Scop’s Blog

To be honest, going into this game, I thought BioShock 2 was a cash-in. After all, how can you recreate the success of a game that stood out for doing things differently? How do you follow up a story that pulls from social theory and the likes of Ayn Rand? While I never completely shook that feeling playing BioShock 2, the game worked awfully hard to convince me that it was fun and worthy in its own right.

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I just twittered– err, twote… hmm.  Tweeted(?)  about Natal, then I watched the video for SW: The Old Republic, and wanted to do another.  I realize that with working a 35-40 hour work week, I am not going to have much time for the site, but I do like the idea of writing reactions to all the major announcements as E3 plays out.

I also like the idea of keeping them short.  If I can’t express it in 140 characters or less, then, well…I’ll do it in 280.  Anyway, bottom line is keep an eye on the Twitter Feed.  That widget only works half the time, so feed on the raw stuff, here.

It really says something about an action game (used here as an umbrella term for pretty much any game where you kill enemies) when you finish the primary story mode and it says you are only about 30% done.

Pros:

• Solid gameplay, similar to RE4
• Great value in the forms of extra weapons, modes, and online play
• Accessible

Cons:

• Very little ambiance-driven scares
• Story is incoherent without the wall ‘o’ texts
• …Accessible

Recommendation:

• Buy:  Rabid fans of the series and anyone who enjoyed RE4, as well as action game fans with the patience to learn a quirky control scheme
• Rent:  Gamers who were iffy about the demo, or want to spend a good weekend with the game before waiting on a price drop

Get comfortable, this review is going to be a long one.

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Oh hi there. The name’s Jere. I’d like to think of myself as a veteran blogger, but perhaps “blog deserter” is more appropriate as I used to write meandering pieces about Vitamin D and prehistoric lifespans, but quit after the seven month itch. Concerning video games, I seem to have quite a short attention span these days and thus we arrive at Dyson.

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I finished Gears of War:  Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss like I do most books, with a 100-200 page sprint that keeps me up until 3:00 AM.  Traviss appears to have mastered (what I believe to be) the first rule of working in an established universe, and that is preserving the feel of the franchise.

Obviously, there are no brutal cutscenes to watch or bosses to fight.  Instead, Traviss works on the familiar characters of Delta Squad and Colonel Hoffman, along with newcomer Tai Kaliso.  In this, she appears to have mastered the second rule as well:  Adding characters and backstory that fit into what we already know.

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