Tag: Red Dead Redemption

#oneaday, Day 276: Age of the Crossover

The Internet was left reeling yesterday with the news that Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright were to star in a game together, news which left me in a state of semi-orgasmic shock, and yet slightly disappointed that they hadn't also included Trauma Team and Hotel Dusk in the mix. But no matter; as my Jaffa Cake-loving friend Jasmine Maleficent Rea pointed out, the idea of Edgeworth and Layton sitting down together and discussing tea is too awesome for words.

So it seems we're in the Age of the Crossover. We've had the odd crossover title before, of course, Marvel vs Capcom being one that springs immediately to mind, as well as Square Enix's bizarre 3D fighting game Ehrgeiz that featured a number of characters from the Final Fantasy series. And Kingdom Hearts, of course, which almost ignores the fact that floppy-haired J-protagonists are interacting with Disney characters presented in a completely different art style and is all the better for it.

But what else would work well as a crossover? Well, a short while back I suggested that a Call of Duty and Call of Cthulhu crossover might be a good idea. I still think that would be awesome. Particularly as there's already been a first-person Call of Cthulhu game that was pretty good, if a bit buggy in places. In fact, I'd be more than happy with a multiplayer FPS version of awesome co-op board game Arkham Horror, although we're kind of getting a bit off the crossover point there. Drop in the, erm, memorable Call of Duty characters, maybe?

But what else? As I suggest in today's comic, doing interesting things with cars is always a good thing. Split/Second proves that you can make a cinematic, exciting driving game that uses a dynamic movie-like soundtrack rather than a boring licensed one. So why not take that to the next level and combine the already-epic-and-explosive action of Split/Second with the utter nonsense that is a JRPG boss battle? Let's have racing around giant Shadow of the Colossus-style enemies, setting off environmental effects to attempt to take them down whilst they do their very best to throw the player off course. All the while accompanied by a full orchestral score and a choir of people singing loudly in Latin, naturally. (Incidentally, if you've never played any driving game with a custom orchestral soundtrack that involves a choir of people singing loudly in Latin then I can highly recommend it. It makes the whole experience considerably more exciting. Try the soundtracks from Castlevania Lords of Shadow or The Matrix Revolutions.)

Or you could go completely wild. Rockstar already seem pretty determined to do very odd things to Red Dead Redemption what with the zombie DLC and whatnot, so why not go the whole hog and do a Firefly crossover? It would be stylistically appropriate, after all (more so than bloody zombies) and provide an interesting twist on the Western formula, something which Firefly already does rather ably. Not to mention the fact that Nathan Fillion and the gang have already pretty much reprised their Firefly roles in Halo ODST. Shiny.

There's plenty of scope for all manner of nonsense if you start pushing different franchises together in the name of entertainment. And I'm not talking about Alien vs Predator here. Let's see more of these big names in gaming coming together to produce something beautiful.

So what would you like to see?

#oneaday, Day 125: 3D Red Split Dot Dead Second Game Redemption Velocity Heroes

No, this isn't another blog post about search terms that will find my blog, though it's entirely possible that the phrase above can now be used to locate me. This is going to be a short post waxing enthusiastic about some of the awesome new releases us gamers have seen recently. And it's not even all of the ones that are available.

Through some judicious trading-in and knowing where to go to get some decent deals, I managed to score copies of 3D Dot Game Heroes, Red Dead Redemption and Split/Second. And you know what? They're all awesome. Here's why:

3D Dot Game Heroes

Well you try drawing a fucking 3D stickman, then, smart-arse.This one is incredibly simple to discuss. If you liked The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past then you will like this, because it's the same game. Well, actually, that's not quite fair as there are a few extra bits and pieces that the old Zelda games didn't do, such as the ability to customise how your sword upgrades and so forth. But overworld, dungeons, bombs, hookshot, boomerang, bow and arrow, empty bottles and all manner of other distinctly familiar things are present and correct.

The twist is, of course, it's in 3D. Sort of. It still plays like the 2.5D game that LttP was, it's just rendered in a gloriously different "3D pixel" look, where characters are still familiarly 8-bit in appearance and animation, but have some depth to their appearance. There's also a gorgeous tilt-shift effect on the camera as your character moves from the foreground to the background, too, which gives you the impression you're looking down onto a tiny, tiny world made of blocks.

One of the most entertaining things about the game is the character editor. You can build your own character one block at a time and animate them to be your avatar in the game. It's great fun, and enormously satisfying to see your creation wandering around the game world wielding a sword which is about five times their size.

It's a tough game, as the older Zelda titles tended to be, but never overly unfair, at least not in the part I've played thus far. There's plenty to see and do and, in good Zelda tradition, there's a ton of completely optional sidequests too.

Split/Second

Actual in-game footage.

Or Split/Second: Velocity to give it its full name, complete with unnecessary subtitle. How many people have wandered into a shop, seen that and asked if they have "the original Split/Second in stock"? Some people really are that stupid.

Anyway. If you've played the demo you probably know what to expect. Race cars, blow things up. What the demo doesn't quite prepare you for is how utterly involving and terrifying the full game is. The whole thing is tied together with a beautifully-produced "TV show" aesthetic that uses graphic design, special effects and music straight out of an American version of a TV show such as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or the like. Only instead of dealing with an ailing restaurant, there are cars and big explosions. And the explosions are big. Many levels see you gripping on to the controller for dear life as, for example, a cruise liner in drydock comes sliding down towards you as you pray desperately you make it through to the other side.

Then there's the non-race game modes. "Air Strike" sees you attempting to survive as long as possible while a helicopter gunship fires missiles at you, for example. It's an enormous amount of very silly fun, and is a game that features one of the most consistent and stylistically-appropriate aesthetics that I've ever seen in a game. So hats off to Disney's Black Rock Studios for that.

Red Dead Redemption

Ah'm a cowboy. Not the Brokeback Mountain kind.

Aka "that cowboy game" or Grand Theft Horse-o. Red Dead Redemption is a spectacular achievement, with an enormous world to explore and ride around, tons of things to do besides the "story missions" and a real sense that you're part of the twilight years of the Old West. The game is plain fun to play, whether it's in single-player or the peculiar multiplayer mode, and there is enough stuff there to keep you busy for a very long time. Hopefully, though, this won't mean that it falls into the trap Grand Theft Auto has traditionally fallen into, meaning that no-one will ever finish it. That would be a shame, as the writing and voice acting are very good and deserve to be seen.

The one thing I will say about this one, though, is that it's one of those games that almost feels too big. Once you get to the stage where you can ride off freely, a couple of hours into the game, you're confronted with this massive open world and your brain's first reaction is to go "Which way? MAAAAAAAHHH" before dribbling out through your ears. Fortunately though, whichever way you ride off in you'll find something to do, whether it's one of the "challenges" that require you to hunt down particular pieces of wildlife, a "Stranger" who gives you a sidequest that you can complete at your leisure, a random in-world event such as bandits attacking a stagecoach or, indeed, the game's story missions.

EDIT: Also, you can punch a horse in the face. How could I have forgotten to mention that?

EDIT: Also, this.

So these three are certainly plenty to keep me busy for a while. And there's still a growing pile of shame to get through as well. Ye Gods, what have I done?