Sneak Peak - Skullgirls

With hand drawn animations, lively colors, and wicked characters, Skullgirls by Autumn Games shined brightly at their booth during PAX East 2010. Though only with two characters to play as during the demo, each character was amazing with their handling and personality.

Cereballa wears a hat that transforms into two muscular arms, providing this circus character with most of her moves. Filia, who is an schoolgirl with amnesia, is paired up with hair that has a ferocious appetite for battle. Both girls are quite different but their abilities for battle easily rival each other.

The minute details to the characters are amazing, from the simple reactions to getting hit to their reactions to defending, ducking, and jumping; every last item on their body is animated, and done with such fluidity, it causes this game to look amazing.

Though I didn't have much time to play the demo, I was impressed to see things like the characters and backgrounds in the style they were. Other little things like either going in with one strong character or tag teaming with two characters, custom assist moves, and shadowing of moves leave the audience wanting more and I can't wait to see this in full force later this year.

Infamous - Playing God

Everyone has thought of it, dreamed it even. Asked themselves that one question:

"What would I do if I had superpowers?"

Would you use your powers for good? Or for evil? Take care of everyone around, showing them that there is still hope for humanity? Or would you be selfish, take what you want, using your powers against anyone who stood in your way?

inFamous allows you to do just that. You take control of Cole McGrath, a bike messenger, who wakes up in the middle of a massive crater, ground zero of an explosion with a voice in his ear. Making it out to safety, you  find out that Empire City, Cole's city, is locked down because of the explosion; no one goes in or out. As the city starts to fall prey to gangs and violence, Cole wakes up from his coma, electricity sparking from his hand. Soon, the city discovers just what Cole has planned for them.

As the player progresses through the story, they're forced to make karmic choices, good or evil. While there are many things you can do between these choices that determine your side, these major ones have the most influence. Share the dropped food with everyone or scare them away and take it all for you and your friends?  Destroy an object, making sure no one will ever use it again, or use it, gaining more power than ever? These choices toss the karma meter into the blue (good) or red (evil). Depending on how far you sway to one side or the other effects how people react to you, be it they run up and cheer you on, or yell, cursing at you, tossing rocks in your direction.

Depending on which side you play, you'll see the greatest changes in not only Cole, but Zeke, his best friend, and Trishe, his girlfriend. Though being his best bud, Zeke tries his best to defend your actions while you're evil, and encourages you when you're good. Trish, on the other hand, has no qualms about letting you know how she feels, no matter if your halo is on straight or you've got horns peaking out of your forehead. (Note: You don't get either of those.)

To continue on the path of good, you'll be rewarded with ability enhancements that restore health and energy, siding with disabling your enemies by binding them with electricity to the ground, though the good side is not without its own destructive tricks for the enemies that need that extra fire power to be taken down for good. Evil feeds into the primal lust for devastation, transforming simple lightning grenades into a scatter shots of smaller ones, and turning your enemies into your own weapons: Killing an enemy with a headshot from your bolt causes that victim to explodes, fully charges of your powers, which can lead to other targets around them to become charges themselves and explode.

Side missions allow you to stock up on experience and be rewarded with blast shards, items that expand your energy bar, but also help persuade Cole to one side or the other. For each good side mission, there is an evil counterpart. Do you protect the rioters that are declaring their freedom from the gangs, or do you take them down because they're rioting against you? Do you get into the middle of a fire fight between the gangs and the police, helping the police out, or sit back and deal with whoever is left? Upon completing one mission, its opposite will be locked out. With certain upgrade requiring five, ten, and fifteen completed missions of one kind or the other, so bouncing between good and evil missions locks you out of the final upgrade for said abilities.

The controls are for the most part smooth, though you find that Cole will grab ledges that you didn't know exist, and completely ignore edges that are right in front of his nose. Luckily, these faults are few and far between, and are easily forgiven when the player becomes more familiar with the controls and learn how to recover from falls and tricks for getting around in case you did miss that ledge. The camera rarely becomes a problem unless you've got your back against a wall, then you're left looking at the back of Cole's head, or worse but extremely rare, inside. There are very, VERY, few bugs in the game, ranging from simple clipping problems with dead enemies to falling through the world. It is quite entertaining to watch Cole fall for about thirty seconds before "dying" and winding up at the local clinic.

Most don't notice but during the game, as you're attempting to restore power to the city, certain parts will be flooded with enemies. This is a little trick the game pulls on you to stop you from exploring too much, too fast. Without new and powerful abilities, making it past these massive roadblocks force you back on track and corral you back into the area that you're meant to be in. Due trust me when I say that  twenty or so Reapers come around a flat bed semi with a mini gun attached to it will make you back track, the whole time cursing and looking for the next power source to heal up from.

One awesome trait that really makes inFamous feel unique is that some of the major cutscenes are done in the style of a gritty, dark comic book. This adds to the whole "You are a superhero, this is your story" feel of the game. While regular rendered  cutscenes could have been used, I don't feel that it would have produced the same effect, the same feel, upon the player and they way the reacted to the game.

Though the story ends almost the same way no matter which side you pick, the "Aftermath" section of the game is first narrated by Cole before you're allowed to run around. Depending on your karmic influence, you truly see the final outcome of your character, be he a savior of the people or a ruthless dictator, each leaves a mark on the land.

The end of the game leaves a lot to be wondered about, and with sneak peaks of InFamous 2 already out, the gaming community can hope that they tie the two together well, hopefully including your ending karmic alignment from the first game.

Rundown:

Good: Awesome voice acting, comic book cutscenes, twists and drama, amazing variety of powers

Bad: Cole's obsession with not grabbing ledges

And the "You Get to Live" award goes to: Random girl shirt guy. During a fight with a group of Dustmen, a random guy dodged six bolts of lightning, each one of them having instantly killed him if they had hit. After the Dustmen were dead, I saw the guy run away. "No, you earn your right to live today."                                                                                  

Alan Wake - The Waking Nightmare

Nightmares can be interpreted as many things; warnings about the future, reflections of the past, visions from another life. The causes of them are many: Stress, a life changing event, simply little fears that trigger something in the back of our minds and when we go to sleep, they creep up and take hold of the dream world.

Now what if that nightmare, that twisted little dream, became real? Everything you feared lurked in the smallest shadows, and possibly in your own. Corrupting everything it touches, the darkness is its breeding ground, and your only salvation is small patches of light and the flashlight you clutch in your hand.

Welcome to Alan Wake's world.

A bestselling author with writers' block for two years and running, Alan's sleep has been plagued with nightmares, causing his wife Alice to worry about him. Convincing him all he needs is a vacation in the middle of nowhere, the couple makes their way to a small town named Bright Falls. It doesn't take long before things go haywire. The man they're renting a cabin from is nowhere to be found, instead a woman dressed in black meets them in the back of the local dinner, the lights there busted in the small hallway. Crows flock in large numbers around their place of rest once they get there, and soon his wife goes missing in the lake nearby. Diving into the water, he attempts to save her, only to lose consciousness.

He awakens at the wheel of his car, crashed over the edge of the road, his head bleeding and feeling extremely weak, ignorant to how he arrived there. Staggering away from the accident and into the woods, he finds the coversheet to a manuscript of a novel authored by himself with the title of the book he was once working on. At this point, completely dazed and confused, he continues on only to find more pages, each playing out as a sick prophet, forewarning him of dangers ahead, of the darkness that is slowly engulfing the town. Armed with the pages of the novel and a flashlight, Alan tumbles into a situation straight out of a horror movie.

Most games give you control over someone who is has abilities that a normal human don't have, but Alan Wake is just that, human. He can't run forever, has no special powers to fight the darkness, and a few hits with an axe will kill him. All of these, coupled with the human psyche, causes a sense of urgency and fear when playing, especially when you  are forced to go long times without any source of light save for your flashlight.

As a third person shooter, combat, while simple, can become quite hectic with multiple enemies. The basic formula is to expose the enemy to light until the darkness breaks away from them then shoot them until dead. Easy, if you're simply fighting  one of them, even two tends not to be a problem. There are parts, though, where you have a handful of enemies  along with objects that have been possessed by the darkness flying around your head, determined to kill you. With Alan unable to run more than a hundred yards before nearly doubling over, trying to catch his breath, you're forced to pick which enemies to take out and which ones to run from, ducking incoming axes flung at your skull. Sometimes running isn't an option and the pistol and flashlight aren't enough. This is where flare guns, flares, and even more powerful weaponry comes into play, decimating the Taken, the victims controlled by the darkness, en mass.

Along with combat, the controls are, for the most part, smooth. Going from a fighting stance with gun and flashlight in hand, to needing to break away and run to the next safepoint, there's very little hitching or problems going from one to the other. When controlling a vehicle, each handles differently; the large SUV is poor at turning but has amazing ramming power while the station wagon is slow to pick up speed and is easily decimated on things like stumps and logs.

Alan comes in contact with a wide variety of characters, from the local radio voice to a pair of brothers who have taken on the names of the Norse gods, each person unique, standing out in the story when it's needed, and falling back when other characters are presented, or the story just doesn't call for them to be a focus at the time. Even when the character doesn't seem like an important person at that moment, they each play their part in the story, bringing something to the overall picture.

The game is presented in episodes, each ending with a cliffhanger, a preview of the next chapter, plus a song that goes along with the feel of that installment, and the following one recapping what happened. With this, the game takes on the feel of a short TV series and the player is driven to continue on, just to see what will happen next.

While the story overall is interesting and catches the player in its dark, sharp claws, pieces fall together a little quick about half way through the game before most of the plot twists and mysteries have been fully revealed. Though this might seem like a major problem, there are a few last minute turns that could not have been foreseen until they actually happen. Because of that, the game is worth completing, and with more manuscript pages able to be found on Nightmare mode, the story demands more attention than normal for those who wish to fill in those tiny gaps. Along with two more downloadable content episodes to go though, and an amazing soundtrack, the five year wait for the game is more than forgiven.

The Rundown:

Good: Thrilling story, diverse characters, and mood setting music

Bad: Attempting to duck a flying weapon at your head while Alan's exhausted from running does not work

And the "Not Your Smartest Move" Award goes to: Alan and his friend Barry for getting completely plastered on moonshine while the forest surround the house they're in is CRAWLING with Taken.

PAX East Picks Boston Indie Showcase Winners

At PAX East, three indie devs are setting up shop for all to see their work and to try out. You've got the following:

Blinding Silence (PC) – Team Uncertainty – A sound-based puzzle game as viewed through the ears of a blind man.  As a wave of darkness has fallen over the land, and as the light wanes, so too does free will.  Using the power of sound, the player must influence mindless drones in order to progress through obstacles, complete levels and return light to a land of darkness.

Smuggle Truck (PC, Mac, Web, iPhone, iPad) – Owlchemy Labs – Smuggle Truck is an over-the-top physics-based driving game where you smuggle your passengers across the border in the least amount of time. Tilt your truck, catch newborn babies, drive over armadillos, and rocket your way over hills, through caverns and over quicksand to save the people!

Snapshot (PC) – Retro Affect – What if a camera captured more than just an image?  In Snapshot, that’s exactly what Pic's camera does.  It actually absorbs objects into photographs, removing them from existence!  Paste one of your pictures back into the world and see all of your captured objects come tumbling out.  Capture even the most unusual objects: doors, light, even copies of yourself! Travel through five unique worlds, collect beautiful and elusive objects, and overcome the most challenging puzzles.

I'm personally going to keep an eye out for these three and get my hands on the demo if I can! All of you should too and see why these three were chosen to show at PAX East! A big win for the Indie world! 

On Hold

I've got two reviews almost done, with a possible third, but none will be posted until after PAX  East due to the fact that I wish to present unpublished reviews to potential employers. Thanks for sticking around! Updates about PAX East to come.

PAX East Confirmation!

I received a phone call from someone from PAX East's media department and was told that I was approved for a media pass! *queues cheers* I know the site has been a bit dry due to complications and my love/hate for Force Unleashed 2, but more should be rolling out, including LittleBigPlanet 2 which comes out January 18th!

See you there everyone!