I came into this demo knowing that the Resistance franchise was weaker than most of the other Sony titles and that this franchise from the start had a illness of Identity Crisis. Though the demo proved this situation to far worse than it seemed on the outside.
The demo starts with a group of WW2 era-ed soldiers fighting the relentless yet totally confusing Chimera. Not knowing where I was I tried to orient myself with the area, but that took some time since I died plenty of times during this map since I had troubles figuring out where the Chimera were at and where they were shooting from, and that was pretty much everywhere. Before I could make any headway the several deaths caused me to be quite frustrated since I wasn't used to the weapons, controls, and the range on the weapons were surprisingly limited. I found myself having to get closer than safe distances with the event of even more deaths, and this frustrated me even more.
Trying to keep my cool and figuring out the "arena" was just one giant circular flanking machine--I was able to make more headway and score a checkpoint. After the checkpoint happened the Chimera dropshipped into our rear taking me fully by surprised, and not knowing the good cover areas of this arena resulted in more deaths, which I was pretty steamed in my head. I found out that the only way to get to them again is to use the flanking circle and attack their sides which they weren't really progammed to use(thank goodness for stupid AI in this game). Having cleared the second wave of Chimera and scoring another Checkpoint, I found myself fighting a mech that was pretty much programmed only to shoot at me, yay(insert sarcasm here). After dying several more times, it just took some "hit and cover" tactics, several reheals, and a large amount of grenade spam to take down this Pain in the Butt. The level ended and I was about to go my way, 'til another map loaded..yay again.
The second map pretty much started with me waiting to die several more times as me and my rag-tag team of co-patriots(which I couldn't tell if they were american WWIIs or german WWIIs) had to fight several more waves of these pesky bugs. Having found that I had a sniper rifle(which was probably the only real useful gun in this map), I just decided to snipe through the cover(which is pretty nifty) and take down the regular Chimera and even a gigantic exploding one(which was a pain but not as much as the mech). Having analyzed the art style at this point, this game wreaked of Medal of Honor Airborne map-wise but the Chimera were somehow uncannily like the Helghast. The only issue with this is this Resistance demo looked worse then either game, and I felt that I was playing an upscaled PS2 game. That and I couldn't help but feel the developers ripped off the concept of an anime-game close to my heart, Robotech: Invasion.
And that was confused me, this Identity Crisis of Airborne X Killzone X Robotech: Invasion gave the impression that like stated in many articles, the developers didn't know really where to go with this game. It seems this series is more an experiment they started developing on the PS2 and just ported to the PS3 in the aims that this convoluted mix-match of ragtag game ideas would hold up to some solid conclusion. While I can see the merits of this idea, the demo showed that it wasn't implemented that well. It didn't help that the game seems to be just a bundle of a McDonald's happy meal, but instead of getting the almost decent burger, you were given the stale over-salted fries.
ANYWAY, (end rant). Having made my way around the map supposing that my current mission was to just snipe Chimera to death, I found I wasn't making any headway and I wasn't scoring any checkpoints. Seeing how the Chimera came out of an "elevator" I decided to see what was the deal with that and finally got my checkpoint, yay(for reals). Going up the shaft I found myself in the face of a few Chimera that I was able to easily shoot down, and finding out where I was supposed to go I took this time to snipe more Chimera(seeing how my job was to go on these little "elevated perches" and wipe out the MGs and snipers). I went on to flush out the perches with only a few deaths(one of them was me throwing a grenade instead of pushing a button, insta-suicide). Having successfully push the button the second time, I went down the second shaft and found myself toe-to-toe with another giant Chimera.
Thank goodness I could just walk around him and pump him full of bullets since his gun was lame and he wasnt very fast(or bright). He ended up exploding with his remains on the ground(eeew) and me leaving the area ended the demo(finally!).
CLOSING COMMENTS:
This demo really gave me an idea that the devs weren't really concerned about the Identity Crisis and just decided to just take chunks from other games in the hopes of making it all fit. While many games do this, most of them do it better than Resistance. That said I found that figuring out the controls by the end gave the demo some enjoyment(the controls were a wierd hash of the Killzone controls, go figure), but I can see why Resistance 2 and Resistance 3 aren't the hottest topics of PS3 gaming.
In my Opinion?
7.2 out of 10
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
KILLZONE 2 Demo REVIEW
After having played the Killzone 3 demo and witnessing(well playing) the awesomeness which it was, I decided to also try the Killzone 2 demo.
Like the Killzone 3 demo, you're pretty much already put into a combat situation, and the Helghast are already trying to kill you. Cover is even more key in this demo as the Helghast are coming from 180 degrees so you need to keep your head down at all times.
The story of this demo is that you're pretty much "sieging" the Helghast capital of Pyrrhus. The moment you make your way into the capital you're almost instantly shot down and have to gain ground away from the landingcraft. After taking out a bridge filled with Helghast mounted MGS you make you're way to a floodgate. The floodgate opens to show two Helghast APCs coming out, but the doors closing behind them. I died plenty of times since the rocket launcher you're given doesn't really harm the APCs that much, and usually I could only take out one of them.
The color pallete of Killzone 2 is much more limited to the point I had plenty of trouble distingushing ISA from Helghast. This ended up getting me dominated since the Helghast could get close and start shooting me in the face.
After a few tries and wiping out the APC Helghast me and an NPC made our way to the nearby warehouse that had the controls to the floodgate. Obviously this place was crawling with Helghast, and after flushing out the first wave with grenade spam and blowing up explosive barrels(which seem always apparent in shooters), I had to give the NPC cover so he could hack the gate controls.
Let me tell you something, when the NPC says "Cover me...", that means you're usually always going to have to fight a big wave of baddies by yourself, and that is what exactly happened. This wave of Helghast was a pain since it was hard getting around their cover without exposing myself to their fire. While I survived most of it, it was irrating that the Helghast were blind-firing(the military way of shooting gangsta in cover" and were still able to get some good hits on me.
The controls hacked we left the warehouse, and the demo ended there. While the demo ending wasn't a bad thing, this demo seemed nowhere as long as the KZ3 demo.
CLOSING COMMENTS:
This demo was pretty frustrating compared to the KZ3 demo, and while the graphics were pretty nice, the limited pallete posed a problem for me distinguishing Friendly for Foe.
In my Opinion?
8.5 Out of 10
Like the Killzone 3 demo, you're pretty much already put into a combat situation, and the Helghast are already trying to kill you. Cover is even more key in this demo as the Helghast are coming from 180 degrees so you need to keep your head down at all times.
The story of this demo is that you're pretty much "sieging" the Helghast capital of Pyrrhus. The moment you make your way into the capital you're almost instantly shot down and have to gain ground away from the landingcraft. After taking out a bridge filled with Helghast mounted MGS you make you're way to a floodgate. The floodgate opens to show two Helghast APCs coming out, but the doors closing behind them. I died plenty of times since the rocket launcher you're given doesn't really harm the APCs that much, and usually I could only take out one of them.
The color pallete of Killzone 2 is much more limited to the point I had plenty of trouble distingushing ISA from Helghast. This ended up getting me dominated since the Helghast could get close and start shooting me in the face.
After a few tries and wiping out the APC Helghast me and an NPC made our way to the nearby warehouse that had the controls to the floodgate. Obviously this place was crawling with Helghast, and after flushing out the first wave with grenade spam and blowing up explosive barrels(which seem always apparent in shooters), I had to give the NPC cover so he could hack the gate controls.
Let me tell you something, when the NPC says "Cover me...", that means you're usually always going to have to fight a big wave of baddies by yourself, and that is what exactly happened. This wave of Helghast was a pain since it was hard getting around their cover without exposing myself to their fire. While I survived most of it, it was irrating that the Helghast were blind-firing(the military way of shooting gangsta in cover" and were still able to get some good hits on me.
The controls hacked we left the warehouse, and the demo ended there. While the demo ending wasn't a bad thing, this demo seemed nowhere as long as the KZ3 demo.
CLOSING COMMENTS:
This demo was pretty frustrating compared to the KZ3 demo, and while the graphics were pretty nice, the limited pallete posed a problem for me distinguishing Friendly for Foe.
In my Opinion?
8.5 Out of 10
Thursday, June 30, 2011
KILLZONE 3: Single Player Demo Review
After constantly remembering how awesome the KZ3 beta was despite a small setback(the ravage moaning), I decided to break down and finally play the KZ3 Single Player Demo.
Just like the beta, the game starts up with a calm yet awesome opening scene, and once you get to the menu itself, you can't help but think "This game is gonna be awesome!".
The demo comes with a Campaign and Co-op Campaign, but since I had nobody to play with(since my bro would kill me if he found out I played the demo), I was forced to play just the Campaign.
Now, this demo doesnt start off with you just sitting in a calm place with being able to take in your surroundings, no. They instantly at the beginning have you on a landing craft swirling around the icy bases of the Helghast, and you're pretty much already given the situation of "kill or be killed".
Even though this initially caught me off-guard, it only took me a few seconds to calibrate my senses and start mowing down death upon the Helghast, and quite interestingly attack the weakspots of their mini-bases that ended up in the collapse of them into the icy water. Now, while all this is happening I couldn't help but notice the graphics were so good that I was like "This is a game?". I wouldn't be far from the truth that while the game runs in 720p, that the graphics themselves speak of 1080p...or above!
Since one of my friends asked about what the story was behind Killzone, the mission at hand was to rescue one of your ISA comrades who has become a POW of the Helghast, and that the Helghast were shipping in POWs to this icy part of Helghan. After you're done sending Helghast to their icy-like watery graves. You're landing craft is shot down and for a few minutes your character and buddy have to take on the Helghast on foot. I was a little disoriented at that point but after a few minutes found myself figuring out which way to go and where the Helghast were coming from. After killing a few of them I still couldn't help but see the visuals and think "Not even real-life looks this good".
After making our way into a shipwreck I found myself fighting jetpacked Helghast, that while were a pain to fight (one of them tried to pull a Kamikaze by slamming him and his jetpack for a final blast at me), We were "rescued" but my character opted in to use one of the Helghan jetpacks for himself. This part of the story was pretty much that the AA guns of the Helghast were mowing down landingcraft, so it was my job by jetpack to fly in low and demo-charge the gun.
While making my way onto the platform that had the AA gun, it took quite awhile to get used to the jetpack controls, and you're pretty much cannon fodder if the Helghast fire at you while airborne. This pretty much forced me to hit and run with the jetpack before all of them were dead and I could safely plant the charge, which was confusing since the icon wasn't all that apparent and you had to tilt the PS3 controller in an interactive "arming the charge" mini-game. The charge set I was able quickly set it off and I was like "that was cool". But the demo didn't stop there...
Thinking the demo charging of the AA Gun was the end of the demo, I was surprised to see that it took me to another cinematic where we landed on a much larger macro-base spewing with Helghast. Cover was key as me and my character buddy flanked to the left into a building that was crawling with Helghast, after flushing them out with grenade spam and kills I made my way to the top of the complex, our goal to use one of their stationery homing rocket launchers. Before doing this though I found a mini-sniper rifle (mini-sniper because it was semi-automatic and the scope showed enemies that were only so far, but it came in real handy since I could still attack enemies that were in my face.
Having made our way to the rocket launchers, it should of been obvious that a tank would appear to show off its awesome boom-bashing power. That and also having destroyed several targets my character buddy wanted to bring the gun with us, while confused about this I found out the stationery rocket launcher can also be put in portable mode. So I took it with me and started blowing up several targets that it homed in on, the only issue is I kept having to go back to the ammo box to resupply. After several minutes and destroying yet another Helghast tank we made our way to the other side of the base to flush them out.
After doing this I made my way into the base with another cinematic, the cinematic had my character speaking to the Helghast commander through the Helghast gas mask, and lying that the ISA were destroyed. The scene ended there with a trailer signifying the actual end of the demo.
CLOSING COMMENTS:
This demo was pretty much shooter heaven in how it looked and played with only a couple of issues I found with the jetpack disadvantage and having to constantly resupply the mobile mode of the rocket launcher. Besides that the demo is pretty much perfect.
In my Opinion?
9.2 Out of 10
Just like the beta, the game starts up with a calm yet awesome opening scene, and once you get to the menu itself, you can't help but think "This game is gonna be awesome!".
The demo comes with a Campaign and Co-op Campaign, but since I had nobody to play with(since my bro would kill me if he found out I played the demo), I was forced to play just the Campaign.
Now, this demo doesnt start off with you just sitting in a calm place with being able to take in your surroundings, no. They instantly at the beginning have you on a landing craft swirling around the icy bases of the Helghast, and you're pretty much already given the situation of "kill or be killed".
Even though this initially caught me off-guard, it only took me a few seconds to calibrate my senses and start mowing down death upon the Helghast, and quite interestingly attack the weakspots of their mini-bases that ended up in the collapse of them into the icy water. Now, while all this is happening I couldn't help but notice the graphics were so good that I was like "This is a game?". I wouldn't be far from the truth that while the game runs in 720p, that the graphics themselves speak of 1080p...or above!
Since one of my friends asked about what the story was behind Killzone, the mission at hand was to rescue one of your ISA comrades who has become a POW of the Helghast, and that the Helghast were shipping in POWs to this icy part of Helghan. After you're done sending Helghast to their icy-like watery graves. You're landing craft is shot down and for a few minutes your character and buddy have to take on the Helghast on foot. I was a little disoriented at that point but after a few minutes found myself figuring out which way to go and where the Helghast were coming from. After killing a few of them I still couldn't help but see the visuals and think "Not even real-life looks this good".
After making our way into a shipwreck I found myself fighting jetpacked Helghast, that while were a pain to fight (one of them tried to pull a Kamikaze by slamming him and his jetpack for a final blast at me), We were "rescued" but my character opted in to use one of the Helghan jetpacks for himself. This part of the story was pretty much that the AA guns of the Helghast were mowing down landingcraft, so it was my job by jetpack to fly in low and demo-charge the gun.
While making my way onto the platform that had the AA gun, it took quite awhile to get used to the jetpack controls, and you're pretty much cannon fodder if the Helghast fire at you while airborne. This pretty much forced me to hit and run with the jetpack before all of them were dead and I could safely plant the charge, which was confusing since the icon wasn't all that apparent and you had to tilt the PS3 controller in an interactive "arming the charge" mini-game. The charge set I was able quickly set it off and I was like "that was cool". But the demo didn't stop there...
Thinking the demo charging of the AA Gun was the end of the demo, I was surprised to see that it took me to another cinematic where we landed on a much larger macro-base spewing with Helghast. Cover was key as me and my character buddy flanked to the left into a building that was crawling with Helghast, after flushing them out with grenade spam and kills I made my way to the top of the complex, our goal to use one of their stationery homing rocket launchers. Before doing this though I found a mini-sniper rifle (mini-sniper because it was semi-automatic and the scope showed enemies that were only so far, but it came in real handy since I could still attack enemies that were in my face.
Having made our way to the rocket launchers, it should of been obvious that a tank would appear to show off its awesome boom-bashing power. That and also having destroyed several targets my character buddy wanted to bring the gun with us, while confused about this I found out the stationery rocket launcher can also be put in portable mode. So I took it with me and started blowing up several targets that it homed in on, the only issue is I kept having to go back to the ammo box to resupply. After several minutes and destroying yet another Helghast tank we made our way to the other side of the base to flush them out.
After doing this I made my way into the base with another cinematic, the cinematic had my character speaking to the Helghast commander through the Helghast gas mask, and lying that the ISA were destroyed. The scene ended there with a trailer signifying the actual end of the demo.
CLOSING COMMENTS:
This demo was pretty much shooter heaven in how it looked and played with only a couple of issues I found with the jetpack disadvantage and having to constantly resupply the mobile mode of the rocket launcher. Besides that the demo is pretty much perfect.
In my Opinion?
9.2 Out of 10
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Killzone Liberation: Soundtrack Review
The end of binge listening to the gody, gifted, and masterful soundtracks of the hit gaming series Killzone, I am pretty much "well-fed" in epicness and emotional masterpieces. Killzone Liberation IS AS good as it gets on PSP, when compared to other hit titles like MGS: Peace Walker. Continuing the composers live-quality movie-like symphony of pure evil, evil never sounded so good. I wouldn't be far from the truth that the Helghan March-isms in this OST would make even Darth Vader cry for his mommy. Who needs him when well....you have a whole army of badbutt Neo Nazis that pretty much have "The Thing" in evil clothing fashion...shoo Vader...shoo!
Enough with the ranting, people will find PLENTY of Keiki effecting, Valkyria blaring, MGS beat bashing glory in this soundtrack that dishes out the epic and takes no names. While the tracks are short, the Helghan theme makes up for this IMO with nothing but the feeling of Nazism to the max. The quality of this OST matches that of KZ2 in my book since this composer has clearly maxed out the PSP to contend to its stronger, more advanced brother--the PS3. Like I said before, anyone who calls them a sci-fi buff who fancies themself a video game music fan, get this soundtrack...NOW!
In my Opinion?
9.6 out of 10
Enough with the ranting, people will find PLENTY of Keiki effecting, Valkyria blaring, MGS beat bashing glory in this soundtrack that dishes out the epic and takes no names. While the tracks are short, the Helghan theme makes up for this IMO with nothing but the feeling of Nazism to the max. The quality of this OST matches that of KZ2 in my book since this composer has clearly maxed out the PSP to contend to its stronger, more advanced brother--the PS3. Like I said before, anyone who calls them a sci-fi buff who fancies themself a video game music fan, get this soundtrack...NOW!
In my Opinion?
9.6 out of 10
Killzone(1): Original Soundtrack REVIEW
Moving along on the binge listening and yet continuing on to another Killzone soundtrack, I can't help but realize that I should of known of these soundtracks sooner. Killzone(1) While being an older game shows that even the aging PS2 can compete in live-quality movie-like masterpieces, and well...The Helghan March sounds pretty much as awesome as the KZ2 rendition. That said, this soundtrack was more self-aware of how awesome the march tune was compared to KZ2, but like the latter lacked the variety of it's successor. This soundtrack is pretty much one of the pinnacles of PS2 music-awesome, right along up there with the likes of Soul Calibur, Ace Combat, and MGS. The only regret is the tracks are quite short compared to its successors.
People will find John Williams-isms in this track, but more so on the WWII/Indiana Jones front than on the Star Wars/Sci-fi front. This is completely understandable as the original was just a future rendition of World War II, as anyone knows at this point that the Helghast are pretty much Nazis, as you can hear in my other reviews. Anyone wanting to listen to a masterful yet somewhat to be desired piece of soundtrack, look no further than the original Killzone's original soundtrack.
In my Opinion?
9.3 out of 10.
People will find John Williams-isms in this track, but more so on the WWII/Indiana Jones front than on the Star Wars/Sci-fi front. This is completely understandable as the original was just a future rendition of World War II, as anyone knows at this point that the Helghast are pretty much Nazis, as you can hear in my other reviews. Anyone wanting to listen to a masterful yet somewhat to be desired piece of soundtrack, look no further than the original Killzone's original soundtrack.
In my Opinion?
9.3 out of 10.
Killzone 2: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game REVIEW
I decided to a little binge listening and head straight to the previous Killzone soundtrack--Killzone 2. This soundtrack is filled with masterpieces like Killzone 3, though it lacks the same amount of variety of Killzone 3. While this isn't a bad thing I enjoyed the Killzone 3 OST more because of this, as Killzone 2 seemed more hesitant in copying big names like John Williams.
The OST is still practically perfect if you like Lost Planet/MGS/Ace Combat mixes with beautiful epic pieces, and the theme is played throughout. Though not as repeated as with Killzone 3, as if the composer like others wanted you to finish the game to hear the good stuff. While this is completely understandable, I tend to enjoy games more that give you the epic themes throughout the entire game. That said, this is another OST that Sci-fi epic buffs must hear during their lifetime. Also the "The Second Helghan March" and the following songs that use its melodies are pretty powerful in putting you in the grips of Nazism. That and I love how the composer used the theme piece from the E3 2005 CG Demo as if to give closure to people who loved that epic yet fake piece of cinema. Also the End Credits would make John Williams cry with envy.
In my Opinion?
9.6 OUT OF 10
The OST is still practically perfect if you like Lost Planet/MGS/Ace Combat mixes with beautiful epic pieces, and the theme is played throughout. Though not as repeated as with Killzone 3, as if the composer like others wanted you to finish the game to hear the good stuff. While this is completely understandable, I tend to enjoy games more that give you the epic themes throughout the entire game. That said, this is another OST that Sci-fi epic buffs must hear during their lifetime. Also the "The Second Helghan March" and the following songs that use its melodies are pretty powerful in putting you in the grips of Nazism. That and I love how the composer used the theme piece from the E3 2005 CG Demo as if to give closure to people who loved that epic yet fake piece of cinema. Also the End Credits would make John Williams cry with envy.
In my Opinion?
9.6 OUT OF 10
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Killzone 3: The Official Soundtrack REVIEW
A little birdie told me once that the best shooters have well...the best music to lighten the load of their grim storylines and sometimes only acceptable voice acting. Killzone 3 goes above and beyond that call with a mixture of inspirational music-ideals with solid heart-straining orchestra pieces and rock-out beat-bashing tunes. This symphony of different yet harmoniously entangled styles makes up the Killzone 3 OST, and the soundtrack is practically filled with only masterpieces.
While I can't really name the individual tracks in this review, I have to say that each style, piece, and beat is practically perfect to what it's emphasizing, the scene which the soundtrack states, and the soundtrack practically makes you visualize Killzone 3 through your brain, albeit to an epic score of practical movie-like perfection. Most people who are familiar with "Sci-fi epic" type media will find most of the soundtrack oozing with Star Wars and other epic pre-Killzone styles to bring you into the heart of battle. From slicing emotional strings to big booming trumpets, and to the big industry ear-popping drumming of the map tracks, I found myself playing the whole OST without pause and without break. A soundtrack not only satisfying to listen to, but to also surf and chat on the internet to.
I highly recommend this game OST (though it sounds straight from an actual movie) and to everyone who considers themselve a Sci-fi buff who yearns for epicness.
In my opinion?
9.8 OUT OF 10
While I can't really name the individual tracks in this review, I have to say that each style, piece, and beat is practically perfect to what it's emphasizing, the scene which the soundtrack states, and the soundtrack practically makes you visualize Killzone 3 through your brain, albeit to an epic score of practical movie-like perfection. Most people who are familiar with "Sci-fi epic" type media will find most of the soundtrack oozing with Star Wars and other epic pre-Killzone styles to bring you into the heart of battle. From slicing emotional strings to big booming trumpets, and to the big industry ear-popping drumming of the map tracks, I found myself playing the whole OST without pause and without break. A soundtrack not only satisfying to listen to, but to also surf and chat on the internet to.
I highly recommend this game OST (though it sounds straight from an actual movie) and to everyone who considers themselve a Sci-fi buff who yearns for epicness.
In my opinion?
9.8 OUT OF 10
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