The 'Shroom:Issue LXXII/Critic Corner: Difference between revisions

<br clear=all>

|opinion={{ShroomSectionBox

|titlestyle=font-size:95%;

|linkcolor=blue

|title=What Could Have Happened If...

{{User|Crocodile Dippy}}

{{ShroomStrongContent|harsh language, vulgar content, spoilers}}

<div style="float: right">

For those not in the know, ''Dead Space'' is a series that's been held up by many people as a shining example of how to marry action gameplay with horror atmosphere, a very progressive view that may have been more beautiful had the horror been given any voice in the matter. The problem with the action horror formula is that horror games only truly work when the player feels alone, hopeless and in desperation, which just doesn't work when you've got enough firepower to make Rambo blush, but let it be known that my archaic sentiment that ''Dead Space'' is the most mediocre of mediocre in the industry is no longer, as I found it to be quite a solid action game on harder difficulties. And now we have ''Dead Space 3'', which has pulled horror's legs off, wrapped it up in a carpet, and thrown it off a pier.

It's been a few years after the events of the second game, and we catch Isaac Clarke during one of his man-periods – reflected by his helmet now looking more pissed off than before – whereupon he gets dragged back into the quest to end the necromorph epidemic made all the worse by the crazed Unitologists – who are increasingly resembling a bad parody of Scientology – finally breaking down society and injecting copious amounts of batshit into the populace by way of non-specific alien mutation. You following this so far? Even in context the story isn't particularly interesting, and I'm still not too fond of the characterisation which never really gets past the big book of action game clichés. The religious nutjob with a slimy Austin Powers accent just seems a little desperate to me.

I say this because things have escalated into Michael Bay-esque drama now, the entire destruction of the whole universe being used as leverage to raise the stakes, which is the exact opposite of personalised fear. It doesn't help that there's now a co-op feature so one of your mates can give you a reassuring cuddle whenever things start to feel slightly tense. It's just weird to me, is all, especially given that the series has finally deviated from mangled up spaceship and placed most of the game on a frozen wasteland of a planet which could've opened up a whole new well of options, but instead we effectively just fight the same batch of enemies a hundred zillion bloody times. Mind that the core gameplay of hacking off enemy limbs instead of just randomly shooting at them until they stop moving is still fun, but it hasn't really evolved past that; hell, you want to know how many bosses there are in this game? Two, and without spoiling too much, the final boss is a fucking joke.

The two-weapon limit and universal ammo, coupled with some of the most goddamned sloppy cover-based shooting I've ever seen in a video game, gives me the feeling that personality was sacrificed to be more like every other major shooter on the market at the moment. Resource management seems to be simplified as well; new armour doesn't really mean anything anymore, and the broken monetary system has instead been replaced by a somewhat broken crafting system. Not to say I don't prefer the crafting system, it's certainly a hell of a lot more interesting than just spending the ludicrous amounts of cash that necromorphs always carried for no discernible reason, but it gets broken once you realise that the default weapons will get you through most of the game so you can just sell off all your extra parts for more ammo than should be possible to carry in that suit. The three scavenger bots you'll accumulate by the third quarter of the story doesn't help matters, adorable as those little things are.

But let's move away from one Ridley Scott rip-off into another with ''Crysis 3'', EA's other stylised sci-fi shooter starring the remarkable faceless men wearing tire rubber for casual wear. So following the crusade against Korea in the first game, and the decimation of New York in the second, we now come back to New York to play as Prophet, who happens to be black so that's how you know shit's gotten real. Except New York is now overgrown and flooded, but they at least got that second part right, teehee. The aliens are planning a massive invasion against Earth that Prophet has been spending the behind-the-scenes of the whole series working towards combating, but no one seems to believe him until shit hits the fan because powerful alien warlords and super-soldier projects are fine, but full-scale extra-terrestrial invasions are just a little too farfetched for this world.

I think that's my problem with the series; they have this potentially amazing gameplay concept with the actually well-detailed and interesting Nano Suit, yet they seem to squander it in a generic military setting with a hefty dose of ''Alien'' for good measure, possibly in a bid by EA to progressively diminish any and all independent thought from its development studios. Evidence of this can be found in the form of no significant changes being made to the gameplay, still just being the same generic first-person shooting with a few alien weapons thrown in for good measure, and an upgrade system that adds absolutely fuck-all to the suit's functions given they've been reduced to just Armour and Cloak rather than the large well of functions it had in the first game. The greatest combat machine in the history of mankind, and its biggest enemy is software rot; I wonder how the engineers are going to explain that one to the commanding officers when the next extra-terrestrial sea creature invasion hits Earth.

{{User|Xpike}}

Well, they always say that it's good to be back. I really don't have much to talk about before the review, but I would to point out that anyone who supports indie games and likes fighting games should take a look at the [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-skullgirls-growing ''Skullgirls'' IndieGoGo fundraiser] that’s currently going on to fund new characters. It’s pretty interesting, to see that just one single character requires so much money and time, but that’s not the point. So, without more build-up, let's review '''''Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance'''''.

{{nonmario

|name=Scribblenauts Unlimited

|developer=5th Cell

|publisher=Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

|genre=Puzzle/Action

|platform=Wii U, 3DS, Windows (also available on Steam)

}}

Why, hello, fellow readers. After spending too much time watching Zero Punctuation, I've finally mustered the courage to apply for the Critic Corner! Now, I'll just cut to the chase immediately. This month, I'm reviewing the latest installment in the "spawn Cthulhu and destroy the world" series, '''Scribblenauts Unlimited'''!

{{User|Crocodile Dippy}}

2K Games' president Christoph Hartmann said last year that [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-08-01-games-must-achieve-photorealism-in-order-to-open-up-new-genres-says-2k games can't expand outside of action until we have photorealistic graphics], while Crytek member Mike Read stated the same year that [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/359977/interviews/cryteks-mike-read-we-cannot-take-the-current-generation-any-further/# once a console generation has maxed out its graphical possibilities, there is no longer anything left to be done with the consoles and the generation is over]. But this very attitude is the reason that the triple-A industry continues to stagnate as badly as it is, with a grander interest in having the shiniest images rather than the best of gameplay, stories, or characterisation. To equate visuals with emotion is a sign that these developers don't truly understand how entertainment mediums manage to impact their audience so strongly, and even serve to fully disgrace and disrespect the importance of literature, a medium that for thousands of years has engaged readers through writing and characterisation alone.

<br clear=all>

----