E3 Wrap Up

Click the jump for my impressions of E3 and what the "big three" had to offer.

Bitmob - Red Faction: Guerilla Vs. Just Cause 2

Red Faction: Guerilla had to be the biggest surprise of 2009 for me. I had played previous incarnations on PC and while I remembered them, they don't come up in conversation too often. Guerilla, on the other hand, had quite the opposite impression on me. So much so, that when Christmas rolled around I bought a few copies for my friends! It was just one of those games that was full of "oh shit" moments and glorious explosions, that it’s memories have stayed with me to this day. So when I started to hear about Just Cause 2, I was really excited. It sounded a lot like Guerilla; where you are a stranger in a foreign land, leading its people to freedom from the hands of an oppressive military force. Furthermore, it has an open world environment with unique vehicles, weapons, and explosions. After putting about 10 hours into JC2 and beating Guerilla, I feel I can weigh in on their similarities and differences.

AOM - March

Craig Bruyn a professional Illustrator out of Australia. Love his black and white prints. Check more out here or in the slideshow to the right.

Marketing 101: THQ Rewards its Customers

When I first heard about the redemption program regarding NEW copies of Darksiders, I was ecstatic. But to my dismay, my version of the game did not have a mystery code. Then, when the news broke that you could also mail in your receipt, I immediately went home to search. But again came up empty. So, I remembered when I had bought the game and where I had bought it. It was on 01/15/2010, sometime after 930 pm, at a Walmart. Normally I would have gone to a Best Buy, but since those were closed and it was a spur of the moment, “I need to play this game” situation, Walmart was it.

So, I went back to that same Walmart’s customer service department, to see if they could re-print the original receipt. And they could! But to my disappointment, they could only print to some crappy dot matrix printer!

And so went my plea to have THQ honor this crappy receipt from Walmart and take advantage of their latest promotion. Originally put into place to reward pre-orders, each Darksiders game that went out in the first run had a mystery code placed inside the case, which looked like this:

And what should you have expected to receive for this mystery code??? How about a free game and not just any game, an AWESOME GAME! Taken straight from Darksiders community site, you will receive: 

•A digital Hellbook disc featuring Darksiders art, videos, and other awesome stuff! 

•A free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla, a third person shooter featuring fully destructible environments... on Mars!

 I really want to go back to Mars in Red Faction and I could always borrow a copy from one of the numerous friends I gifted this to over Christmas (yeah, I really dug this game in 09), but to justify my inability to control my addiction and making the spur of the moment decision (my girlfriend and I shared) to by Darksiders could turn out to be the best way to start 2010. So with the letter, form, UPC and crappy receipt on there way to THQ, I will have to be patient....

*note image courtesy of Darksiders Community Site

Play it NOW!: Darksiders

With the world of man falling to the war between heaven and hell, one mythical being is sent to pick up the pieces. So goes the story of War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, who in this universe is the protagonist on our journey. Initial previews for this game did not go over well with the enthusiast press, most impressions coming off luke warm. But after a couple hours, I felt it was pretty clear THQ was on to something with the way it builds an interesting world in which the user is tested in both dexterity and creativity. Difficult to not mention its obvious homage to such hit franchises like Zelda, Devil May Cry and even Portal; Darksiders balances numerous gameplay mechanics across a 12 hour story arc and numerous dungeons. Your guide, a wise-cracking Mark Hamill, provides advice as you traverse these locales, slaying demons and angels alike.

Combat is similar to most third person action titles, making use of a few weapon types and their various moves. Weapons may also be augmented to have different effects, and melee weapons also have a leveling system. One thing Vigil, the developer, may want to consider in future installments, weapon balance. Your sword being mapped to a face button and other weapons sharing a second face button caused me to use the alternate melee attacks less than I probably should have. The sword is just far too effective to bother with the other options. Weapons also play a part in puzzle solving, using a large shuriken to light objects on fire, or activate distant buttons, it certainly has that nostalgic feel. Throw in various blocking moving; switch flipping and environment traversal and you have a full fledged puzzle adventure. There were moments when I scratched my head until the light-bulb flickered on, but overall I found the puzzles had just the right amount of learning curve. To touch on combat just a bit more, there is also a magic system which can be upgraded. This utilizes "wrath" (mana) and there are four main spells which are upgradeable. The wrath, like your health is also expandable through collectables. The game contains lots of collectables actually, including the wrath and life cores, you also have artifacts, abyssal armor pieces, and souls, which are in game currency. Managed through an inventory system and store front, it seemed that augmenting weapons (to get more souls) would be the only way to get everything. And even then, the disparation between maxing out my character and the number of souls I needed seemed insurmountable. Though I did play the game on casual for time reasons, which this would decrease the enemy count (decreasing souls awarded).

As you go from dungeon to dungeon, fighting bosses and collecting anything in sight, the story will take you through an interesting spin on some of these characters of myth. Despite a rather annoying turn of events before the end, I found the story and art direction a good fit for the feel of the game. Your horse being one of my favorite, Ruin is summoned straight from the ground, instead of through a silly whistle. Providing you for some cool actions moments, where War can leap off a cliff and summon Ruin mid-air, where he will cushion your fall and most times be running towards the destination. Overall, I was happy to have a game scratch that itch, while Nintendo contemplates how to bring Zelda into the next generation. THQ already stated in an earnings call, that we can expect to see a Darksiders 2 and I will be happy to play it. Therefore, you should go PLAY IT NOW!

*note images courtesy of Darksiders Community Site and Penny Arcade