inFAMOUS (PS3)
I touched on inFAMOUS in my June post but I can’t express how much I enjoyed this game. What a wonderful surprise. The team at Sucker Punch really outdid themselves with a highly polished and enjoyable experience. I played through the entire game with Good Karma and I keep meaning to pick it up again to do an Evil play-through.
I really connected with Cole MacGrath. I agonized over some of the moral choices especially near the end. I really wanted to mend the relationship with Trish. Even Zeke felt like that guy you hang out with that is a serious pain in the ass but still your best friend. You care what happens to him even if he irks you like noone else can.
If there is one fault I’d say the story was tied up a little too quickly near the end. A few strands were just kind of ignored. But overall the pacing and story was top-notch.
inFAMOUS is my current candidate for Game of the Year. The only shame is PlayStation 3 exclusivity.
Prototype (X360)
You know, it isn’t Prototype’s fault that I played inFAMOUS first. But compared to Sucker Punch’s gem, Prototype feels sloppy. I appreciated Prototype’s vast amount of character upgrade options but the fact that I couldn’t be bothered to care about said upgrades was a bad sign. The story was unnecessarily complex with poor pacing and the difficulty spikes were frustrating. What I did enjoy was versatility of the lead character. I felt I was empowered with more combat options than I knew what to do with. But the controls felt loose and imprecise. The range of movement was liberating but felt outright silly at times (seriously, even superhero’s should slow down a bit when running straight up a wall). Prototype also suffers from the same issue I have with GTA in that it’s too easy to kill innocents.
As for Alex Mercer, he struck me as a little shit. I couldn’t connect with him, didn’t feel any of his pain, and just couldn’t care what happened with him. Oh you’ve been infected? Boo hoo. Stop murdering people and maybe I’ll care.
Prototype is still better than most open-world games out there. I’m having enough fun to keep plodding through though I may not make it to the bitter end.
Bionic Commando (PS3)
Disappointing… The arm swing mechanic is so much fun – too bad the rest of the game isn’t redeeming at all. I put this one down after only a few hours. My childhood memories playing the NES classic have been violated.
BlazBlue (X360)
I’m interested in learning this new fighter. I’ve played maybe 3 hours so far. The visuals are astounding. I’ve ordered a new Fight Stick and I think August will be my Fighter month. Look forward to more thoughts on BlazBlue next month.
Mass Effect: Galaxy (iPhone)
Loved Mass Effect. Can’t wait for Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect: Galaxy for the iPhone provided a mildly enjoyable fix to hold me over till the sequel. Less of a game, this interactive story introduces a couple of characters that will be featured in ME2.
