The website shows a teaser trailer with real life footage and from the trailer’s rather apocalyptic scenes and the game’s title, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the game will probably be set in a post-apocalyptic environment. However the exact details are still unknown at this point, the plot could deal with anything from the ever-popular zombie apocalypse to a global crisis related to hamburgers. We’ll just have to wait till Saturday to know for sure, until then, feel free to start guessing.

„It’s Code: Veronica in High Definition. Look up a review from 10 years ago. The end.”

That was my first thought when I was contemplating how to review the newest iteration of Code: Veronica. Despite how news headlines always say „old game to be remade in HD”, the recent HD conversions, such as the Sly Collection or our current subject Code: Veronica are nothing more than ports of old games with enhanced visuals. They are a simple and easy way to cash in on an old classic one more time.

However, I would be lying if I said that this didn’t have a good side. Obvious cash-in or not, these HD releases are a very good way of introducing new gamers to old games and are also great for older gamers who missed out on a certain game. I was in fact happy to see CV getting an HD release, if only because the Survival Horror genre is practically nonexistent today and it was good to see a game of said genre, even if it is just a port.

As far as new content goes, there’s not much to talk about. As you could guess from my first sentence, apart from cosmetic changes everything is the same as it was in the ’X’ versions on the Dreamcast, PS2 and Gamecube. What is new in CVX HD is the lighting and water effects. The water looks a good deal better than it did before, to the point where it looks a little out of place at first glance. As for the lighting, characters now have proper shadows. The visuals are also sharper and much less blurry than before. As such, CVX HD looks a lot better than its previous incarnations. Too bad I can’t say the same about the CG cutscenes – most of them suffer from frame rate issues. Considering this game is 10 years old, that is pretty disappointing.

To be honest, CVX HD is exactly what I expected it to be. That is why I am disappointed. You see of all the RE games, CV is the one that is most in need of an update. Not because it is so great or because of fan demand, but simply because it was always a lackluster installment, even when it was first released. It was a good game overall but take a look back to its predecessor, RE3. That game introduced a handful of new gameplay elements, had different paths to take, included a minigame and a good deal of unlockable weapons, costumes and an infinite ammo mode. Then you sit down, play through CV, and notice: this game has virtually no extra content or replay value. The only unlockable function is the Battle Game, where you pick one of the four main characters and go on a predetermined path, killing every enemy you come across with infinite ammo. So unless you’re going for an A rank, or playing as Wesker who only has a knife, there is virtually no challenge in it. Other than that, you can unlock a rocket launcher in the main game, but that’s it. There are no extra costumes, gameplay modes or any other extra weapons besides the rocket launcher.

The only truly new features are the trophies and the leaderboards. Now the trophies are kind of pointless. There are only two that aren’t related to plot events, meaning the rest you can all get by simply beating the game. The leaderboards are equally disappointing. First off, the Battle Game doesn’t have them, despite being much more competitive by nature than the main game. It has two boards: one with no restrictions and one that restricts the use of the rocket launcher. So basically, the leaderboards have two categories for speedrunners to compete in. This is not bad, but the developers missed a big opportunity here to make something more interesting. The RE games have many skillful fans around the world who can beat the games with ridiculously hard self-imposed restrictions, like using only the knife. Why not make leaderboards for these kinds of playthroughs?

Speaking of challenges, another reason I felt this game needed an update was because of the difficulty. The game has no difficulty levels to select, and CV is by far the easiest game in the series. It needs a higher difficulty setting to make it challenging for those who have already played it. Even after not having played it for a few years, I still managed to remember enough of it to beat the game in 5 hours, with enough ammo and healing items left over at the end to beat the game a second time. And no, this is not an exaggeration.

The Final Word
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD is the same game it was ten years ago. It still has all its good and bad qualities and still manages to be fun, even today. However the HD conversion is not perfect and the game lacks any sort of gameplay update that makes it worth buying again. Despite the fair price, if you already own a copy on an old console, don’t bother buying Code: Veronica a second time. I know I wouldn’t.

MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair

As with pretty much every Sonic game nowadays, the main thought that crosses everyone’s mind when thinking about Sonic 4 is „does it suck?” Well, does it?

In short, no. Sonic 4 is actually not bad. But to elaborate further, it’s not exactly a masterpiece either. In fact, far from it. It’s a very odd situation, for one thing, Sonic 4 has a lot of what made the Genesis/MegaDrive Sonic games good, plus some new things. However, on the other hand, it still suffers from the same flaws those games did and a couple of new problems that arise with the new homing attack.

The basics are simple, as usual for a 2D Sonic game. You run from left to right through the stages, avoiding obstacles and have the usual 10 minute time limit to do so. You still collect rings, you still have lives and you still have the classic special stages if you reach the end of the level with at least 50 rings and jump into a giant ring. Nothing special at all, but that’s how we like it. The only exceptions are some timed jumping puzzles, which honestly not do much good, they just slow down the fast pace of the game. Other than that, we got the homing attack from the 3D Sonic games, and it adds something new and fresh to the formula. The only problem, is that when there are no enemies, it works as a rebound-like move, used to gain a little bit of extra distance for your jump. Sonic does this while in the air, and if the game detects your not standing on anything, Sonic uses this move. This can be very annoying, when you try to jump off a platform right at its edge, but the game detects it as you already being in the air and uses the rebound. This causes many frustrations throughout platforming.

Going back to form was a nice thing for Sonic 4, but honestly it’s just not that impressive. We get some nice new features, like the Mega Man-esque stage selection and the homing attack, but not much else. It’s basically just Sonic again, and what’s more it doesn’t even have some of the nice features that even Sonic 2 had, like the competitive two player mode. Also, no other characters make an appearance either. I understand that the fans don’t want to see a lot of new characters, but what Sonic Team doesn’t realize, is that the characters are not what made games such as Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 bad – it was the gameplay. Heck, Shadow is one of the most hated characters among the fans, and even he was considered cool by many until Shadow the Hedgehog came out. In other words, as much as I dislike some characters as well because of their bad characterization in said awful Sonic games, I really wouldn’t mind playing as other Sonic characters from the series. It could even add extra dimensions to the gameplay: remember how Knuckles could climb walls and glide? Playing as Knuckles in Sonic 3 & Knuckles really added a whole new level of exploration.

Anyone playing should be prepared for some frustration along the way. Although the game is generally easy, in the sense that gathering lives and rings is really not as difficult as in previous games, the levels themselves still have a lot of „artificial difficulty” as we like to call it. There are a lot of trial-and-error parts with unpredictable bottomless pits to watch out for, most of which you’ll probably fall victim to at least once. Also, some bosses are just plain unfair. Eggman in the Lost Labyrinth zone is one of those, he just uses instant kill attacks over and over again, and you need to be incredible careful and precise to defeat him. I never thought I’d ever see the day when a Sonic game would go as far as to design a boss that just smashes the walls on you repeatedly and instantly kills you, but it’s here.

The Final Word
In the end, Sonic 4 is what it promises to be. It is the standard, fun 2D Sonic that we’ve come to expect from the series. If you like Sonic, you can safely give this game a try, but if you’re expecting something new, you’ll be disappointed. Newcomers can give it a go as well, although to be honest, you won’t be missing much if you don’t play this. Also be prepared to be frustrated quite a bit, though older gamers who grew up on the Genesis/MegaDrive games will probably feel right at home with the difficulty.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

Costume Quest is a Double Fine game, like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. Does this mean it’s good? Will it share the fate of Psychonauts, becoming overlooked despite its quality? Well first off, lets backtrack a bit and start at the beginning. Double Fine’s latest game shows off the same charm and fun gameplay that made their previous games stand out.

Costume Quest is basically a standard adventure RPG. You select your character from the twins Reynold and Wren, and began your trick-or-treating on Halloween night. However, your sibling soon gets kidnapped by a monster living in one of the houses, because they dressed up as a big piece of candy. Someone the monsters are fooled into believing this, despite the candy talking and being alive. So Reynold or Wren set out to rescue their sibling via the power of costumes.

One their quest, the hero will encounter a lot of NPCs who will help them out and give them quests. As any modern RPG, the game has a journal to help the player memorize what they need to do, and to check various important things from costume powers to stats. The quests themselves can be mandatory and optional, although for the most part they are all easy to find and complete. Even without a walkthrough, I managed to complete the game to 100% on my first playthrough. As long as you keep your eyes open, you’ll find all the quests and costumes easily, but considering that the game was made with children in mind, this makes sense. While Costume Quest is enjoyable for it humour, charm and gameplay by adults, it is a game that primarily targets children, which shows through in its simplicity. It can serve as a good introduction to the RPG genre for younger audiences.

All this talk of costumes, and I still haven’t mentioned their role? First off, in the world of Costume Quest, costumes grant power to those who wear it. Much like in a child’s imagination, the costumes are just costumes, made out of cloth or cardboard, but they are actually superpowered outfits, that transform you and grant you power. When faced with enemies, you transform into a real robot, ninja, vampire, and a handful of others, depending on the costume you are currently wearing. Some costumes also have special abilities on the field, but most of them are just situational and rarely used. The only one that you will use frequently is the robot’s, which allows you to move faster. Others, like the knight’s ability to shield yourself from falling debris will only come into play two or three times maximum in the game. This is understandable considering the games length, though it doesn’t help that switching costumes in these situations is kind of a pain. It would have been easier if you could just switch party leader with the press of a button and use the character who is equipped with the correct costume. Switching costumes is still easy and efficient enough, but having to put on a costume just to avoid an enviromental hazard, then switch back to the robot one because it runs fast can get a little annoying after a while.

The game’s combat is simple and fun. You enter a battle, and you see a typical turn-based system. Each character has one attack, and one special move that charges up over time. You can also assign special attacks by buying battle stamps, which can power up your characters by boosting stats or giving them special attacks. For the most part you just select your attack and perform a type of Quick Time Event to execute it, and if successful you deal a critical hit. Defense works the same way, except you only need to press buttons, while attacking can require you to time the button press, rotate the analog stick, and other actions depending on which costume your using. Special attacks also range from dealing heavy damage to healing a party member, depending on the costume. The combat system is fairly simple and fun, although it can be difficult at first while lacking a healer. However, I haven’t died a single time in the game, which is easy to do as long as you pay attention to the QTEs. However, messing up a QTE while defending can really turn the tide of battle against you. To be quite honest, the biggest draw of the game’s combat is its simplicity, but it can also be its biggest flaw. Depending on what kind of player you are, you may grow tired of the simple battle system after a while, as you can play through the whole game using just regular attacks and special attacks/healing when they are charged up, and it doesn’t require much strategy. Of course given that this is a downloadable title, and also made for kids, this is somewhat understandable.

Luckily enough, the game’s length is short overall, but perfect for the game. I’d say it doesn’t take more than 6-8 hours to beat the game even to 100%. The game is simple, the quests are simple and sometimes similar, the combat is simple, and due to this it can get boring after a while, however the lenght of the game is just good enough so that it doesn’t outlast its welcome. By the time I started getting bored with it, I found myself at the last boss. This coupled with the game’s charm, and its humour, which is often made for older audiences as well with it’s ironic and sarcastic jokes make it just fun enough to warrant a playthrough and keep it entertaining. The game’s music and sound effects are also quite fitting for the game’s Halloween theme, though there is no voice acting, be it for better or worse. Sadly though, the game doesn’t offer much, if any, replayability. I don’t see myself playing through it again anytime soon.

The Final Word
Costume Quest is a fun and well made game. It provides good entertainment for both children and older audiences and has that Double Fine/Tim Schafer feel to it that makes it stand out. It’s quality makes the price tag seem worth it, although I’d recommend you play the trial version first and decide for yourself if the price is worth it for you, seeing as the game doesn’t offer any real replay value once you are finished with its 6-8 hour story and its simplicity can drag it down to where it becomes a one-time-only ride.

- MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average

Mafia was one of my favourite gangster games of all time, so I was really looking forward to the sequel. Though a lot of people labeled it as a GTA clone it was actually a very original, very good game. And to be fair, everything that had gangsters in it was labeled a GTA clone back when GTA was still new. However, Mafia was one of the first to use a GTA-style open world to tell a linear story. That’s right, though there was free roam, the main game of Mafia was linear and told a tragic, well written and believable story of a taxi driver who became a gangster, with a good cast of characters, and an atmosphere that was incredible at the time. The very reason I bought the game was because of a screenshot I saw. Yes, a single screenshot that was just filled to the brim with that 1930′s gangster atmosphere convinced me to buy the game.

Mafia II so far…looks good. The atmosphere is still there and the action looks fun, but other than that I saw few remarkable things. There are some improvements to the gameplay and the now standard cover system is implemented. To be fair, I haven’t seen anything from a gameplay perspective that really stood out. If the game manages to have unique missions like the first one, then everything should be fine. The first Mafia had a very nice selection of missions. Unlike GTA, every mission had a unique goal, scenes and story, though they were much fewer in number. Still it was this that made it different, that we could get an accurate look at all the activites a 1930′s mob did. We need more gameplay to determine this however.

As for the story, the game seems to be less original than the first, this time we’re playing an italian immigrant called Vito, who turns to crime to escape the poverty of his childhood. Basically, Vito joins to make money, which isn’t exactly unique. In Mafia, Tommy Angelo ended up with the mob after an incident beyond his control, and ultimately had little choice but to join the mob, as it was the only way to protect himself. However, 2k has stated that this will be a darker, grittier, more real story. Mafia was more of a tribute than a true story according to them, which is surprising when looking at how dark the original Mafia already was, although admittedly it was still a more or less positive story. However, the story does hold a lot of promise. Mafia II despite starting with a typical scenario does have a lot in its favor. For one thing, the game is set between 1940-1950, spanning multiple years just like the original, which seems to hint at the similar format. Also, this has interesting possibilites as we’ll see the mob during and after World War II. The characters we saw in trailers also seemed interesting, so all in all, despite the somewhat cliché start, Mafia II has a lot of promise.

Everything considered, Mafia II looks good. A lot of what made the original great is still there, most importantly the atmosphere and the accurate representation of the era. The gameplay and story seem okay, and as long as the developers deliver the same that made Mafia great, there’s no reason why Mafia II should be a great sequel. Keep an eye out for it, the release date is August 24th for North America and August 27th for the rest of the world, and being a multiplatform title, owners of PCs, PS3s and Xbox 360s will all get to enjoy it.

Deus Ex has always been a first-person action RPG, and that hasn’t changed. Although this game will also use the third-person viewpoint in some situations, for example when using the new cover system, the game is still primarily a first-person RPG. The key elements are the same, the main character Adam Jensen will be able to approach situations the way the player sees fit. You can be an expert in sneaking, a hacker, a charmer who can persuade people to do anything for them or even just a combat-loving killing machine. Every problem in the game can be solved in different ways depending on how you build Adam’s abilities. According to the developers this won’t be easy however, as players will not be able to do anything they want, they will need to rely on the necessary skills. In other words, sneaking won’t be a reliable option for you, if you can’t use it properly.

Speaking of machines, we saw that this game has robotics in it as augmentations. As a prequel to Deus Ex, this game features mechanical augmentations instead of the nanotech augments of the first two games. These will be divied into four types (combat, stealth, technology and social) which allow you to customize your character. As always, the Adam’s in game decisions will be decided by the player. In particular, we found the social aspect to be very interesting, the characters’ emotions and personalities were spot-on in the demo. Also we saw some very creative ideas, such as hacking a security camera to access a remote computer and cause disarray.

The game has a nice sci-fi atmosphere to it reminiscent of Blade Runner and some very good character designs. The robotics look very “realistic” so to speak, it made me believe that this is how robotic weapons would look like in real life. This is partly thanks to Square Enix who are in charge of the cinematics in the game and responsible for the very nice trailer we saw at E3.

Though the developers have said in interviews that they wanted to make the game feel as Deus Ex as much as possible, they did try to add a handful of new things. There are now stealth kills, which are not scripted and can be used at anytime, a cover system, upgradeable weapons, the ability to see through walls and invisibility for your character, and enemy squads’ having leaders, who can be killed to cause confusion among the enemy.

The biggest change is that this game uses the health regeneration that is commonplace in FPS games nowadays. The developers have stated that this won’t make the game too easy and that the game will still require strategy. However, seeing that your health regenerates and that the developers tried to make the game in a way that even those who want just want to kill everyone can play through it, it is a little worrying that perhaps this combination will mean that there won’t be a reason to play as anything else but a fighter. Only time will tell, but for now, Deus Ex: Human Revolution has the potential to be one of the best FPS-RPG games that we’ve seen in a while. Keep an eye out for it as it hits store shelves in Spring 2011 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

From what we saw and heard of TOR, we can safely say that it will be a unique experience. Bioware’s main ambition is to create an MMORPG that is different from all the rest, with a heavy focus on story. Bioware has shown that they are very good when it comes to storytelling with games like KotOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and they are hoping to implement their style into the game, offering a solid single-player experience in addition to the multiplayer experience we expect from an MMO world. That’s right, just like in KotOR, players will make their own choices, form their own personalities and alignments, gather their own NPC companions and experience their own story. Players will all get their own starship to serve as their base, similar to KotOR and will visit more worlds than in any Star Wars game before.

This alone is enough to catch the attention of all gamers. I, like many other people, dislike MMORPGs. The grinding, the fact that you can play for ten hours without feeling any accomplishment and not feeling like you are a part of the world is what drives me (and a lot of other RPG fans) away from MMOs. We can’t say for certain yet, but it does look like TOR could bring some much needed innovation into the MMORPG formula. You see with eight classes, all with their individual storylines and with the ability to shape your characters personality as you see fit, it does look like TOR will have what non-MMO gamers are looking for. This is backed up by fully voiced NPCs which add to the immersion. Of course being an MMO, you probably won’t be the messiah of the universe, but you will still feel that you’re actions matter in the conflict between the Republic and the Empire.

However that is not all. We saw a dialogue system similar to that of Mass Effect, which allows you to interact with NPCs how you want, and is a part of how you develop your character’s personality. Thankfully, Bioware knows how to move away from traditional characters and improve them: players will be able to customize their abilites on-the-fly as they see fit, allowing them to fit any role they want and not have to rely on luck finding the right companions. Not only that, but their is some overlap between classes as well. Currently we do not know much, and we can’t confirm the more extreme options (like a smuggler gaining Jedi ablities) but the developers have said that even if you are playing a Sith Warrior who focuses on lightsaber combat, you will still be able to develop powerful force abilities just like a “real” Sith if you want to. This coupled with the fact that you make your own personality (thus being able to create Jedi who are not completely good guys or Sith who don’t find pleasure in unnecessary violence) ensures that players will truly be able to play in a way that they want. Not just by making their character the way they want them to be, but also by allowing the player to play effectively both in groups or just alone as a lone wolf.

So far the combat itself seems to be the least remarkable, however it is still fun and does in fact have new features, such as the cover system which adds some realism to gunfights. Also, the players can mix their equipment how they want, meaning that you can wear light armor on your body and heavy armor on your legs if you so wish, but the developers are keeping an eye out for players who want to be fashionable while playing, and as such each armor type has it’s own set of boots, armor, etc. that fit with each other.

The only thing that we do not know of yet, is whether or not there will be space battles. If Bioware managed to include that effectively, then TOR may be even better, but as it stands now, TOR is already looking to be one of the most promising games of 2011. I definitely recommend keeping an eye out for it as it is released sometime next spring, exclusively for the PC.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Save…and quit for what now?

For those who don’t know, Ace Attorney is a series of point and click adventure games, staring a defense attorney, who’s job is to defend their client in court by proving their innocence. The game is separated into two parts: the investigation and the trial. Like any adventure game, you’ll be looking around for clues, talking to people and gathering information. Unlike most adventure games though, items obtained only serve as evidence to present during the trial. You will very rarely need to do anything more with the items than examine them, as such the items themselves are hardly ever used to solve puzzles. Each case only has one puzzle, namely “who is the killer?”. You only need to use your evidence to find contradictions in statements and to prove your own theories, thus revealing the killer’s true identity.

Honestly, the Ace Attorney games are pretty much my favourite adventure games since the DS entered the market. Most of their functions aren’t new, but the game’s setting makes it feel new and fresh. The Japanese audience has known the series since the 2001 Gameboy Advance game, but everyone else got their first look into the world of attorneys in 2005, on the DS. I think it’s among the best point n click games of the current generation. Not like there is much of a competition.

So what was it that annoyed me? Well, if you haven’t guesses from the title above, it was the save function. It’s actually very user-friendly. The player can save anywhere with the exception of the inventory screen and then continue the game exactly from where he left off. The problem is that you are forced to quit every time you do this. There is a save & quit option and that’s understandable, given that the DS is a handheld, but honestly, it makes no sense that there isn’t a simple save option. Most of the time I’m saving because I made progress, or because I’m at a critical point in the game and I don’t want to mess up. What’s more, this isn’t a quicksave function like in Final Fantasy Advance, where you could save and quit, then come back and continue at the cost of your quicksave getting erased. The saving in PW was clearly made to be a normal save function that creates permanent saves, so why you have to quit to the title screen everytime you save is beyond me.

Final Fantasy IX – Run Zidane, run!

FFIX is of course, a part of the Final Fantasy franchise. It was also a game that tried to go back to the old traditions of the series by having a fantasy setting after the modern worlds of FFVII and FFVIII. For some reason it’s not as popular as some other games in the series, even though it has everything a FF game needs. The game may have started out slow, but the pace eventually picked up and FFIX was just as good an RPG as any other game in the franchise.

FFIX also holds the trophy of “most ridiculous sidequest in an RPG”. Some of you may have heard of the legendary “Excalibur II” sidequest, but if you haven’t, then don’t worry because that’s why I’m here. This certain sword is the strongest weapon for the character Steiner. It’s not something that you actually need, but it is still something worth obtaining. So why is it then, that most FFIX players never got their hands on it? Because of the requirement: you have to reach the sword’s room at the end of the game in eleven hours. That’s right, you have to reach that point, which is normally a 50-hour long task in eleven hours. You have to speedrun a game. I guess Square wanted to put in something for those who do speedruns, but I just find it stupid. The majority of gamers don’t do speedruns and they sure as hell won’t start doing it in a Final Fantasy game. RPGs on the whole are not meant for speedruns. When a sidequest ruins the main aspect of the game – exploring the rich world around you – you know you did something wrong.

Resident Evil 5 – Pocket Armor

When RE4 came out, it shocked the gaming world. It was a game of much controversy for the gaming community, creating a never ending debate of whether or not RE4 changed the series for the better. Regardless, RE4 was a hit and it left it’s mark. RE5 moved even further away from the old RE formula, but ironically, what few mechanics it chose to reuse from the survival horror formula were the ones that worked the least with the new gameplay style.

Enter the inventory management. RE4′s inventory was new and revolutionary, despite the fact that it made the main character into a human killing machine. Sure you somehow had eight different firearms, hundreds of bullets, a dozen grenades and medical kits on your person, but at least in size an egg was an egg and a rifle was a rifle, in other words they space they took to carry in your inventory depended on their overall size. RE5 which is even more action oriented and would be perfect for this system instead relies on the old inventory system. You once again have slots that hold one item each. I suppose this makes the multiplayer easier, but even if I accept that, I still can’t accept how small the inventory is. Nine slots may seem enough for old RE players at first, who are used to the 6-10 slots from the old RE games, but for an action game like RE5 it’s just not enough. There are just way too many different items to gather and you’ll always find your inventory to be full of stuff you need or at least want to keep around. However since there is no way to unload your items – except for restarting from the last checkpoint – you’ll find yourself throwing away valuable items just so you can carry other valuable items.

However, this isn’t even the worst thing. Not by a long shot. Here comes what truly makes the inventory system annoying, the armor. Unlike in RE4, the bulletproof and melee vests take up space in your inventory. What’s more, you can’t combine the two. So if you want to use these, not only will you have to sacrifice quite a bit of money, you’ll also have to sacrifice two item slots. It’s bad enough that you already use up around four slots just by carrying two weapons and their ammo with you, but the vests take up an additional two slots, leaving you with only three slots for various other things like grenades, healing herbs and more ammo. I understand that they wanted to add some penalty for using the vests but damn, unless you’re using infinite ammo, your items will pile up faster than the enemy’s bodies.

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 – Darkness or light…there is no twilight

JK, released in 1997, was one of the first 3D Star Wars games to utilize Jedi combat. Lightsaber combat was fun and easy, and there was a wide variety of Force Powers which made you feel like you really were a Jedi. One could say that JK put down the basics that all the later Jedi-centered Star Wars games were based on. With it’s vast, sometimes even confusing levels and a balance between combat and puzzle solving, JK was every Star Wars fan’s dream at the time of it’s release. Taking the first-person shooter elements from the original Dark Forces and adding third-person Jedi combat made it an excellent gaming experience, making Kyle Katarn’s second adveture even more memorable than the first one.

JK also introduced a now well-known mechanic in Star Wars games, the dual endings. Most Star Wars games had a light and dark ending, depending on the players actions throughout the game, or a decision made by the player at a critical moment. JK was made during the time when we still generally thought that there were either Jedi or Sith, good guys or bad guys, Light Side folk or Dark Side folk, in other words, in-between characters weren’t as well known at that point, in fact, the main character of the game, Kyle Katarn could be considered the first „Gray Jedi” in a Star Wars game.

Now my problem with JK came from this. Since this was an action game with minor RPG elements, the only real way to decide whether you’d get the light or dark ending was to develop your Force powers in the corresponding way. Some minor things also influenced it, for example killing civilians moved you toward the Dark Side, but it mostly depended on what powers you developed. This meant that anyone who tried to be an in-between Light Side Jedi had a hard time. Unlike in KotOR where you could develop any ability because your alignment depended on your actions, in JK you had to keep an eye on what powers you chose. This was bothersome because as we know, Dark Side powers are just a lot more useful – I mean who needs mind tricks, or damage-absorbing shields, when you can shock everyone to death with lightning?

The Grand Theft Auto series – Momentarily misplaced

GTA is probably among the most popular video game series today. There’s really nothing I can say that people don’t already know. You play as a criminal, usually starting as a small time crook who eventually rises to the top…after killing hundreds of people and amassing a fortune as well as a ridiculously large arsenal of weapons.

With that said, don’t you just hate getting busted in these games? I do. Especially when I get busted while driving a car. The police have a tendency to run up to your car, open the door and point their gun at you, instantly arresting you in the process. This is even more annoying if your car happens to lack a door on either side – which happens more often than you’d think – in which case the police don’t even need to open the door. You see if you at least have a door, then if you can accelerate fast enough, the poor policeman would lose his grip on the door handle and fall over, but if the door isn’t there, you have no protection against his instant-arrest maneuver. I always wondered why can’t we just shoot the policeman when he’s pointing his gun at us, given that the main character always has his submachine gun in hand for drive-by shootings. What, does the gun accidentally roll under the seat everytime this happens? I understand that having a gun in your face is not the kind of situation you’d want to retaliate in, but hey, that didn’t stop me when I was facing the barrel of a tank.

Fear Effect – Bait and switch

Fear Effect is a not very well known game made in 2000, for the Playstation. It was one of the first games to use a graphical style similar to today’s cel-shaded graphics and it’s gameplay was similar to Resident Evil. It was a unique horror game where the main source of fear weren’t the enemies, but the situations you got yourself into and even the world around you. For example, if you didn’t turn a valve to open hot steam onto a guard’s face before descending a ladder, then said guard would just shoot you while you were climbing. It was the kind of game where you really had to watch out for everything, and examine everything before attempting to do anything that could have been potentially harmful.

As you can imagine, Fear Effect was a hard game. Most players started on normal difficulty and still had a very hard time due to the game’s unique style and often unforgiving difficulty. However, can you guess what was a really big kick in the balls? When you reached the end of the game and had to choose between two paths leading to two endings, and it turned out neither of them was a happy ending, both were very depressive and made you feel like everything you’ve done was for nothing.

Surely there had to be a good ending somewhere and as you can imagine, there was. However to get it, you needed to beat the game on the hard difficulty setting. This is just plain unfair to be honest, difficulty levels exist so players can customize their experience, and while players may expect bigger rewards if they play a harder game, it’s unfair to not allow less skillful players to experience everything from the game on their preferred difficulty setting. Not just that, but there’s also no way of knowing that you can’t get the good ending on normal mode, and it’s very annoying to realize that after fighting your way through the entire game. It can even turn you off from the game, after all, this is basically the equivalent of spending hours working, then being told to start over if you want your full paycheck.

Resident Evil 0 – Because realism is fun!

Anyone who likes horror games has no doubt heard of Resident Evil. It was the game that put down the basics of the survival horror genre and created the opportunity for horror games to break into the market. It’s a classic series that has changed to something radically different since the first game. But we’re not here to talk about that today.

It has been a tradition in RE that the characters could only carry a set number of items (between 6 and 10 depending on the game) and everything useless could be stored in item boxes until the time came to use them. The item boxes were scattered throughout the game, generally appearing in most save rooms, however anything that was put in one box appeared in another, as if connected by magic. Perhaps it was because RE always went for a realistic approach, but reviewers often complained about the item box being “unrealistic”, despite the fact that the mechanic itself worked almost perfectly.

In RE0, the developers decided to do away with the item boxes and instead used a system where the player could leave behind items anywhere and pick them up again later. Fine in theory, but flawed in the actual game. First off, the developers not only gave each character only six item slots, but also made it so that two-handed weapons took up two spaces, making it even harder to manage the inventory. The mechanic also had negative effect on the level design, because the developers had to make sure that anything important the player may have left behind could be recovered at any time, in a short amount of time. It was only in the last areas that they moved away from this, simultaneously creating one of the most annoying areas in horror game history. The constant backtracking to earlier areas was incredibly frustrating after a while and made it much harder to prepare for the final boss as well. Not to mention that there were so many items that couldn’t just store everything in one room, in fact every room had an item limit which also meant that if the player wanted to keep his items close, he had to find not just one, but multiple safe rooms – after all putting items down in a zombie nest isn’t a good idea. As you may have guessed, the reviewers who disliked the item boxes suddenly came up with a dozens of reasons why it was good.

Final Fantasy Tactics – Hindsight is a bitch

Final Fantasy Tactics was Square’s first venture into the strategic RPG territory, which ended with them creating one of the best strategic RPGs of all time. To many, the FF Tactics Advance games seem like a joke in comparison.

There was one thing about FFT that really annoyed me though. A design choice that almost made me restart the game at one point. You see this is a game where you can get into real trouble if you aren’t careful or using a walkthrough. When certain events are activated, some areas may be sealed off until you resolve the situation. It happens rarely, but it can be game breaking at one point, when you face off against arguably the strongest boss in the whole game. While it is a good idea to save often, you should never save between two consecutive fights in the same area, because if you don’t have an earlier save, you won’t be able to go back before the battles. This means you won’t be able to prepare yourself in case you realize the boss is too much for you. In hindsight, you’ll realize that saving often is a very good idea if you don’t want to end up having to start the whole game over.

Devil May Cry 4 – It feels like I’ve been here before…

Devil May Cry was the first modern hack n slash game to hit the Playstation 2. It was precisely because of this fact that it was a success. Devil May Cry 4 was the first DMC game to be released on the current generation consoles and it was also a hit, though a lot of fans didn’t like it as much as they did some of the earlier games.

My main problem was the amount of boss fights you had to do multiple times and the repeated levels. The major bosses had to be defeated two-three times and Dante’s path mostly consisted of going through the same levels Nero did, only backwards. While the fighting and bosses were still somewhat fresh, due to the two characters having different fighting techniques, the environments were not. Also, the bosses that had to be fought a second time with Nero just became boring, seeing how you already beat them with both Nero and Dante. To be fair the game is still fun, but going through the same areas and fighting the same bosses multiple times with different characters cannot substitute for more creative, unique boss fights.