Jump, Double Jump!!

About 5 months ago I wrote an article on 3D platformers for a website but for some reason it never got published so I decided to post it on the blog.

With an increase in development costs, along with the introduction of digital download services in the form of Xbox Live, PSN and Wiiware the developers now have a medium as well as a need to create bite size games along with their console releases, while also giving opportunities to smaller and new companies to make a mark on the industry. You now have big and small developers making games for the download services and this has resulted in the miraculous revival of 2D platformers or the return of the old school gaming mechanics.

As the popularity of 2D platformers have started to rise again, many developers are now dangling their feet in the genre. Nintendo has used all of its retro experiences to give their in-house teams, big wig companies and smaller developers full support in making games for the Wiiware and DSiware services with games like LostWinds, NyxQuest: Kindered Spirits, Shantae or new iterations of Mega Man to name a few, while Sony and Microsoft also have followed suit in giving a free hand to smaller indie developers such as PLAYDEAD, Number None Inc. or Team Meat to create little gems like such as Super Meat Boy, Braid or Limbo.

This charge also has resulted in the big 3 churning out proper console releases of the 2D platformers genre. Nintendo pulled its own strings in creating a deluge of newer and slicker 2D platformers using their old franchises with the likes of New Super Mario Bros Wii, Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country Returns, while Sony and Microsoft has stuff like LittleBigPlanet.

With the triumphant return of the 2D platformers complete the 3D platformer genre has kinda been left behind. The genre has basically become redundant and isn't as important as it was last generation. Either developers have grown tired of the tried and tested formula of the genre or gamers themselves want something (or old if you at look it). It is actually sad to see the pseudo demise of the genre for two reasons: a) it is following the same pattern of demise as was seen around a decade ago of the adventure genre and b) 3D genre started the new 3D gaming revolution back in the day. So as you can see the said genre has a lot of history behind it and the way developers and gamers are shunning it seems a little cold. But rather than painting a grim picture I would like to point of that the influence of the genre can not be ignored.

Many of the biggest action adventure games of the HD generation which includes games like Uncharted, Infamous, Assasin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Castlevania: Lords of Shadows and Prototype have in some form or the other roots attached to 3D platformers.

Yes all these games have white knuckle action sequences and and loads of shooting at things, but there are sections in these games which required jumping...alot of jumping. Be it over large chasms, grappling over tall building or traversing medieval city on rooftops, the 3D platformers hence in essence have not been forgotten, rather their influence on the industry are still been felt. But that's where the influence ends as many of the staples of 3D platformers have gone missing ranging from creative and zany worlds to explore, utilizing ridiculous moves, collecting a horde of a useless junks and of course over the top characters. It is these element which distinguishes the genre from the others.

Yes, the writing is on the wall for the 3D platformer, but even in such desperate times all is not lost. There are still some big developers out there who are still at it making 3D platformers. Developers who still realise the potential and the fun factor of the genre and are looking to innovate in a pretty saturated territory. Lets take a look at a few of them shall we: Nintendo's very own stout plumber has been the leading the charge with incredible games like Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. Here you have particularly amazing level designs, culling many of the pitfalls of the genre, bring something new the plate and some truly creative and epic boss battles. Miyamoto-san who kick started the 3D platformer genre back in 1996 has come full circle with the Galaxy series with all the innovation and sticking to what work best for the genre.

Second in line is the California based company, Insomniac. The de facto developer for the Playstation brand did not forget its platformer roots when it created the FPS Resistance as the company still churns out delightful iterations of the fan favorite Ratchet and Clank series. PS3 owners were blown away when the first HD game of the series came on the system and highlighted the fact that 3D platformers are still relevant, and since then 2 more games in the series have been released.

And with each release the visuals and the game play elements are improved upon, which drums the point that if developers are willing to put the effort in the genre as they used it, then the HD generation will end up having more platformers. Insomniac is not done with the genre as a new Ratchet and Clank game was announced ironically alongside another Resistance game!

With two of the big hitters of the industry still focused on making 3D platformers, there are also a number of small companies making awesome games with examples like de Blob, Deadly Animals, Sonic (yes surprisingly enough) to name a few.


Sure the number of such games have dwindled in the last 4 years, 3D platformers are still holding on.

So in the end I just want to confess that the 3D platformer genre ranks as my favorite genre (yes even at age) alongside Japanese RPG, and would love to see more games in the HD generation. Although the genre may have seen last of its better days, there is no denying that 3D platformers are darn fun to play!

Sony announces new portable: Next Generation Portable or NGP!!!

Finally after all the speculation of the impending announcement of the PSP2, Sony has unveiled the new portbale, dubbed Next Generation Portable, or NGP if you like. Personally I am very very excited. I mean look at this piece hardware...its so sweet!!

The specs that Sony has provided in their massive demo and announcement event in Japan makes the NGP a true generation leap for the portable market. Below are the specs (taken directly from Kotaku.com)

"The Full Specs

• CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
• GPU: SGX543MP4+
• External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
• Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
• Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera
• Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone
• Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
• Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
• Keys / Switches: PS button, Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button, Volume buttons
• Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）"

Twin analog sticks?( not mentioned) Check. Big ass OLED screen? (not mentioned) Check. Cameras and touch pads? Check. Its even PSP compatible and that in my opinion is a master stroke!!. The NGP is really hitting the the market hard and the games which were on show are quite mind blowing. Uncharted and MGS 4??. I mean seriously??!. A few weeks ago someone from Sony mentioned that the graphic for the new PSP machine will be like the PS3. THEY WERE NOT LYING!!!. Go check Kotaku.com and check out some of the game videos from the event. You will become a believer!!

I knew Sony had something up its sleeves after seeing how calm they were in the face of new Nintendo portable, 3DS. And today they have come out firing in all cylinders! Why do I get the feeling that people at Nintendo must be shitting bricks at this moment. With a launch date of around the holiday season, I cannot wait. Sure the 3DS wil have have a 7 month head start but if Sony can provide a great launch day line up then I guess Sony will be set.!!

Finished Tales of Vesperia!!

The Tales of series has to be one of the most underrated JRPG franchise out there. I mean most of the gamers I know don't have any interest in playing any game from the series for some inexplicable reason. Personally I cannot get enough of this superb franchise. I got my first Tales fix when I played Tales of Legendia for the PS2 and become a fan of its anime-esque visual and its fast and flashy game play and since then I have played and finished Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss and both these games were amazing. Even games which have scored a bit on the lower side have not been ignored in the form of Tales of Symphonia 2 and Tales of the World. This series is that awesome!


Tales of Vesperia caught my attention when it trailers hit the Internet in the summer of 07 and needless to say I was smitten by is amazing production values. No seriously, the incredible anime like visuals were totally out of world and the classic Tales game play was back in full force... in glorious HD. But to my dismay it was a 360 exclusive. The thing is as soon as the trailer and announcement of a US release came to the fore, my 360 got its first RROD attack and soon enough the machine was died. I was really annoyed and vowed never to buy another 360 again. Sure that mantra changed when the game was released to glowing reviews by the gaming fraternity for its inspired visual and the classic JRPG strappings. Every day I would browse the net watching video reviews and read reviews. And then I snapped. Soon enough I got a new 360 (a UK one) in late 2008, thinking that the UK release was around the corner. As it turned out I had to wait 8 months for the damn game, and that was infuriating as best!.

It was love at first sight the moment I put on the game and the introduction played out. Every cut-scene felt like an episode from a high class anime series, all the characters facial animation were astounding. I mean this game is easily the best looking game ever made which have anime like aesthetics (Naruto games included). Some of the backgrounds of the dungeons and towns are stunningly good, like the forest ruins of Kiev Moc or the town of Halure. Look, I am all for realistic looking games and all but when a game looks this good with its cartoony presentation I just can't help myself for wanting more games to look like Tales of Vesperia. There was one moment in the game when my party reaches a cliff hanging over the vast ocean which totally made the game's visuals stand out.

Turn-based battle systems are good if they are done with some pizazz and panache, but sometimes an action orientated system takes the cake. Same is the case with all the Tales games as the pioneer of action based game play in an RPG. Tales of Vesperia takes the formula to great heights as the battles are fast. Most battles don't even last more than 2 mins and that makes the monotonous element of RPG fresh and fun. Controlling a single character and having indirect control of the AI party members and doling out massive combos. My combo meter reached 43 hits once but I have seen monster combos of more than a 100 hits. The bosses were the most fun as implementing attacking tactics made many boss encounter outrageously fun. Oh yeah Tales of Vesperia has one feature which have been missing for sometime: a world map. The world of Terca Lumireis is vast and travelling on foot or a boat was truly epic!

Characters in Tales of Vesperia are really good. They deftly avoid the arch types of JRPGs and come off as human. Yuri, Raven and Judith were the stand out characters with their deep storyline yet the remaining characters were also very well fleshed out. Character interactions were awesome with often witty and amusing banters that the main leads have with each other. I have not heard such natural dialogue delivery in a JRPG since Persona 4. The voice acting, thank God was top notch. There are no annoying voices in the game. All the characters were voice appropriately but I loved the gentle yet sultry voice of the buxom Judith (who was also as my favorite character in the game for obvious reasons).

As many JPRGs are trying their best to present focused storyline (i.e Final Fantasy XIII), Tales of Vesperia's plot is involving and rewarding, The story is rife with twists and turns, ancient technology and races and political angles. Such plot lines were usually found in many JRPGs of the PS2 era, but in the HD era such twisting plot lines have been replaced. Many game sites nominated the story of Tales of Vesperia in the Best Story category, much to my surprise (my conspiracy theory, which will be discussed in another blog post), but after playing through the game I agreed with such an assessment.

Anyways 2 years of dedicated play, I finally finished the game I (re)bought a 360 for with a grand play time of 57 hours and 29 mins, and was greeted to a great ending. It will be a shame if Tales of Vesperia becomes the last localized game in the series after Namco Bandai reported punishing losses in 2009. With a PS3 exclusive just being announcement in the form of Tales of Xillia, I really hope that game does make it out in English. Till then I look back fondly with the time I spend with Tales of Vesperia. My rating: 9.3!!

Finished Final Fantasy XIII

So four days I finally got to the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII with a total play time of 6o hours and 51 minutes. As I struggle to deal with the fact that I have finished the game, I now look back fondly with the time I spend on the game. Let me start with a statement: I don't give a rat's ass about the lower than expected reviews that the game has received and nor do I really care how many people ended up hating the game for some odd reason. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the finest JRPG this generation and easily the best looking game ever made.

The battle system was really well thought out and it was a total blast to get into battles. The system reminded me a lot of the ones found in Final Fantasy X-2 and the Tales, and job system making a subtle return was also cool. In my opinion all RPGs should have some sort of a job system and FFXIII version was pretty neat. I would have loved a little more depth in the character development like the ones in FFX and FFXII but this game's character development was still good (as compared to another high profile shooter...errr action RPG)

If I talk about the characters I think the game had some very decent ones, esp the main lead Lightning with her tough as nail exterior yet a soft and gentle heart. I mean if you take a look at some of the 'emo' main leads from the very popular FFVII and FFVIII or the over the tops one in FFIX and FFX, then Lightning finds a perfect balance and hence making her an awesome character.

A special mention HAS to go to Sazh. The first time I heard him talk in the game I was like '..ok so this guy is the comedy relief..'. But kudos to the Square-Enix for making him a fascinating character and the best thing was his awesome black American demon, making him one of my most characters in games.

Do not make me mention Vanille and Hope. I though the runt in FFXII was a bad idea, but these two were not good at all. Initially I thought Hope would be like Vivi from FFIX, but ended up being quite irritating. But one that same gauge, Vanille was quite incredible. I mean she has to be the worst FF character ever conceived. I hated her voice, hated her cheery disposition and her stupid fishing pole. I still dunno how and why such a character was thought up in the first place

Fang and Snow were pretty solid and I generally did not have any problems with them on the whole.

Ok now to the negative part. I though the story was a big missed opportunity. Its not to say the plot was bad, but it was not great. The pacing of the plot was on fast forward and it not have the serpentine quality of the FF of the past, and that is quite a shame really. But honestly when the game ended and I witnessed an incredible conclusion, it made up for this fact. The ending was EPIC.

Anyways 4 years of waiting and 9 months of playing the game non stop, I felt the game was worth the wait and in the end I was really satisfied with this game. My rating for this game is a 9.2!

Game of the Year 2010!!

1:

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360):

Final Fantasy XIII was the game I enjoyed the most this year. When I bought my PS3 a few years ago, this was the game which proved the push I needed to plunk the dough for the machine. Fast forward to 2010 and the lead up to the release date was a bit of a frenzy, but the moment I popped the game in the PS3 and the introduction started playing, I was stunned into silence. Here was a game which I had waited for 4 years, was finally mine and for me the wait was well worth it.

Final Fantasy XIII's tale about a band of heroes who have been cursed by the gods and their ordeal in trying to fulfill their goals has all the moments one find in a top tier JRPG. The narrative was really strong, I mean SquareEnix's risky move to streamline everything was also felt in the plot. Unlike previous Final Fantasy games where the story would take it time to develop, in Final Fantasy XIII the plot is fast paced up to the point where I was overawed pretty much the whole game by the roller coaster ride of a plot. Sure the complexity of the storyline from previous games is missing, but the new focused approach is still refreshing, esp in the JRPG genre. By the time the end dungeon loomed over I was emotionally exhausted and right now I cannot wait for the conclusion of the intriguing sojourn.

Final Fantasy XIII is the greatest looking game ever made. No question. SquareEnix has outdone itself in the graphics department as I have never seen a game this beautiful. The attention to detail seen on the characters is mind-bending as the animation and facial expression are phenomenal to say the least. The background of all the locales are exquisite to gaze upon be it the sterile yet foreboding environments of Cocoon, or the vast and wild fields of Pulse, the visual are astounding. The art design of Final Fantasy XIII is just as vivid and totally over the top. Lightning's and Sazh's military outfits, or the unreal look of Vanille's dress are very impressive. The archeiture of both Cocoon and Pulse look fantastic as does the monster designs, but what took the cake was the Sari which Fang supports. Name any game where one of the main character wears a Sari.


What makes Final Fantasy XIII so strong artistically is that the art designs are pretty much original in nature. Most games this year had a template ready from the start for e.g Mass Effect 2's space theme or the Wild West of Red Dead Redemption. In Final Fantasy XIII the brain child of Tetsuya Nomura is at the forefront and all the artistic touches were wonderful, and this little fact makes this game artistically unbeatable.

The other aspect of the presentation which was pretty much flawless was the score, in fact I deem it as the best this year. Many fans of Final Fantasy were bitter when they heard that the veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobou Uematsu was not involved in XIII, but for me the day I heard that the guy who composed majority of the tracks in Final Fantasy X (Masashi Hamauzu) was the main composer for this game I was overjoyed and knew for a fact the score will be great.

I dunno about other gamers but Final Fantasy XIII evolution of the ATB system was a stroke of genius. ATB system is inherently kinda slow but in this game that little annoyance has been taken away completely as the battles are very fast and intense. Final Fantasy XIII system is the upgraded versions of the systems found in X-2 and XII, which I thought were a step in the right direction and in Final Fantasy XIII that system strikes the perfect balance. And then you add in the Job system which you can change mid battles brings about in amazing strategy in battles. The RPG mechanics are solid in this game as always the case in any Final Fantasy game along with customization options for weapons. All these makes for a fine game steeped in RPG tradition, presented in a new perspective.

In the last post I mentioned that Mass Effect 2 was one of two which I would think about constantly, the other game was Final Fantasy XIII. Even when not playing the game I would be thinking about particular battles, how to use the Job system effectively or just thinking about the plot. This game had me pegged like crazy.

As I near the end of this piece there are a couple of things which have bothered me no end concerning Final Fantasy XIII. Yes Final Fantasy XIII isn't the greatest game in the series, but it definitely among my top 10 Final Fantasy games (6th out of the 25 games released thus far in the series), but as a stand alone RPG this game is really incredible. I mean whats there not to like. You have a really involving story line, jaw dropping presentation and a very solid battle system. This a very polished JRPG and if you pit this game against other games in the genre this game will be quite high on my list.

Hence this brings me to my other point of contention. I feel it is very unfair to the game and the developers of the game to always compare Final Fantasy XIII with previous Final Fantasy games. I mean every game is very different from the other. Many elements found in one game is absent from the other, so why put the game through a ringer. As I said as an RPG this game is really amazing and I implore to the fanboys to stop hating the game. I think the fanboys only want Final Fantasy games to be made in Final Fantasy 7 mould (a game which may not even feature in my top 10 Final Fantasy games!!), and that I think is totally pointless. Play the game as its meant to be played, as an RPG!

And so 2010 comes to an end and with it also one of the greatest gaming years ever. Having played a load full of awesome games from many different genres, Final Fantasy XIII emerged as the best of the lot.

So we say adieu to the year 2010 and wait impatiently for the new year to roll in and all signs already point that gamers will have a ball in 2011!!

Games of the Year Awards 2010 Day 9

2:

Mass Effect 2 (360, PC and soon PS3):

I hate WRPGs (Western RPGs). I dont like how their narratives are told, I dont like the usual fantasy setting of about 96% of WRPGs, and I don't like the non-linear exploration. Hence Mass Effect 2 was a massive choice on my list as this is the only WRPG that I actually thought was darn terrific. Something about the space setting instantly clicked with me and I have become a fan (the game series not the WRPG genre). The plot and how it is told makes all the difference as the narrative of the game is Hollywood-esque, the characters are particularly fleshed out and every decision you make has an instant bearing on the flow of the game. Its the reliance on the plot is what separates Mass Effect 2 from other games in the genre. Dare I say it seem to have taken a leaf out of Eastern RPG manuscript on how it handles the story.

And what is story it is, I mean the epic scope is just awe-inspiring. John Shepard's massive quest of saving the Universe from an indestructible threat is treated with panache and vigor as the plot is complete with intense moral decisions and a sense of grandour of the almost impossible situtaion the heroes find themselves in. This is also helped by briallant characters made up of disaprate personalities and backgrounds which makes for intriguing viewing. I consider the character of the blank slate John Shepard to be the best maybe due to how much control I have over his actions but whatever it is John Shepard felt as the complete character. Mass Effect 2 has easily the best story-line and some of the finest characters (Miranda Lawson FTW!!) this year and that says a lot in the face of some great games with stellar plot and characters released this year.

Mass Effect 2 takes the moniker of WRPG very lightly as the RPG mechanics are pretty sparse but that is off set with the feeling of actuall 'role playing' as the player is left to make any choices when conversing with many NPCs or on how the main character reacts to a given scenario which give a whole lot of independence to the player. As I rule I freak out when games give me a lot of options to think about and this is esp true when playing dense WRPGs. but Mass Effect 2 is nothing like that. I felt at ease when making tough decisions and although many decision were really hard to make, I was never over-awed, rather felt as I was IN the game. The game play itself is a major improvement over the original game with Bioware making a lot of tweaks. On a personal level the action bit in the game were awesome as the game felt like an action game even though there is a lot number crunching underneath the hood. The last time I tried a Bioware game (Knight of the Old Republic) I was bored out of my wits as the game play was pretty slow but not in Mass Effect 2.

Another aspect which made me a fan of the game was the entire presentation. The graphics are positively epic. The game uses in game engine in many of the cut scenes but boy the game still looks awesome. Even the characters all look really good (Miranda Lawson FTW!!) with real life facial expressions and animations and all environments lend a lot the the space theme. As I mentioned earlier I dont like WRPG with fantasy setting, so Mass Effect 2 sci-fi strapping just look amazing and this is why this game stands apart from rest of it contemporaries. The sound track is really strong and the voice acting is very easily one of the best due to a) a large number of good actors were hired and b) all the voice performance are uniformly good. Such polished games are not that common.

Games earn full marks from me when a particular game get a hold of my attention and doesn't let go..EVER!. Mass Effect 2 is one of two games this year which I would think about almost constantly. Calculating how to do a mission, on how to be become the best captain/hero for my crew or on how to be become the perfect saint, Mass Effect 2 had my number. This game was epic!

I am very impressed by Mass Effect 2 as the number of improvement made over the first games are so high that in comparison Mass Effect 1 feels broken, buggy and glitchy (which it isn't). Xbox 360 has an awesome game library and Mass Effect 2 is it best game (so what if the game is about to come on the PS3, its still a year late, I mean everyone has played it already!!). It doesn't have online multiplayer nor is the game overly lengthy, but it packs a massive wallop!

So finally we come to the Game of the Year which will be unveiled very soon.

Games of the Year Awards 2010 Day 8

Climbing on to number 3 on my Games if the Year Awards 2010 is the little legendary plumber.

3:

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii):

Super Mario Galaxy 2 maybe the only perfect platformer ever made. It just evolves everything found in the previous game and raises the bar for all future platformers, its really that good. Shigeru Miyamoto is called a genius for a reason and SMG 2 in my opinion his greatest creation.

The premise is the same: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach, Mario off to the rescue. The blueprints from the years gone past have remained the same but the game play mechanics have changed and the game designs have been made perfect as evident by this game. SMG 2 game play is very tight, I mean never was I frustrated while playing it with its controls or its streamlined approach and to be honest I was bemused at the level of creativity in each stage and area. The stuff added to the core game play makes sense esp the introduction of Yoshi in the mix. It seems to me that Nintendo told the game developers to go nuts and hence the end product is unbelievable.

Again what bothers me is how little importance this game was given by a large of the gaming fraternity. I mean SMG 2 was the most fun I had playing video games this year. Yes it doesn't have an epic story line, multi layered characters or even a hint of online play, but in terms of pure gaming bliss, SMG 2 was tops. The levels were plenty in number brimming with extraordinary creativity, variable objectives of the levels, the perfect balance of the difficulty (the game was pretty tough but also fair) while the presentation were just awesome with no hint of slowdown and colorful environments and the sound track once again was appropriately epic yet whimsical.

As you can see by now that I have used the word perfect a fews times, and this is how SMG 2..Perfect...Almost (why cant the story lines for the core Mario games be a little different..this is a definite little nitpick..but ah well).

Super Mario Galaxy 2 epitomizes every thing good and holy about Nintendo. SMG 2 and a bulk of other releases in 2010 made this year probably Wii's best in its cycle, and easily toppled the PS3 and the 360 of their pedestal of elite gaming machines. Nintendo also got back their disfranchised fans who were lost due to Nintendo's follies of the past. If the Wii does start to go down in the next year, then 2010 was its incredible swan-song.