Who would have thought that a video game trade show would be the cause of an injury that took nearly two weeks to recover from? After sustaining an abdominal strain on the last day of the show, things are finally comfortable enough to sit down and get back to work. This time, my focus will be on the games I played from the third parties publishers and developers.
Like last time, I avoided games with huge lines as I didn’t travel to Los Angeles, sit on airplanes, sit through hellish traffic just to sit in another line to watch a video of a game. I wanted to play the games and play them I did.
In no particular order, let’s get started.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - TTT had a big presence at the show. Cosplayers, spray painted buses, booth babes and live interviews with the director Harada-san were all part of the show. Thankfully, so were tons of demo stations.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rh4Gs2dXh8?rel=0]TTT2 is the sequel to one of the beloved versions of Tekken and is long overdue. Many characters make their return with a few surprises and console exclusive characters (Kunimitsu, Angel, Ogre and Julia). This includes the return of a very young Heihachi and Jun Kazama.
The first thing I noticed while playing were that the characters were huge and detailed. I honestly didn’t expect them to take up that much of the screen. I was impressed with the framerate of the game and detail on the characters, stages (including a new Snoop Dogg stage), and intricate detail on the clothing and animations.
The gameplay is what you’d expect if you’ve played some of the new and old Tekkens. Tag Assault allows you to use a meter to quickly switch between your characters for a big combo. I could be mistaken here but I also believe this takes away your opponents red (recoverable) life as well. This addition adds to the depth of the game.
Overall, I had fun with the game and got to play on the gigantic monitor hovering over the area as well!
Sleeping Dogs – At the Square Enix booth, I found a lonely demo of United Front’s Sleeping Dogs. Stepping up to the game, I seemed to recall this being the cancelled True Crime: Hong Kong but I could be mistaken. I wasn’t expecting much, but after my playtime, I’ve since pre-ordered the game.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWvxJGZYdH8?rel=0]While I’m not set on the story, the demo drops you in Hong Kong as a member of a gang looking to do a favor for your boss. He instructs you to take out a guy who he believes has double crossed him and like a good goon, off you go. Stepping out into the streets of Hong Kong showed me a city with great scope and potential just from walking around looking for my target. The locals were bustling and yelling while merchants shouts their wares.
Upon spotting my target, I am thrown into a chase sequence where we barrel down the alleyways and crowded streets, dodging merchant stands, people and more. Catching up to him, he sends his goons in after you and its time to throw down. This is where I really enjoyed the game.
The hand to hand combat system includs light and strong punch, kick, grapple, throw and more. Once you get the hang of the controls, you’ll find yourself smoothly busting heads in some awesome ways. Punches blend into each other. Grapples turn into throwing one guy to the ground and immediately launching into a spin kick to clock the other guy. It was awesome fun.
To cap it off, there are interactive areas in the game which yield fun results when you grapple and throw people into them. This includes shoving a dude’s face into a rooftop cooling fan. Ha!
Quantum Conundrum – This little gem hardly got any talk around the show but I found myself quite impressed with this PC (later console) title. Remember Portal? Well, some of those same developers decided to continue experiements with physics based puzzlers and this is what they have come up with.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg97ZEkqhzE?rel=0]You’re a test subject for a scientist that has learned to harness the power of dimensions. Throughout the demo, I was shown the ins and outs of both the “fluffy” and “heavy” dimension. The fluffy dimension makes things you interact with much lighter before returning to their original weight. The heavy dimension does the opposite with the added ability to make things stronger. Correct manipulation of their dimensions are the key to finishing the demo.
I fully admit, I found myself stumped in a couple of situations which required used of both dimensions. See, it’s not just using these dimensions that is the challenge. It is using the dimensions with the correct timing that can be the kicker. Many times, the obvious solution is not the solution you need (not that you can’t improvise).
In speaking with a couple of the developers (very nice chaps btw), the E3 demo had a much sharper difficulty curve than the final game will have, but I was already hooked.
Just based on the demo, if you love these types of puzzlers, you would do well to invest in this game.
Dead or Alive 5 – Booooooooobs!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOMzQJLbQ6o?rel=0]While that may have been the main attraction of several DoAs in the past (and the girls are just as curvy), I feel DoA5 has stepped out of that shadow a bit with this iteration. Tecmo Koei may have a successful fighter on its hands, but I fear people may have already made up their minds on the game going by my talks at the expo.
DoA5 features a much overdue makeover in terms of character design. Characters look a bit softer now. Body shapes are in much better proportion than in the past. The cast seems a bit more “human” compared to their “anime doll” look of the past. Yes, there is still crazy costumes that probably show way more T&A than what is needed, but the change in designs are a welcome sight.
In addition to this, the stages got a huge overhaul. Stages can crumble, shatter and interact with you in many ways. For example, Bayman’s stage takes place on a battlefield with guys screaming at you to move out of thw way while bullets rain down on the fighters. These features not only added a sense of tension to the fight, they add a bit of depth and are just damned fun to fight in.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to dive into the inner workings of the game engine beyond the basics of punch, kick, grapple and countering. I did notice that the impact of moves is definitely amplified with big “BAM!” as characters tumble across the stage or into the wall. Finally, counter timing seemed much stricter compared to the past, but I could be mistaken.
Sadly, many people, while seemingly having fun with the game, shrugged the game off as “another DoA”. I hope the game will rise above this fate as Tecmo Koei has clearly put more thought into the game this time around.
Jet Set Radio – Oh Sega, why must you remind me of my precious Dreamcast? Sigh…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoSqZu2P8Us?rel=0]Anyways, the fun and quirky game is back for PSN/XBLA. It sees you fighting rival gangs in three different cities while you tag (spray paint) walls and more as a form of self expression. Set to some awesome music, precise controls and a style that helped define cel-shaded graphics, Jet Set Radio plays pretty much exactly like it’s Dreamcast counterpart.
There is nothing really more to say about it. If you had a Dreamcast, you’re buying this game. If you need something “different” and a blast to play? Buy it.
One Piece Pirate Warriors – The first GOOD One Piece game is finally making its way to the US via Namco Bandai, but not quite in the way I first thought. Like the previous “Musou” games (Gundam and Ken’s Rage), this is one not coming to both PS3/360 in the US. It is coming to PS3 only and only on PSN. On top of that, it will be in Japanese only. Personally, I’m not affected by this, but I know some dub fans and 360 owners will be put off. I guess Bandai is a bit tired of the lower sales of the games and is cutting some corners. While One Piece is gigantic in Japan, it’s barely a blip in the US so I can’t blame them.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbqzq1wN4ok?rel=0]
One Piece Pirate Warriors plays like many other games of this type. It follows the storyline along many of the major plot arcs and has all of the characters you would expect. The character I chose for my play through was Roronoa Zoro which put me in the middle of the Don Krieg arc of the show.
Gameplay saw me use light, strong attacks as well as kicks, dodged and a special move as well. Of course, I cut through hundred of pirates like a hot knife through butter. I built up my super meter, gathered as many pirates as I could and unleashed Zoro’s “Sanzen Sekai” technique. I watched as they all dropped dead as a cackle escaped my mouth.
I moved on through the map, capturing points until the demo ended while I clashed swords with Dracule Mihawk. I put the controller down, smiled, thanked the helpful PR guy there and declared that life was good.
Next time, I will continue with more impressions of games that caught my eye including Darksiders II, Thundercats DS, TheatRhythm Final Fantasy, Ni no Kuni, Hitman: Absolution, PlayStation 3 exclusives and the Wii U.
Disney is taking advantage of all the interest in not only the superhero material out there with SDCC this week but also next weeks debut of Guardians of the Galaxy. To do so, they’ve got a new promo out for the Disney Infinity 2.0 Collectors Edition set that shows off the game, characters and figures that you can get but they’ve also put together a three minute announcement promo for the new Guardians of the Galaxy set. 
