I've never really payed much attention to games that go to Kickstarter in order to fund their products, but perhaps I should start. Darkest Dungeon is aiming to be the next great indie RPG, and they've already surpassed their fundraising goal, so they are well on their way.
This isn't your typical RPG, where all of the heroes are infallible pillars of light that dive head first into whatever danger they encounter. You have to look after your party's mental well-being as well as keeping tabs on their physical health. Every action has an equal reaction, and it will effect how you go about playing the game... they call this the "Affliction System". Each dungeon will push the characters to their limit, and there's no telling what they'll do...
I think the people at Red Hook are really on to something here, I can't recall an RPG where it truly takes into account the kind of stress that these heroes are under as they partake in this adventure. It's a dark, less glamorous look than the typical RPG, but I think that will garner an audience of its own. For more details on the game itself, you can visit the game website. Crowdsourcing for the win!
In a world that is bogged down by sequels, reboots, and remakes, it's nice to see an original story surface that looks worthy of checking out. Murdered: Soul Suspect is riding that line right now. While the premise of a cop killed in action searching for his killer in the afterlife has the potential for success, I have some questions: If that witness is the only one who can see him, how could he possible apprehend a killer? Is that girl supposed to be his liaison from the dead?
And that makes me want to play to find out, not the other way around. Square Enix has a reputation of either making the best or the strangest story you'll play until the next title they release. But if features include "using your ghostly powers to solve cases" and "combat against demonic creatures", count me in. Mostly because I want to see how in the world that's going to work.
Murdered: Soul Suspect Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3, PC Release: June 2014 Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Airtight Games
What Makes a Good Man: Wei Shen and the undercover cop drama
Launch Trailer
"That was very exciting... I like exciting."
Sleeping Dogs from Square Enix is the first game on the bucket to be crossed off. Despite selling more than 1.5 million copies and the announcement that the game had reached profitability, a feat that seems to be a bigger deal with original story titles these days, it feels as if this revival of True Crime: Hong Kong has flown mostly under the radar. However, these numbers were well short of Square's somewhat lofty expectations of moving 2 - 2.5 million copies.
Before I say anything else - I really enjoyed Sleeping Dogs. It was exactly as that quote above states: exciting. There was no shortage of brutal beat downs, simple gunplay, and high speed firefights. The launch trailer (above) actually paints a solid picture of the action and internal struggle you would be encountering as undercover cop Wei Shen.
Story Trailer
You're a very dangerous man, Wei Shen
Upon arriving back in Hong Kong from an extended stay in the United States, Wei Shen gets an opportunity to become muscle for the city's most notorious Triad, the Sun On Yee. But in this case, you aren't some random nobody that appears at their doorstep looking for thug work. Wei Shen has roots in Hong Kong and the Sun On Yee, and they run deep. He grew up with a current member who ends up being his initial in with the bad guys. His sister got mixed up with some of the same gangsters, ultimately leading to her drug abuse and demise. Wei has some serious stakes in this fight, and those motivations both push and haunt him at the same time.
Wei moves his way up the Sun On Yee very quickly without much resistance. There were a couple of tense moments in the first quarter of the game when he was being vetted, but it was too early in the story to worry about the protagonist being killed. The story up until the last couple missions felt predictable, a lot of time you could see the disaster that you were being set up for during some of the bigger story missions.
That said, the ending of Sleeping Dogs had a couple of very good surprise twists that saved the story and made the ending more enjoyable. Sometimes I will discuss spoilers in these posts, but the turn the ending took had me in enough shock that it's something I don't want to ruin for anyone looking to reach back into the 360 vault for a solid original story.
Sleeping Dogs 101 Trailer
Sleeping Dogs included a crisp combat system, shooting mechanics that weren't too difficult to master, and a massive open world littered with collectables. Hand to hand combat was easily the most enjoyable part of the gameplay, and the story missions allowed you to pick up statues that you could exchange at a dojo for new moves. By the end of the game, you could cut through crowds of ten-plus enemies like butter.
Enemies would become more diverse as the game progressed, turning hand to hand combat into a game of chess. Certain moves won't effect certain bad guys, which sometimes results in having to wait for a counter opportunity. Thankfully attacks come fast and often, so there's never much downtime during combat. It adds an element of timing and finesse to the fighting, which was very enjoyable. Not to mention the nasty environmental attacks. Try and get through this whole thing.
Driving is was where gameplay fell short in my experience. The cars were pretty basic apart from pure speed (pretty fast and really fast) and it was a chore getting from one end of Hong Kong to another no matter what you were in. The act of driving itself was a constant experiment in just how much brake is needed to take a corner smoothly. I swear it was never the same one time.
Another gameplay aspect of Sleeping Dogs was a penalty to your "Police" (good guy) score if your reckless driving caused property damage or death. This was especially frustrating when missions called for you to chase a triad fleeing at high speed, yet property damage hurt your score. L.A. Noire used a similar system, as reckless driving would hurt your overall case score. Plus I find no motivation to drive legally when I was literally on my way to break bones. 10 points for that old guy.
Final Thoughts
Year of the Snake DLC Trailer
I'm very glad I took the time to play Sleeping Dogs. It was an enjoyable story-driven experience, but I would not recommend it for everyone. If you enjoy an above average mix of combat and story, can appreciate the use of a foreign language in a game, and want to scratch your completionist itch, then this game is for you. If you want to run and gun and kick and punch without really knowing what you're throwing yourself into, then there are plenty of other games for you out there.
If you want a good laugh, the voice of Jack Black's "father" in the Kung Fu Panda movies (among many more roles) is the voice of the most feared gangster in Hong Kong: the head of the Sun On Yee. It's a little hard to take him seriously when it's the same voice as an animated noodle making duck.
James Hong >> Mr. Ping (Kung Fu Panda) >> Uncle Po (Sleeping Dogs)
Man, I want some Ramen now.
Sleeping Dogs Publisher: Square Enix London Studios/United Front Games Developer: Square Enix, Namco Bandai
Microsoft may have a claim here, they do have a long list of impressive looking titles slated to come out for the Xbox One. Hell, some of them aren't even in this little sizzle. But here's the thing: most of them won't be here for a while. While we're inching closer to the drop of Titanfall (March 11), most of the games that will truly want to get my hands on an Xbone still say TBA 2014 under their release date. So this means that I definitely want to get this new console, but it doesn't seem to make sense to get it just yet.
So then I look at old faithful, my Xbox 360 (the same I've had since 2008, with only one red ring in its life) and I decide to squeeze every ounce of life I can out of it. I've decided to put together a bucket list for my 360: all of the games that I should have played by now that I haven't. This will be a year-long endeavor, with posts galore as I try to navigate through this list of games I've yet to experience.
The list, as it currently stands, in no particular order:
Games currently owned but not played/finished are bolded. Bioshock (plus 2, Infinite) Assassin’s Creed (Revelations, III, Black Flag) The Walking Dead (Eps 2-5 + 400 Days) DMC HD Collection/DMC: Devil May Cry Metal Gear HD Collection Lego: Marvel Super Heroes Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction Batman: Arkham Origins GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City Saints Row (the Third, IV) Fallout: New Vegas HitmanCrysis(2, 3) Metro: Last Light Tomb Raider Kingdoms of Amalur Dark Souls Spec Ops: The Line Sleeping Dogs Epic Mickey: The Power of Two Alan Wake Dues Ex: Human Revolution The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings So this is where you all come in! If you think I am missing something from this list, please add your two cents. If I haven't already played it, I'll consider adding it. The same goes for if you've played one of these games and don't think they are worth my time. This is a doozy of a list, and the endgame is to have a collection of the most quality titles the system had to offer.
Here you have my gaming challenge of 2014. There are worse things.
After getting the opportunity to look over all of the trailers that made their "World Premier" at the VGX Awards, there were three games that seemed to stand above the rest. No matter what you thought of the show itself, you can't hate on having a feast of new trailers to see what the future of gaming looks like.
Best Celebrity Appearance: Broken Age
I love seeing actors taking the leap into the video game world, and Elijah Wood may be my favorite voice for a game yet. Broken Age feels a little creepy; you're stuck inside this smart house that is hellbent on keeping you safe, but safe is boring. Elijah expresses that quiet desire to go out and help others in the universe, growing from a slight frustration to gaining a rebellious passion of his own. He even talks about how cool it is to be in a video game. This is the beginning of a movement, people.
Broken Age
PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Ouya
Release: Jan 2014 (part I)
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Most Consistent: Titanfall (Ogre and Styder Trailers)
Titanfall simply refuses to look boring. All of these mechs are vastly unique with their own obvious strengths and weaknesses, but they all do have one thing in common: they look incredibly fun to control. Ever since its reveal for the Xbox One, Titanfall has poised itself as the first great hit for the new system, we can only hope that the gameplay will translate as well as it looks in its previews!
Titanfall
Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC
Release: March 11, 2014
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Best in Show: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
RPG junkies rejoice, our favorite mutant is back and looking better than ever on the next generation graphic engines. The Wild Hunt is going to be a huge, sprawling open world with plenty of opportunity to explore, and (more importantly) fight. These new bad guys look like the tough to kill type, which means we might see some pretty ridiculous new powers for Geralt in his last chapter. We can only hope that little force push ground strike he did must only be the tip of the ice burg.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Xbox One, PS4, PC
Release: TBA 2014
Publisher: CD Projekt Red
Developer: CD Projekt Red
What did you think of the trailers at the VGX? Leave your opinions below!
Over the weekend Spike TV hosted their annual video game awards, otherwise known as the super cutting-edge VGX Awards. If you followed the twitter discussion while the awards were happening, you were met with the typical acid-spitting sarcasm that most pundits in the industry seem to spew about pretty much everything involving their industry. No surprises there.
Despite the negative energy surrounding the event itself, the VGX provided us with plenty of great trailers for both next and current-gen consoles (past and current-gen? How are we saying this now?). Out of all of the reveals throughout the night, Telltale Games came out looking strong. They premiered two new projects slated to release next year with Tales from the Borderlands and a Game of Thrones series.
Game of Thrones
While the Game of Thrones reveal is nothing more than, well.. a reveal, I really enjoy the risk that Telltale is taking with this project. Jumping into a world as large and popular as the GoT universe will be their biggest test yet; do it wrong and people will go at them with everything they have ala Bioware with Mass Effect 3. But do it right, and I can see another game of the year contender here, especially if the large battle sequences are executed well. There's lots of promise, especially from a developer that has shown it knows what it's doing.
Tales From the Borderlands looks like it could be lots of fun as well, though it will be interesting to see how Telltale takes the open world "shoot first, shoot again, now keep shooting" style of Borderlands and turns it into the point and click story driven style that we are used to. But having Gearbox (and HBO in GoT's situation) should help bring authenticity to what is trying to be done here. Maybe this kind of collaboration is a sign of things to come? We can only wait to see.
Keep an eye out for a VGX Trailer Best in Show post on Sunday!
Saints Row IV has the distinct pleasure of being a really freaking weird game. There's nothing normal about the President of the United States single handedly saving the nation with the use of his super powers. But that's the charm of SR4, you don't need to be tied to reality to enjoy how much havoc you're wrecking on the bad guys.
Enter Elements of Destruction, a downloadable add on for $2.99 that gives your character all kinds of ridiculous new powers. I would try and describe them all for you, but I definitely think the trailer does them justice. The decision to show the action in the actual game (because why the heck wouldn't you do that) sells the moves for themselves.
Saints Row IV - Elements of Destruction DLC PC, PS3, Xbox 360 Release: Out Now! Publisher: Deep Silver Developer: Volition, Inc.
