is mapped between X and O instead of the one button for Gears. O allows you to roll, stick into cover, and run out of cover while X is to vault over cover. There is something more satisfying about cover in Uncharted though, it feels much tighter. In Gears, there were times when you really had to play it like a racing game if you were using roady run because if you got to close to a wall, you stuck into it. In Uncharted, i've never had this problem. If you roll toward cover, Nathan will automatically stick to it, rather than standing up and then hitting into it.
The story is a standard Indiana Jones style affair. Lost treasure and a "everyday" treasure hunter who happens to be skilled in gunplay, climbing and speed boat usage. Good going Nate
There is an under developed story element and something of a twist that I felt was coming, but wish they had done more with. I also doubt this will be expanded upon in Uncharted 2, so who knows what happened there. It didn't take away from the overall feeling that this game is something special.
Now, there have been plenty of AAA games this fall, and i've made sure to play all that I could. There have also been some more accomplished titles, but overall, only Uncharted and BioShock made me feel like it was something different, special, above and beyond the call of duty for a AAA game.
Some of the notable games that I played that I could see people picking include:
BioShock
Uncharted
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Super Mario Galaxy
Crysis
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Mass Effect
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Medal of Honor Airborne
Hellgate: London
Silent Hill Origins
Stranglehold
The Orange Box (Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Crackdown
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
Super Paper Mario
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
For me, i'm still undecided between two games. BioShock and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.
BioShock had been my serious contender since day one. It was fantastic. Everything about the game just pulled me in. It had a fantastic story, and a lot of extra story content driven by your own desire to find out about the background of Rapture (through finding audio diarys). The plasmids were an excellent mix to the gameplay, allowing you to enter combat scenarios with entirely different play styles and tactics. You could run into a situation guns blazing, or you could freeze/stun someone and come at them with your wrench, or you could hack a security bot to go with you.
It had its flaws (clear cut line between good and evil endings which won't reward you for a change of heart that may very well happen to a few people half way through, some useless plasmids/weapons, some AI issues and the game being pretty easy due to Vita-Chambers) but, for the most of this fall, it was untouched by any other game in my opinion.
Then I played Uncharted, the last big release on my radar and one which I was starting to lack faith in. Although I had been looking forward to it, a few play throughs of the demo had made me think "Day one purchase" to "Hmm, I dunno if I want or not".
However, playing the final game was an excellent experience. The game is really damn good. It plays like a mix of Tomb Raider, Far Cry and Gears. The game looks really great, one of the most graphically impressive game on consoles. The platforming mechanics are very Tomb Raider, specifically the last two games in the series, Legend and Anniversary (which themselves take the mechanics from Prince of Persia/Ico). The jungle reminds me more of Far Cry than anything else, and that's not just because "it's a jungle". It seems like a stylised portrayal of a jungle enviroment which Far Cry also did, compared to, say, Crysis, which is a jungle enviroment done hyper realistic.
The gunplay is Gears through and through, but in my opinion, Uncharted feels a lot more natural than Gears. It has the L1 to over sholder aim, R1 to fire from Gears (with the inclusion of the ability to switch sholders with L3, a feature I believe originated with GRAW), and weapons are mapped to the D-Pad, much like Gears. The cover system is also very similar to Gears, although everything is mapped between X and O instead of the one button for Gears. O allows you to roll, stick into cover, and run out of cover while X is to vault over cover. There is something more satisfying about cover in Uncharted though, it feels much tighter. In Gears, there were times when you really had to play it like a racing game if you were using roady run because if you got to close to a wall, you stuck into it. In Uncharted, i've never had this problem. If you roll toward cover, Nathan will automatically stick to it, rather than standing up and then hitting into it.
The story is a standard Indiana Jones style affair. Lost treasure and a "everyday" treasure hunter who happens to be skilled in gunplay, climbing and speed boat usage. Good going Nate
There is an under developed story element and something of a twist that I felt was coming, but wish they had done more with. I also doubt this will be expanded upon in Uncharted 2, so who knows what happened there. It didn't take away from the overall feeling that this game is something special.Now, there have been plenty of AAA games this fall, and i've made sure to play all that I could. There have also been some more accomplished titles, but overall, only Uncharted and BioShock made me feel like it was something different, special, above and beyond the call of duty for a AAA game.
Some of the notable games that I played that I could see people picking include:
BioShock
Uncharted
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Super Mario Galaxy
Crysis
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Mass Effect
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Medal of Honor Airborne
Hellgate: London
Silent Hill Origins
Stranglehold
The Orange Box (Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Crackdown
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
Super Paper Mario
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
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