Lots of Monkeys

inFamous for the PS3 is one of those games I think would work well as a movie.  I’ve been playing it non stop for a while now, and I’m pretty close to completing it, I think.  I’m actually going through and doing all the side missions.

In a twist of character, I’ve actually selected the side of not sending kittens to college, (read: evil) and doing pretty much everything that I can to look out for number one and screw everyone else.  Hostage situation?  Shoot the hostage!  Sorted!  (Thank you writers of SPEED the motion picture.)

Which is awesome.  The people actually throw rocks and try to kill me, which is really nothing more than an annoyance, but then that drives me to kill a couple out of sheer malice.  It’s like they say, fear leads to hate and hate leads to suffering.

Mainly theirs.

The game so far does a good job (it may be accidental) of making Cole’s fall believable.  He’s got these electric powers so they treat him like a freak and hate him for that.  He was at the epicenter of the explosion that caused the destruction of Empire City so they hate him for that.  He just succumbs to the hatred and starts down this path, the only path that he feels is available to him.  Even if it all just is in his mind.

Needless to say, for once I’m looking forward to playing the boy scout my next play through.  And it may be the case where I actually play the game more than once.

I realize that I did Flower a disservice.  I’ve just recently finished it and while I still don’t know what happened, I enjoyed the journey very much.  There were times when I was just filled with elation after discovering some new ability, or interaction with the landscape.  I can’t go into it too much without spoiling some of it.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with my purchase, and I’m glad that today’s consoles can provide this sort of an experience.  It would not have been possible without downloadable content and the opportunities that it provides to independent developers.

Rock Band excels at fulfilling the “hit button and get a pleasurable outcome” center of my brain.  There is altogether satisfying with getting together with your friends and pretending to play a song that you know.

When one of you fails, you all fail.  When you all succeed, it is a moment resplendent and glorious.  There is laughter and satisfaction and to a certain extent, accomplishment.

The mood altering combination of performing with friends, listening to music, flashing lights, coupled with the threat of failing together comes together to create an experience that resembles a piece of performance art, rather than the mainstream definition of a traditional video game.

Also, it is wicked awesome to rock out.

I didn’t really get into Killzone 2’s multiplayer until recently.

As befitting a game titled “Killzone 2” you are invariably and unregrettably placed into a zone where you are then encouraged to kill people.  It’s true, the title hides no secrets.  One can also deduce that it’s a sequel, if you scour the text carefully.

As a sequel, the game is definitely in that rare category where it excels in every way from its predecessor.  It is a remarkably polished title.  Even the loading screens are innovative, using the sixaxis controls to just barely tilt the image, so that you can see that it is a three dimensional diorama.  Killzone 2 has jumped a console generation in its journey.  It benefits from both better hardware and better design choices.

Visually, I was most impressed by the little details.  Other players would kick up dust as they run in some of the desert levels.  If there were enough people, I could not see through it until the wind blew it away or I waited for a moment for it to settle.  You can shoot nearly everything and see some form of damage on it.

Multiplayer matches are 32 player, well, let’s see.  You’re placing 32 people into a confined area, dividing them into teams and giving them firearms.  I think you can see how this pans out.  Initially,  this many players sounds overwhelming, but very quickly, I saw that they had designed the game with this in mind.

The way that Killzone 2 handles these large groups is with squads.  Joining a squad provides many benefits.  The most primary of which is the capability of spawning on top of the squad leader.  If you’re working with a decent squad leader, that person will generally wait for their squad and move as a unit to perform their objectives.  If they run into unexpected resistance they’ll try to stay alive as long as possible and wait for the squad members to spawn back in.  Additionally, squads get their own channel, at least on the radar, my squad members were clearly marked so I knew where they were.

Overall, it’s a fun distraction from the single player portion of the game, which I have simply walked away from.  I really disliked one of the characters and I really just lost interest since he was there for so long.

But at least the multiplayer is good, for now.  Unlocking additional classes and abilities will probably keep me coming back, at least for the next couple of weeks or so on the weekends.