Archive for March 8th, 2010

"The Hurt Locker" staged an upset last night and grabbed six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Directing honors. It may have scored another upset with video game historians, though. The "Gears of War" series, which will lend some guest stars to "Lost Planet 2," made an cameo in Kathryn Bigelow's awards night juggernaut; the only problem is that the film takes place in 2004. The Xbox 360 became commercially available in 2005, and the first "Gears of War" showed up in 2006.

The 360 and "Gears of War" weren't the only abnormalities, however, as Kotaku, EW.com and Brian Williams point out. YouTube's retrofitting, Humvee models and T-shirt choices also showed up out of place at times.

To a non-gamer, the fact that Brian Geraghty's character was playing an unreleased game on an unreleased system probably didn't resonate, and I personally didn't think it impacted the heart of the film to a significant extent. "Super Mario Bros. 3" appeared ahead of its time in "The Wizard" in 1989, and I don't think it has hurt anyone's appreciation for the film in retrospect. I'll grant critics that "The Hurt Locker" was a much different breed of film than "The Wizard," but weaponry and battle tactics off of Owen Eldridge's TV screen deserve more criticism.

What do you think about 360 and "Gears of War" appearances in the "The Hurt Locker"? Did they take you out of the moment? Do you think it deserved Best Picture? Share your opinions in the comment section below.

Valve is officially bringing its game distribution service, Steam, to Mac computers this April. It's a major play by the "Half-Life" developer to tap into a gaming market that has long been ignored.

The launch of Steam on Macs will bring with it Mac-friendly versions of Valve's latest releases, including "Left 4 Dead 2," "Team Fortress 2," "Counter-Strike," "Portal," and the "Half-Life."

Personally I'm thrilled. I gave up gaming PC aspirations once hardware requirements and expensive video cards placed much of the high-end software out of my reach, instead opting for a Mac. And while I appreciate the bevy of casual games on the platform (almost all of PopCap's games are Mac-friendly), and the fact that "Diablo 2" runs without a problem, I've always wanted more of an alternative.

Here's hoping 3rd party publishers follow alongside Steam in this move, bringing more of their games to the Mac platform with improved timeliness.

"God of War 3" is not for children. It's not for some adults, either. It's one of the goriest games I've ever played and would probably make Quentin Tarantino blanch. But, if you think you can handle the graphic violence, fans of the series and fans of video games in general should come out in droves. It's an enormously impressive game that pushes visual standards to new heights.

The Basics

"God of War 3" stars Kratos, the series' go-to protagonist, as he continues his quest for vengeance against the gods of Olympus. The game kicks off where "God of War 2" ended, with Kratos enlisting the help of the titans to take down Zeus and his cronies. Unfortunately, as tends to happen, things do not go as planned and Kratos' climb to the top of Mount Olympus is abruptly ended in the worst way possible. He dies. But that's just the start of his journey.

The Highs

Best. Graphics. Ever.
The previous "Best. Graphics. Ever." holder was another PS3 exclusive, "Uncharted 2." They're extremely different games, as "God of War 3" is much more stylized while "Uncharted 2" is realistic, but "God of War" has the edge thanks to its ridiculous use of scale.

The stuff you'll see in this game…hell, in the first five minutes of this game…will make you want to place the controller down and just marvel at it all. The game kicks off with a battle against Poseidon on the Titan Gaia's back, and the scale is simply remarkable. Kratos is but an ant, a splinter, on Gaia's hand, and yet this is still a playable level that you're traversing. You still have full control of all your moves as Gaia shifts position, opening up new pathways up her earthen body. It's the first of many incredible sights in "God of War 3." And all that without a mandatory install or a significant loading screen! The developers of "God of War 3" set the bar for what can be done on this console.

Gods Damned
The story in "God of War 3" is pretty clear from the get go. You're climbing to the top of Mount Olympus and you're gonna kill anything that gets in your way. That includes a number of gods and familiar mythological tropes. The battles against these famous faces are always memorable and exemplary (except for maybe the last one), and they always end in extraordinarily gruesome fashion, giving a pleasant sense of catharsis after you've been getting your butt handed to you for 15 minutes. The pacing makes each of these battles a treat, never a slog, and they ramp up nicely until the end of your adventure.

Combat Improvements
The combat mechanics of "God of War" have always been stellar, but in "God of War 3," several improvements have been made to the system. Prime among them is an agility meter. Agility is used to fire arrows or stun enemies with a decapitated head. Unlike magic, agility refills automatically after you use it, allowing you to really incorporate your sub-weapons into a battle without having to worry about where the next magic chest is.

Another subtle improvement is the addition of a combat grab, which lets you throw your chains forward to grab enemies at range. This really keeps the combat flowing, letting you boost your combo meter higher than you could in previous games.

The Lows

The More You Know!
Towards the end of the game, "God of War 3" features something of a moral. I appreciate the need to infuse meaning into the chaos, but the moral is so saccharine and cliché that it just felt phoned-in. I'm not going to ruin it for you, but when it happens, you will have a hard time not rolling your eyes. Either that, or I'm dead inside.

The Final Boss
The best part of "God of War 3" occurs about an hour or two before the game actually ends, which makes the final boss fight a pretty big let down. The final battle didn't stand out in any marked way, and ended up feeling extremely redundant with the final boss fight of "God of War 2." There are some intense interactive cutscene moments, but overall it just didn't set itself apart in the way the rest of the game did, and that's a real shame.

Rhythm Mini-game?!?!
This is a really small quibble, but there's a rhythm mini-game puzzle in "God of War 3." It doesn't fit the franchise at all, and it's not remotely fun to complete. Even though it only takes about 10 minutes to get beyond, it was so blatantly out of place that it made me stop and wonder if they had a "Rock Band"-loving intern come in that day demand that beat matching become a part of Kratos' quest for revenge.

The Verdict

Although it may not have ended in a terribly unique or interesting way, the overall package of "God of War 3" is fantastic. If you own a PS3 (and have an iron constitution) you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.

Lovers of "Portal" will not be denied! Information culled from the April issue of Game Informer continues to sneak its way into our hearts and minds, and there's definitely some shocking bits of be discovered. If you're looking to play "Portal 2" without any prior knowledge (good luck!) you'll probably want to stop reading here.

For the rest of you, it seems that the events of "Portal 2" will take place hundreds of years after the first game. Basically Aperture Science has been abandoned and left to rot, with test chambers slowly being overtaken by the surrounding environment. It would explain the Game Informer cover, which shows off an outdoor, almost jungle-like world.

Despite the huge jump in time, the game will still star Chell, the heroine from the first game. When we last saw her, she was being blown to smithereens, laying lifeless outside of Aperture Science. And, thanks to a new ending, we heard her being dragged away by some sort of robot. Dragged to suspended animation, perhaps?

Meanwhile, the aforementioned co-op campaign will apparently have players controlling two robots (pictured in ASCII format) as they try to find humanity in their cold, metallic shells. Or something.

And speaking of robots, GlaDOS is back! Apparently the different parts of her psyche (you remember, the ones you tossed in the incinerator?) have taken over different parts of the facility. Familiar faces are always nice, even if they don't have faces.

I'm just wondering how they'll be able to expand the "Portal" concept into a full-fledged game and not a two-hour romp. Thoughts?

The vault is finally starting to be opened on "Fallout: New Vegas," thanks to an early batch of screenshots released by Bethesda and Obsidian. The screenshots seem to imply that there won't be a dramatic difference between "New Vegas" and "Fallout 3," but they do imply some gameplay improvements, most notably the addition of party members (beyond trusty Dog Meat, of course).

This screenshot is of a radial menu which shows off some of the handy tasks you can set your companion to do. It's much more full-featured than anything Dog Meat ever did, and mimics the variety of companion actions seen in "Fallout 2."

Check out the rest of the "Fallout: New Vegas" screenshots. There are plenty of cool surprises and questions to be answered. Like what the heck is Vault 22?

Seven Games Announced.