Greenman's Top 21 Games: Number 11

Posted: 2012-01-21 13:37:05.353

21. Chrono Trigger

20. Portal

19. Resident Evil 4

18. Donkey Kong 94

17. Metal Gear Solid

16. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

15. Halo 2

14. Elite Beat Agents

13. Skies of Arcadia

12. Uncharted 2

11.

"Space, its huge, so huge that if you lost your car keys in it, they would be almost impossible to find"

-Captain Qwark

You know that feeling you get when you discover something that you wish had existed for years? That's what I got when I finally gave the console Ratchet and Clank games a try. I'd played the PSP one a while back, but remembered almost nothing about it other than I thought it was okay. So I was really surprised when I discovered that the series isn't as much of a platformer as it is a shooter with the controls of a platformer.

 This is not, however, a shooter like Halo or Call of Duty. Rather than focusing on what enemies you need to take out, combat instead is based on gradually giving you over twenty weapons. These weapons start out with just a laser and grenades. Over time, they get crazier, as I found a machine gun that shot blades that swarmed an enemy like bees, a creature which would burp, creating a massive sound wave. And then there's the disco grenades, which if dropped cause a disco ball to appear in the air which all enemies will dance to. And it is awesome.

What surprised me the most about this game were its Clank segments. Instead of the usual 3rd rate Pikmin whenever you control the little robot, they give you stages filled with some of the better platforming and puzzles based off a simple concept very much like Portal. You record yourself doing something like stepping on a switch, then a hologram of Clank does it. And like Portal I could not believe just how far it stretched this concept, enough that these segments alone could make a damn good downloadable game.

If this weren't enough, this is also the best looking 3D game ever. It may not push the hardware as much as Uncharted or Killzone, yet the Pixar style still looks much better than anything that goes for a realistic vibe.

In fact, the game's cutscenes gave a strong Pixar vibe as well. This is one of the funniest games I've played, thanks in large part to Captain Qwark and Dr. Nefarious. The former is basically Zap Brannigan if he was made to make fun of Adam West instead of William Shatner. Nefarious, meanwhile, is an evil robot who sometimes have malfunctions that cause him to play excerpts from a soap opera. It doesn't quite have the depth of Toy Story 3 or The Incredibles, but I was entertained from start to finish just the same.

So, that's pretty much all it needs to get a spot on this list: tons of cool ways to blow shit up, lots of laughs and really creative puzzles. Sometimes I just want simple, violent fun. This series is the perfect way to deliver that.

Defining moment

Firing the RYNO V. It's a weapon that takes more effort to get than any other, so I was wondering what it would be like. What I found was that ryno stood for its guarantee to Rip You a New One. By gattling gun with rocket launchers surrounding it. And it plays the 1812 Overture every time you fire it.

What's Trendy and New

Posted: 2012-01-16 17:35:47.747

You've seen this stuff before. Something goes in a game, we think it's cool, now every AAA game has to have it. Last gen it was bullet time and shoehorned sandboxes. Earlier this gen that was changed to moral choices, cover based shooting, copying Call of Duty multiplayer, and RPG elements. After quite some time, it looks like these are changing yet again. Now we have... 

Eternal Darkness-esque Hallucinations

Developers, I'm glad we agree that ED was an awesome game that it's coolest part was how the game made you think you were going insane. Except, I'm not entirely sure if you get that last part. See, putting these Arkham Asylum to show that the Scarecrow was on the loose was nothing short of brilliant. These ended up being the highlight of the game and were just pure, concentrated awesome. It was for a completely different purpose than ED, but in the end it still had a real purpose. Now every time a hero gets tired we'll see him hallucinating.

Worst offender: Gears of War 3. Seriously, Cole Train is either ironically hilarious or annoying as fuck, having him flash back to playing that game's version of football because it's like what he's doing there isn't going to make either side happy.

Trying to Be Like Call of Duty, Yet Proving You're Not At the Same Time

Yes, before it was being Call of Duty, now it's just proving your not like them despite copying a lot of what they do. What makes CoD multiplayer work is that instead of putting those stupid rocket launchers, shotguns, and insanely overpowered machine guns on a map, they give you weakened versions of all of these. Having these weapons with a poor man's leveling system does not make you original, it just shows you don't get how to make a good multiplayer game. And this goes to any other spin on it as well: Team Fortress esque classes (stern glaze at Brink) or any other "strategy" you add to avoid this don't make you any better than all the CoD knock offs.

Worst offender: Uncharted 3. I don't want to have to level up my weapons only to still get blasted away by some kid who got the Hammer.

Placing X Item to Collect Everywhere

There's one way to do this right: Make these puzzles and show where they are like the Batman Arkham games. If it does like Halo's skulls and at least give something cool for doing it and not have too many of them, then it's not worth complaining about at least. But if you think I'm going to search every inch of every level for every fucking treasure or dog tag, you are an idiot. I have better things to do with my time.

Worst Offender: Any linear game that does this. At least RPGs encourage you to explore.

Putting Numbers in Place of Letters

This isn't clever. This doesn't make a game stand out. It's just fucking stupid.

Worst Offender: Anything that allows this to exist.

Ultra Premium Collector's Editions

I almost typed this will be $2000 instead of $200, but don't worry: we'll be getting there eventually.

Collector's Editions were once so simple. Plop forth $20 extra bucks, you get a steel case, making of DVD, and soundtrack. Something only really hardcore fans would want, but a very cool addition. Then Halo one upped this with their game, but hey, it was the exciting end (at the time) to one of gaming's hugest franchises, how can you blame them? I'm not sure when exactly this spiraled out of control, but I think it was by the time Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood announced it was having one that cost $100. Hell, now even new IPs are getting these, at least give them a taste of what they should go crazy over first.

Worst Offender: After a tough battle between Skyrim's $90 dragon, art book, and map and The Old Republic's $90... statue, metal case, admittedly cool box, soundtrack, background journal, map, and shit ton of DLC, yeah, I had to give it to Skyrim. But in the end, no matter who wins, isn't the only thing that matters how much we all lose?

Why Saints Row: The Third is Good for Gaming

Posted: 2012-01-09 21:07:52.58

I've heard quite a few people saying they can't wrap their heads around Saints Row: The Third being picked for Game of the Year. I've heard claims of it being nothing but dick/fart jokes, standard combat, and not being "GOTY material." The kind of game that doesn't do anything to advance gaming, which if recognized the same way we do Arkham City or Skyrim would only hurt gaming. I've been wondering why I think this is wrong, and just recently I finally figured out not only why this game should be recognized, but also why it actually does do more for gaming than any other retail game this year except maybe for LA Noire.

Behind all of the South Park style humor there is something that we haven't really seen outside the Metal Gear franchise and No More Heroes for years: a game in a real world setting with outrageous things happening every second. The kind of thing that had you suddenly fight aliens in Contra and put you on a baseball stadium in Streets of Rage. Basically a normal world where crazy stuff happens. See, Saints Row doesn't take the old school GTA outrageousness and just let it stop at having colorful characters and jetpacks. To say that it takes it one step further would actually be an understatement.

Throughout my journey of becoming top dog in Steelport I participated in a Japanese game show shooting mascot characters and guys in hot dog costumes, took on a Mexican luchadore with a second career as a crime lord, went into the internet Tron style, skydived into a tank to shoot down a bunch of freefalling enemies, took down a cloning research lab with a naked guy the size of the Incredible Hulk,  and got hired by Burt Reynolds to take down a bunch of zombies. Oh, and I went to Mars in a sequence that made fun of Uncharted 2. And I did this all as either an Oktoberfest girl, a superhero with a big, fancy powdered wig, or a toilet.

If you had trouble believing it: these actually are the main villains

Yet in between these missions, I was just running around a city, buying shops and cars. If you played this game like when you first picked up Grand Theft Auto III, you'd have no fucking clue what it's like. Not even close. The initially boring world of Steelport is just a facade, something to hide all of the crazy things that happen there. It's almost like playing two different games. It didn't make the world any wacky to compensate for the missions, nor did it try to give a realistic game. It gave something we almost never see instead: a realistic world with wacky and crazy things happening inside.

And after realizing this, I realized just how ridiculous all this realism is getting. Superheroes, for instance, should be a given for this, have some crazy powers, a ridiculous costume, and some out there supervillains with insanely weird powers and backstories, then call it a day. Then look at Infamous. Instead of a superhero, we have Cole McGrath, a guy with a yellow shirt and a buzzcut. He fights low life thugs who aren't quite to the level of being superheroes, but close. There are a few supervillains, but none of them are really "out there," in fact Batman has crazier villains than this.

I'll take any one of these designs over Cole. Even the original.

I'm not saying this style should become standard, just that developers shouldn't avoid it. I remember when games couldn't really create realistic settings without boring us. So instead they went out of their way to make them appeal to us and make some crazy adventure. Now that we have the technology for delivering an interesting story in a realistic world, however, all we have is either games being made to strive for a realistic world with a couple quirks if we're lucky or go all out cartoony/fantasy/sci-fy with things that just don't exist here. I still like these other two styles, but what makes Metal Gear and No More Heroes really stand out is how they try to play off crazy over the top characters in a realistic world. I miss this middle ground that was once prevalent in games, and I'd like to see it be brought back. Saints Row had this and I'd love to see more of it. I don't want games to turn out like movies where trying something like this ends up flopping.