Double Fine's Brutal Legend is an unabashed love letter to an era and genre of music that celebrated fast guitar riffs and hard living. It's also a tribute to an epic lore that spoke of conquerors and death--all of which were often depicted at once on any given metal album cover with the obligatory smattering of lightning. Of course, the fact that Brutal Legend features a phenomenal soundtrack from the likes of Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and Judas Priest with suitable hack-and-slash action would feasibly constitute a reasonable tribute on its own terms. Yet, what raises Brutal Legend above that simple construct--plus what makes it a great ode to metal--is how it cleverly integrates so many different facets of the culture and its music to create an experience that consistently entertains and surprises in both single-player and multiplayer.
But it should come as no surprise to those familiar with Double Fine's previous work with Psychonauts that Brutal Legend's characters and its story are the primary highlights. Eddie Riggs, a roadie who remembers and worships the glory days of metal, serves as a perfect lead character who's magically transported to a world that ostensibly reflects his own image of heaven. This world is a vast place where enormous, crumbling statues and smaller, skull-encrusted shrines pay homage to the gods and titans that brought metal and its music to the land. Naturally, there's a heavy dose of irony involved in this setup, which gives Jack Black (who voices Riggs) plenty of room to do his funny--albeit expected--trademark sarcasm-laden, observational routine. But his act rarely gets old or overwhelming because Riggs, as a character, often humbles himself in an endearing way despite finding himself in a position of leadership. He never loses sight of his roots as a roadie, and as such, he is there to help people who have fallen under the oppressive boot of the demonic Emperor Doviculus and his human warlord General Lionwhyte (voiced by Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford), who also happens to symbolize a not-so-subtle jab at hair metal.
Bigger doesn't mean better. Developer Ubisoft Montreal disregarded this mantra when creating James Cameron's Avatar, delivering a mediocre game loaded with unnecessary padding, rather than a tight and enjoyable package that could have gotten players excited about the upcoming film of the same name. In fact, if you're eagerly anticipating the upcoming Avatar movie, it's probably best that you avoid this bland and overlong third-person shooter altogether, because there's nothing fantastical or compelling about its story or characters. That isn't to say that Avatar is all bad. A branching story featuring two disparate factions makes this a two-games-in-one experience, so if you like wringing the last drop out of your $60, the single-player campaign might keep you busy for 15 hours or so. Unfortunately, while a few of those hours are entertaining, Avatar's action is too bland and tedious to justify the game's length, and a variety of bugs and bizarre design elements put a further damper on the fun.
Avatar takes place on the planet Pandora, which the human-controlled Resources Development Administration (RDA) is stripping of its resources--much to the dismay of Pandora's indigenous population, the blue-skinned Na'vi. Meanwhile, the RDA has established a way of transferring a human's consciousness into an artificially created human/Na'vi hybrid called an avatar. You play as Ryder, an RDA operative who soon finds himself (or herself, if you choose a female persona) in over his head as he discovers the consequences of the RDA's destructive presence on Pandora. About an hour into the campaign, you'll be faced with a choice: side with the RDA, or live as an avatar and take your chances with the Na'vi. Yet no matter which path you meander down, you'll meet a series of unmemorable characters, played by unexceptional voice actors who deliver their poorly written lines without a trace of enthusiasm or urgency.
The characters are a mash of originals that appear next to fan favorites from the Atelier and Disgaea worlds, thrown together in such a way that they retain their own motivations but still come together under a common goal. Alchemist Violet just wants to synthesize new items, fallen angel Flonne will deliver justice and love to the universe even if she has to beat it into submission, and Etna endlessly seeks the most perfect dessert in existence. They all find reasons to fall in with the main heroes, who are dedicated to protecting the drifting land of Empyria from the threat of a mess of weird items falling from space. Demon dog Kanata was fated to transform into the Demon God Gem and save the world, but he has skipped out on the original plan and instead wants to beat back the descending objects as they come, while enjoying a variety of delicious snacks. The valkyrie Rizelia comes stomping in and swiftly attempts to impose order by trying to force Kanata to accept his fate while researching the cause behind televisions, convenience stores, and ominous pieces of sushi threatening the safety of space.
Each drifting item is lousy with monsters that you need to defeat. The main battle currency is action points, and each character has a variable number that depends on his or her gear level. There are three basic attack types: rush, mighty blow, and magical. You can string these attacks together in whatever order you like so long as you have AP to spend, and the members of your party have their own specific combinations that result in special attacks. You can chain your turns together so that the individual attacks all count as one total, and if you meet special conditions, you can trigger special combos between characters as well as a mighty EX attack. The numerous options are inadequately explained when they're introduced, and you can take full advantage of them only when you have a ton of AP that you either hoard between turns to build up or innately possess from gear. This means that in the early going you do a lot of slogging around in battle, performing the same miniscule attack combinations or wasting turns to eventually unleash something a bit more powerful. Once your gear and levels catch up, battles become a whole lot more satisfying and varied.
The tagline for the Transformers cartoon boldly claimed that there is more to these robot beings than meets the eyes. Unfortunately, the latest game in which these ever-changing aliens star offers much less than its shiny exterior promises. This flashy third-person shooter draws heavily on the notable license on which it's based, seamlessly bringing the characters and world into the digital realm. But beneath that nostalgia-rich shell hides a draining shooter in which fighting off waves of monotony is a greater challenge than defeating the relentless horde of robot soldiers. The transformative abilities that should separate this from other shooters are poorly represented, resulting in a by-rote, gun-spraying adventure in which it's difficult to remember where you are or what your objective is, because everything blends together. The cooperative and competitive modes do offer more memorable encounters than the drab campaign, but it's impossible to shake the feeling that this would be another quickly forgotten shooter if you were controlling a random assortment of robot warriors instead of Optimus Prime and his crew of do-gooders.
The story in Transformers: War for Cybertron is little more than one megalomaniac robot's dream for ultimate power and the shining heroes' attempt to stop his evil ways. It's not particularly entertaining, but there are a number of clever touches that do a good job of bringing the source material to life. The campaign is broken up into two parts, one in which you control the decepticons, and the other where you man the autobots, and it's interesting to spend time with the morally opposed factions and see the differences in their demeanor and the manner in which they treat each other. For example, Megatron is a surly, eyes-on-the-prize leader who doesn't take guff from anyone and thinks joking is beneath him. But he is always being opposed by the upstart Starscream, who doesn't much care for taking orders and openly mocks his leader. On the good side, Optimus Prime continually dishes out "please" and "I'm sorry" like a guy desperately trying to make people like him. It's ultimately a lot more entertaining to hang around with the cantankerous bad guys, but no matter which side you're aligned with, you can count on authentically cheesy Transformers dialogue.
Some games feature emotional stories with complex subtext, well-wrought characters that make us care about their fates, or philosophical implications that give thoughtful players pause. Singularity is not one of those games. While it clearly looks to nuanced classics such as BioShock and Half-Life 2 as inspiration, this first-person shooter is all about blasting hideous mutants with shotguns and performing crazy time-manipulation powers. It isn't deep and it isn't pretty--it's just an absolute riot, filled with fun shoot-outs, a few clever puzzles, and an overall kookiness that fans of old-fashioned shooters can rally behind. Those powers may come across as gimmicks at first, but they add a dash of gusto to the shooting, keeping the action from ever feeling stale. Aging visuals and a smattering of glitches may make you wish Singularity had spent a little more time in the hopper, but there's rather little to stand between you and the game's strongest asset: diverse mechanics that keep the action constantly fresh.
You'll initially be struck by how similar Singularity is to other shooters. The audio recordings scattered about and the throwback film clips will remind you of BioShock. The ability to grab hold of objects and fling them about recalls Half-Life 2's gravity gun. And the shooting mechanics and art style are strikingly similar to developer Raven Software's own 2009 shooter, Wolfenstein. Yet as derivative as some of these elements may at first seem, Singularity develops a distinct attitude that sets it apart.
Last year, the deep and wild 2D fighting of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger made the game a favorite among those who like their characters crazy and their action complex. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift is more of a refinement of the original game than a full-fledged sequel. It introduces some great new modes that make the action more accessible to newcomers, and the new characters and balancing refinements ensure that this is the version of BlazBlue you should own.
As with Calamity Trigger, the greatest asset to Continuum Shift is its tremendously diverse roster of fighters. With 12 returning characters, two new ones available from the start, and a third who can be unlocked or purchased, BlazBlue doesn't have the largest stable of fighters to choose from. But what it lacks in number it more than makes up for in variety. Each fighter feels significantly different from the others, and they run the gamut from accessible characters with movesets that will feel quickly familiar to anyone who has spent time with fighting games, to characters with truly strange abilities that make them considerably more difficult to master. Among these are three new characters who fit right in. Tsubaki is a swordswoman with a shape-changing blade who has some effective combos that are easier to pull off than those of other characters, and whose special ability temporarily increases the power of her special moves. Hazama is a snappy dresser and one of the tougher characters to play effectively. He can unleash a snake-like tentacle called Ouroboros which lets him close the distance between himself and his opponents very quickly. Mu, the unlockable character, is an outlandishly armored fighter whose special ability is placing turrets that blast her opponents. If placed strategically, these can make for some very effective traps, and make her a force to be reckoned with in the hands of those who can use this tricky mechanic well.
Like the miles of mire that play backdrop to Perseus' quest to overthrow the rulers of Olympus, Clash of the Titans is a dull and haggard experience. A rich tapestry of myth is pushed aside to make room for repetitious bloodletting, laborious item collection, and overcomplicated and unrewarding weapon upgrades. The result is a game punished by its own unpruned ideas that quickly devolves into familiar but uninspired hack-and-slash gameplay. This is an uphill slog and another poor game that attempts to ride the leather loincloth coattails of its original source.
There's a lot of content in Clash of the Titans, but the 20 hours it takes to reach the conclusion of this derivative adventure are far too repetitive to hold your attention for very long. The game offers a mostly faithful adaptation of the movie plot and plonks you in the sandals of Perseus, Zeus's mortal son, who is caught in the centre of some nasty infighting between the gods. Baying for blood, you seek revenge for the murder of your adopted family by the lord of the underworld, Hades, who is intent on teaching humanity a lesson in submissiveness.
