E3 2011 Preview: Star Trek

Three years ago rising director J. J. Abrams was approached by Paramount to do what many people had believed impossible: reinvent Star Trek, arguably the most beloved science fiction franchises of all time, and make it relevant to today’s audience.  This task seemed insurmountable for most directors and producers but Abrams, riding strong on his successes on television shows like Lost and Fringe as well as film successes like Mission Impossible 3 and Cloverfield, certainly delivered with one of the most entertaining films of 2009.  Bringing back classic characters while both making it easier to understand for non-fans and not ticking-off Trekkies around the world, Star Trek made the old new again.

While Abrams works on a sequel set to release next year Paramount had their Digital Entertainment team approach Digital Extremes with a task just as monumental: creating a Star Trek game that everyone can get behind.  Creators of Dark Sector and The Darkness II, Digital Extremes has a tough task ahead of them but judging on what I saw while at E3 several weeks back I’m certain they’re the right team for the job.

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Beam Me Up for Adventure

Stepping into Paramount Digital’s small meeting room on Wednesday afternoon I was sat down with a few other writers in front of a television and two members of the development team.  All around me we saw concept art from the game which really seemed to capture the authenticity of the Star Trek universe.  Awe-inspiring vistas and beautiful starscapes gave ideas as to the sense of scale that has always been at the forefront of every Star Trek property and, as the demo began, it was mentioned that the concept art was just a hint of what is to come in the final game.

Most Star Trek titles over the years have been mostly the same, built around the concept of a space-flight simulation with small strategic aspects built in.  This is all well and good as everyone wants to be able to pilot the Enterprise into combat against Klingons, Borg, or what name you but in the end the experience has never been anything more than a decent experience.  Star Trek Online took steps to address this when it was released early last year with gameplay that, ideally, is perfect for the franchise.  However, in the end its gameplay didn’t seem to match up to what people really wanted despite plenty of bells and whistles.  Digital Extremes however it taking an entirely different approach with their title: a cooperative third-person shooter.

Taking place an undisclosed amount of time after the 2009 film, Star Trek, much like many licensed film properties, is set between the previous film and the next one.  Similar to how film tie-in titles like Tron Evolution, Star Trek will be canon to the new vision of the series.  Players take on the roles of the two most famous characters of the franchise: Kirk and Spock, at a point in which their friendship is still growing but still retain differing opinions and styles.

Our demonstration began a good portion into the game’s story.  Returning from an away mission aboard a shuttlecraft, Kirk and Spock find the Enterprise adrift and almost certainly abandoned in the middle of an interstellar minefield.  Certain that the shuttle would not be able to approach the ship without hitting a mine, Kirk and Spock opt for a less conventional approach: launching themselves at the ship while in their spacesuits in hopes of landing at an air lock.   With a swift thrust the duo blast away from their shuttlecraft and begin their speedy approach to the Enterprise in an on-rails tunnel ride like that of modern Sonic the Hedgehog game levels.  As mines fly toward and past them the pair tries desperately to avoid them while at the same time trying to utilize as little maneuvering fuel as possible.

As Kirk and Spock fly through the minefield it begins to become clear that the two are meant in both character and gameplay style to be very different from one another.  In this particular instance it is probably a more believable scenario to say that the two players were trying to reflect upon their characters in the way they play as Kirk’s player has trouble avoiding mines while Spock’s player has little to worry about, making calculating moves past the mines.  This became more pronounced though when, as the sequence comes to an end, Kirk lands in a heap, tumbling across the deck while Spock executes a perfect landing.  After a witty exchange, which clearly shows that the levity present in the 2009 film will be returning, the two proceed into the innards of the gigantic starship.

Darmok and Who at Where?!

As Spock and Kirk enter the ship it is immediately apparent that things are amiss.  The Enterprise is under command lockdown and the crew is nowhere to be found.  Traveling down a decimated corridor the two come across a locked door.  This part introduces us to the game’s utilization of one of the most famous Star Trek devices: the tricorder.  Using their tricorders together, Kirk and Spock are able to bypass the door and continue beyond.  Just a few meters down they come across a dead crewman (wearing a red shirt).  Spock uses his tricorder and scans the body, learning that the man did not die of battle wounds or environmental damage but instead of a parasitic organism he somehow was infected with.  The ability to scan the environment and bodies with the tricorder gives players more information about what’s going on in the world as well as the possibility of actually affecting gameplay later on.

As they continue on a transmission from a crewmember is received by Kirk: she’s trapped in the shuttle bay and is requesting assistance.  Riding a turbolift, Kirk and Spock arrive at the bay only to find it empty save for displaced cargo and docked shuttles gathering dust.  It is clear that whatever happened to put the Enterprise in its current emergency state didn’t allow the crew time to evacuate.  Venturing further into the room, Kirk and Spock find the source of the transmission but no sign of the person who made it.  Suddenly a group of aliens unlike any seen in the entirety of the Star Trek franchise ambushes them, surrounding them on all sides.  Kirk and Spock run for cover in a completely interactive sequence, allowing the player to get a few early shots in as their characters dive behind some cargo before the firefight begins.

The dynamitic difference between the two characters is again demonstrated during the combat sequence.  Kirk, being the ambitious, nigh-reckless character that he is, is very offensive in his gameplay so therefore his phaser can be ungraded over time to include a vaporization mode in addition to the standard kill and stun modes.  Spock on the other hand is more defensive in nature and also has abilities and upgrades unique to his character such as the ability to utilize a particle cannon that can knock out enemy shields or the ability to mind meld with the enemy, confusing them into attacking his own teammates.

The firefight lasts for several moments, Kirk blasting away from cover and vaporizing a few aliens while Spock is able to sneak behind one and performs a mind meld.  Suddenly attacked from the rear, Kirk is knocked down after falling into a rising yellow cloud.  Kirk calls for Spock’s help as he has become infected by the same parasite that killed the red shirt crewmember they found earlier.  Taking Kirk over his shoulder, the two travel to the medical bay, Spock’s player walking them toward their destination while Kirk fires away at approaching enemies, his vision slowly turning yellow and blurring as time passes by.

Arriving at medical, Spock places Kirk on a surgical gurney and begins scanning him.  A monitor displays several parasites that have invaded Kirk’s body and Spock is forced to do a small interactive sequence in which he uses a surgical laser to rid him of the infecting agents.  Taking into consideration how many dead bodies were scanned with a tricorder prior to the firefight in the shuttle bay the sequence can be easier.  As enemies burst into the room Kirk provides covering fire as Spock attempts to kill the parasites.  With the removal of each parasite Kirk’s vision steadies, allowing him to aim better and see more of the environment.  Finishing up the task, Spock joins Kirk in fending off the invading aliens.

Stepping off the gurney, Kirk picks up a Federation phaser rifle.  More powerful than his captain-issue phaser, the rifle’s helps even the odds.  After another wave of enemies pins them down, Kirk uses the rifle’s secondary fire option, a portable shield, and takes cover behind it.  Kirk orders Spock to shoot his shield which succeeds in giving it more strength.  As the combat continues Kirk uses his tricorder to explode a panel next to an enemy, killing him.  Just when the two think that they’ve exhausted the enemy’s reinforcements a more powerful one teleports into the room.  After a short firefight Kirk is knocked unconscious.

Set Phasers to Fun

The next adventure of the USS Enterprise and her crew is still a year away from us and many questions are left unanswered: who attacked the Enterprise?  Where is the crew?  How does this tie into the two movies?  My brief time with Star Trek was a wonderfully sweet tease and, as the son of a Trekkie, I get the feeling that the dedication Digital Extremes is putting into the game will be well worth it to both old fans and newcomers alike.  At this point in development there’s a lot of potential for upping the ante for fans such as utilizing the voice talents of Zachery Quinto and Chris Pine but at this point they weren’t ready to confirm such a possibility.

I’ve always likened Star Trek games to Superman ones: no one has ever really gotten it or its characters right.  If Digital Extremes can deliver on the promise of what I saw that Wednesday afternoon I can’t help but think that finally, for the first time in a very long time, the series might finally get a game that’s worthy of the long running series’ universe, characters, and fan appreciation.

Review: Duke Nukem Forever

Fifteen years ago, back during an age in which consoles were just beginning to discover the possibilities of compact discs and PC gaming was most commonly done on a DOS or Windows 3.1 platform, a game came along that stood out amongst the various Doom clones that plagued the mid 90s.  Duke Nukem 3D was more than just another shooter: it was a game whose action, humor, and gameplay advances made it stand far apart from the other titles on the market.  So, naturally, when a sequel was announced for the game it was natural to expect a next-level experience.

Unfortunately, Duke Nukem Forever became the running joke in the gaming industry for over a decade with the most lengthy development timeline of all time.  After multiple engine switches, complete redesigns, and years of development controversy finally, a decade and a half after it was conceptualized, the next adventure of the legendary alien ass kicker as on our doorsteps.  With so much time gone by though can the King’s old school gameplay aesthetics match up to the Call of Duties and Halos of modern gaming?

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Fashionably Late

Twelve years ago (much like the game’s actual timeline), Duke Nukem saved the world from an alien invasion, saving both our planet and our chicks in the process.  Regarded as a world hero from then on, Duke has passed the time as a successful entrepreneur, opening up a large casino in Las Vegas, a fast-food chain, and living off his celebrity status ever since.  After finally getting his hands on the game based on his exploits from twelve years ago though he learns that the aliens have returned and, despite the President’s intentions to negotiate, the invaders make their first target the very man who defeated them previously.

If that amazing plot description intrigues the story critic within you then allow me to be clear: in the realm of great story telling, Duke Nukem Forever lives in an entire state away.  Despite having the development time of five or six triple-A titles, 3D Realm’s swansong weaves a tale that would be an insult to even B-movie critics.  There is virtually nothing memorable about the game’s overall story as even this writer, just hours after finishing the game, could not find a truly memorable sequence.  All the player needs to know is this: there are aliens in your way and you need to kill every last one of them.

The appealing factor of Duke Nukem Forever shouldn’t be its story so much as its titular character.  After all, who wouldn’t want to play as the most sexist, crude, and awesome killing machine on the planet?  Duke’s character hasn’t changed in the decade and a half he’s existed and this is unfortunately where the game seems to be quite confused with itself.

The problem with Duke lies in the fact that he is simply a character that is stuck in 1998.  Back in the mid-90s the actors he was based on like Jean Claude Van Damme and Bruce Campbell were still at the height of their popularity and as such Duke was prime satirical material that both appealed to those wishing to play as a self-imposed awesome character and for those who wanted nothing more to live the life of a B-movie character.  With the decline of the actors he was based on and the rise of modern action stars like Daniel Craig and Matt Damon Duke is a character whose only real audience are those who remember the 90s action scene fondly.  The point of Duke’s character back then was to make fun of the entire action and B-movie genre but today he’s alone with little to no modern basis for which to be as entertaining as he was in 1996.  There is no depth to Duke Nukem: he’s just one big ego whose sole goals are to get laid and kill more aliens.  Today’s modern gaming scene demands a character more complex than that and for Duke to receive a visual update and not a character one is a failure.

That isn’t to say that Duke Nukem Forever isn’t an entertaining character at times.  Despite his temporal displacement Duke is still able to get in a good one-liner or two with references to Robocop, Halo, and even Inception.  Players can exploit Duke’s manly personality to hilarious results and you’ll definitely be entertained when being shrunk.  Aside from this however Duke remains the stupid, macho idiot he’s always been and if you can get past the fact that he’s long since overdue for retirement then you’ll certainly have fun with him.

Somebody Get This Man Some Gum!

If there’s one thing that can be said about the transition from Duke Nukem 3D to Forever it is that the gameplay is quite different.  No more keychard hunting, no more wide levels to explore, and certainly very little in the way of secrets and surprises to be had.  The Forever experience is unfortunately a watered-down corridor crawler with a handful of open environments and almost no exploration to be had.  If you are okay with this then I have to ask: why?  With so much time in development hell one would have assumed that Duke’s level design would allow for large environments to explore but when you actually get to these levels there simply isn’t anything to be found.

The only really worthwhile levels to check out are the ones in which Duke is shrunk down to action figure size and must do his best to find an expansion pad to get back to normal size.  One of these stages in particular had you doing some first person platforming around the flooded kitchen of a Duke Burger attempting to reach a circuit breaker to help a trapped employee who is in danger of being electrocuted.  As you make your way across shelves, tables, and hot grills with burgers in the process of being cooked several shrunk aliens will attack you and you must fight while taking cover behind bottles of pickles and mayonnaise.  The result is a bit fun but the shrinking levels seem overdone as a whole.  By the time I was shrunk for a third time I was growing heavily frustrated that the mechanic was being used again.

Combat in Duke’s latest outing, as far as the console version goes, is a tossup between decent and terrible depending on where you are in the game.  For the most part the fights you experience are decently challenging on harder difficulty settings but the AI pendulum at times swings heavily in their favor.  The main problem to be had is the game’s aim assist, or lack thereof.  Aiming at enemies more than ten meters away is a dodgy exercise at best unless you have the game’s sniper rifle and the lack of even minimal target tracking can lead to a painful experience.

Like all other shooters these days the game utilizes a health regeneration system ala Call of Duty except this time they call it Ego (and what an appropriate term it is).  This unfortunately turns the game into a cover-based shooter which is in direct confliction to the nature of Duke’s character.  Players can increase the size of their Ego bar by interacting with certain objects in the environment but it still doesn’t make up for the fact that Duke Nukem is not a hide-and-shoot character.

The largest problem in Duke Nukem Forever isn’t the combat so much as the lack of fresh material present.  There are no new weapons or enemies to be had: they are all virtually the same as they were in Duke Nukem 3D with minimal AI improvements.  Boss battles in the game are throwaway levels and you can easily tell when one is coming upon inspection of your new environment.  One particular boss battle against the Octoking is one of the most frustrating combat experiences I’ve had in years and until you nail down the strategy necessary to defeat it.  Boss battles shouldn’t be painful guys: they should be challenging but not overly irritating.  I don’t think 3D Realms got that message however.

Duke Nukem Forever does feature a multiplayer suite but, like many aspects of the game’s design, it is an uninspiring offering at best.  The usual assortment of deathmatch options are accompanied by one other mode: Capture the Babe.  Between the three modes however nothing is truly memorable.  Players can build their own mansions in the My Digs section as tributes to your accomplishments in the multiplayer but you should expect to return to your favorite shooter within days instead of weeks.

Subtlety Is Not His Trademark

Twelve years, four engines, and over two hundred developers later Duke’s newest title should logically be one of the best looking games  on the market.  It shouldn’t surprise you that it isn’t however.  Character models look outdated and NPCs in particular are both lackluster in appearance and animation.  Had Duke Nukem Forever been released in 2006 or 2007 it probably would have been one of the best looking games on the market but against today’s offerings of Crysis 2, Call of Duty, and Dead Space 2, the results are just disappointing.

One thing that the various development teams got right is the level of interactivity present in the game.  Few shooters focus on more than just the combat and Duke Nukem Forever shines in this department as there is an assortment of activities to do between stints of fighting such as drawing on dry erase boards, pinball machines, pool tables, and even an air hockey game.  The sad thing is that none of these activities in particular are well done and the pinball game’s physics are some of the worst I’ve seen in a long time.  Still, the effort is definitely there so the game gets points for that.

Wherein the interactivity is one of the few highlights of the game the single most deplorable aspect of the game’s design is the loading times present.  Designed like an old school shooter, levels are divided by loading screens and do not blend into one another well, if at all.  The loading times are simply some of the most abysmal to be had this generation, taking upwards of a full minute to load completely.  It seems that the game has to reload the entire level instead of just the section in which your checkpoint is at so, coupling this with a difficult section of the game, you are looking at an excessively frustrating experience at times.  Installing the game to your hard drive does little to abate this problem so it is best to go into the game with as much patience as possible.

Time for the King to Step Down

Duke Nukem Forever is many things to gamers.  It is a title of solace in an age of serious, hardcore shooters.  It is a game in which many have devoted large portions of the lives to completing.  It is proof that, even in the darkest, most heartless pit of development hell there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

What it is not is a good game.

The game’s singleplayer experience, which should be very entertaining, turns out fruitless and many pieces of its design and the multiplayer is simply a momentary try for most with little incentive for continued play.  It seems that the only truly worthwhile fruit to bear is that the rights and ownership of the brand belongs to Gearbox Software now and, if they studio can devote even a marginal amount of effort in comparison to most of the titles they’ve produced over the years then Duke’s future may well be a bright one.  For now though you should stick to Duke Nukem 3D for your womanizing, ass-kicking needs.

State of the Slacker: June 2011

June was always going to be a turbulent month for me this year.  With my resolve to go to E3 every year now I knew I was going to be in a bit of a financial pickle but something happened last night that has changed everything.

This past March my roommate Andrej and I decided to move out of our current place.  Last month we gave our 60 day notice on our apartments with the intent of getting a three bedroom apartment to share with a friend of my roommates.  After spending two months searching for places to live we settled on one of two places.  Last night however my roommate told me that his friend would not be joining us due to “court costs” and various other financial issues.  That hurt to find out considering we were planning on moving out in two or three weeks but what really took the wind out of my sails was when Andrej told me that, due to his need to get ahold of his debt issues, he would not be willing to get a two bedroom apartment with me.  This essentially means that I have one week to find my own place and move in.

So, yea, my roommate is officially flaking on me just before I go to E3, a financial commit I can’t afford to miss, and is leaving me with just a week to find myself a new place to live in on my own.  Given that I practically work on minimum wage right now that means that my financial situation is going to be turbulent and it has me relying on my parents far more than I want to.  Because of this I’m going to have to find a new job if I want any hope of attending Texas State to pursue a Bachlor’s degree in journalism: my wish to enroll in the Fall has pretty much been shattered.

What does this mean for my writing?  Well, initially, quite a bit.  Since I have to find a place for myself by the 20^th and I’m gone all next week I won’t be able to do any writing until at least July.  That doesn’t mean I won’t be posting videos though: I plan on uploading as much as I can while I’m at work (they have bandwidth to spare).  Plan to see a bunch of videos being put up during and the week after E3.  As far as writing goes though don’t expect much of anything from me.  I wish I could say that I was in a position to do so but until I find a place to call my own I’m pretty much fubar in most respects.

Review: LA Noire

Close to eight years ago a team of Australian game developers came together under the guidance of Brendan McNamara, a former creative director for Sony Computer Entertainment’s Soho studio and the man responsible for the story of The Getaway.  Team Bondi, as it came to be called, began work on a title that did not see the light of day for many years, only being hinted in stock reports and offhand mentions.  While Rockstar, Team Bondi’s publisher, was slaving away on a new game engine and two concepts that became 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV and 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, waiting quietly in the wings was a game that, until last year, almost no one knew about: LA Noire.

After seven years though does Team Bondi’s freshman effort live up to the high expectations players have for a Rockstar title?  Beware dear reader as the following review’s section regarding the story is filled to the brim with spoilers that normally wouldn’t be discussed but, in this particular case, it is a crucial topic of debate.

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Circumstantial Evidence

The Post-war years in the 1940s was a time in which the foundations of a great economic boom were laid in the United States.  Returning soldiers from Europe and the Pacific came home to start families, buy houses, and experience the freedom they had fought for overseas.  From these returning heroes came what was eventually called the Baby Boomer generation which grew up and subsequently both experienced and help lay the course for the social revolution of the 50s and 60s.

Post-war America however wasn’t one full of peace.  Racial segregation was still in full swing and organized crime was almost as powerful as it was during the Prohibition era.  Many returning soldiers found themselves unable to find work and so many more were having trouble coping with the horrors of war.  In the war on crime Los Angeles was one of the frontline cities and, in a city filled with corruption, a hero was needed.

This call to arms was answered by Cole Phelps, a returning GI officer who fought in the Okinawa campaign, received the Silver Star and was shipped home early after being wounded in combat.  LA Noire’s story begins in 1947 as Phelps earns his stripes as a patrolman.  As Phelps continues to go the extra mile to help solve cases detectives normally would he eventually gets his chance and becomes a full detective.

From here Cole’s story follows a linear progression as he rises through the ranks, starting out at the Traffic Desk before moving on to Homicide, Vice, and then Arson.  Each Desk consists of several cases that Cole and his partner are assigned to investigate.  While the initial cases as a patrolman serve as a tutorial for the rest of the game, the Traffic Desk is the only desk in which the crimes committed are not inter-connected.  While I won’t go into details regarding the plots of each case most involve a certain amount of premeditation that weaves an intricate tale of love, greed, or both.  The Homicide, Vice, and Arson cases each have particularly interesting and nicely done stories, the Homicide Desk being noteworthy for making suppositions and a narrative for one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in US history.

The problems with the game’s narrative don’t begin with or particularly pertain to the stories of the cases you investigate so much as they concern themselves with our main character.  As the title of the game should imply, a noir setting is mostly a character study about how one acts and develops overtime in reaction to the events of a story.  While I don’t have much experience with the genre I believe I can say that many of the films that fit into the term “noir” meet this general definition.  LA Noire, a game which seems to want to live up to this meaning, unfortunately doesn’t.

Throughout the course of the game you play as Cole as he and his partner, who is determined by the Desk he is assigned to, travel around the Los Angeles of 1947 in an effort to solve the mysterious crimes and deaths that seem to plague the city.  Unlike Nico Bellic and John Marston before him though Cole Phelps’s character is not given the definition it deserves.  Many implications are made with his character that does not reflect in his actions and demeanor in a believable way.  For example, despite being married with two children and almost living the proverbial American Dream very little is mentioned about them.  Only through cutscenes interspersed between cases that detail his efforts in World War II does one learn anything about his character beyond his stout, straight-forward business focus.  The result is a character not far removed from the Joe Friday character from Dragnet.

Phelps’ character really starts to take an incongruent turn during the Homicide Desk.  After a six month jump forward (during which the deleted and possibly returning Burglary Desk takes place) Phelps joins Homicide and spends his evenings off the beat at a night club where he has become enamored with Elsa Lichtman, the main entertainer.  To say that such a shift from a family man to that of a cheating husband in a standup character like Phelps is startling is putting the term lightly.  Later on Cole’s adultery is discovered by the department (the details of who does so I won’t disclose) which costs him his marriage, his children, and his desk as he suspended and demoted.

The main problem to be had with this is that it just doesn’t come across in a plausible fashion.  Had the six month period between the Traffic and Homicide desks been detailed and exposed his falling in love with Elsa I would feel more for the character and understand his actions.  However, since that large span of time is missing from the game (again, currently) not enough is learned by the player to allow it to be reasonable.  As the story develops from this point though a strong implication is made in Cole’s behavior that, in my opinion, would have lead to a more plausible scenario of him faking his love and intentionally getting demoted in order to prove the existence of the conspiracy that ties together the second half of the game.

From the beginning of the Arson desk to the end the game it seems that Phelp’s character has been thrown to the wolves and this is made in no more apparent a fashion than when Cole is locked out of an investigation and a new main protagonist is introduced: Jack Kelso, a former comrade-in-arms of Cole’s and his most bitter, distanced friend.  From here Kelso begins his own investigation into the conspiracy which eventually brings together both he and Cole to round out the game’s ending.  During the three cases Kelso experiences it seems like he receives more character development than Phelps does in his eighteen.  It is almost as if, three quarters of the way through development, Team Bondi decided that they’d had enough with the Phelps character and decided to start anew.  Bad move, Bondi, bad move.

The development of Cole Phelps’ character throughout the course of LA Noire just seems to be a missed opportunity for exploring a character that deserves more than a blunt role in the story, especially since the morality and focus of the character is set in stone and cannot be altered by the player.  One can only hope that the inevitable DLC for the game actually expands on Cole Phelps or, in a more ideal scenario, retcons much of the plot but I feel this is unlikely to happen.  Hopefully Team Bondi will learn from this mistake with their sophomore effort.

The Big Heat

Detective games of a triple-A caliber are few and far between these days as the genre has been relegated to licensed properties and smaller, less funded developers.  It is saddening to think that a genre of games once so popular have fallen by the wayside but LA Noire helps to fill in this gap in a badly needed way, especially considering that the last game to have a strong detective element was Condemned 2.  In light of this welcoming addition though we are presented with an unusually difficult challenge, one that pertains to one of the games most prominent features.

Gameplay in LA Noire can be summed up to three distinctive types of play: investigation, action sequences, and interrogation.  Each case you begin involves receiving the assignment from your watch officer upon which you must drive down to the crime scene.  Upon arrival you need to routinely check with the medical examiner and search the area (and body) for clues to what happened.  Given the size of some crime scenes it can be a bit difficult at first to locate all the pieces of evidence but the game by default alerts you where a clue is as well as when all of them have been cataloged.  From the facts gathered you are sent to your next location where you must obtain more information to formulate a theory.

LA Noire’s action sequences usually devolve into either chases (be it on foot or car) or into direct combat.  Chase sequences in the game play out much like you’d expect they would and, in the former case, can be ended by a scripted event of a fistfight.  Chases can also be ended prematurely if the you can catch up to the suspect and tackle him or if you can keep a targeting reticule on them for a long enough time for Cole to fire a warning shot from his weapon.  Should your suspect turn violent you either engage them in hand-to-hand combat or are sucked into a gunfight.  In either case, veteran GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption players will feel right at home as the cover system and gunplay are virtually the same.

The most talked about aspect of LA Noire though has to be the interrogation sequences littered like confetti throughout the course of the story.  During each case you can expect to talk with several people and question them about aspects of a crime and the player is forced to determine if what they have to say is either true, false, or if they are holding back information.  Choosing the correct answer lands the player experience points whereas the wrong one can lead to the dismissal of crucial pieces of information if not outright causing the character responsible for the crime to get away scot free.  Thanks to the game’s superb facial animations you can really tell whether a person is telling the truth or not but the determination of whether a suspect is telling a lie or is simply holding back information can be a very daunting task.  It is herein that the Noire’s primary gameplay problem comes into focus.

More often than not you’ll find that a question that is asked doesn’t really yield itself to doubt/lie scenario.  In order to back up an accusation of lying to the police Cole must prove this with pieces of evidence discovered throughout the course of the investigation.  Unfortunately though, unless you’ve been paying exorbitantly close attention to the details of the case or happen to have outside knowledge of the case in question it still can be hard to see where to lead the conversation.  Usually the safest bet is to insinuate a lie when you know the interviewee is not telling the truth, find out what is exchanged and, if what Phelps or the suspect’s line doesn’t match up with the evidence you’ve collected thus far, you choose the doubt option.  Even with this strategy it still can be tough to actually determine which the correct response is.

Several cases throughout the course of the game leave you with two viable suspects instead of one.  In these scenarios it is acceptable to charge either suspect of the crime in question but therein lay a couple moral quandaries.  Choosing the perceived wrong suspect can lead to a lower overall case score as well as a thorough butt chewing by your boss so you have to choose wisely.  In this regard though you almost always have to choose the politically correct suspect even when the facts of the case dictate otherwise.  One such example later in the game involved multiple crime scenes though only one actually involved fatalities.  Two likely suspects were brought in and each, by way of examining the evidence, were by all accounts guilty of their respected crimes.  However, given that you can only charge one suspect and not both you have to choose which one goes to jail and which one goes free.  I found it particularly frustrating that I couldn’t charge each person individually as they both deserved to be punished.  Hopefully charges can be brought to multiple suspects should another Noire title arrive in the future but I’m not crossing my fingers.

Angels with Filthy Souls

One of the more thought-provoking aspects of LA Noire is in the game’s overall design.  Contrary to what the game is publically perceived to be, especially since it is a title published by Rockstar, it isn’t actually a sandbox game.  If a term had to be applied to it I would say that LA Noire is instead an open world game with a directed narrative rather than a go anywhere, do anything title like Grand Theft Auto.

The reason why this term is more applicable to LA Noire than sandbox is because of the game’s overall gameplay structure.  Rather than progressing in real time and at your own pace Noire instead has no downtime between cases and automatically begins the next one as soon as you exit the case results screen.  Between visiting crime scenes and various sites where you have to talk to witnesses and suspects you can pretty much go all around Los Angeles doing almost anything you want aside from actually opening fire on civilians.  Other than this there is no real moment in the game’s story in which you are left to your own devices.  The only way to actually do so is to select the option from the main menu which is disappointing because 1940s Los Angeles offers an excellent chance to explore a period in our history that deserves more than a small spotlight between World War II and the Korean War.

This is especially confusing given the large amount of exploration available.  Los Angeles was beautifully recreated in the growing and wonderful trend of period pieces showing us the past in a way that wasn’t accessible to many people before.  The game features thirty major landmarks to explore such as the iconic central library building, McArthur Park (renamed for the famous general while in the middle of the war) and even the La Brea tar pits.  The streets of the largest city on the West Coast are amazing in accuracy and Team Bondi should be praised like no other before it for their meticulous recreation that truly makes me feel like I’m experiencing what it really was like. 

Ubisoft, you are on notice: you are no longer the kings of the period recreation.

Sunset Boulevard

LA Noire is a game that is more than just a game: it is an experience.  Rockstar titles have always been known for pushing the boundaries on what a video game could (or should) be like and Team Bondi’s efforts continue this important legacy.  While the story of Cole Phelps ends in a way that is neither satisfying nor expected what we do receive is a great introduction into how a small, young team of developers could make us reconsider where games stand when it comes to detail and recreation.  The game has a bright future ahead of it if Team Bondi can deliver on the rumored return of entire desks and more story-based downloadable content then we could see the rise of one of the next great franchises.

Oh, and Team Bondi: a request.  If you decide to make a spiritual sequel please set it in Chicago during Prohibition.  The mobster angle has been explored to death in this regard but I want to see it from a good guy’s perspective.

Preview: Uncharted Drake's Deception

Naughty Dog’s Playstation 3 exclusive series Uncharted, since its inception, has been just as fun to play as it is beautiful.  The first game, Drake’s Fortune, took players to a beautiful tropical island filled with as many dark secrets as there were bad guys.  The sequel, Among Thieves, took the series in a similar direction, bringing into focus Nate’s search for the lost city of Shambhala while trying to manage two former lovers and an ally who betrayed him.  Among Thieves introduced multiplayer gameplay to the masses and is still one of the most widely played online games on the Playstation 3 despite two Call of Dutys and a Killzone title being released in the past year and a half.

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Nate’s search for ancient treasures will be continuing this November in what will probably be the most crowded season in the history so it has a lot to do in order to stand out from the crowd and earn your hard-earned cash.  Given the previous two games though, it is clear that such a task is hardly a challenge for Naughty Dog.

On the Trail of the Treasure

Nathan Drake has a chronic problem: he can’t but find himself in some of the worst scrapes possible once he has set his mind to something.  In 2007 his quest for El Dorado put him on an island filled with pirates who cared not for his presence and two years later he found himself in Nepal where he was in a derailed train hanging off a cliff with a gunshot wound in his belly given to him by bloodthirsty mercenaries.  His luck clearly isn’t the best in the world but in those two previous escapades he was able to stop the bad guys, get the girl, and save the world.  So when Nate find himself stranded in the middle of the desert amidst the wreckage of a crashed plane with only a gun and a bandana wrapped around his head you can understand that, while he’s having a bad day, his goal is still reachable.

Drake’s quest this time around has him on the hunt for another lost city: Iram of the Pillars, otherwise known as the Atlantis of the Sands.  Supposedly located somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, Iram was a location long sought for by many historical figures including T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Claudius Ptolemy, and, more importantly, Drake’s distant ancestor Sir Francis Drake.  Given that the 16^th century privateer was right about El Dorado (albeit not very descriptive of the secrets of the city) Nate has no doubt in his mind that the City of a Thousand Pillars exists as well.

Drake, once again, won’t be alone in his journey.  Longtime ally and mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan returns, this time in a much larger role than he did in Among Thieves as he will accompany Nate throughout much of the story.  Drake’s opposition this time around is Katherine Marlowe, a member of a secret British organization that has existed for four centuries.  Marlowe and Drake come into conflict over Francis Drake’s ring for which they both claim ownership of.  Right now it is unknown to what extent Marlowe, Drake, and Sullivan have interacted with one another in the past but given early teases and lines from Sully it is clear that they’ll be enemies throughout Drake’s Deception.  Elena Fisher, Drake’s love interest in the previous games has also been confirmed to be involved in the story with rumors that Chloe Frazer may appear as well.

A Rock and a Hard Place

Save for a hands-off demo shown at a press event back in December much of the singleplayer story is being kept under wraps.  Recently though the press was given access to the multiplayer at a Los Angeles event.  Those who expect to see minor improvements on Uncharted 2’s multiplayer scene should stand up and take notice as tweaks are only a small part of the new package.

Naughty Dog promises that all the gameplay modes featured in Among Thieves will be returning but the game also includes a swell of new ones as well.  The first of these, and probably what is going to be one of the most popular, is called Three Team Deathmatch.  Instead of pitting two teams of five players each against one another, this new mode pits three teams of two players against one another for the top prize.  Players will be able to perform context-sensitive taunts and the like for bonus experience points and what is being called the Buddy System will allow players to spawn next to their partner should they not be in combat ala games like Halo Reach.

Going around and trying to make the distinction between players in Uncharted 2 was a bit of a hassle because, for better or worse, you only had a set amount of skins to play as.  Drake’s Deception is looking to step away from that thanks to a new character customization system.  Players will be able to take base skins and customize them anyway you see fit, changing colors to emblems and logos, to even clothing and hats (if you are a Team Fortress 2 player your ears just perked up at that last item). 

Multiplayer stages ripped straight from the singleplayer experience is a growing trend these days (albeit a disturbing one in this writer’s opinion) but if the level of presentation is as strong as it is in Uncharted 3 then it certainly is a good thing.  One such stage, Airstrip, takes the trend to the next level by starting off the match with teams racing down a runway in trucks behind a cargo plane.  Players will trade fire as they attempt to jump between trucks in an effort to actually climb into the bay of the plane.  After a set amount of time the plane’s bay door closes and it takes off at which the stage shifts to a more traditional static battlefield where players fight amongst hangers with vintage World War II fighters.  Long sightlines make for a good sniping map but there’s plenty of cover to be had everywhere you look.

Players will find a significant game changer for the main gameplay modes in the form of Power Plays.  Towards the end of a match a Power Play event will activate that alters the course of a match by either giving the losing team a gameplay advantage or by changing the stakes of the game.  Sudden Death  can activate should the score be close at the end of a match and limits players to only one respawn.  Overtime on the other hand extends the match’s time limit by an extra minute.  Some, such as Elimination, give the losing team a direct advantage by making it so the winning team cannot respawn for a set amount of time.  The winning team isn’t completely powerless in these events however as they can gain bonus experience points for surviving a Power Play.

Along with these nice additions comes a bunch of refinements to the overall experience.  Splitscreen for two players is now available and you can have two PSN accounts playing at one time instead of one account and a guest.  Players can now, in addition to posting gameplay updates on Twitter, also update their Facebook and even full match videos directly to Youtube.  If you needed a way to update your friends as to that sweet 23-3 match you just played Naughty Dog is enabling you to do so more than any other game to date.

Path of Light

Uncharted 3 may be a while out but it looks to be progressing nicely toward its November 1^st release date.  Gamers that are interested in playing the game early though are in luck as a multiplayer beta will be available in early July.  If you are a Playstation Plus subscriber or purchase a new copy of Infamous 2 you will be able to gain access to the beta on June 28^th while players who opt not to will have to wait for it to open up for everyone on July 5^th.  The summer gaming drought may still be over the horizon but Naughty Dog looks to be ready to give you an excellent weapon to stave off the dreaded boredom monster right when we need it most.