Top 50 Games - 50. Demon's Souls

Everyone who hears about Demon's Souls, whether from a paid professional or an inarticulate acquaintance, hears in tandem about its brutality. And it's true: Demon's Souls is a scathingly difficult game, full of lowly archers that snipe you to death from atop a faraway castle turret, ravenous dogs that patrol dark subterranean tunnels, armored spiders that immobilize you with their webs, and a stamina bar that's never quite large enough. But I'm not the kind of gamer that thrives on punishment, so why did I spend $60 on this nightmare? The answer is simple: quality. The levels, initially nerve-racking, end up becoming second nature due to their memorable layouts. The art direction is deceiving, appearing at first to be generic dark fantasy, but soon you realize that it was developed in Japan and not Canada, and the visuals become that much more compelling. While Demon's Souls does get me to take breaks from it so as to relieve the tension, when away I tend to daydream of kingdoms wrapped in malevolent fog, of praying at the bare feet of the Maiden In Black, and of that somber, endless cycle of life and death that will draw me back in.

My Personal Favorite Games of All Time So Far As of May 2010

I've compiled an ordered list of my 50 favorite games, which is admittedly more games than I thought I would want to include on such a list. However, at its completion I found myself leaving off a few gems, much to my surprise. For each entry, from the bottom up, I will provide an explanation as to why I am enamored with a game that you consider the pinnacle of shitty design.

Enjoy.

Final Fantasy XIII Impressions - 10 Hours In

There was a good amount of time there when Final Fantasy XIII was as anticipated as it was mysterious. For years, we survived on 3 or so CG screenshots of Lightning and that same goddamn train trailer. The wait was enticingly painful, and so the game's actual American release was a bit surreal. What added to the oddness, however, was the fact that a great deal of that former excitement had deflated. People were complaining about the corridor-like levels, the absence of towns, and Vanille. Amidst such disconcerting word-of-mouth, I had faith. I told myself, "I'm a fan of the series, I don't completely revile Tetsuya Nomura, and I know I'll like it more than Mass Effect 2." Well, now I've played it for 10 hours or so, and my faith is a little bit shaken. Yes, it's extremely linear, and yes, every time Vanille opens her mouth I want summon Bahamut and Megaflare her. But, as much as I hate her (and I really do), Vanille isn't quite the problem. She's part of a bigger problem with the game though, which is the dialogue and characters. Except for Sazh, who I genuinely like, most of the characters are kind of shitty. At first I thought Lightning was cool because she's a hardass with a gunblade, but then she started spouting some cringe-worthy lines and her luster faded. Snow was designed to be a douche and as such is a complete success. I actually kind of like Hope but he's also really really lame: he attacks with boomerangs and wears a scarf and orange pancho thing. Fang isn't in my party yet but she doesn't seem as cool as she thinks she is. I don't particularly like Tetsuya Nomura, but sometimes his designs are memorable and charming. FFXIII's characters exude nothing but J-Pop and gaudy excess. Add to that some okay but occasionally grating voice acting, and you have a letdown in one of the series' key departments: the characters (again, Sazh is exempt from this criticism). This is a big problem to be sure, but it's not the big problem. That one is a little harder to explain. Part of it actually has to do with an aspect that normally receives nothing but praise: the graphics. You see, in Final Fantasy XIII, the graphics are almost ridiculously good. However, they're good only for the sake of being good; to me at least, they seem to serve no other purpose. Graphics, I believe, only really matter when they work to benefit another more important aspect, such as doing justice to great art direction, allowing more possibilities in the gameplay, or enhancing player immersion. The graphics in FFXIII, shiny as they are, do none of these things. The art direction is a huge step backwards from FFXII's sophisticated Mediterranean aesthetic, looking like a more futuristic Spira, but without the cohesiveness or novelty. The gameplay outside of combat is barely more evolved than that found in the Playstation iterations, and all the visuals do is make the corridors look prettier. There are details everywhere, but they don't matter. This is my big problem with the game. It's beautiful, it's HD, it boasts a really fun and engaging Paradigm-based battle system, addictive levelling up and weapon upgrading, it's full of melodrama and epic world-shattering events... but I don't really care. I don't like the characters so I can't be drawn into the plot. It's got messy art direction and restrictive level design so I can't get absorbed in the world. There's little charm, the only humor that's there is uncomfortable and vaguely perverse, and I don't get all teary when Snow shouts "Serah!" for the eight-hundredth time. Don't get me wrong; this is kind of just a rant and the game really is good, but something important is missing. I've come to realize that those cynical assholes who say that the RPG genre is facing an existential crisis aren't wrong. For all the 1080p displays of Square-Enix's special effects trying to visualize it, the magic isn't quite there.

Mass Effect 2 Review

The folks at BioWare are a clever bunch of Canadians. They earned a great deal of respect from the PC gaming community for crafting what is the best D&D-based video game ever and one of the greatest Western RPGs of all time in Baldur's Gate 2. But they weren't content with being nerd savants associated only with 20-sided dice and epic loot. They stormed the console world with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, upping the ante for console RPGs not made by a developer named after a certain basic geometric shape. Precedents set in that game were refined and expanded in a wholly original sci-fi property with 2007's Mass Effect.
Now it's sequel time and the middle chapter of the trilogy has arrived. Mass Effect 2 is a great game. It boasts tight action, a rich universe, diverse characters, an interesting plot, carnal activity between humans and aliens, and a nifty conversation wheel. All of those things except arguably tight action were plusses for the first game as well. But where the original Mass Effect's novelties were novel and its technical flaws were forgivable for a promising debut, ME2 takes the good stuff and tosses nearly any area that drew derision. This streamlined quality can make ME2 feel polished and slick but also shallow and lazy.
The inventory system is basically gone, leveling up is much more simple, and the Mako has been taken to the scrap heap. I didn't feel like the first Mass Effect did the RPG elements (except for character interaction) well and so my heart was not broken when I learned of the franchise's transition from RPG with squad shooter mechanics to squad shooter/RPG-lite. However, I kind of wish that BioWare tried to make the inventory, customization, and planet exploration better instead of gutting those parts out, because as flawed as they were, they gave the property a decent amount of its charm and depth. Also, the new focus on smooth action doesn't feel like it paid off in full. Mass Effect is not a shooter and so it can't hope to compete with its peers when it comes to popping caps (or in this case heat clips). Not once in my playthrough of ME2 did I get real satisfaction or enjoyment or catharsis out of its combat; it felt like nearly as much of a chore as in the first one, but without the lure of better loot. One of the greatest achievements of the series debut was the conversation system. It truly gave another dimension to a once-static RPG convention. There are no such fresh ideas in the sequel; conversations play out in pretty much the exact same way. The system is still good, but by 2010 it has revealed a tiny bit of its triteness and artificiality.
Now that I've gotten the disappointment out of the way, it's time to focus on the good, or maybe I should say what I appreciate in the game. The overall plot, looking back, might actually not be as good as ME1's, but it matters not because the characters are better. Thane, Miranda, Tali, Samara, and even Garrus are all more interesting than the cast of the original and the quests Shepard undertakes to gain their loyalties are the real meat of the game to me. Though Jack is stupid. But it's okay, cause Thane is a BAMF.

The greatest innovation in ME2 is the way in which it interprets the meaning of the sequel. It takes into account most of the choices you made in ME1 and provides interesting consequences for them in a variety of ways. The ripple effect makes your actions that much more meaningful, making you pause to consider the choice you're about to make and its future ramifications. Choices you make in ME2 are sometimes based on ones you made in ME1 and all the fate-of-the-galaxy (or not) decisions will cumulatively carry over into ME3, showing just how ambitious this trilogy is. I have a feeling that this new approach for sequels will have a wide influence on video game development in the new decade and so for this I applaud Mass Effect 2.

Space exploration has been given some added depth with direct control of the Normandy, and it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game for me. It takes Bethesda's approach to RPGs, i.e. the simulation of a fantasy archetype, and applies it to the space opera. Cruising the galaxy, scanning planets (although it got annoying), refueling, and taking in the extraterrestrial vistas as the calming music plays really revealed the soul of Mass Effect to me. It's not about new loot, not about fighting the Collectors or the Geth or the Reapers, not even about flirting with an Asari. It's about the humbling wonder of exploring the Milky Way and actually having an effect on its societies, which, by the way, is not an experience available outside of video games. Unfortunately, the space exploration seems like it was treated as a bit of an afterthought, and that is why Mass Effect 2 is a great game, but not as great, if all goes according to my wishes, as Mass Effect 3.

I give it a(n)... 87

Too many great games? Inconceivable!

2010 may very well be the best year for video games since 1998. It won't beat '98, since that year was a monster, but I have a good feeling it'll come in a cushy second place. Because that soulless cash-in Modern Warfare 2 scared off all of its competition for the 2009 holiday season, many a promising game has been pushed into Q1 and Q2 2010. We've already received Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain, the former of which should be graced with a review from yours truly soon enough. The latter, however, seems to be indicative of my wondrously woeful situation this year: I really want to buy Heavy Rain, but I don't have the money. It doesn't end there, mind you. Here, in no particular order, is my list of games, old and new, that I want to play this year, with replays in italics: Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy VII, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire (if it comes out this year), Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the new Wii Zelda, Resident Evil 4, Metroid: Other M, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Alan Wake, Mega Man 2, Cave Story, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Grand Theft Auto III, Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, and... is that it? Anyway, I have a hunch that the reality of my 2010 gaming experience won't be quite this epic. Here's to 2011!