Game of the Year Awards 2010 Day 2

Coming in at 9 in my Game of the Year Awards 2010 is the diamond in the rough from Ninja Theory Enslaved.

Enslaved (PS3, 360):

To be really honest Enslaved never entered in my most anticipated games of 2010. I just watched the first trailer which came out back then only out of curiosity and dismissed it as a run of the mill action game forgetting Ninja Theory's previous title, Heavenly Sword. Even when the demo came out I did not download and on top of that I had heard my friend really disliking the demo which justified my lack of interest in the game. Just imagine my shock when most of the top video games sites where praising the game's plot and the characters. As I started to comb each and every written and video reviews (Thank God for Metacritics and Gamerankings) it become abundantly clear that Enslaved was a game which was worth my time.

What got my attention in the early sections of the game was the realistic symbiotic relationship of the main character Monkey and the 'damsel in distress' Trip. There was almost a Hollywood like quality of how the relationship was being treated by the developers. Sure Enslaved isn't the first game which has such a setup, games like ICO instantly comes to mind. But the motion capture and the acting really took the game to an amazing high. Andy Serkis, Lindsey Shaw and Richard Ridings really took a liking to their virtual counterparts and gave wonderful performances.

Hell even the game play was really solid but without really setting the world on fire. The action and platforming game play in Enslaved did come off as 'being there done that' but still what ever was presented was pretty neat. The world of Enslaved was also a star as most of post apocalyptic setting are usually bleak and desolate. Here the game world was bursting from its seam with color and hence made the exploring new areas a joy. But Enslaved would had placed much higher on my list if it weren't for inept ending which left me really frustrated. Without ruining the ending I will just like say that Ninja Theory could had ended the game on an epic note like they did with Heavenly Sword but in my opinion they did not.

Anyways Enslaved was a really good game as there were many points in the adventure which were really memorable and the relationship of the characters was done in a very believable fashion. Hence I cant wait to see what sort of game Ninja Theory comes out with.

Come back for more tomorrow as I make my way to number 8 on my Game of the Year Awards 2010.

Dimensions and all.....

Around 3 months I ago updated this sparse looking blog, so I guess it high time I got my groove on. So a bit has changed since the E3 rolled by. Some big games have been released, a few records have been broken.....hmmm for both these example Halo Reach comes to mind. Announcements of new hardware are flying all over the place (3DS is going to be fracking awesome) and to be honest it still remains an awesome time to be a gamer.

Anyways for my first real update in months I will talk a little about a game I finished just last night: Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions. Well truth be told the game started off really nice and was really fun to play, with awesome set pieces with some well know villains and playing as Spider Man is always a rush. But by the time the game reached it conclusion I got partially bored.



Make to no mistake the game is fun. The level designs in the early part of the game was quite striking as playing four different types of Spider Men is a pretty novel concept and hence the level design shone quite brightly. As most of you know Activision touted the ability to play different Spider Men from 4 dimensions in the game trailers and for me that become a real hook. For most part 3 of 4 Spider Men (Amazing, Ultimate and 2099) controlled almost identically and dishing out major combos and web swinging through the levels was fun, but the dimension of Noir was a bad idea. It was bland, boring and had no thrills associated with being Spider Man. Noir's levels usually made me lurk in the dark, picking out unsuspecting baddies, but that's no fun at all. And as most game sites have pointed out Noir was a blatant copy of last year's Arkham Asylum, with only one difference...ARKHAM ASYLUM WAS WICKED!!



As the game progressed, I found that the basic levels and mission structure of the game was pretty identical, yes there were a few chase segments here and there but the basic theme was the same. And that is a shame really, with 4 different Spider Men to work with, the game could had used a bit of variety. Along with completing the game's various levels, the inclusion of in game achievements which granted characters upgrade was kinda addictive as I would find myself going a little out of my way to complete a few of them.

The most attractive angle of the game were the visuals, and they were good. Technically they were OK, but the cel-shading of the Amazing and Ultimate dimensions were really eye catching, Noir dimension's odd melange of blacks and sepia tones complimented the game over all visuals quite well. 2099 visuals were your generic sci-fi crap.



Oh yeah the voice acting and dialogs were really really good. Spider Man's wise ass quips were really funny and the voice acting was really well done. The characters of Amazing (Neil Patrick Harris) and Ultimate (Josh Keaton) were the best as they were constantly funny and gave the friendly Spider Man the pre-requisite spunk. And amongst the villains fan favorite DeadPool was very engaging.

My Impressions: All in all a good game indeed, but due to repetitive mission and level structure, the game does not reach the heady heights of Arkham Asylum.

Well with 2 awesome games coming out in a day or two in the form of Enslaved and Castlevania: Lord of Shadows I will have my handful indeed.