PlayStation 3

In Defense of the 7: PlayStation 3 Exclusives

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/28/2023
Posted in: Blogs, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Many people use video game reviews to determine how to spend their hard-earned dollars. While as an adult I don’t take this as seriously and I now make my own money I am more forgiving of games that aren’t perfect. As kids or teens, we have limited money and are usually picked through gaming magazines to determine if that one game was worth the money because we only got a few a year. For me, it was only during Christmas time that my parents bought games. I mostly rented mine throughout my childhood and teen years. Even for rentals, I was picky as I didn’t want to be stuck on my weekend with a dud of a game. Even a 7/10 or 3.5/5 would be considered a waste of time. This was the last generation in which AAA title after AAA title would be considered fantastic and with so many exclusives it was hard to keep up with. The HD era of gaming would see budgets balloon to insane heights and game releases slowed down as a result.

In my eyes, 7/10 or 3.5/5 games are mostly ignored. These aren’t always considered hidden gems either. Some are, but some are just considered forgettable. Not awful or good, but just passes under everyone’s radar. These aren’t the “so bad it’s good” games either. A few of these games have cult followings; a few I had only heard of while compiling this list and some I played myself growing up. I compiled this list from Metacritic with games between 74-70. I feel that’s the true blue 7 range. 79 and 78-rated games usually only have about 25% of the critics giving it a 7 to bring an otherwise 8 score down some. These games are at least rated by half the critics as 7/10. While I know many people don’t listen to critics and some might feel this game should be rated higher or lower is subjective. Like it or not, critic reviews drive sales and it may be the reason why you might find a few games on this list you’ve never heard of, thought was talked about worse than you remember, or something along those lines

Calling All Cars! – 2007

This was David Jaffe’s (Twisted Metal, God of War) pet project. It got a lot of attention because it had been a few years since anyone had heard from the man. While it offered cute cell-shaded car combat it offered little in content.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International – 2010

The game came over to PS3 hoping to garner more sales, but the small extras weren’t enough to win fans over. It still sold poorly and had more competition on Sony’s system with far more JRPGs to offer.

Most Recent Entry: Star Ocean: The Divine Force – 2022 (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XONE)

Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness – 2013

Compared to Disgaea 4 as not as original or innovative and not returning older beloved characters. It was very by the numbers and felt like a bob-standard game.

Most Recent Entry: Disgaea 6: Complete – 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5)

Formula One Championship Edition – 2007

The final game in the long-running series. Just dipping its toes in the next-gen world it was killed off due to poor sales. It wasn’t praised as high as previous games despite its great visuals. The physics felt off and that’s not surprising. Perhaps if Psygnosis had more time they could perfect it and keep the series going.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer or Arland – 2011
Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk – 2013

Praised for advancing the gameplay and overall battle system, but criticized heavily for an anime-trope-riddled story and dated visuals. Fans of the series ate it up, and it continues to live on strong today. Ayesha was praised for the graphical upgrade and story, but had some mundane and repetitive questing that let it down.

Most Recent Entry: Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream – 2022 (PC, PS4)

The Guided Fate Paradox – 2013

The unique blend of randomly generated dungeons and rogue-lite RPG elements was praised, but the game moves at a snail’s pace and has outdated visuals and a forgettable story. It would try one more time before being canceled.

Most Recent Entry: The Awaneked Fate Ultimatum – 2014 (PS3)

Katamari Forever – 2009

A return to form at a fault. The game didn’t advance the series much and it was business as usual for the little prince. Fans may like more of the same, but it was a great starting point for newcomers. Many also questioned the price point as the PS2 original was released for $20.

Most Recent Entry: Katamari Damacy: Reroll – 2018 (NS, PC, PS4, XONE)

Tokyo Jungle – 2012

After growing a cult following sales for the game increased as of late. Especially with the PS3 store sunsetting soon. The game is incredibly unique and has that PlayStation feeling to it, but was disregarded for its dated visuals and lack of polish.

Tumble – 2010

One of the most unique uses of the PlayStation Move controller, Tumble was well regarded for this. The precise movements just worked. However, it’s the simple presentation and the repetitive nature of its puzzles brought it down some.

The House of the Dead 4 – 2012

Praised for using the Move controllers well, and being a good arcade port, it didn’t offer anything new and featured very dated visuals. Fans of the series or genre won’t care there. It did add some charm to it.

Most Recent Entry: The House of the Dead: Remake – 2022 (PC, NS, PS4, XONE)

LittleBigPlanet Karting – 2012

Probably one of the better Mario Kart clones out there, LBP Karting kept the series’ charm and tried to be its own thing. However, players felt the game was Mod Nation Racers with an LBP skin and the creation mode was still complex and required too much patience.

Most Recent Entry: Sackboy: A Big Adventure – 2020 (PC, PS4, PS5)

Savage Moon – 2009

A creepy alien version of Pixel Junk Monsters is what this game was compared to. It didn’t have the same charm as that series and was more RTS than tower defense. It just felt too generic to rise above but was decent enough for fans of either genre to pick up.

Funky Lab Rat – 2010

A fun use of the Move mixed with a platformer puzzler. It had a generic presentation that didn’t look all that great and was geared toward younger gamers, but the great use of motion controls won people over.

Gravity Crash – 2009

A fun game of fighting against inertia. The bright neon colors were welcomed, but the overly simple nature, frustrating difficulty, and lack of modes held it back some.

Most Recent Entry: Gravity Crash: Ultra – 2014 (VITA)

Derrick the Deathfin – 2012

Fun visuals aside, the game was too short and had very simple gameplay. If you think the game looks interesting that should be enough to play it, but overall mostly forgettable.

Trash Panic – 2009

This is by all means one of the more unique games on the system. It’s a puzzler that becomes addictive for a short time and then the constant frustrations will push you away.

LocoRoco Cocoreccho! – 2007

This is one of Sony’s most adored series. The cute visuals, charming singing, and unique gameplay became one of the biggest favorites on PSP. The charm doesn’t translate on consoles as well, especially for a game that’s really short and was considered more of an interactive screensaver. If you love the series you probably need to get this then.

Most Recent Entry: LocoRoco: Remastered – 2017 (PS4)

rain – 2013

Considered a “must buy before the PS3 store dies” rain is a relaxing and visually stunning game in the art department, but it’s a one-trick pony. Finish the game and there’s no real reason to come back. It’s also really short.

Papo & Yo – 2012

A beautiful adventure that was praised for its atmosphere and story, but the gameplay didn’t make sense in its world. Everyone just kept saying that it also needed more polish. Overall, one of the most unique games on the system.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells – 2012

A unique use of the Move controller towards the end of its hype. The imaginative world was applauded, but it was designed for kids in the end. It was really easy and simple and bore those who aren’t easily pleased by pretty graphics and waggle moves.

Tales of Xilia 2 – 2014

While it barrowed too much from its predecessor the game boasted a more interesting story and very engaging combat. It’s still anime-trope-heavy, but fans of the series would find this a strong game in the series.

Most Recent Entry: Tales of Arise – 2021 (PC, PS4, XONE, PS5, XSX)

PAIN – 2007

This was the Goat Simulator of the day. I remember everyone playing this and streaming the game online. It was slapstick fun with a lot of DLC but overall lacked any real gameplay loop or elements to stay engaged for very long.

LocoRoco Cocoreccho! – 2007

This is one of Sony’s most adored series. The cute visuals, charming singing, and unique gameplay became one of the biggest favorites on PSP. The charm doesn’t translate on consoles as well, especially for a game that’s really short and was considered more of an interactive screensaver. If you love the series you probably need to get this then.

Most Recent Entry: LocoRoco: Remastered – 2017 (PS4)

rain – 2013

This is considered a “must buy before the PS3 store closes” game. It’s very unique, relaxing, and interesting, but has some control quirks and is over way too soon.

Papo & Yo – 2012

I remember the hype built up around this game. Many liked the world that was built and the story, but the gameplay made no sense inside it. Still worth trying out.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells – 2012

This is one of the most hyped-up Move games. I remember the long E3 presentation for this. It has charming visuals and uses the Move well, but it has almost no challenge and is geared toward kids. Imaginations are not included.

Tales of Xilia 2 – 2014

While many loved the story and characters as well as the interesting combat mechanics, the game barrowed too much from its predecessor and felt a little too familiar. It also had some very dated visuals.

Most Recent Entry: Tales of Arise – 2021 (PC, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSX)

PAIN – 2007

This was the Goat Simulator of the day. I remember everyone playing this and streaming it. It was dumb fun with a lot of DLC, but outside of wonky physics, there wasn’t a real goal or loop that kept you coming back.

Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle – 2014

You need to really be into the source material to enjoy this game. With a fun cast of characters and a pretty good fighting system, it lacked content and was plagued with microtransaction controversy.

Most Recent Entry: Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R – 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, NS, XONE, XSX)

Top Darts – 2010

A darts game using the Move sounded like a good idea, but the lack of online play really hurt this game’s sales and potential. It had couch co-op, but at least had great motion detection to keep players engaged. It was later ported to Vita with little attention.

EyePet – 2009
EyePet: Move Edition – 2010

This creepy animal was made fun of quite a bit during its E3 showing. This launched with the Move and was praised for its inventive use of augmented reality, but also felt too simple

Most Recent Entry: EyePet Adventures – 2011 (PSP)

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – 2011

Probably the lowest point in the series, but by no means a bad one. This four-player co-op alienated the fans of the single players mainline series, and it was more of an arcade-like adventure and pretty easy too.

Most Recent Entry: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – 2021 (PS5)

GTI Club + Rally Cote D’Azur – 2009

A remake of the 90s arcade title that didn’t bring much new to the series. It’s a pretty fun arcade racer that looks decent but lacks any content. It was knocked down for its steep price as well.

Piyotama – 2007

A cute and charming puzzle game that was later ported to Sony’s handhelds. For what it lacked in content and variety it made up for with sheer addictive gameplay.

Sorcery – 2012

I remember the hype this game had. People thought that the Move would finally have its killer app. The Move was on its last legs, and in fact, the entire motion control craze only lasted about two years. Between 2010-2012 was the height of this craze as Sony and Microsoft had both thrown their chips into the mix. While the game was touted for its smooth integration of the Move it lacked in depth and replay value.

Tekken Revolution – 2013

While the core game was intact this was geared toward novice fighters and people just getting into the series. It’s stripped down and simplified to the point that veterans scoffed at it. It was a free-to-play model that ultimately failed in the end.

Most Recent Entry: Tekken 7 – 2017 (PS4, XONE, PC)

Beyond: Two Souls – 2013

A visual masterpiece, David Cage and his team are able to eke out every ounce of power of the consoles his games land on. Despite the technical marvel and fantastic acting, the game falls flat with a confusing story and long stretches of boring gameplay. It was later remastered for newer systems.

Rainbow Moon – 2012

A good-looking and deep strategy title that feels flat with its story and characters. The game also had some crazy difficulty spikes that hindered many gamers.

Elefunk – 2008

A charming puzzler but steeped in trial and error and frustrations around every corner. If you don’t mind restarting puzzles a lot than this weird puzzle game is for you.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/26/2022
Posted in: Xbox 360, PC Reviews, Mobile Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Microsoft Consoles, iOS, Mac, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification. Leave a comment

Publisher: LucasArts

Developer: LucasArts

Release Date: 07/15/2009


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LucasArts’ SCUMM engine games hold a great fanbase for those who grew up in the 80s computer gaming scene. They were bright and colorful. Revolutionary, for their time, in terms of gameplay and art. They were also later updated with voice acting which was some of the first of its kind. While the games were short (running around 6 hours per game) they were memorable and had a special sense of humor that was considered top of their class. The series got a much-anticipated remake starting with the first game. While not much was really added, the entire game was redrawn from scratch with all new lines of dialog recorded by the original cast.

The game definitely plays like an old point-and-click adventure of yore. Clumsy controls (which were never really fixed), slow pace, obtuse object hunting, and no puzzles. That’s not to say the game is bad. While it doesn’t feel as modern as The Longest Journey or even David Cage’s games with quick-time events and button pressing that’s part of the charm. Thankfully the game has a hint system that slowly gives you more specific hints including full-on arrows pointing to the exact spot you need to be. This was really helpful and a must-have for first-time players or those who aren’t familiar with this era of adventure games.

The game has two main areas. The first one consists of some small areas, a town, and a large overhead map to get to these areas. Most of the game is gathering items and figuring out where to use them and how. You have multiple commands such as talk to, push, pull, look at, use, open and close. These are used by pulling up an action command menu and then you have your inventory. To use these commands you need to pull up the command menu and then the inventory. This is cumbersome and took a while to figure out. You control Guybrush by clicking around on the ground, but his walk cycle is pretty slow. There’s a lot of backtracking in this game and this slowed the progress a bit. One thing I didn’t like was the insult for sword fighting. You have to lose to pirates to learn their insults and comebacks. You need to learn enough to defeat the first “boss”. There was a lot of trial and error doing this and it got really frustrating.

The star of the show is the characters and the writing. The salesman Stan for example is hilarious. Using overexaggerated arm waving and an obnoxious coat to look like a sleazy salesman. The pirate LeChuck doesn’t get much on-screen time, but neither do most of the characters. The main character Guybrush is who you will get to know the most. There is an optional dialog for most characters to get to know their personality more than their backstory. There just isn’t enough time to get to know them more. So, it makes up for funny writing and witty humor which the game does solidly.

I liked the visuals in this game. The hand-drawn art is beautiful and still captures the classic LucasArts look. Some of the animations feel a bit stiff still, but again, that all adds to the charm. The voice acting is awesome, there is some funny use of items and small little tidbits of humor thrown in that did make me chuckle. I have to say that this game won’t hold everyone’s attention. It is slow to build up and takes a while to get going. A lot of people might feel lost clicking on everything and not realize what order to do things in, but the hint system makes this game much more enjoyable. I highly recommend this classic remake, but it won’t be to everyone’s taste.

Retrospective: HD Era of Gaming – The Best and Worst Horror Games

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/17/2022
Posted in: Blogs, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Wii, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

We all love a good scare, right? Horror games are some of gaming’s greatest past times. Usually booming in October, horror games from the past and present are played all around the world. The problem is, there just aren’t a lot of them made, and the best ones are far and few between. Usually, this is a great time to dig up old classics rather than trudge through recent crap. While the PS1/PS2 era was the golden age of horror games, the HD era, or the seventh generation of consoles, struggled and was probably the most anemic when it came to horror games, especially the good ones. There’s a reason why some of the rarest and most coveted physical games are horror. It’s the genre that’s been the least explored and not done well enough most of the time. If you can look past clunky controls and awkward gameplay most retro horror games do provide good scares, atmosphere, creepy monsters, and good visuals. I’ve compiled a list of the best and the worst.

The Best

Alice: Madness Returns

American McGee is well known for his dark interpretation of the Alice in Wonderland series. The first game, American McGee’s Alice, was clunky mechanically but was a visual treat. The same goes for the sequel. It’s a gorgeous game with a lot of dark themes dealing with mental illness. The enemies are fantastically designed and the levels themselves are living art. Despite the incredibly repetitive gameplay, this one is a blast to play through.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

A lot of people didn’t like Homecoming due to its more action-oriented combat, but I actually quite liked it. I feel it was the last good Silent Hill game in the series and it still retains the creepy atmosphere and insane creature design. The haunting music is still present as well. While it’s not as tense as the original trilogy, Homecoming does have better combat despite it being the wrong focus here. This was the first game in the series that was part of the jump to the next generation. The next game in the series, Downpour, would be considered the worst in the series, and I personally hated it. These would be the last games in the series to date.

Metro Series

Metro 2033 and Last Light, these were some of the best horror games to grace the seventh generation of consoles. While they played and looked best on PC, the console versions still looked great and did a good job giving us scares. The post-apocalyptic horror series had an intriguing story and tense atmosphere along with crazy creature designs. The final game in the trilogy, Exodus, would be on the next-generation systems and receive mixed reviews.

Shadows of the Damned

While not inherently designed to give you nightmares, Shadows has a lot of horror elements in its design such as creepy enemies and an overall atmosphere of dread. It’s more of a comedy horror title, but it has tons of style that help make swallowing the shallow substance a bit easier. It’s also not very good-looking, on a technical basis, but the art is awesome. Most of Suda 51’s games were one-shots and never saw sequels. SotD never saw high enough sales even if he wanted to do a sequel. To date, it hasn’t seen a remaster, remake, or port.

Condemned Series

Condemned: Criminal Origins really showed us what next-generation visuals could look like. The E3 2006 demo blew me away and it was one of the reasons I got an Xbox 360. This was one of the few games that looked the part and really pushed the industry into a new era of HD visuals. It’s a game that can be replayed many times and you will always have a fun experience. It’s too bad the series is dead because Monolith nailed the atmosphere here. The game is intense with crazy melee combat and incredibly dark and haunting levels. Crazy bums coming out of nowhere breathing and panting and trying to attack you in dark hallways is something else. The sequel, Bloodshot, was great but focused more on combat and less on the atmosphere, so it’s not quite as scary. It was also the nail in the coffin as due to the poor sales of the sequel Sega shuttered the series for good. To date, the series hasn’t seen a remaster, remake, or port of any kind.

Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno is one of the best hack and slash games ever made, but EA was bound to make sure you didn’t know that. It didn’t get much attention or was considered just another God of War rip-off. While the game was short, it had incredibly responsive and fun combat, an interesting protagonist, and insanely gory and adult-themed levels. It’s just too bad the story wasn’t fleshed out enough. What’s here is a fun 4-5 hour game that you won’t find anywhere else. Sadly, the game’s low sales sealed its fate to have no sequel, caused Visceral to shutter, and hasn’t seen a port, remaster, or remake to date.

BioShock Series

Specifically speaking about the first two games, BioShock had a crazy dark atmosphere and some creepy enemies and horror that kind of just oozed everywhere. There was no jump scares or downright frightening scenes, but you always had a sense of dread and fear and that’s really hard to pull off in games. The game was more about psychological horror and isolation and it sure pulled it off mostly the best in the first game. Surprisingly, the entire trilogy was released during this generation and would receive barely passable ports later on as the BioShock Collection.

Dead Space Series

While Dead Space 3 was mostly about the action and less about horror, the first two games were damn scary. I would consider them one of the scariest games I have ever played. Jump scares aside, there was a constant foreboding presence of something lurking around every corner and the Necromorphs are some of the greatest video game enemies of all time. This was peak horror during the HD era. Another trilogy that saw its ending in the same generation cycle. The series would stall here and the first game would receive a remake two generation cycles later.

Deadly Premonition

Deadly Premonition is the perfect game of it’s so bad it’s good. The gameplay is dated and feels like a PS1 game, the graphics are terrible, and the voice acting is awful, but the writing and overall atmosphere the game presents are well done and memorable. It really feels like a PS2 game that was quickly ported over to next-gen consoles without any improvements in mind. It can be scary in the sense that its trippy Japanese horror weirdness will freak you out more than scare you. This is one of the few games you should stomach the terrible design for the weirdness. It’s worth it. It would get a sequel in the next generation, but not look like it and would be poorly received

F.E.A.R. Series

Oh man, this one brings me back. The first game was very scary with crazy The Ring girl vibes that were all the rage in the early 2000s. The gunplay was genuinely solid and you needed a NASA PC to run it back in the day, but forget about understanding the story. The second game had some really scary elements, but was more action-oriented and had less of a mid-2000s PC shooter Half-Life 2 style vibe to it. The third game, well, just isn’t scary at all. Another trilogy that was released all in the same console cycle. While the first game was a port and was released during the PS2/Xbox era, the entire trilogy would never see a remake or remaster.

Resident Evil Series

The Resident Evil series really took off after the previous generation. This generation would see the most action-focused games yet. Resident Evil 5, 6, and Operation Raccoon City were the main releases. There was also an HD port of the 3DS exclusive Revelations as well as Revelations 2 as a sequel. Some would consider this the weakest run the series had only to go back to its roots in the next generation cycle starting with Resident Evil VII. The games also weren’t very scary around this time. They were just too action-focused and didn’t have the nuanced scares and puzzles as before. Revelations would be the only sub-series to feel scary or have any tension at all. Operation Raccoon City would be lauded as the worst game in the series.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us would be considered one of the best horror games ever made. It was wildly praised and made waves throughout the gaming industry receiving awards and praise from all angles. The tense stealth scenes with the Clickers were awesome. These monsters are some of the creepiest and eerie creatures ever made for a horror game. This wasn’t just another zombie game. It would receive a sequel in the following generation as well as some of the most controversial decisions ever for a game. It would also receive a full remake and remaster.

Outlast

Released at the tale end of the HD era of gaming, Outlast never saw a port to consoles until the next generation. It was damn scary. This small indie game made waves and became one of the top streaming games of all time. The tense atmosphere and overall great design, in general, made Outlast terrifying. The sequel would be released several years later on PC and consoles as well as a port of the first game released about a year later.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Amnesia was probably the top-streamed video game of the year in 2010. Game streaming was new and scare reactions reached the charts on YouTube. There hadn’t been many really scary games during this generation. It was all action-focused and multiplayer-focused to generate sales. That’s why this indie game was released on PC only at the time. It had interesting puzzles and enemies you couldn’t fight. It wouldn’t receive a port until many years later and two-generation cycles later. The sequels A Machine for Pigs and Rebirth would be poorly received, and I personally didn’t like them that much either.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series

The STALKER series wouldn’t sell well at first but would gain a huge cult following. The entire trilogy was released around the mid-life of the HD era and was exclusive to PC. It’s rough around the edges, but a huge following of modders would improve the game and it wouldn’t be until two generations later when a true sequel would be released. The game never saw a port to consoles and for a reason. The engine is already poorly optimized on PC and wouldn’t do well on consoles. It would be a huge undertaking to port the entire trilogy and it would be hard to market.

Alien Isolation

Alien Isolation wasn’t technically developed for HD consoles, but mostly for PC and next-generation systems. It came out right as the next generation was coming in and the HD versions were quickly forgotten. Isolation is considered the best game in the Alien series and one of the best horror games of the last couple of decades. It captures the 80s aesthetic of the movies and tells a great story while being terrifying. I still haven’t completed it to this day because of how scary it actually is.

Penumbra Series

The original horror trilogy, Penumbra, was developed by Frictional Games who would later go on to make the Amnesia series. This was released for PC only and never received a console port. It was a less talked about indie series that was loved among horror fans, but indie PC games didn’t receive the same spotlight that they do now. Console gamers didn’t care unless they were ported. Penumbra is a slow-paced, puzzle-focused horror series all about adventure and discovery. It’s creepy, full of psychological horror, and is a must-play for any horror fan.

The Evil Within

While this is stretching it a bit, The Evil Within was mostly meant for next-generation consoles and PC. It played and looked nice on PS3 and Xbox 360, but those weren’t the intended systems. This was Shinji Mikami’s next opus and was definitely creepy and had some good elements, but was too action focused and unbalanced and the story made no sense. Some say that’s the charm of survival horror games. There’s a bit of jank that’s needed. I personally just thought this game was okay despite the amazing monster designs. A sequel would later come out, but not sell as well.

Alan Wake

This is one of my favorite horror games of all time. It has a great story, memorable characters, and a great combat system that plays off of light and darkness. I’ve replayed this game many times and it wasn’t an instant hit for Microsoft. The sales were slow and it wasn’t appreciated until much later. It received a PC port and a recent remaster. It’s a must-play for any horror fan.

Siren: Blood Curse

It was a surprise to see a niche and obscure horror title return to PS3. Siren didn’t sell or review well but is considered a cult classic and part of the classic survival horror era. Blood Curse was a digital-only episodic release that had some great scares and an overall fun adventure. Sadly, only Japan received a physical release.

The Worst

Silent Hill Downpour

Oh man, where do I start? My favorite horror series was butchered with this release. I rented this from GameFly and had to follow a guide through most of the game. It was a confusing convoluted mess and felt like a chore to play. It wasn’t scary, wasn’t fun, and was the worst game in the whole series.

Saw Series

While the movies were quite enjoyable despite their flaws, the games were just awful. They weren’t as gruesome as the movies and played it too safe. Pretty much every bad conventional video game flaw was present here. Awful voice acting, terrible graphics, bad puzzles, and poor level design.

Vampire Rain

Easily considered one of the worst games of the HD era there was no redeeming value in this game. There was nothing you could overlook. There wasn’t any “it’s so bad it’s kind of charming” to this game either. It was just a disaster and an unplayable mess. It wasn’t scary, it felt like it was trying to be several games at once, it looked bad, it played even worse, and wasn’t any fun despite all the hype leading up to release.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

This game needs no introduction. It’s been covered by every “worst of” and “most controversial” video game on YouTube out there. Its history has been extensively documented. From broken AI to awful visuals, and just a completely unfinished and broken game. It’s also considered one of the worst games ever made. It’s a stark contrast to Alien Isolation.

Alone in the Dark

I had the displeasure of actually finishing this game when it came out. I was hoping it was going to be a great reboot of a classic horror series. I followed the developer’s diaries all the way through the release and played it without reading any reviews. The game is pretty bad. It’s one of the worst games of the HD era. It was just an awful chore and a mess of a game. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t scary. It was just plain bad.

Amy

Probably one of the worst games ever made. This was a small indie game that was supposed to be full of suspense and horror, but instead, it’s a chore of a game with awful controls and graphics. The game was also poorly optimized and suffered terrible framerate issues. The story made no sense, and overall, it was just a stupid and lazy game.

Clive Barker’s Jericho

I was so excited about this game, and every time I think about or have to write about it break’s my heart. I absolutely love Clive Barker’s work and had it since I was a young teen. I fawned after the figures from Todd McFarlane and loved the characters in his movies. Undying was also a cult classic. The game was just trying to do too much at once. It had cramped level design, awful performance, dated visuals, and just felt like a chore. The only thing it had going for it was the art design. It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever played and one of the saddest scars of the HD era.

Lost Planet 3 – 9 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/11/2022
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Spark Unlimited

Release Date: 08/27/2013


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The Lost Planet series is one of those sad ones you see on “worst of” or “what happened” YouTube videos. The first game is great if not repetitive. It was early in the HD era of gaming and showed off what the Xbox 360 could do. The second game took a serious dive and tried to be a Monster Hunter rip-off and the third game tries to blend both but doesn’t do it very well. The biggest strength in Lost Planet 3 is the continued story from the first game and it’s done quite well with story twists and surprises, but it’s dished out too slowly and the game in between is repetitive and slow.

You play as Jim Peyton. A man who is just using his rig to make some money to send back to Earth for his wife and baby. You are back on E.D.N. III and you are back to work for the NEVEC company just like in the first game, and the story starts out really slow. While you wait for that to pick up you get to learn the two main gameplay loops here. On foot shooting and your rig. The rig is a hulking mech that can’t really fight. It’s mostly used to trek across small areas to get to an objective and I honestly find this a waste of time. The whole trapesing across areas to get to somewhere isn’t done right. The areas are small, there’s zero exploration, and it just wastes time. You can eventually unlock fast traveling, but you can only fast travel at the opening of each area. The first 2/3 of the game starts each mission with you doing the same preamble of walking out of the base and then across the same areas dozens of times to get to the objective. When fast travel is unlocked it helps, but why wasn’t this an option from the start?

The rig can kind of fight, but it’s melee brawling with larger Akrid which are the planet’s native creatures you must kill. The same five-six enemies repeat throughout the entire game and it gets old quickly. There are a ton of repeated boss fights in the game and to mix things up (not really) you can fight them in the rig as well. This consists of timed blocks and then using your claw arm to and drill to get at their weak points which glow orange, a series staple. This orange stuff is the lifeblood of the planet and used as currency in-game and is sent back to Earth to solve the energy crisis. The mech itself is very clunky but in a bad way. It feels unresponsive and sluggish to move and the boss fights are never epic feeling or satisfying. The most irritating missions are the ones in which it turns into a drilling platform and you must defend it. These missions last for what seems like forever and you never have good enough weapons for the enemies at hand.

Let’s get to the on-foot combat. The weapons here are completely useless. Only the shotgun and assault rifle is any good. The hunting rifle, bowcaster, and grenade launcher are mostly useless. They fire too slow as every single enemy moves fast and swarms you. They only became useful in the final chapter when you finally fight human enemies. The same few enemies repeat. Three small swarming enemy types, two larger giant dog-like creatures, one centipede-like creature that can use cover, and three boss types that repeat often. That’s it. The game relies on quick-time events when enemies get too close and especially in the rig. They all move fast and don’t benefit from long-range weapons or slow-shooting weapons. You need a lot of ammo to pelt at them to keep them off of you. There are upgrades and weapons to purchase, but you wind up not needing most of them for the other weapons because they are useless. You can also upgrade your rig, but outside of armor there really isn’t a reason to do much upgrading.

The entire game is also dull to look at. Sure it looks nice graphically, but artistically the entire game is just ice and snow. There’s no variation and it just looks boring. Even the base is boring to be in because it’s all ice and snow. I know this is a frozen planet, but there are usually other biomes on every planet type. Mix it up some. Outside of shooting Akrid you are pulling levers, turning knobs, and pressing buttons. There are some scripted events, but the few interior areas are drab and just as boring as the outside. The game has no soul and feels like a typical cookie-cutter shooter. It feels like it tries to be Dead Space 3 sometimes with odd horror music that doesn’t fit and the creatures that hide behind cover.

Overall, the game is just so underwhelming. It doesn’t have compelling shooting, the weapons suck, the rig is wasted by not having any weapons, and the areas repeat just like the bosses and enemy types. The story is the only thing worth sticking around for, but unless you’re a hardcore Lost Planet fan there’s no reason to play this. The story is for fans of the original game and newcomers won’t get the full impact of the twists in the story. The graphics look nice, and the voice acting is great, but the same repeated ice and snow levels for 10 hours get old really fast. Sadly, this series doesn’t end with a bang and there’s a reason why Capcom left it in the graveyard.

Doom 3

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 07/07/2022
Posted in: Android, Mac, Microsoft, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Leave a comment

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Panic Button

Release Date: 07/26/2019


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The original release of Doom 3 was a huge deal. It was a technical marvel with fantastic new lighting effects and textures that could fill the latest GPU and all of your RAM. It split fans due to the slower pace and focus on jump scares (that honestly don’t really work these days anymore) and a bigger focus on the story (if you can call it that). The game retains the same dark visuals and monsters from before, but being the first game in full 3D it had a lot of problems.

The first thing you will notice is that this release has no visual upgrades outside of some texture filtering and anti-aliasing and slightly better lighting. The textures still look muddy and the models are still low-poly. With this being the third official release of this game I’m surprised more work hasn’t been done to it. You play as a marine who is stationed on Mars when things suddenly go wrong. The first couple of levels is probably the best since they slowly introduce the gameplay to you and have better-designed levels. Zombies emerge from the dark, and your flashlight is a lifeline. It does have a short battery but recharges within seconds.

The main issue with Doom 3 is its much slower pace in every part of the game. The movement is slow (you have adrenaline that’s used for limited sprinting which is annoying), and the weapons reload slowly (why is there reloading anyway?). Not to mention the weapons just plain suck. The pistol is useless outside of the first couple of levels. I never touched it after this. The machine gun is useless in later levels, and everything else just feels slow. Enemies feel slow as well. The environments are also cramped with too many enemies spawning at once and I constantly backed into walls and got stuck in corners trying to get away. Very rarely does the game ever feel like a classic Doom game with more open areas.

The level design is also terrible. The game is way too long as it is and it’s just boring hallways after hallway finding PDA access cards, running back and forth activating switches, and trying to open doors. nearly eight grueling hours of this. It felt like a chore after the first two. Eventually, you do get to Hell, but it’s such a short level with a boss fight at the end, but it still suffered from cramped areas and nothing new except a couple of enemies that finally show up such as the Hell Knight and Arch-Vile which are some of the toughest enemies in the game. I mostly stuck to the strategy of using guns that shot the fastest such as the Cell machine gun being the most powerful with the chaingun being second. I used the shotgun through most of the mid-section of the game until I got the cell rifle.

There are a few boss fights in the game that all play out the same, and in the end, the entire game is just one long boring chore. It’s fun at first, but if you are a veteran of classic Doom games then most of you may just shut this off early. This is my third play-through of this game and it’s less enjoyable each time. I originally played this on Xbox, and then PC, and then dabbled in it a bit on Xbox 360 and never finished it. Now I completed it on Switch.

Speaking of the Switch the game plays fine, but there is some slow down in the larger areas and it doesn’t always stay at 60FPS. In handheld mode, the game runs fine as well, and you have the option to turn off flashlight shadows to help, but overall it’s great to just have another FPS on the Switch. These don’t come around often. Included is the Resurrection of Evil expansion which I already finished once on Xbox and a new Lost Mission short campaign which I will get around to eventually. It’s nice that there’s some new content. Overall, this could have easily been a remake from the ground up or a mode that made it feel faster-paced like the classic games. If you are itching for a mid-2000s FPS game then go ahead. Don’t come into this thinking it’s like the newer Doom reboots. This game was a specific era of id Software at its lowest point (Quake 4, Rage)

inFamous 2 – 11 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/05/2022
Posted in: PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sucker Punch

Release Date: 06/07/2011


Available Exclusively On

inFamous 2 is the perfect example of improving upon every aspect of a prequel, but not adding anything new to evolve the series. It seems Sucker Punch focused so much on what seems to be what they wanted the first game to really be – given more time – and yeah. It really feels like what the first game should have been. The improvements are noticeable right off the bat when you take control of Cole. The camera is closer to him and it bobs and shakes and the visuals are greatly improved. This is one of the best-looking PS3 games to date, but more so on a technical scale – more on that later. Thanks to motion capture and a better actor for Cole the story and characters have greatly improved. He’s actually quite likable and the cast is pretty entertaining to see on screen thanks to the frequent cut scenes.

The writing is also better I actually got a few chuckles out of me and the subtle inflections in the voice acting all add character and weight to the story which is also better. It picks up right where the first game let off, in fact, you’re leaving Empire City while you watch its destruction. The Beast hinted at in the first game is the main goal here and it adds a sense of urgency and dread to the whole story. Your main goal is to find more blast cores to give Cole more power to detonate an RFI to save New Marais from the plague seen in the first game. The Beast is destroying all human life as he moves down the Eastern Seaboard, but why he is would be a spoiler. It takes forever, but the game does have a satisfying ending and concludes the series as a whole. However, the whole morality thing just isn’t nailed down still. It’s still very binary and you now have two female characters – Nix and Kuo – who try to sway you in either direction, but this attempt at organic morality shifting like in Mass Effect just doesn’t work. It’s basically the angel and devil on either shoulder and in the end, your choices don’t matter outside of specific cut scenes and missions you might see or play. The ending choice determines the ending and even if you played as good through the whole game you could choose the evil ending which is really disappointing and weird.

Outside of the much-improved characters and story, the overall game loop is identical. You run around completing the same type of side quests life before and gain back territory from three different factions. This became just as monotonous and tiring as the first game did despite slightly less annoying mission types. However, Cole’s ability tree is completely meaningless in this game as you need to unlock powers before you can buy them. Even if you have the option to buy them it’s grayed out and you always have enough XP to buy these abilities as most of the passive ones are just acquired through the story. So, one back step is the ability tree for sure. It just feels pointless to have an XP system.

Combat is improved mostly with melee. You know get a stick to beat enemies up with and there are cinematic finishing moves to go along with it. You will do a lot of melee combat in this game when someone is up close, but your other abilities are also improved and some are added. Cole’s overall combat feels improved with better animations and effects. Various new abilities include a missile, triple grenade, pulse blast with gravity negation, and also ice abilities which tie into the story, but I felt these were pretty useless. I guess there are only so many lightning abilities you can have without delving into other types. If you venture into the evil path you get a different ability type which is maybe some weird evil mist type power? It’s hard to say what it is exactly as it’s not an element. I mostly stuck to Cole’s abilities and eventually found a loud out I preferred and stuck to it.

Parkour hasn’t changed much with Cole magnetizing to ledges a little too much still and New Marais is still a pain to get around. There are two light rails you can speed around, but they aren’t connected which makes no sense, and the other two areas don’t have any means of traveling quickly and there is still no fast travel. New Marais as a whole is just as lifeless as Empire City with nothing to do in it still. In fact, it’s exactly the same. Just more pedestrian and animations added and that’s it. It’s still a colorless, lifeless, drab, and gray open world for an excuse to do side quests, dead drops, and find blast shards. It feels better designed for this type of game, but overall it’s not much better.

With that said, the game improves upon many things like story, characters, animations, graphics, combat, and better quest design, but it still feels like the first game in the end. There isn’t anything really new here outside of some new enemies and mini-boss encounters. New Marais itself is a lifeless dull city with the same exact things to do as in the first game. I did enjoy this game more, but after a few hours in the honeymoon phase wheres off and you realize you’re playing the same game.

inFamous – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/02/2022
Posted in: PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Sucker Punch

Release Date: 05/26/2009


Available Exclusively On

I passed on inFamous back when it came out for many reasons. Open-world games were being pushed hard in the late 2000s and none of them were unique or interesting to explore. It was an excuse to add filler, and repetitive missions, and most of them just felt lifeless and empty. inFamous is no exception, but it’s not a bad game. Very few games could capture a fun open-world like Grand Theft Auto or Assassin’s Creed, but at least Sucker Punch tried. The protagonist is a typical bald generic white male character with no personality. Cole McGrath is not a likable character in this game and he and all others are entirely forgettable. Cookie-cutter dialog to just barely get the story across. There’s no actual personality put into any of the characters. The voice acting isn’t bad, just not personable. The game focuses on a good vs evil aspect as this is supposed to be an original superhero game, but it’s binary. There’s nothing organic about it and it feels completely forced. Save the citizens by healing them or leaving them be, help a citizen fight off attackers or steal their shards and let them die. It’s a contrived concept that was done to death at the time and the game doesn’t have the depth of let’s say Mass Effect to allow a natural progression of good or evil.

Poorly implemented morality system aside, the game does do action and combat well. Your main power is a lightning bolt that you can shoot like a machine gun at enemies. This plays out like a third-person shooter and feels pretty good. Over time Cole gains more powers via underground generators that end up becoming pretty repetitive missions. You are in a dark sewer with various platforms and it’s just a training ground for using the new ability you acquired. Various abilities include a missile, shield, ground pound, force blast, sniper blast, and a few others. They are quite useful and feel good to use too. You do have an energy meter that requires recharging via anything that stores electricity. Walk up to a car, lamp post, electrical box, AC unit, etc. and you can absorb its power. Each item has different amounts of stored energy, but this will also heal you.

Enemies come in the forms of more genericness. Boring dudes wearing gas masks, trash bags, or red jackets all using machine guns or rocket launchers. There’s an occasional heavy enemy that’s a bit more unique, but there are three factions in the game – one on each island – and there are just variations of the same type. What gets frustrating about the combat is some times there are just too many enemies thrown at you. This can become especially annoying during missions in which you have to protect something and said object gets damaged super fast. You have to really be accurate with your aim, make sure an energy source is nearby, and utilize more area of effect powers first. Later on, you get a massive lightning storm ability that can be controlled with the Six-Axis motion and that’s useful for massive groups or vehicles. So, there isn’t too much strategy needed, but just in making sure you don’t die by prioritizing large groups first.

There really aren’t any boss fights in the game outside of maybe three including the end boss. There are about 40 main missions and most are rotated mission types. Protect this object, destroy this group of enemies, escort this person, destroy these vehicles, climb this large structure, etc. Side missions make up the bulk of the game and reward you XP for leveling up your powers, but it’s the same recycled stuff and there are so damn many of them. My God, there are at least 30 on each island. These are all the same 8-10 types of missions similar to main missions recycled ad nauseum. You’re either protecting something, killing something, or escorting something and it’s fine at first, but if you want to unlock Trophies this will test your resolve. I did end up finishing all side quests and most of the dead drops.

You can upgrade your energy meter by adding blips by finding blast shards, but these are spread out randomly and there’s no way to track them. Dead drops are tracked via pinging on your radar and aren’t too hard to find, but this leads me to the biggest quality of life issues. There’s no fast travel. Running around in this boring and lifeless world is bad enough, but it can take five or more minutes to get from one island to the next. You can ride power lines, but they are broken up and don’t all connect around the islands. This means running around on foot, but when I say lifeless I mean it. Pedestrians just wander around doing nothing and are just animations filling the world. Cars just drive in straight lines and don’t react to you. They just stop on a dime if you walk past them. The world is gray and brown and dull to look at despite how decent the visuals are on a technical level. There are no buildings to enter, no shops, and nothing that can be destroyed. It’s a very static world.

With that said, inFamous is only worth playing if you feel you need to start the series or want an older open-world game to play. The controls are great, and the gameplay itself is solid, but many quality of life improvements would have been nice and a more fun world to be in. The story feels too binary and in itself isn’t anything interesting or memorable. The characters are lifeless and generic and the quests get repetitive and annoyingly hard quickly. That doesn’t mean the game is bad, but just needs lots of improvements in the sequel. Cole’s powers are fun to use and the parkour and overall combat gameplay work well. There are too many side quests, it’s hard to find blast shards, and I did run into come crashes and glitches here and there.

Assassin’s Creed II – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/23/2022
Posted in: Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One. Leave a comment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal/Virtuos

Release Date: 2/17/2022


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Assassin’s Creed II is by far one of the biggest sequels in video game history. When it came out everyone was blown away by the scope and ambition put into this game. It made the first game feel like a concept demo. It felt like just the core of the first game was present and so much was built on top of that game. The world was five times as big, there were new mission types, cinematic story missions, and tons of overall additions and improvements, however, the game did suffer on its own for various reasons.

This game starts the epic saga of Ezio Auditore De Firenze. One of the most iconic video game characters of all time. It was a surprise that Ubisoft scrapped Altair and his story so quickly, but we are greeted with 15th century Italy and various historical characters that appeared during that time such as Catarina Sforza, and Leonardo Di Vinci, and Machiavelli. The story itself is fairly easy to follow and has a few twists, but most of all have a really surprising ending. Ezio works his way up as an assassin knocking down templars to retrieve the Apple of Eden and keep it from the templar’s hands. The main villain, Rodrigo Borgia, is a nasty snake and overall all the characters are well written and I wound up really liking most of them.

First off, the overall way you maneuver has been improved slightly, but more things have been added. While you can swan dive into haystacks and climb ladders, the entire game has been built with parkour free-running in mind. You can climb every building and stay off the streets by staying on the rooftops. Overall, the system was impressive back in the day, but it has a lot of quality of life issues. The overall parkouring feels too sticky. Ezio will jump around like a rabbit sometimes so fine-tuning your turns is difficult to forget any type of mid-jump changes. Once you get close to a wall or object Ezio will climb and quick button presses just aren’t responsive. I would start climbing a wall and then try to tap the descent button, but instead, he would just fall to the ground. Other instances had guards chasing me while I was trying to round a corner and Ezio would cling to the wall and get stuck or jump onto the wall or object nearby instead. This can get incredibly frustrating as the system just doesn’t allow fine tuning or sudden changes.

That’s not to say the parkour system is bad. When you have a good line of sight it works well or you just want to climb broadly over a building. There were other instances in which precise jumping became a chore during Assassins Tomb missions. There is a fast walk button and holding down the run button together allows Ezio to scale things quickly. If you are holding that run button after each jump Ezio will just go in that direction whether there’s something to grab on to or not. For small jumps across beams, I had to let go of the run button after each jump to re-align myself for the next jump. Quickly parkouring around just isn’t possible due to this finicky system.

Some other frustrations stem from combat. Firstly, the system is mostly the same as the first game as it can be easy due to the whole system being a parry-fest. You can whack away at enemies, but instead, just hold the block button and parry when enemies strike and it’s a one-hit-kill city. Once I acquired my wrist blades I didn’t even use my sword anymore and never once used my secondary dagger weapons. This is a flaw in the combat itself and needs serious overhauling. It makes open combat boring and sometimes too easy. What is challenging, and annoying, is trying to lose guards and become anonymous. Sure you can blend into crowds, benches, and haystacks, and you can now hire prostitutes or mercenaries to distract guards and get them off your tail, but the combat plus finicky parkour system makes losing guards incredibly frustrating. You have to lose their line of sight by rounding corners or jumping off buildings and if you can get far enough away it will create a search radius. You can hide in that radius or continue escaping. There is an anonymity meter and once it’s solid red every guard will recognize you and it’s a frustrating mess of finding a town crier to bribe and take 50% of the meter away.

With those two major things out of the way that leaves content itself. The sad thing about all this new content is that it’s meaningless in the end. There are no rewards for any of it except for achievements or completion’s sake. There are 73 viewpoints to find which are actually fun as most of these are climbing puzzles on their own. Now it does still feel like overkill as each viewpoint only reveals the surrounding buildings and not much else. I felt there were just too many. There are races, assassin contracts, courier missions, and fights. These are boring and pointless and just there to add in filler. You can really tell this is where the Ubisoft plague of too much crap to do in a game starts. The only rewarding side content is The Truth puzzles. There are 20 hidden glyphs throughout the game and finding them will grant you puzzles to solve. These get increasingly hard, absurdly hard in fact, in which the clues become obtuse and impossible to decipher. However, what’s revealed is a cool video.

The story missions themselves are mostly varied with various tasks such as assassinations, tailing, fights, horseback riding, and the occasional scripted mission. I really liked the story and characters enough to stick around and wound up completing all viewpoints, The Truth puzzles, and finding all the codex pages which max out your health. I do need to mention the various gadgets you get which are mostly useless. Poison darts can make enemies go berserk and attack each other, but you also have smoke bombs, throwing knives, a pistol, and that’s about it. I mostly used the throwing knives to take out rooftop guards and smoke bombs were great to get away from large groups of enemies to become anonymous. In fact, they’re required to reduce frustration.

The visual upgrade for The Ezio Collection is minimal. There aren’t any actual improvements outside of some draw distance gain, anti-aliasing, and texture filtering. The lighting is slightly improved as well, but not by much. The game runs incredibly well through with no slowdown, but I did run into a few crashes and glitches. I wish we got a full remaster or remake, but what’s here is fine. It’s crazy how well this plays so many years later and just shows how far ahead the game was at the time. There are a lot of quality-of-life improvements that need to be done and most of the core mechanics have frustrations you will need to forgive or workaround, but the story and characters are worth sticking around for. There is also a lot of bloated side content that has no meaning or rewards including fully upgrading your villa which literally just generates more income and isn’t used for anything besides dying armor, buying weapons, and armor itself. The assassin and templar tombs are a lot of fun as well.

Resistance 2 – 14 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/23/2022
Posted in: PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Insomniac Games

Release Date: 11/04/2008


Available Exclusively On

Fall of Man was a hot mess and it showed. It was a frustrating clunky, one-foot-stuck-in-the-last-generation game that just didn’t show off what the PS3 could really do. It almost seemed like it was being developed on PS2 and got ported over later on. Resistance 2 fixes nearly all the issues with Fall of Man, but because there were so many problems Resistance 2 didn’t get a chance to really shine. It also holds on to some of its predecessor’s problems.

First and foremost, Resistance 2 looks miles better than Fall of Man. Even years later the game looks great. With highly detailed textures, the scale of the game has increased tenfold. No longer are there boring JPG mountains in the background. We get full-on battles and giant building-sized ships in the sky, giant aliens roaming the city, and more enemies on screen. The weapons look better and have moving parts, the characters look better, the Chimera has more detail, and overall the game looks like a next-gen game should. It’s part of the upper echelon of PS3 games graphics-wise. However, that’s about the peak here. The story still doesn’t explore the Chimera enough, their planet, or their origins. Nathan Hale has been updated with a voice and infected by the Chimera, but it doesn’t make him more interesting. He’s still a typical white bald dude from the 2010s. The secondary characters are dumb and their origins aren’t explored. Again, there’s no reason to care for anyone here.

With the story being a toss-away the gameplay has improved to an extent. There are more weapons and this time around you only get to hold two at a time instead of all of them. This makes you strategize your needs based on the current situation. Some of the original weapons return such as the Carbine, Bullseye I and II, Fareye, Auger, and the Rossmere. However, the Auger has been improved by letting you actually see the enemies through walls this time. There are some new interesting weapons like the Marksman with a secondary fire that shoots a plasma ball, and the Magnum which has explosive rounds. The weapon arsenal is better than ever and the aiming has improved as well. The weapons have weight and the Chimera aren’t bullet sponges. They actually have animations to show they’ve been hit and you can interrupt their shots.

There are boss fights this time around which are pretty cool and cinematic. Your environment is the United States this time around and you jump from various cities such as Chicago, Louisiana, and San Francisco just to name a few. The varied locales are a nice change of pace from the previous game, but the game changed its boring color palette from gray to brown. Everything in this game is brown with a very little color. At least we get new enemies to change things up like big Titans, these guys rush you and have shields, there are Chameleons which will one-hit kill you unless you shoot them down (one-shot kills them), and Mauraders which are giant four-legged creatures that show up a couple of times in the game. The largest problem from the last game returns and that’s the insane difficulty. This game is so poorly balanced. It starts out easy and nice and then about halfway through you’re restarting areas over a dozen times because there isn’t enough ammo in the area, you don’t have the right weapons, or the cover is poorly paced, or there are just too many in the area for you to take on. You die in just a couple of hits, but the health meter was axed for regenerating health, and the “red screen”.

The last few levels of the game were insanely hard and unfair. The game is only about 6 hours long, but it took me over a week to finish it because of the constant deaths. The campaign isn’t worth playing again and the multiplayer servers are shut down, but I do remember playing a demo of the multiplayer back in the day and it wasn’t anything special. Resistance has never been a fun multiplayer game, but the co-op campaign might make it more enjoyable and less difficult. While I praise the game for fixing many of the problems from the least one it introduces new ones and retains a few major problems.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/19/2022
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 3, Sony Consoles, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Developer: GRIN

Release Date: 03/23/2009


Also Available On

Most video games based on movies are notoriously terrible and thankfully the trend has mostly ended. With game development costs through the rough, it’s not feasible or profitable to pump out a game in 6 months based on the next big movie. Weapons of Fate is the rare video game-only sequel to a movie because the movie bombed. The story seems interesting at first. The voice acting is great and many of the original cast from the movie return, but the game is over so quick the story doesn’t get time to unfold. It plays out like a typical Hollywood action movie. Lots of cool and interesting words like “The Immortal” and “The Fate of the Loom” but it means nothing in the end. It seems almost like an Assassin’s Creed-type storyline where you play as a child of an assassin and are trying to find the killer of your mother. There are legendary real-world assassins who are buried in special tombs and so on.

It’s just an action sequence and repetitive shooting sequence to the next cut-scene. These are abrupt and frequent, but it’s still not enough to shell out the lore that this type of storyline needs. There’s no backstory to any character. You just get introduced by a few lines and that’s it. Why do I want to kill these people? Who do I care about my two characters? Who cares about any of this? The game at least tries to give you interesting abilities, decent gunplay, and some scripted moments. There are even a few boss fights thrown in for good measure. The game plays like any third-person shooter. You run around the incredibly linear and cramped levels and can take cover behind things and pop out and shoot. This seems standard enough, but I have to give GRIN compliments for good hit feedback when you shoot enemies and they aren’t bullet sponges.

You slowly unlock a couple of abilities. There are adrenaline shots you use for bullet bending and slow-mo dodging between covers. Honestly, the bullet bending is a really neat gameplay idea. You can pull up a line that you move around that locks onto enemies. When it’s white the bullet will get them around the cover and corners. The downside is they can’t be moving, but if you hit them you recover that adrenaline shot back. You can chain these together easily, but it kind of falls apart towards the end of the game. Tougher enemies get introduced and can dodge your bullets. Bullet bending no longer becomes a one-shot that kills most enemies. Usually, they stagger out of cover and you have to continue the kill. You still get the shot back, but it can get quite annoying because all of these enemies do become bullet sponges in the end or require melee attacks.

Bullet dodging only became useful during a couple of boss fights and that’s it. Each level is filled with cover and enemies use it too. There are moments where you get to use a sniper rifle, mounted machine gun, and cinematic bullet doge sequences in which the game slows down between animations and you have to kill whoever is blocking your way. They’re fun and shake things up a bit, but the repetitive level design and the constant barrage of killing enemies behind cover get tiresome towards the end and the bullet bending loses its charm fast despite how cool it is. There are rare occasions where a shielded enemy will confront you and you can suppress them and sneak around the sides and flank them. This was in the main tutorial like it was a constant thing. I ran across less than five of these guys through the whole game.

That’s all there is to the game. You just run around shooting, bullet bending, and killing each wave as you push through the levels. Each chapter has an end boss that isn’t all that tough, but they’re there. You can eventually acquire your dad’s sub-machine pistols towards the end of the game and his suit. You go back and forth between the past and current times. The game is over in less than 4 hours and you’re left with 4 hours you won’t get back. There’s literally no reason to play this game at all unless you’re super bored and want a decent afternoon with an HD-era shooter.