Monster Hunter Tri -- Initial Impression.

This initial impression is a few days late. Monster Hunter is a huge hit in Japan. Outside of Japan? Not so much. But Capcom and especially Nintendo are out to change all that. Monster Hunter Tri is the third game in the series proper and the first one for Nintendo's Wii console. The game was originally being developed for the PlayStation 3 but when Capcom saw how the initial sales of the system were struggling and how the Wii had taken off development was switched to Nintendo's console. Nintendo has decided to really help make Monster Hunter Tri the Wii's online shining star and helped with product awareness and advertising. I was interested in Monster Hunter originally on the PlayStation 2 but it's hard to remember what kept me from jumping in with the original. The reasons for skipping the subsequent PlayStation Portable titles are a little more clear. Now here comes the Wii version. Back on consoles. And freed from Nintendo's Wi-Fi network, as Capcom will be handling the servers. No friend code hassles on one hand. On the other hand no real viable voice chat system on the Wii. The Monster Hunter series is heavily inspired by Phantasy Star Online. Same basic genre. Monster Hunter Tri shifts focus from the hunt for the ultimate rare to the hunt itself. While SEGA's Phantasy Star Online always promoted worldwide teamwork and other lofty concepts, Capcom's Monster Hunter makes cooperation essential for survival. They've also made the combat, especially with bosses, a knockdown drag-out affair. The combat is intense. Especially when dealing with anything new or relatively high powered. And they somehow manage to keep that intensity going upwards of twenty minutes a boss battle. Monster Hunter Tri also features a strong gathering aspect. You'll build your items and weapons and armor from the spoils found by gathering or hunting. The series is known for being rather difficult. I'm not sure if I agree at this point. It's unforgiving in that Demon's Souls sort of way. It doesn't hold your hand in either combat or in figuring out what needs to be done or what could even be done. There is a lot of room for experimenting. For figuring everything out. From the time I've spent with the game I can say it's fun and provides a real sense of accomplishment when you can finally take down a boss. I can also say that the interface can be exceedingly clunky. Time will tell if that will get better with age and familiarity. I can also say that the game looks great, if it were a PlayStation 2 game. The Wii just can't cut it graphically with this level of 3D. The game does have a charming aesthetic though. The game is also clearly a long haul. Expect to put in some serious time if you're going to be playing online. Right now Monster Hunter Tri seems like it's going to perfectly pass the time until next month's flood of games hits.

Heavy Rain -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Heavy Rain earning the platinum trophy along the way. For me, I'd say Heavy Rain is a flawed success. Despite claims to the contrary by David Cage, Heavy Rain never escapes its video game nature. It doesn't quite reach his lofty goals. But the term interactive drama does indeed fit. Heavy Rain's overall tone sells the game for me. Cage was aiming for a hard boiled noir thriller that tries to genuinely move your emotions. I'll admit that I've felt things I've never experienced in gaming before in Heavy Rain. Most of those came during the segments where you play as the female journalist. As a male I can't say that I've felt the general vulnerabilities of being female all that often, nor have I had such a sense of humiliation conveyed in gaming. Heavy Rain manages to pull both off surprisingly well. The game also managed to make me cringe. The problems inherent with gaming are what detract most from Heavy Rain. There are eighteen potential epilogues to discover. A handful of the epilogues are mixed and matched based on your actions in the game to form the ending. That's eighteen aspects to the ending. Which means the story has to accommodate all of those potentialities. Which expands the potential for plot holes and the like. David Cage is no Agatha Christie. I will say that the identity of the killer actually came as a surprise to me which is a rarity. If you want to nitpick every detail then you can pick apart the story. If you're able to overlook those kinds of issues you should find an enjoyable ride. I more had issues with the strange voice acting and the weird technology and everything that goes along with it that the profiler character employs. As often is the case with these sorts of games you'll want to reach out and slap some of the characters because they're stuck going down the path the writer wants them to go down all the while avoiding common sense. For the most part the quick time events work well. The characters never really move outside of the realm of clunky. It's a pain to move them around from start to finish. I also don't understand why there was so much screen tearing in the game. Even in segments where nothing is going on. I enjoyed my time with Heavy Rain. While not quite the future of gaming experience its creator believes it to be, Heavy Rain proved to be a decently fun ride. It does give a glimpse of a possible future where interactive drama could very well be a viable genre. And I for one wouldn't mind that. It's just going to take a stronger creative force in both story and game design to really push it through to the masses. I'm giving Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 an 8.

Heavy Rain -- Initial Impression.

I have a little over a week before my next day-one game arrives so I'll be filling the time with a more recent title from the backlog. That game is Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain was developed by France based Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was written and directed by David Cage who heads up Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain has a history worth noting. It started because of the studio's previous effort Indigo Prophecy had such a galvanizing impact on gamers. Those who loved it and those who despised it were paying attention to what was to come next, Heavy Rain. And of course, Sony used early shots of Heavy Rain to sell the power of the PlayStation 3. Like Killzone before it, Heavy Rain's reality didn't quite graphically live up to those early shots. It also didn't help that David Cage was there being rather vocal about how he didn't like referring to Heavy Rain as a video game. As he saw it, Heavy Rain was to be something beyond a mere video game. It was to be interactive drama. It was to be the future of entertainment. Heavy Rain is a third-person adventure that features four playable characters that are all swept up in the events surrounding a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. I've played through the first few chapters. From the time I've spent with the title so far I can assure you that it is definately a video game no matter what David Cage might think. The adventure aspect relies entirely on quick time events. Everything from brushing your teeth to all out brawls are handled by quick time events. Initially most of the quick time events feel intuitive. However walking around does not. Holding down R2 to walk will take getting used to. Graphically the game looks rather good. The character models work well. The voice acting seems off. It's off because most of the actors' native languages are obviously something other than English. And some of the writing has a European flair. Americans do not refer to vacant lots as wastelands. I'm finding it creates a subtle disconnect. The game uses an auto save in the strictest sense of the concept. The game is obviously branching based on your decisions. Decisions you have to live with because of the auto save. In fact, your characters can die, and the story will adjust and continue. Initially Heavy Rain is quite intriguing. It's all going to come down to how extreme the quick time events become and if Heavy Rain's story and characters come through. It's clear early on that the game is trying to draw true emotion from you. It's clearly trying hard. But is it trying too hard?

Just Cause 2 -- Final Opinion.

I have put roughly one-hundred and forty hours into Just Cause 2, hence the considerable time between the initial impression and this final opinion entry. What do I have to show for it? The full thousand points at least. The game is great simple fun. It's a full on sandbox title, with the focus squarely on the action. Meaning, it stays in the shallow end of the pool. It's not the deepest of experiences. And that's actually charming. It works much like it did in Crackdown. The joy is merely in the fun of it all. The game is based around chaos. Causing chaos allows you access to the game's seven story missions. It took me eleven hours to complete the story on the hardest difficulty. Just doing what I had to do to maximize the chaos earned to see it through. I did this after having put a hundred and thirty hours into the normal difficulty. In the normal playthrough I fully completed each of the game's three-hundred and sixty-nine locations. I completed all seventy-five race challenges. I assassinated all fifty colonels. I completed all nine stronghold takeovers. I completed all forty-nine faction missions. I collected all three hundred faction collectibles. And I drove or piloted all of the game's one-hundred and four vehicles. I had earned an overall completion rate of ninety-seven percent before accidentally overwriting the file with a two percent complete save while going for the hardest difficulty achievement. Yeah, that sucked. I really liked the gameplay. You'll really need to like it if you're going for one-hundred percent. The entire game is played for laughs and is entirely self-aware. It's sort of surprising to see that a large portion of the people playing the game seem to miss that with how they bitch about the voice acting and writing. Both of which I found to be great and appropiately over the top and cheesy. The final battle is pure over the top bliss. The race challenges are another area I see people complaining about. The physics of the cars and motorcycles do take some adjusting to. The race challenges are actually quite forgiving. They're more about maintaining control rather than the fastest speeds. Once you've adjusted to this, they become truly enjoyable. The size of the world is massive and it makes the fact that the game looks as good as it does that much more impressive. The game looks really good. Especially when the game is transitioning between day and night or when there is something like weather or fog or dust in play. The lighting during dusk and dawn is truly impressive. The game controls rather well. Occasionally you'll have issues trying to grapple to certain locations. But for the most part the controls function fine. The game isn't perfect however. The enemies are of the always know where you are variety and they tend to spawn around you from time to time. They are also some of the most relentless enemies I've dealt with. Once you've put in enough time and get in the groove you sort of go about the business of the game under constant attack and you tend to forget about it. The enemies become like gnats. Nuisances rather than true threats. I'm giving Just Cause 2 an 8. The game never forgets its action focus. At its heart, it's a 16-bit action game transplanted perfectly into a current generation sandbox game. It's probably as close as we're ever going to come to seeing a current generation version of Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike.