PES 2011 first impressions

After over 400 hours of service, a sad moment is upon me.  However, the sadness is only fleeting as I retire my much-loved copy of PES 2010 and replace it with its shiny new successor. Just like they always do, Konami have promised sweeping changes to the Pro Evo formula with thousands of new animations, improved 360° dribbling, online Master League and so on. Unlike previous iterations on the current-gen consoles, the promise seems to ring true on this occasion. PES 2011 is something of a revelation.

Broadly speaking, the features are the same as last year’s effort with Exhibition, Champions League, Become A Legend and Master League all present and correct. Konami have managed to scoop up a few more licenses, so you can play a whole tournament of the Copa Libertadores (the South American Champions League) and participate in the UEFA Super Cup. Sadly, most of the teams from the Libertadores are exclusive to that mode and are unavailable to play as in Exhibition mode.

If you haven’t played the demo, the new on-field action will come as something of a shock. The pace of the game is slower and more measured and passing is now controlled by a power bar. Pass direction is hardly assisted, meaning lazy prods in the vague direction of the nearest player will go out of play rather than directly to feet. At first this was frustrating, but soon you realise that you can pass the ball wherever you want, allowing the you to play the through ball that you have in your mind’s eye.

I have also noticed a greater emphasis on physicality and player strength. People like Didier Drogba are almost unstoppable with the ball whereas someone like Theo Walcott can be easily muscled off it. To combat this, defending has been changed, concentrating on precise tackles rather than senseless hounding of the R1+X variety. Player likenesses have also been updated and improved. The top teams will have ‘face scans’ of all their players. I was surprised to find Laurent Koscielny’s face staring back at me during the UEFA Champions League anthem.

Other random observations include:

• Referees are a bit inconsistent. They seem to penalise most slide tackles, even when the ball is won. But there are hardly any fouls called for over-aggressive pressure.
• The ball seems to swerve more, allowing for some spectacular dipping long-rangers.
• Players like a flying scissor kick volley when the ball is headed out from a corner.
• The game shows replays for EVERY foul, complete with slightly dodgy motion blur effect. This can get tedious.
• The new menus are very nice.
• The formation screen now includes Football Manager style drag-and-drop for greater precision.
• The PES shop has returned! You can buy whimsical hairstyles, balls, stadium sounds and more.
• In edit mode, you can import your edit data from PES 2010.

It will take time to adapt fully to the new style of play in PES 2011 but first impressions are very promising. What’s more, I haven’t even dived into the time-sink that is Master League.

Modern day icons: Metal Gear Solid

Along with Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid is one of the games that best defined the original PlayStation. Hideo Kojima’s stealth/action masterpiece combined cutting-edge (for the time) graphics, an involving plot and epic set-pieces to create the most immersive film-like gaming experience ever seen. The game received stellar reviews and became a monster hit, spawning a much-loved franchise across numerous platforms.

So what exactly made Metal Gear Solid such a great game? For me, it can be broken down into 3 main areas: the gameplay, the character of Solid Snake and the sky-high production values.

At its heart, Metal Gear Solid is a stealth game, where the objective is to infiltrate a terrorist base and neutralise the threat they pose to the real world. The game encourages you to avoid combat, particularly early on, as Snake has limited health and poor weapons. The game utilises the wonders of 3D(!) and a fixed camera to give you a good idea of your immediate surroundings. The player has to evade guards and security cameras, which are helpfully given field of vision ‘cones’ on the radar. Guards can be lured out of place by knocking on walls, prompting a question mark to appear over their heads and an exclamation of “Huh? WUHWAZZATNOISE?”.

Snake does have various tools at his disposal to help him avoid detection including his radar, binoculars, cigarettes and cardboard boxes. Yes, that does say cigarettes and cardboard boxes. The game does actually explain to you that the smoke will make laser traps visible (fair enough I guess) while also reducing your health. The cardboard box on the other hand is a bit of a joke item which can actually help you sneak past the guards by hiding inside it and moving when they aren’t looking. This is helped immensely by the fact that the guards have the memory span of  goldfish, leading to much hilarity.

As fun as it is to mess with the soldiers, the game would be nothing without a good plot and Metal Gear Solid has an excellent one, full of manipulation, betrayal and double-crossing. The plot is complex but never confusing, unlike later entries in the series which tend to be stupidly convoluted.

NOTE: Major plot spoilers in the next paragraph!

A terrorist group led by Snake’s twin brother, Liquid, have taken control of a nuclear facility that houses a mech armed with a nuclear missile. Snake is called in to infiltrate the base and stop the terrorists and is given the tools to deactivate the launch sequence if needed. However, he is manipulated by Liquid and his crew to activate the weapon, believing that he is disarming it, and so he has to destroy the mech before the missile is launched. The plot also touches on genetics and the futility of war, while leaving open the possibility of sequel(s).

Solid Snake is one of the best characters ever created for a game, probably because he is such a bad-ass. He is harder than John McClane, Jack Bauer and James Bond combined and sounds even more no-nonsense, thanks to a great voice-over by David Hayter. Snake is so bad-ass he takes down a tank, helicopter and a nuclear-capable mech in this game alone. Once you learn even more about his past (and lineage), he becomes even more of a legend in the player’s eyes.

It’s the little touches that really make Metal Gear Solid such a fans’ favourite. The fact that you have to look on the CD case to get the contact details for Meryl, how hiding in a cardboard box before getting pissed on by baby wolves makes your progress easier, the way people get annoyed if you call them repeatedly. Then you can escape prison by using ketchup and faking your own death or hiding under the bed.

Probably the game’s best innovation was the boss fight with Psycho Mantis. Mantis is a gas mask wearing telepath in a gimp suit and is pretty handy at psychokinesis. His  telepathic ability extends to him being able to read your actions via your controller port and so he is invulnerable to your attacks. Not only that, but he is able to pick up on how often you have saved and will comment on your cautiousness or recklessness accordingly. Best of all, Mantis uses his psychic ability to move your controller with his mind! Obviously this only works if you have a Dual Shock controller. This was the first time I ever encountered a game developer breaking the fourth wall and it made a lasting impression on me.

Apart from its sequels (including the superlative MGS3) Metal Gear Solid has had a strong influence on other media. A comic and graphic novel were made, and a movie is rumoured to be in the works. My favourite example of Metal Gear Solid outside of the PlayStation games has to be the incredible parody on gigaville which is both accurate and hilarious.

Metal Gear Solid was a pioneering game that turned into a wildly successful series and it still is one of the best games ever made. If you haven’t played it yet, I urge you to do so. It’s available on the PSN at a bargain price so there really is no excuse.

Final Fantasy XIII review

After the best part of 50 hours, I have finally completed Final Fantasy XIII. Here are my thoughts on the most controversial Final Fantasy (FF) to date.

Graphics

As I mentioned in my previews, FF13 has some of the best graphics ever seen on a console, especially on PS3. Whether you are admiring the breathtaking vistas like Lake Bresha and Nautlilus Park, or the smaller details like the character status screens, the game has a very high level of visual polish. This is especially evident in the cutscenes, rendered using the in-game engine or pre-rendered CGI.

Sound

The FF series has always had a reputation for having fantastic music. From surprisingly catchy battle themes to sweeping orchestral movements, the music in FF13 always manages to fit the situation. My Hands by Leona Lewis was used as the main song in English-speaking territories and is used during the closing scenes of the game. However, the voice acting was somewhat less successful. FF13’s mix of American, Australian and English (for the villains, natch) voice actors do their best but aren’t always totally believable. Most irritating of all must be Vanille’s constant squeaking, which must sound like a hamster during orgasm.

NOTE: There will be plot spoilers during the next section of the review.

Story

The FF franchise has always had epic storylines concerned with good vs. evil, revenge, redemption and the like. FF13 is no different as our motley crew of heroes bands together to overthrow a super-powerful evil and save the world. FF13 is set on Cocoon, a floating world where everyone’s lives are managed by benevolent robotic beings called fal’Cie. The fal’Cie sometimes employ people to do tasks which they are incapable of doing for themselves. So people are made l’Cie and given a Focus. They are branded and are given special powers in order to help complete their Focus. If they complete their Focus in time, they are rewarded with eternal life and turned into crystal. Otherwise, they turn into zombie-like creatures called Cie’th.

The game starts with the Purge, an ethnic cleansing which on the surface looks like a mass deportation of people who had come into contact with the lower world of Pulse. Cocoon and Pulse had been warring for centuries and so Pulse has gained a reputation as a source of evil in the world. Our heroes come into contact with a fal’Cie from Pulse, which gives them the Focus of destroying Cocoon. Along the way, they fight the fal’Cie who try to manipulate them and inevitably save the world. Overall, the plot has enough to immerse you into the game’s world and make you genuinely care about the fate of the universe.

Characters

For the most part, the characters of FF13 are interesting and their development is handled at a nice pace. The game’s protagonist Lightning wants to rescue her little sister Serah from being a l’Cie, as does Serah’s fiancé Snow. Sazh wants to get back his son Dajh, also a l’Cie, from the government troops that are holding him. Vanille and Fang are actually l’Cie from Pulse, who turned into Ragnarok and almost destroyed Cocoon during the war. Now, their guilt compels them to save Cocoon, even if it means they turn into l’Cie. However, there is a caveat, and its name is Hope. Hope is an annoying emo kid who wants to gain revenge on Snow, who was responsible for the death of Hope’s mum during the Purge. He continues to mope and whine for the whole first half of the game and fails again and again to confront Snow. Hope apart, the histories of the characters and the group dynamic work well to complement the main story arc.

Gameplay

Now for the meat and drink of any FF game: the battle and upgrade systems. Like FF12 there is a certain degree of control taken away from the player as you can choose to ‘auto-battle’ during fights. Only the party leader is controllable, with the other members’ actions automated depending on the characters’ roles. These roles are split into 6 categories: one for healing (medic), magic (ravager), buffs (synergist), debuffs (saboteur), attacking (commando) and defending (sentinel). You can switch between combinations of these roles (paradigms) mid-battle using L1 and this is the key to winning the tougher fights. On offense, you need to focus on the enemy’s  HP and its stagger bar, which makes them extremely vulnerable to attack when filled. This creates a delicate balance between stopping to heal and letting the stagger bar deplete and staying on the attack. Unlike previous FF games, your team are fully healed between battles but if your party leader dies it’s game over.

As for upgrading your abilities, there are no levels as such, just the Crystarium: a grid which you fill with experience gained to boost your HP, strength and magic and to learn new spells. Each character’s abilities are limited to their role, so you will need to invest in all the roles in the Crystarium to learn every ability. There is also an incredibly deep weapon levelling system, which includes synthesis and dismantling for components. It will take many more hours after the end of the game to max out your characters and items as the last level of the Crystarium is only unlocked after beating the final boss.

The game has been criticised for being extremely linear, but I don’t feel that the linearity detracted from the overall experience. Instead, it gives the game a heightened sense of purpose and allows the plot to unfold at a smooth pace. Unlike previous FF games, there is not much need for level grinding, though it does help. It is normally enough to just fight every enemy along the way to your objective.  The lack of towns and shops, though disappointing, doesn’t really become an issue as there is still plenty to explore, particularly on Gran Pulse. There aren’t any real sidequests to speak of in FF13, though there are 64 hunting missions available, similar to FF12.

Conclusions

Despite many fans’ protestations that it isn’t a ‘true’ Final Fantasy, FF13 has the same intoxicating mix of story, gameplay and levelling-up that makes the series great. The new battle system is a high-octane refinement of previous ones and on its own makes the game exhilarating to play. It was definitely worth the wait and I look forward to many more hours spent improving my characters and hunting monsters.

9/10

Final Fantasy XIII unboxing pics and first impressions

You’ve gotta love the Royal Mail. My pre-order came just now, a day before the official release. Here’s a few pictures of the box, manual and disc. Will update later with first impressions, most likely on Wednesday.

UPDATE: I have spent a few hours with the game and the first thing that jumps out at me is how good the graphics are. I would go as far as to say they surpass any game out there on Xbox 360 or PS3 (with the possible exception of Heavy Rain or God of War III). I couldn’t help but be amazed at the detail that has gone into the game. From impressive vistas to gorgeously animated character status screens, there is an unbelievable level of visual polish.

Combat is the fastest in the series and a new stagger mechanic has been introduced. Enemies who get hit consecutively have their stagger bar fill with each hit until they reach a staggered state. In this state, they become much more vulnerable and take more damage. The game encourages you to beat enemies quickly, with target times and 5-star ratings for efficiency in battle. There are 6 roles or ‘paradigms’ which your characters can switch between during battle. Paradigms include the usual types like ‘medic’ (healer) or ‘commando’ (brawler) and each has a unique set of abilities. There is a handy ‘auto’ battle function which selects for you a good action to perform at the time, similar to the Gambit system in XII but there is of course the option for manual override.

The plot has just started to get interesting after 3 hours and I look forward to ploughing many more hours into the game to see how it will unfold and of course learn all the abilities, get all the treasures, etc. Keep on the lookout for an in-depth review.

Final Fantasy: A retrospective

With the release of Final Fantasy XIII only a few days away, I thought it would be the perfect time to look back on the series so far. Since the days of the original PlayStation, I have been a massive Final Fantasy fan and I have devoted hundreds of hours to the franchise over the last 10+ years. Having sampled all the numbered games from VI-XII (even X-2) I have noticed that all these games share certain qualities which I believe makes them great.

Plot: I realise most of the Final Fantasy’s involve the same stereotypical, hackneyed cast of characters. Angsty, androgynous male lead? Check. Damsel in distress who in reality is much more mentally strong than we initially first thought? Check. Massive brawler who has a hero complex and likes to get in the way? You bet.  These motley crews usually come together to defeat some common enemy and save the world. So far, so standard. However, the often epic cutscenes and characteristically goofy Japanese humour combine to make the story much more than the sum of its parts.

Combat: The Final Fantasy series has long been renowned for its turn-based, tactical combat.  Defeating outlandishly proportioned enemies with magic or just a massive sword never gets old. Certain characters can even summon mythical beasts or gods to really lay the smack down on your adversaries. Accompanying a ‘summon’ is a ridiculously over the top movie which can last upwards of a minute. This is a particularly good one. Further depth is added by considering elemental weaknesses and positive and negative status effects such as poison.

RPG elements: If you are at all an addictive person, the RPG elements in Final Fantasy will steal away days of your life at a time. Levelling up your characters makes them stronger so they can fight even tougher enemies.  The real genius of the system is increasing the points needed to level up as your character’s level increased. This would result in the scenario where I would fight 100 monsters in a row so my character would level up from level 84 to level 85. Then there are all the spells to learn and items to collect, not to mention countless sidequests and treasure hunts to perform.

Sound and graphics: The Final Fantasy games have always had really good graphics and music. In fact, they were among the first to use FMV cutscenes in-game, which back in the days of the original PlayStation was no mean feat. The musical score complements the action on the screen at almost all times, and the recurring themes for characters or towns tend to be really catchy.

So can we expect to be wowed in the same way by Final Fantasy XIII? Early reviews indicate exhilarating combat, a decent plot and amazing presentation. However, the removal of the levelling system and linear structure of the game has caused unrest amongst fans. I have my own copy of the game on its way and I will post a full review soon to see if these things really matter.

In case you’re curious, here is my personal ranking of the Final Fantasy games, from favourite to least favourite. I don’t intend to start a flamewar but feel free to list your own.

IX>X>VII>VI>XII>VIII>X-2