But in the meantime, I've been looking back over some of the games that sit on my shelves which, for one reason or another, failed to reach the heights of popularity they deserved. And hey, this is a blog, so I'm gonna share those thoughts - and if that results in someone going out and buying one of these titles, all credit to me. :-)
Cursed Mountain (Wii)
Developer: Deep Silver Sienna
Genre: Survival Horror
Why It Didn't Sell: Well, it's the product of a fairly small developer, released with little fanfare due to scarce advertising and few trade-show appearances. It's part of a fairly niche genre (the only survival horror games to be truly successful in recent years are Dead Space and the last few Resident Evil titles) which isn't the sort of thing most people would choose to buy a Wii for. It got (admittedly deserved) flak in reviews for its samey combat and sluggish pace. And its main USPs involve its faithful presentation of Tibetan life and Buddhist mythological demons, which isn't quite as big a draw as Nazis or zombies or anime panty shots or whatever.
Why It Deserves Better: Survival horror is a very limited genre in terms of location and story. You're almost always in either a creepy mansion or a ruined city, and you're assaulted by creatures that are spawned either from mad science or your own mind. Cursed Mountain dares to be different from the get-go, setting everything on (surprise!) a mountain, and basing its enemies on genuine religious practices and folklore. Even if you've never had any interest in Buddhism or Sherpas before picking up the game (I didn't), it does such a good job of explaining the rules of its world that you can't help but be drawn in. Additionally, its atmosphere is second to none; the developers smartly reduce the music to simple tribal bells and instead bring the howling, deafening winds to the foreground, the sound of which is seriously chilling, and the abandoned Sherpa colonies and monasteries laid around the mountain's side feel like places where real people could live, and should live, making their solitude even more haunting. Then there's the genius behind a game set exclusively on a mountain; whether the developers honestly intended this or not, there's a real sense of satisfaction to be gained in the later stages by simply angling the camera downwards and seeing all the areas you've previously trudged through fading away behind you. Plus, the lead character's a Scotsman. Always gets bonus points in my book.
Should You Get It: It won't last you more than a fortnight, but, yes, you could do a lot worse. Especially since a brand-new copy can be as little as £8 nowadays.
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Star Fox Assault (Gamecube)
Developer: Namco
Genre: Space Shoot-em-up/third-person shooter
Why It Didn't Sell: The Gamecube was already a dead platform walking by the time of Assault's release, for one thing. Then there was the inevitable huffs from the Nintendo die-hards about a classic Nintendo franchise being farmed out to another company, which wouldn't have been so bad if this weren't the sort of game that should specifically target the fanboy market. Then the less-than-flattering reviews came in, with every critic in the land ignoring what worked in favour of what didn't, exhausting their full word count on the slightly dodgy new insectoid enemies and the iffy ground-based combat. Oh, and it had Prince Tricky in it. Nobody likes him.
Why It Deserves Better: The actual flight combat - y'know, the bits that you'd expect the fanboys to focus on? - that was actually very enjoyable, combining the same on-rails level design of the old Star Fox titles with free-roaming areas that were equally good fun. Although the handling when on-foot was floaty and odd, the Landmaster tank had a pleasing balance of heft and speed, not to mention big-ass guns. The graphics were sugary-bright and ran at full 60fps irrespective of how busy things got. And the music was bloody brilliant, filtering the classic Star Fox themes through a brassy orchestra that's pleasingly reminiscent of the triumphantly militaristic music found in most Mobile Suit Gundam series.
Should You Buy It: Erm...maybe. It's getting harder to find, and of course was a Gamecube-exclusive; on the other hand, you can play it on a Wii if you can find a spare GC controller or two. It's probably not worth the expense of shelling out for a pre-owned console by itself, mind.
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Death By Degrees (PS2)
Developer: Namco
Genre: Action-adventure
Why It Didn't Sell: Marketing the game primarily as a Tekken spin-off at a time when the series had lost much of the allure it had back in 1998 (and was actually less popular than it is now) maybe wasn't the best move. Equally, in a world where God of War and Ninja Boobies (sorry, Gaiden) were the go-to names for third-person action, Death by Degrees came off as a bloodless, sterile affair by comparison, which probably wasn't what the average 'more is more' gamer was after. Then the reviews came in, unnecessarily harsh again (IMO) - granted, the game had its fair share of flaws, but they largely failed to point out what it did right. Finally, and this may sound like I'm reaching, but...the public generally doesn't go for female action heroes over their male counterparts. Sure, every so often you get a Lara Croft or a Buffy Summers that somehow captures the imagination of the masses, but these hits are standing on the shoulders of a long line of misses; this past year alone saw Platinum Games' outlandish, frenetic, amazing Bayonetta flop whilst the vastly less imaginative (and less critically praised) Darksiders: Wrath of War somehow made its way into vastly more homes. There is honestly no sane reason that should've happened except that gamers were strangely unwilling to shell out for an action game where the lead character has a XX chromosome. The same can be said of TV, too - Buffy may have been successful, but what about Dark Angel, Birds of Prey or Dollhouse? They weren't any worse. Oh, and Salt was a better straight action flick than The Expendables. But apparently we'd all rather look at Sly Stallone's wrinkles as he morosely mumbles through an exchange with Jason Statham than watch Angelina Jolie scarper around barefoot whilst shooting at Liev 'Sabretooth' Schreiber.
Why It Deserves Better: Whilst every other attempt to create a spin-off from a fighting game over the years has basically turned into a Streets of Rage clone starring someone you might recognise from Mortal Kombat or whatever, DbD dared to be different, combining the expected brawling (handled with a right-stick-to-attack system similar to Jet Li's Rise to Honour which really isn't as hard to grasp as some people claim) with a 'find key X for lock Y' adventure game setup reminiscient of old-school Resident Evil, and then further sweetening the pie with Silent Scope-esque sniper moments, odd stealth sections where you fly what looks like a smoke alarm with a helicopter blade, and fiendishly addictive sliding-block puzzles. This doesn't make the game feel schizophrenic, but it adds pleasing variety. Additionally, the story - whilst obviously the product of a Japanese developer and therefore frequently batshit insane - is actually an enjoyable little yarn, with a clever variation on the typical 'baddies threaten world with LAZAR SATELLITE OF DOOM' schtick, characters with memorable designs and more depth than any number of faceless Halo Spartan retards, and one cheesy last-reel surprise revelation which is pure pulp and yet still caught me out. Lastly, even though saving the world isn't really her bag, it does good work with Tekken's premier female Nina Williams, capturing her essence perfectly from the almost dismissive attitude to her own sex appeal, the smirking confidence, the callous treatment of anyone she finds tiresome...she might not have been the most obvious choice for a leading lady, but she works hard to make her inclusion feel deserved.
Should You Buy It: Approach with caution. Though I'll defend it to the end, Death by Degrees is the sort of game where you have to take the rough (no checkpoints, long loading times, wonky camera) with the smooth (everything I've gushed about up there). A love for Tekken as a whole will see you through the trying moments; without that, it may take considerable patience to reach the end. At least it's cheap now, though.
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Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (Wii)
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Action-adventure
Why It Didn't Sell: It's got the words 'Crystal Chronicles' in its title, and after the admittedly weak Gamecube effort (a mess of awful chibi character designs and gameplay that required the troublesome GC/Game Boy Advance link-up to do anything exciting), most of the Final Fantasy hardcore weren't willing to take any chances on this strange Nintendo-only offshoot of the series anymore. And face it, who besides the hardcore FF fans actually bothers with FF games? Yeah, exactly. Even beyond that, any RPG fan who gave the game a shot would doubtless be confounded by the completely real-time play and combat, not to mention a marked lack of stat-tinkering, EXP-farming and dungeon-crawling. Oh, and if there was any advetising done for this, I missed it completely.
Why It Deserves Better: Judged on its own terms - i.e. not as an RPG - Crystal Bearers is actually damn good fun. The story, though wrapped in confusing layers of cod-mythology, is a pretty nice tale based around racism and mutants (kinda like X-Men with more Chocobos). Doing away with the typical fantasy game character line-up in favour of the archetypes one would expect to find in a summer blockbuster movie (laid-back, cool but ultimately selfless hero; feisty and initially hostile love interest; shifty and stupid but ultimately reliable buddy) actually makes it easier to like the characters, even though the voice acting still hasn't risen above the slightly iffy quality of earlier FF games. Telekinesis makes for a fine weapon, and discovering the many hidden enemy 'reactions' is practically a game in itself. The developers did a damn good job letting the player actually play the major action beats, something the main FF games still haven't figured out how to do, and that they did it without simply resorting to quick-time events is also laudable. Plus, this is a great example of a game that lasts as long as you want it to; you can rush through the full story in about 8-10 hours, avoiding every non-boss enemy if you like, or you can let yourself get distracted by treasure hunts and sub-quests, which can swallow up to an extra 30 hours or more.
Should You Buy It: Hell yes. You don't need to be 'into' RPGs to get the fun out of it, it retains enough FF trademarks and characters to be recognisable whilst still forging its own path, and it uses the Wii's controls in a way that's immersive and fun rather than bolted-on and irritating.
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Medal of Honor (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Developer: Danger Close & DICE
Genre: Modern-day FPS
Much cheers to friend-of-mine Chris Standings for this selection and argument!
Why It Didn't Sell: Medal of Honor was a modern day reboot of the EA classic wartime franchise, usually set during one of the world wars, usually seeing you fighting on side as a do no wrong american in a world full of Nazi's or dirty ruskies. Now, this modern sort of, reimagining of the franchise that essentially started Call Of Duty, see's you venture into much more well known territory, if you're twelve and have a serious redbull addiction coupled with extreme pornographic viewing hours and a detatchment from social interaction due to masturbating into bags of cheetos. You take the place of several military operators, working under the Tier 1 banner of the military, blowing away rag headed terrorists and riding quad bikes through rough terrain. Because snowmobiles are for pussies. Medal Of Honor shifted a fair amount of units, mainly based on pre orders and people that did as I did and played the multiplayer beta, expecting the full game to be very much the same experience, but it wasn't. Not that this is a bad thing. Medal Of Honor's review scores and public reviews claimed it to be riddled with frame rate, graphic and sound issues. All of which on Sony's black box of death and child mutilation, the PS3. These views varied from a difficult 7.0 to a troubled 6.5 and at some points and on some sites I remember seeing, all the way down to below a 4.0. Why? Because people don't want to buy a game that the critics said was shit or mediocre, if you work on a professional site.
Why It Deserved Better: Now, Medal Of Honor was purchased by most people due to two things, either the brand name and BETA pulled them on side, due to the frachises' long standing history as THE FPS, long before Call Of Duty started putting foul mouthed nine year old crack addicts onto multiplayer. Or because like most people that enjoyed DICE's work or EA's work on Battlefield Bad Company 2, one of the better selling FPS's of that year, besides of course COD. Battlefield does what most people look for in a game, it takes all the reality, the gritty dark realism of war and puts you in a situation that emcompasses all of those things as well as some solid written humor and some likeable characters. I mean, who doesn't love EA's creation of Haggard in BBC2? And really, Soap Mactavish? He sounds like a rapist, I like the hair, but he looks like if you found him in an alley, he'd breach your arse with explosive wired charges. All with Grant from Eastenders screaming baldie orders in his ear. Medal Of Honor at it's heart is a game about war. I can name two specific parts of the game, which, by all intensive purposes are THE single most graphically amazing, involving and emotionally engaging gameplay scnes in any first person shooter I've ever played. Sure, the score doesn't match up to Infinity Ward's Hanz Zimmer score, but fuck we don't all have Christopher Nolan money to throw around. But the most, combined with being pinned down by hundreds upon hundreds of insurgents, with dwindling ammo, next to no cover, attacks on all sides and NO backup whatsoever, I found myself litterally fighting for survival anyway I knew I could. Including attempting to conserve ammunition. Yes, conserving ammunition, if you ask your team mates for an extra clip, they'll throw you one BUT they don't have an infinite supply and if it runs out as a turban weilding RPG shooter is about to fire a rocket up your arse, you're well and truly fucked. I believe, as many people do that a game should be held up on it's single player merits alone and for that, despite only having a six to eight hour campaign, Medal Of Honor with it's constant barrage of combat, ambushes, variance and a mind blowing graphical showcase coupled with a rich and powefull score is easily the best FPS I have played since I laid hands on Killzone 2. Yes, Call Of Duty allows you to try and crawl from a helicopter after a nuke has dropped, but who would really rather peel AIDS diseased flesh off their arms when they could be ordering a laser guided missile strike on a nest full of AK47 weiliding nutters? You? Really? How old are you? Exactly. Bum off.
Should You Buy It: If you're asking me whether or not you should buy Medal Of Honor, then perhaps you should look at your current game collection. Does the name Call Of Duty feature on there more than once? If so, out of Modern Warfare 2 and World at War, which did you prefer? Hell out of MW2 and Black Ops, which did you prefer? I'm not abbreviating that, FYI. If at both instances, you say Modern Warfare 2, then don't buy Medal Of Honor. Crawl back into your pit and continue furiously fapping to things you find on 4chan. Hell, if you were forced to play one game for the rest of your life and you'd choose MW2 over Killzone 2, don't bother buying Medal Of Honor. MOH is a game for grown ups, with strong themes, gritty violence, a powefull, well composed orchestral score and most of all, gameplay that envokes emotion. Whether it be attempting to save a captured team mate or trying to survive whilst pinned down by insurgents on a hillside, it's a beautiful, clever, realistic shooter with every element it needs and none of the bullshit it doesn't. Oh and the multiplayer, is bassically the same as Bad Company 2, which in all honesty, could never be a bad thing.
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Persona 4 (PS2)
Developer: Atlus
Genre: J-RPG
Why Didn't It Sell: J-RPGs only ever appeal to a niche audience, and this one doesn't even share any recognisable traits with its bigger-name genre-mates like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest; it's set in a recognisably contemporary (albeit thoroughly Japanese) world, the enemies are completely bonkers, you walk through TVs to access another dimension, and much of your stat growth is based on how well you handle your school lessons and chores. Needless to say, it's almost impenetrably weird at times. Then there's the fact that it's the 4th in its series, which may put people off if they're afraid of being lost by a plot that's reliant on previous instalments (though this actually isn't the case). Lastly, it was released during the PS2's twilight years - in fact, in some territories, it was the absolute last PS2 game ever released, and certainly the last system exclusive. By that time, most people had either already made the jump to the next generation, or were saving up the cash to do so...
Why It Deserved Better: Speaking for myself, I've never played an RPG quite like this, where you plan your actions around a specific morning-afternoon-evening-night schedule, choosing whether to focus on schoolwork, housework, a part-time job, or battling hideous monsters to save your friends. The script was flawlessly localised and brought to life by a team of enthused voice actors, and even as a functional mute your character somehow seems deep and personable surrounded by his chatty friends. The story also deals with some pretty dark subject matter and is honestly one of the most mature, 'grown-up' games I've witnessed. Also, the battle system (which is of course turn-based) is excellent, clearly marking down enemy weaknesses and resistances as you encounter them, giving you simple but logical command authority over your subordinate party members, and generally making every possible attack and ability only two clicks of the 'X' button away. Oh, and the music is fantastic, AND you get a free soundtrack CD without having to shell out for any sort of fancy special edition.
Should You Buy It: If you've still got your PS2 around, and are prepared to spend a LOT of time on one game, then yes, you should.
More to come.
Medal of Honor (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Developer: Danger Close & DICE
Genre: Modern-day FPS
Much cheers to friend-of-mine Chris Standings for this selection and argument!
Why It Didn't Sell: Medal of Honor was a modern day reboot of the EA classic wartime franchise, usually set during one of the world wars, usually seeing you fighting on side as a do no wrong american in a world full of Nazi's or dirty ruskies. Now, this modern sort of, reimagining of the franchise that essentially started Call Of Duty, see's you venture into much more well known territory, if you're twelve and have a serious redbull addiction coupled with extreme pornographic viewing hours and a detatchment from social interaction due to masturbating into bags of cheetos. You take the place of several military operators, working under the Tier 1 banner of the military, blowing away rag headed terrorists and riding quad bikes through rough terrain. Because snowmobiles are for pussies. Medal Of Honor shifted a fair amount of units, mainly based on pre orders and people that did as I did and played the multiplayer beta, expecting the full game to be very much the same experience, but it wasn't. Not that this is a bad thing. Medal Of Honor's review scores and public reviews claimed it to be riddled with frame rate, graphic and sound issues. All of which on Sony's black box of death and child mutilation, the PS3. These views varied from a difficult 7.0 to a troubled 6.5 and at some points and on some sites I remember seeing, all the way down to below a 4.0. Why? Because people don't want to buy a game that the critics said was shit or mediocre, if you work on a professional site.
Why It Deserved Better: Now, Medal Of Honor was purchased by most people due to two things, either the brand name and BETA pulled them on side, due to the frachises' long standing history as THE FPS, long before Call Of Duty started putting foul mouthed nine year old crack addicts onto multiplayer. Or because like most people that enjoyed DICE's work or EA's work on Battlefield Bad Company 2, one of the better selling FPS's of that year, besides of course COD. Battlefield does what most people look for in a game, it takes all the reality, the gritty dark realism of war and puts you in a situation that emcompasses all of those things as well as some solid written humor and some likeable characters. I mean, who doesn't love EA's creation of Haggard in BBC2? And really, Soap Mactavish? He sounds like a rapist, I like the hair, but he looks like if you found him in an alley, he'd breach your arse with explosive wired charges. All with Grant from Eastenders screaming baldie orders in his ear. Medal Of Honor at it's heart is a game about war. I can name two specific parts of the game, which, by all intensive purposes are THE single most graphically amazing, involving and emotionally engaging gameplay scnes in any first person shooter I've ever played. Sure, the score doesn't match up to Infinity Ward's Hanz Zimmer score, but fuck we don't all have Christopher Nolan money to throw around. But the most, combined with being pinned down by hundreds upon hundreds of insurgents, with dwindling ammo, next to no cover, attacks on all sides and NO backup whatsoever, I found myself litterally fighting for survival anyway I knew I could. Including attempting to conserve ammunition. Yes, conserving ammunition, if you ask your team mates for an extra clip, they'll throw you one BUT they don't have an infinite supply and if it runs out as a turban weilding RPG shooter is about to fire a rocket up your arse, you're well and truly fucked. I believe, as many people do that a game should be held up on it's single player merits alone and for that, despite only having a six to eight hour campaign, Medal Of Honor with it's constant barrage of combat, ambushes, variance and a mind blowing graphical showcase coupled with a rich and powefull score is easily the best FPS I have played since I laid hands on Killzone 2. Yes, Call Of Duty allows you to try and crawl from a helicopter after a nuke has dropped, but who would really rather peel AIDS diseased flesh off their arms when they could be ordering a laser guided missile strike on a nest full of AK47 weiliding nutters? You? Really? How old are you? Exactly. Bum off.
Should You Buy It: If you're asking me whether or not you should buy Medal Of Honor, then perhaps you should look at your current game collection. Does the name Call Of Duty feature on there more than once? If so, out of Modern Warfare 2 and World at War, which did you prefer? Hell out of MW2 and Black Ops, which did you prefer? I'm not abbreviating that, FYI. If at both instances, you say Modern Warfare 2, then don't buy Medal Of Honor. Crawl back into your pit and continue furiously fapping to things you find on 4chan. Hell, if you were forced to play one game for the rest of your life and you'd choose MW2 over Killzone 2, don't bother buying Medal Of Honor. MOH is a game for grown ups, with strong themes, gritty violence, a powefull, well composed orchestral score and most of all, gameplay that envokes emotion. Whether it be attempting to save a captured team mate or trying to survive whilst pinned down by insurgents on a hillside, it's a beautiful, clever, realistic shooter with every element it needs and none of the bullshit it doesn't. Oh and the multiplayer, is bassically the same as Bad Company 2, which in all honesty, could never be a bad thing.
------
Persona 4 (PS2)
Developer: Atlus
Genre: J-RPG
Why Didn't It Sell: J-RPGs only ever appeal to a niche audience, and this one doesn't even share any recognisable traits with its bigger-name genre-mates like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest; it's set in a recognisably contemporary (albeit thoroughly Japanese) world, the enemies are completely bonkers, you walk through TVs to access another dimension, and much of your stat growth is based on how well you handle your school lessons and chores. Needless to say, it's almost impenetrably weird at times. Then there's the fact that it's the 4th in its series, which may put people off if they're afraid of being lost by a plot that's reliant on previous instalments (though this actually isn't the case). Lastly, it was released during the PS2's twilight years - in fact, in some territories, it was the absolute last PS2 game ever released, and certainly the last system exclusive. By that time, most people had either already made the jump to the next generation, or were saving up the cash to do so...
Why It Deserved Better: Speaking for myself, I've never played an RPG quite like this, where you plan your actions around a specific morning-afternoon-evening-night schedule, choosing whether to focus on schoolwork, housework, a part-time job, or battling hideous monsters to save your friends. The script was flawlessly localised and brought to life by a team of enthused voice actors, and even as a functional mute your character somehow seems deep and personable surrounded by his chatty friends. The story also deals with some pretty dark subject matter and is honestly one of the most mature, 'grown-up' games I've witnessed. Also, the battle system (which is of course turn-based) is excellent, clearly marking down enemy weaknesses and resistances as you encounter them, giving you simple but logical command authority over your subordinate party members, and generally making every possible attack and ability only two clicks of the 'X' button away. Oh, and the music is fantastic, AND you get a free soundtrack CD without having to shell out for any sort of fancy special edition.
Should You Buy It: If you've still got your PS2 around, and are prepared to spend a LOT of time on one game, then yes, you should.
More to come.
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