After 12 years of waiting, another 12 hours or so shouldn’t be that bad of a lineup to wade through. That’s where I’m planning on adventuring at midnight tonight. (That’s midnight PDT so it will be 3am here.) I’ve always played as a melee character in these types of games but I think this time I should try and switch it up. Monk or Demon Hunter perhaps? We shall see.
If anyone else is planning on spending a couple of hours killing demons in Sanctuary, you know where you’ll find me.
A new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises soared its way onto the Internet this week. Needless to say, the more I see of Christopher Nolan’s work on the upcoming Batman film, the more it’s turning into one of the few film releases of 2012 I’m legitimately excited for. Even then, there’s a nitpick that I couldn’t help but notice – Tom Hardy’s Bane character and the unmuffled ADR as heard in the trailer. It might not be obvious to casual viewers but it doesn’t take a film major to figure out there has been some sort of vocal alteration done to these Bane clips that weren’t so obvious in the older trailer of the same film.
You could argue that this creative decision was made as a result of the character’s dialogue being a little difficult to understand. Personally (and I expect many to disagree) an indistinguishable villain who none other than the hero can understand could have been a nice throwback to the Han and Chewie comedy bit from the original Star Wars trilogy. A colleague of mine, via a Facebook comment, asked me if I would rather have Bane sound like the Pyro from Team Fortress 2. ”Why the hell not?” I thought.
Anyways, I digress. Not all masked villains were fortunate enough to share this miscommunication error. The new trailer reveal has partly inspired me to put together a list of characters who still showed their chops even though their faces had something to hide.
In no particular order, here is my breakdown of some of entertainment’s best-sounding masked characters:
Char Aznable
First sighting: Mobile Suit Gundam
An ace mobile suit pilot and most famously known around anime circles and Gundam fans alike by his alias, the “Red Comet.” A real snake of a character who’s in it just for himself. His rivalry with Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray is the stuff that anime legend is made of.
Darth Vader
First Sighting: Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope)
Vader – this guy used to give me nightmares as a kid. That unmistakable breathing, James Earl Jones’s voice, and a blatant disregard for those officers serving under him makes him one of the most recognizable faces from film. The prequel trilogy might not have given this character as much justice as he deserves but things change once the helmet goes on.
The Mask
First Sighting: The Mask (Yes, the Jim Carrey film.)
There’s not much to say about the lime-faced Mask character that make the phrases “SSSsssomebody stop me!” and “SSSsssmokin!” part of early 90s pop culture.
The Phantom
First Sighting: The Phantom of the Opera
This one’s been featured in many plays, novels, and films. It’s hard to pick out just one performance since out of the stage production and film versions both sound great. I will knock Gerard Butler’s Phantom down a peg because out of all the buildup his disfiguring scars had, the big reveal wasn’t all that disfiguring.
If I made a dollar off of every time I rolled my eyes and shrugged at the news of some new game-in-a-series announcement, I’d have enough money to kickstart a one-shot title of my own. I understand that sequels are an important part to any game studio’s resume. (Without a trademark hook, you can’t have a sequel. Without a sequel, the studio can’t fund their next project. Etc.)
But when a sequel starts feeling a little too familiar to the last game in your series, spidey sense is going to go off, eventually. There’s a particular “evil grin” moment that I can recall from Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 gameplay trailer. It featured a character named Vaas and his dubiously self-proclaimed “definition of insanity.” By Vaas’s reasoning, insanity is…”doing the exact same thing over and over and over again an’ thinking that this time, things will be different.” It’s a wonderful bit of dialogue and can be used to describe at least two franchises I can think of that need a serious kick in the pants. Without doing “different,” I’m afraid you’re stuck with a joke whose punchline stopped being funny some time ago.
That being said, it might surprise you that I won’t be giving the new God of War: Ascension announcement the old skeptic’s heave-ho. Why? Because I believe (and want would really like to see) Kratos’s masters break the grumpy bastard out of Sequel Syndrome City. Get him out there, man! Try something different!
As long as you’re staying true to the story and characters you’ve created with Kratos’s previous adventures, something along the lines of an action RPG or an open world action-adventure sounds all the more inviting.
Change is supposed to be good for you, right?
I’ll share an example with you: Halo Wars was enough of a departure from the first-person shooter series it belonged to that it was more than enough for a nay-sayer such as myself to play through. Was it a departure from a first-person shooter formula? Absolutely! A bastardization of the Halo universe? Not really.
See, a departure from the original game’s roots doesn’t have to be an abomination, as long as it’s something that makes sense within the walls the game’s world has created. (Halo - a shooter set in a sci-fi setting where lots of vehicles, troops, and space aliens blow up. Is it possible strategy game formula? You don’t have to answer that because it makes total sense to me!)
What I don’t want to see is another button masher with a number of quick time events thrown in for good measure. It’s been done, I’m afraid. As enjoyable as murdering your textbooks on greek mythology might be, Kratos has been doing this for five games now.
I think it’s safe to say that he needs to start stepping his game up. If he doesn’t, then there’s more than enough room at the back of the line – right next to that other shooter.
Almost two weeks to the day of trilogy-capper, Mass Effect 3’s release, and I feel obliged to recognize it as some in some sort of “Game of the Year” capacity.
I realize that I’m preaching to the choir here, and I will be shocked if this game isn’t recognized with some kind of accolade – this is a given. What I want to do is something different, I want to nominate and recognize Commander Shepard’s final voyage as 2012’s answer to Dragon Age II; developed by Bioware, chalk-full of solid ideas, but not quite what we were expecting as a conclusion.
Due to technical difficulties with the 360 console I began my Jane Shepard’s journey on, I chose to re-make my character and play on the PC. It took a moment to re-orient myself with the controls but once I had done so, playing through Mass Effect 3 became an experience I couldn’t keep myself away from.
It certainly looked the most polished out of the three and I loved how the sense of urgency and emotional connection was ramped up to include the galaxy’s different races, their plight, your crew, and the ones you left behind.
Even when playing as a “new character,” I loved how easy it was to get wrapped up in a war that I thought would lead to the events of the Alamo in space.
But that never happened.
Instead, my Shepard was forced to choose between one of two endings that play out almost exactly the same way minus a colour and scenery variation.
(SPOILERS HILIGHT TO READ: I chose “red” but the explosions only disabled the Reapers on Earth, there were no skeletal explosions on-screen. The Normandy still crashed on that jungle planet but curiously enough it cut to credits just as the door opened. My Shepard’s essentially dead and I didn’t get to see who made it out alive in the end – thanks ending writers.)
When Bioware promised us a satisfying conclusion to Shepard’s story, and an ending that will surprise – they sure as hell weren’t joking.
The outstanding issues you had with the Illusive Man were resolved without incident. That must have been the “satisfactory conclusion” someone mentioned.
The last few cutscenes on the other hand, were not what I had expected after three whole adventures with Shepard and friends. That was your “surprise.”
This was the first game I played that literally came apart during the last mission objective – truly an accomplishment that will be remembered. Take my advice and wait for some sort of Collector’s (get it?) edition that will undoubtedly contain all three adventures, and all downloadable content. There’s still enough room for a sarcastic roll of the eyes before I run off. That’s it for now.
Tim out.
I feel torn. And it’s made even worse by the fact that I’m working as a freelance writer without a substantial budget. I write these things because I want to and it’s a pain in the rear when you have to make a choice between two niche titles.
Get this – both Yakuza: Dead Souls and Tales of Graces F are launching on the same day. Normally, this wouldn’t phase someone who picks and chooses mainstream titles but for someone like me – it’s a tough call!
Yakuza’s always been a Playstation favorite of mine and the Tales series has always kept a special place in my heart for its anime-styled storytelling. Both are niche titles that will likely go unnoticed by the year’s bigger guns so it comes down to someone like me to be fair and critical of at least one of the two. But which one!? That is the question I’m trying to answer unsuccessfully.
Zombies are in right now, so it’s only appropriate we see something like Dead Souls lurking about around this time.
On the flip side, it’s been too long since I embraced more eye-candied anime goodness in an RPG.
(Final Fantasy XIII-2 does not count and you can see my thoughts on that one over at Toronto Thumbs.)
I’ll most likely end up settling this debate with a coin toss but I won’t spoil the surprise until I have something ready. Bare with me.
PS
Any suggestions would be most welcome in helping me pick out one of the two.
It’s Extra Large Super Bowl 6 weekend at the time of this update – rejoice! I am still alive and well.
I won’t lie, I’ve been hella busy with other non Net-related projects but I’ve decided to start a little experiment here. I won’t say much…but I will keep you guys posted. Let’s just hope it works.
So what have you missed in this past month…a Resident Evil announcement, Xbox sequel rumors, speculations and one of the best tribute games EVER!
Here’s an excerpt from the review I wrote for the wonderful guys at TorontoThumbs.com sometime in January-ish.
Abobo’s Big Adventure:
“If 2011 showed us anything, it’s that indie developers are a force to be reckoned with. Cinderella stories like last year’s Minecraft and Bastion are two fantastic examples of what can happen when an idea festers and turns into a full-blown playable thing that takes the masses by storm. People talk, word gets around, and suddenly you feel as if you’re on top of the world.
It’s the same feeling that Roger Barr and the rest of Team Bobo should be feeling right about now with the launch of their flash game, Abobo’s Big Adventure. Spoilers aside, it is arguably the best flash game I have ever played and an incredible tribute to one of game culture’s most influential consoles – the Nintendo Entertainment System…” For the rest, you can head on over here.
I’ve also been donated a PS3 copy of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and frankly, I’ve been having very mixed feelings about it. It is times more enjoyable than XIII was but there are some serious issues here that needed to be addressed before anyone thought it would be a good idea to storm the Square Enix boardroom with the proposal documents for the sequel.
There’s going to be a review to follow sometime in the future. And from the looks of it, it’s going to be a long one.
Brace yourselves.
For the purposes of a clearer explanation, here’s an impromptu list that I would like to recognize as some other hits and misses from 2011 – there will be some overlap with Spike TV’s awards as well as a few surprises. Here we go.
Most dissapointing sequel of 2011: Dragon Age II
Talk about wasted potential. I mean, here’s a game that had so much prowess riding behind it. (A sequel to one of the best role-playing games of this generation! Come on!) So much, in fact, that it fell flat on its face. Race no longer played a part in your origin story like it did in the first game. You never really felt like you were crafting a story about “you” in the game – just some bloke named Hawke and his crew of unlikable expendables. His origin story remained the same regardless of what class you chose and combat came down to a case of simple skill spams and fast attack combos. At least Bioware improved the inventory management sections of the game.
Best PC exclusive of 2011: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Not only does this game look great it also proves that the PC can still hold its own as a game machine while telling a an open-ended, mature, and thought provoking story – a story where not everything is as simple as a straight line between good vs evil.
While the main character, Geralt, exists as a result from his own origin story and previous adventures, his incarnation at the end of The Witcher 2’s events is completely dependant on the player.
There are a set number of skill points to spend through the course of the adventure and either of the two political powers you side with come with their own point of view of the same story. Replays of the adventure are not mandatory, but, if you find yourself asking “what if Geralt…” there’s more than enough to make you go back and pick that other option.
Best Wii exclusive of 2011 that is not a Zelda game: Xenoblade Chronicles
Lets face it, if it weren’t for the magic of the Internet or the boys over at Operation Rainfall, this game could have just been passed off as just another JRPG and forgotten under a mountain of everything else from that country. Having played the English version due to a trip to Europe over the summer, I can say with full confidence that this game is anything but just another JRPG.
It combines the battle, side-questing, and exploration elements of most MMORPGs with a story by Xenogears mastermind, Tetsuya Takahashi, into a bizzaro prequel/sequel that could have just as well taken place in a parallel universe.
For a console that’s undoubtedly nearing the end of its lifespan, having another swansong title NOT be a trademark Nintendo property, this is a breath of fresh air. Fans will be content with its eventual stateside release.
Best puzzle game of 2011: Portal 2
There’s not much to say about Portal 2 that hasn’t been said already. Give it a weekend rental and you’ll understand why I had enough fun with this game to include it under two award headings. It makes you think, teaches you game physics AND it takes place in a first-person camera perspective with a gun glued at the end. Shocking.
If that’s not a case for a winner I don’t know what is.
Best technical achievement of 2011: L.A. Noire
I think it’s safe to write this game off as the next level of motion capture. While the animations weren’t perfect the performances were on the money. Sure, it didn’t come out as the shining example of perfection we were anticipating but it took place in one of my favorite time periods and told a detective caper reminiscent of those nostalgic adventure games of yore. It was a very enjoyable 20-plus hour ride and picking out TV actors you’ve seen before was a real treat.
Best trilogy capper in 2011: Gears of War 3
The Gears franchise isn’t dead, that much is fact. But out of all number of 3s released this year Gears of War 3 gets the nod for topping off Marcus and Co’s story with an ending that satisfied but still left plenty of opportunities for the franchise to grow.
Most disappointing launch of 2011: 3DS
A perfect example of good things coming to patient people. The system is currently at a steal of a price and the library has grown into something formidable but who remembers the first few rocky weeks of the 3DS’s launch?
The asking price – ridiculous! The launch title offerings – laughable!
All in a handheld system that skipped out on certain features until its first major firmware update and even came with the infamous black screen of death right out of the box!
Best LOLs in a game from 2011: Portal 2
This recognition is presented in conjunction with “Best Puzzle Game.” Along with being an entertaining puzzle game Portal 2 also came with so many memorable LOLs it’s hard to pick a single favorite character.
The game from 2011 that should have been a movie: Uncharted 3
At first I was considering placing L.A. Noire in this category. Then I played Uncharted 3. This game had everything a popcorn munching action flick could ask for – diabolical villians, cheeky one-liners, and story that unraveled itself through the course of the campaign. It also begs a thought-provoking question; Why are game stories so much more effective in their own mediums while movies based off of video games leave a lot more to be desired?
The Best bad game of 2011: Dead Island
This is taken into account before installing the recent patch that supposedly fixes a lot of the game’s problems. The family oriented trailer mislead us into thinking this game was going in one direction while it snuck out the back and gave us “Who Do You Voodoo” and a cover art change in some regions. I feel like I’ve been hoodwinked by this game and you should too.
