>Saints Row 2: endgame

>So I’ve done just about as much as I can in Saints Row 2; I’m cashing out at around 70% completion, and while I haven’t finished all the activities (and the Achievements that accompany them), I’ve bought pretty much every store in the game so I’m never going to be short on cash.

The endgame in SR2 is basically just one big crazy fever dream; there’s definitely a lot more to do than in GTA4, but it must be said that Stillwater isn’t nearly as interesting to explore as Liberty City is. And because SR2 is so much less punishing than GTA4 in terms of death and/or failure, it eventually feels a bit too arcade-y. Which is fine, I guess; it is its own thing, now. The first Saints Row felt like a direct challenge to the craziness that was San Andreas, but GTA4’s change in focus was so unexpected that Saints Row 2 really feels truly different. GTA4’s seismic shift in tone was so radical that I’m not sure that the GTA franchise can ever go back to the over-the-top craziness of its earlier games; and as such, Saints Row now has the green light to basically go fucking crazy – which, to its credit, has always been its focus anyway.

And so I am curious as to how the franchise will evolve. SR2’s story (and city) is a direct continuation of SR1 (however improbable that may be), and your character’s journey by the end of SR2 is pretty much as far as that character can go. If we are so fortunate as to get a Saints Row 3, I really only have two requests: we need a new city to play with, and the game will need a bit more technical polish. (Also: the Achievements could maybe be a bit less grueling. I sunk 20+ hours into the game and I’ve got less than 300 points to show for it.)

>Things That Make No Sense: The Killzone 2 Demo

>This article from MTV Multiplayer explains Sony’s justification of its bizarre and counter-intuitive Killzone 2 promotion, wherein the Killzone 2 demo is being offered 24 days before the game’s release only for people who pre-order the game from Gamestop.

MTV’s Stephen Totillo asks the relevant question:

Why would Sony do this? Isn’t the practice of selling a demo to people who have already committed to order the game contrary to the logic of why one would release a demo?

And Sony gives the following answer:

“Offering a playable demo to motivate preorders speaks to our confidence in the appeal of a game such as Killzone 2. We take this approach when we are convinced that the experience will cement a consumer’s interest in purchasing. Retailers will then merchandise those demos within their stores and online to maximize their visibility. Through this process, consumers are often times able to reserve their copy of the final game, which provides an incentive to purchase and helps seal the deal. We also offer demos on the PSN, which we have done in the past with great success, and will continue to make that available. Killzone 2, for example, will have a downloadable demo launch in North America the week that the game is launching, for consumers who prefer that option.”

Read the first sentence again. Here, I’ll isolate it and bold it for you:

“Offering a playable demo to motivate preorders speaks to our confidence in the appeal of a game such as Killzone 2. ”

No, no it doesn’t. To the extent that sentence makes any coherent sense at all, it does precisely the opposite. Killzone 2 is one of the most anticipated titles for the PS3 this year – it’s also one of the only exclusive titels for the PS3 this year, but that’s besides the point – and yet Sony’s marketing blitz for it has been, for lack of a better word, non-existent. Which is to say, if you didn’t already know about it, you wouldn’t know anything about it.

Releasing a demo for a highly anticipated game ONLY for people who have already spent money on it tells me that they don’t have a lot of faith in the game; it tells me that if the uneducated and unwashed masses were to get their hands on the demo a few weeks before the game was released, they’d be disappointed and thus less inclined to pre-order.

And really, while we’re at it, what is it about Killzone 2 that makes it so highly anticipated, anyway? The first game supposedly boasted fantastic production values, especially for an aging PS2 system, but didn’t really get great review scores (Metacritic average is 7.0); and if I remember correctly, the first trailer for it – the one that dropped every jaw at E3 a few years ago – turned out to be a “target render” and not actual gameplay.

Sony has been languishing in 3rd place ever since it launched, and doing arrogant, nonsensical, stupid shit like this only reinforces the idea that they truly have no idea what they’re doing. And I say this as a PS3 owner, as someone who really wants the PS3 to succeed and be great and not simply exist as an overpriced Blu-Ray player.

>Weekend Recap: Getting Reacquainted

>The current economic downturn affects us all in different ways. As Gred wrote last week (in SFTC’s 100th post, no less), 1up got bought up by UGO and killed EGM in the process. It’s hit me as well; I’m definitely more aware than ever of what I’m spending my money on. If there’s any good to be had out of this situation, then, it’s that this is a wonderful opportunity to re-explore all the stuff I’d already bought and never finished. I bought a lot of music last year, but I still haven’t listened to all of it; similarly, I’ve got a stack of books next to my bed that I am going to force myself to finish instead of buying anything new. And, certainly, I’ve got a few games in my library that I never finished, and now is as good a time as any to get my money’s worth.

It is true that there are some big titles coming in February (Street Fighter 4, Killzone 2), but there’s also some notable DLC coming as well – Fable 2 arrives this week, GTA4 arrives soon after and the Fallout 3 stuff looks so interesting that I’m going to pause my progression until it comes out. (Not sure if the Burnout Paradise car pack qualifies as must-have DLC – the car models are cool, yes, but it’s not like it dramatically changes the experience).

Anyway, I spent some time this weekend getting reacquainted with some of these games; I found a super kick-ass sword in Fable 2 which will hopefully come in handy, I did some achievement hunting in GTA4 (finally finishing Jacob’s deliveries and the LCPD most wanted missions), and did a tiny little bit of screwing around in Fallout. But mostly, all that GTA4 action reminded me that I really ought to get back into Saints Row 2, which happened to sort-of win Zero Punctuation’s GOTY.

[Ed: I just went back through the STFC archive because I know I’ve written about SR2 before and this next paragraph was starting to sound familiar, and sure enough, I’ve already written pretty much the same stuff twice (1, 2). But I’ll say it again, because it’s still true.]

Goddamn, that game is fun. It’s also a little broken; I’m currently bogged down in a mission where the shit gets so crazy that the frame rate pretty much just gives up. But the point is: the shit really and truly gets crazy, and I salute it for being so committed and going so completely balls-out in that direction. GTA4 is the superior game, there’s no doubt about that, but what I love about SR2 is that even though it’s gleefully insane, it’s also oddly powerful.

One particular cutscene that I came across last night took me very much by surprise – and without giving away too much, it makes me wonder just how many reviewers even watched it because as far as I know, nobody talked about it at all and yet they all made a pretty huge deal out of a notable, similarly-themed cutscene in Gears of War 2 (i.e., the scene with Dom). Granted, Gears is a somewhat higher-profile title than SR2, and so it was big news that Gears even bothered to put a story in the game at all, but still – this same kind of moment is in SR2, and it works, even though (or maybe especially because) the game surrounding it is totally bananas. SR2 is in many ways the anti-GTA4 because of how purposefully ridiculous the story and the characters are, and yet it still manages to have some heavy shit tucked away where you least expect it.

I need to try some SR2 online co-op; this is definitely the sort of sandbox – even moreso than GTA4 – where you would be saying “HOLY SHIT DID YOU JUST SEE THAT” over and over again.

>SFTC to fill 1UP void

>Happy New Year indeed. It’s official. The UGO network has announced that it will be acquiring Ziff-Davis’s 1up.com website and related properties, and Ziff is to allow EGM to die a quick death. (Read Joystiq’s coverage of the fiasco here.) A broad rash of layoffs at 1up have been announced, including the canning of such industry mainstays as Shane Bettenhausen and James “Milkman” Mielke. Not to mention, many of 1up’s long-running and beloved podcasts such as 1up Yours and the 1up Show are done, as well as the relatively young but excellent 1up FM podcast. Whoa.

On the one hand, this isn’t really news. The writing has been on the wall for quite a while. But on the other hand, it’s hard to embrace the reality of a world without EGM and a good chunk of what made 1up 1up. These guys were passionate, and a lot of them really knew their shit.

EGM has been a staple in video game culture for several centuries now. But with the rise of the Internets, print media has been having an increasingly rougher go of things, not to mention print media in the gaming space. When you have a tech-savvy core audience which is starved for info about the games they love, who pore over screenshots as soon as they become available on the ‘nets, it’s hard for a print magazine to compete given the necessary delay in getting that info and media to its fanatic technogeek base. Also, word is there’s some sort of global war on prosperity going on, and advertising and marketing budgets have taken some of the heaviest casualties. Until this generation I’ve generally been a one-console-per-generation guy, so I never actually subscribed to EGM. But I read and enjoyed it from time to time. Mostly, it’s just gonna be weird not to see it on the stands any more. It’s been around forever. *sigh*

As for the 1up podcasts, I was a fan. 1up Yours had begun to lose some of its swagger after the departure of people like Luke Smith and Mark McDonald, who gave it a lot of its appeal, but the recent return of John Davison as a regular was bringing it back to form. I was a weekly listener. Not to mention 1up FM which, although fairly new, maintained a high level of quality and charm pretty much from the get-go. Co-hosts Nick Suttner and Phil Kollar? Axed. Dang.

So happy trails to all. We at SFTC shall do our best to pay tribute to the departed by… I guess by continuing to occasionally post our random brain dumps about gaming.

At least I still have my trusty Lehman Brothers’ gaming podcast. Oh, wait a sec…

>The Best Achievement, 2009 Edition

>Until yesterday, my 2 favorite Achievements were getting all 500 Agility Orbs in Crackdown and getting the Wax Off Achievement in Geometry Wars 2. But it will be difficult for anything to top my first Achievement for 2009; I have never exerted so much mental and physical energy to get 20 Points as when my wife and I played Rock Band 2 for literally 10 hours in a row yesterday, doing The Endless Setlist. I was playing drums on Hard, but my wife was playing guitar on Medium and so that’s all we got credit for; that said, she saved my ass repeatedly during the last 3 or 4 songs and so I wouldn’t have been able to finish it without her.

(We got five stars on pretty much everything right up until those last 4 songs, and then we just got killed left and right. I think it kinda sucks that you spend so much time playing all sorts of cool songs only to finish with a bunch of speed-metal sludge; I understand why it’s there but I’d much rather finish with something a little more musical.)

My arms and legs are totally sore now, and I think I’m going to take an extended break from playing drums. But it was totally worth it; my wife and I climbed a mountain together, and that’s a pretty awesome way to start a new year.

>MGS4 v. GTA4

>Still listening to Giant Bomb’s 2008 Game of the year podcast – hey, it’s 2 hours long – and the second half of the podcast basically finds the Bombers torn between choosing GTA4 and MGS4 as their game of the year.

I made my choice a few weeks ago, and I found it pretty easy to make. But listening to them discuss MGS4 makes me want to re-play MGS4 again. I forget how much fun I had playing that game, and even though it drove me absolutely goddamned crazy at times (my rant about Act 3 still holds*), it was still an incredibly absorbing experience.

But it’s interesting to hear them talk about it because they are long-time MGS fans – or, at least, they are all quite familiar with the fiction that spans the entire series. I am not familiar with the fiction, at all, and I even looked at the downloadable MGS encyclopedia and it meant absolutely nothing to me. And I think that the whole insider-access aspect about MGS is what kept me from being more excited about it. I can forgive the ridiculousness of the storytelling, I guess, if only because it is so incredibly unique in its dedication to being totally ridiculous; the hard-core MGS fans would never accept anything less, and I have to admit that my memories of the insanity of the cutscenes are somewhat more forgiving, now that I’m not actually sitting through them and their excruciating craziness.

If you have a pro-MGS4 stance, I’d love to hear it. Otherwise, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

* I’ve read (and listened to) a lot of discussion about MGS4 this year, and I must say – I’m still somewhat stunned that NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD talked about the awfulness of the Big Mama scenes in Act 3. Nobody even talks about Big Mama at all. Am I just an asshole?

>Goodbye 2008

>Some random ramblings as I fill in the idle hours at work on the last day of the year:

Was listening to the Giant Bomb “Game of the Year” podcast on the way into work this morning, and it suddenly hit me – I played (and liked) every game they talked about. In years past, there would always be a few titles that would be totally alien to me, and I felt like I missing out; missing Super Mario Galaxy in 2007 would be a good example of that. But not this year – this year I was on top of everything.

I think I may have completed my Best Games of 2008 entry a bit prematurely – I’ve been playing the hell out of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts over the last week or so, and I’m pretty sure I love it. It could be argued that 2008 was really the break-out year for user-generated content, what with Little Big Planet and Spore (oh, yeah, I downloaded Spore because Steam had that stupid holiday sale), but BK:N&B really does it right, in that it gives you some sort of focus and a specific task. Spore’s creature creator is certainly a fun toy to play with, but ultimately the design of your creature doesn’t necessarily have any practical, tangible result (at least not in my somewhat limited experience with it); and on the other hand, Little Big Planet lets you do so much that it’s a bit overwhelming – I’ve barely even touched the tutorials, because I have no idea what I’d want to create. Nuts & Bolts, on the other hand, does a fantastic job of giving you a specific goal, and giving you the tools to achieve it. Whether you build something totally from scratch or if you simply opt to tweak stuff you already have (which is my preferred method right now), it is immensely satisfying to complete a challenge entirely because of your own ingenuity.

Regarding Spore – yeah, I am a whore. Steam’s holiday sale was as good a reason as any to dip my toe into the Spore experience. I’ve only gotten a little bit into the 2nd evolutionary stage – the one where you emerge from the slime and start walking around – so there’s not a tremendous amount for me to discuss. My computer is getting a bit old, too, so I start to get some serious frame rate hitches every once in a while, which is a drag. It’s an interesting enough diversion, at any rate; I’ve yet to see if it really holds together as a game.

I played an awful lot of Fallout 3 over the break, as well; that game continues to astound and amaze. The stories in that game are top-notch, probably second only to GTA4 this year. My only real problem with that game is the engine; talking to NPCs is still just a little bit weird enough to pull me out of the experience, and it was the same thing in Oblivion. I’m about halfway to level 15 right now, though, and I think I might hold off for a bit until some of the DLC arrives and they lift the level cap.

Speaking of RPGs, I’ve also been playing Chrono Trigger before I go to bed lately. It’s a pretty solid game, and I can see why people love it. (I’m a little lost at the moment, though; I kinda rushed through the dialogue at the end of this one section and so now I’m not entirely sure where I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to be doing, and there’s no real way (short of a walkthrough) of solving that problem.) But I’m starting to have a problem with calling these sorts of games “role-playing games.” Fallout is a role-playing game; you inhabit your character and you can make choices and design your skillset and really play the way you want to play and have the experience you want to experience. However, in Chrono Trigger – and, indeed, in every JRPG I’ve ever played – all you do is level up and give your dude new and better gear. There’s no real choice involved; the story is linear and your little dude will play the same way at the end of the game as he will in the beginning. We need some new sort of nomenclature.

My wife and I hosted 2 parties this December – my birthday, and Christmas – and Rock Band 2 was featured prominently at both. Goddamn that game is fun. I love watching people figure out how to play the drums almost as much as I love actually playing them; at first they’re overwhelmed with all the information that’s hurtling towards them at breakneck speeds, but then they figure out how to translate all that arcane symbology into recongizable rhythm, and then the whole concept opens up for them like a flower. It’s really quite something to see.

Finally, I did the math, and barring some gaming tonight before the ball drops, I will have accumulated 12,060 Points in 2008. I will make no predictions about my point-whoring desires for 2009, other than I’d like to cross 50,000 in a cool way. I crossed 30K by playing Call of Duty 4 on a hard difficulty level, and I crossed 40K by playing the guitar on expert difficulty in Rock Band 2. Maybe I’ll cross 50K by doing something awesome in Brutal Legend?

>Weekend Recap: pre-Xmas 2008 edition

>Kudos to me for not buying Spore this weekend. I was clearly concerned that my lack of willpower would result in a drunk download and I just don’t have the time or the money (but especially the time) (and also the money) to get into something like Spore, which ended up not being the greatest game ever made.

My weekend was actually pretty busy, gaming-wise; made a brief bit of progress in Fallout 3, played more Rock Band 2 with the wife (who has gotten quite good at guitar and is even doing ok on the drums), got a bit further in Chrono Trigger, went back and rounded up some hidden objects in Little Big Planet, and started to get seriously sucked into Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Where do I begin with Banjo? I was curious about it until I tried the demo, where I found myself in way over my head. But then Amazon lowered the already-low price by another $10 or so, and I felt compelled to give it another go.

Having the full game is quite a different experience than what the demo offers; all I remember about the demo was that the game was certainly gorgeous, but I didn’t know how to build anything and didn’t have the patience to learn. What’s nice about the full game, then, is that you don’t actually have to build anything, at least not right away; if you fully explore the environments that you have available to you, not only can you procure a number of parts on your own but you can scrounge up enough coin to buy blueprints and parts, thus giving you an advantage in the early competitions. And what’s nice about this – especially for someone like me, who was never mechanically inclined and who never strayed from the cover photos on Lego boxes – is that eventually you will hit a wall and will have to start building, but at least you can start from an already well-designed vehicle and then make tweaks as you see fit.

Case in point: this one particular event is basically a giant ski jump, and I have to get my vechicle to fly/glide to a certain distance in order to get a Jiggy. The catch is that I can’t just use a plane; once I launch from the jump, my engines cut out. At this point in the game I’ve either found or bought around 40 different blueprints, but none of them get me anywhere close to the Jiggy threshold. [Jiggy Threshold – great band name?] And so now I have to start experimenting. Putting wings on a heavy vehicle seems like an obvious solution, except the wings cause my vehicle to start sailing well before the end of the ramp and I end up having zero momentum by the time I really need it. Ultimately I end up putting 5 balloons on a moderately heavy pre-made vehicle and manually inflating them shortly before the jump to create lift, and I’m able to glide into the Jiggy Zone, although I’m still well below Trophy Level. Still, though, I learned several concepts about vehicle design, and I was able to invent a working solution, which felt very satisfying.

I have a feeling, though, that I won’t be smart enough to beat the game at higher levels of difficulty. But that’s why they invented YouTube, so I can look at other people’s blueprints.

>The Wrong Lesson

>There was a time when EA seemed to churn out nothing but Madden, craptastical movie license games and sequels. They were all about parlaying brand recognition into sales, with innovation and quality taking a back seat. But under CEO John Riccitiello, EA has been embracing new IP such as Dead Space, and has published innovative, ground-breaking titles such as Mirror’s Edge.

The result? They’ve lost their shorts. Sales are down. So earnings are down. (You’d almost think the entire world was short on cash.) EA’s shareholders are pissed. “Not to fear!” says EA. “We’re gonna focus our future investments on titles with the greatest ‘hit potential’!”

If you’re like me, you’re worried that focusing on “hit potential” means returning to their old sequel-factory ways. And it may be that leaning back in that direction will result in a healthier balance sheet. But I worry that EA will be too quick to blame innovation and new IP for bad sales rather than another major factor: timing of releases.

I should have bought and played Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, but I didn’t. But it wasn’t because the words “Star Wars” didn’t appear in their titles. It’s because they came out in the midst of a flood of high profile, AAA titles. Take note EA! I would definitely have bought both Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge had I not already been buried in Fable 2, Fallout 3, LBP and Rock Band 2. Even us gamers with full-time jobs can’t buy everything (‘cept Jervo).

Look at Bioshock. A new IP which certainly tried some things that hadn’t been done in a shooter before. And it was released in August, when it had the whole hype machine all to itself. The result? Mofo sold by the bucketful!

Before EA tosses innovation and new IP over its shoulder, I really hope they’ll at least try releasing a few of its more “experimental” titles in the spring or summer, when gamers actually have dollars in their pockets that aren’t pledged to Gears of War 4.