Daily Loaf

Is Nathan Drake the best video game character of this console generation? I think he must be. Part Lara Croft and part Han Solo, the star of the Uncharted series for Playstion 3 brims over with goofy, roguish charm and is just the right amount of both badass and smarty-pants. Voice-acted to perfection by Nolan North (who you might remember from every other game in the world), Drake never grows tiresome, holding players’ interests from opening cut-scene to the make-you-want-to-smile/cry final lines of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Add in the equally alluring and well-acted characters of Elena, Chloe, and Sully combined with action and graphics worthy of a mega-budget movie, and you get one of the best games of the year.

Uncharted 2 is most definitely going for that blockbuster movie experience. In an age where open worlds and non-linear stories get all the glory, it seems almost quaint that Uncharted 2’s game play and story unfold along a very strict course. It has a complex story about Marco Polo’s lost fleet in Borneo and an ancient treasure hidden in the Himalayas to tell, and there’s no time for open world dilly dallying with side quests. Read the rest of this entry »

Video games allow us to simulate amazing feats and experience what it’s like to possess superhuman abilities, or to put it another way – to act like superheroes. Even games like Halo or Call of Duty owe as much to the super-heroic experience as they do to modern warfare. In real life, you can’t just shrug off a burst a machine gun fire by hiding behind a rock for five seconds. That’s a bona fide, Wolverine-style super power. It’s off then that there have been so many bad superhero games over the years. But we’re in a new golden age of such games, and if you read my Batman: Arkham Asylum review then you know it’s possible to make a superhero game that perfectly captures that comic book experience. Batman focused all its efforts on simulating one particular hero. The new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 takes the opposite approach, offering a whole comic book universe of heroes to choose from in an attempt to recreate the world of Marvel Comics in one giant epic tale.

Ultimate Alliance’s story is drawn straight from two recent cross-over events in Marvel Comics – the Secret War and The Civil War. The Civil War in particular strove to achieve some really interesting political and social relevance with the legal and moral issues facing superheroes mirroring real world debates about freedom vs. security in the age of terror. With Marvel’s heroes split into two camps – Pro-Government led by Iron-Man and Pro-Freedom led by Captain America – the high drama of brother against brother that only comes from a civil war played out in dark, dramatic fashion across the pages of dozens of different comic book titles. This game offers a pretty close (but not by any means exact) version of that story, leaving it to the players as to which side they will support. And of course since it’s a video game, you can always go back and play it again from the other side. Read the rest of this entry »

The GammaTesting.com guys dive deep into this ’90’s-era, comic-inspired, morally-devoid, open-world, super-dude action game and revel in the freedom of movement and wide range of epic combat options. Of course, no amount of car-throwing, copter-jacking or disease-tendrilizing can overcome brutal and blatantly manipulative boss fights, like the final one in Prototype.

Still, epic is good. Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep15: Prototype

Can a game succeed solely because of pop-culture fandom? Thankfully, Ghostbusters manages to capture enough ghost-wranglin’ gameplay that we don’t have to answer that question. We love the plot, find some fault with the repetitive — occasionally brutal — gameplay, and appreciate the light hand with Ghostbusters 2 fan service.

So, does bustin’ make the GammaTesting.com guys feel good? Sure. Good, but not great.

Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep14: Ghostbusters

This week, GammaTesting.com fails to forget to smash the state with Red Faction: Guerrilla. We love the entirely destructible environments, open world environment and varied gameplay. Almost as much as we love bashin’ stuff with our mining hammer. And, for the first time in a while, we actually felt like we were doing some good while playing a game. At least until Red Faction: Guerrilla 2 comes out, featuring us ruling Mars with an iron fist.

Listen up! (Then check out all the other Gamma Testing episodes.)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep13 – Red Faction: Guerrilla

Brian’s busy, so Rick and Matt run down inFAMOUS without the help of his dulcet tones. Still, their take on this open-world-third-person-super-dude-sim-with-lightning Playstation 3 exclusive barely suffers without him. Surprisingly.

The Hermanos Dakanos love the inFAMOUS gameplay so much, the dozens of minor annoyances are barely noticeable. Although they do wonder at main character Cole’s twin vulnerabilities: water and chain-link fences. Give it a listen, then check out all the other GammaTesting.com episodes.

Listen up!

Gamma Testing Ep12 – inFAMOUS

This week we take a look at the re-do of 1980s cult classic Bionic Commando. Turns out that fun gameplay trumps terrible story and unlikeable characters, yet again. Even if that gameplay has a steep learning curve. Still, once you get it down, swinging on your extendable bionic appendage is damn fun — especially if you turn the sound down and blast Matt’s music suggestion.

We also send a challenge out to Grin – Bionic Commando’s developer — to hire us to write their next game. If BC is any indication, they could use some fine content-generators like the GammaTesting.com crew. And, we work cheap!

Listen up! (And check out all the other Gamma Testing podcasts!)

Gamma Testing Podcast Ep11 – Bionic Commando

It’s been a long time since I had a game experience more mixed than Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. There’s lots to like, some things to hate, a fair amount that’s on the border, and even something I hated and then came to like. Playing this game was like riding an emotional roller coaster as I went from mildly interested to mildly annoyed and back again. Okay, maybe not really a roller coaster so much as a see-saw in the kiddie playground, but you get my point. There are some thrills to be had, but also some jarring landings.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is the prequel to a game I never played, nor do you need to have played it. It’s a perfectly competent first-person shooter set in the Old West, full of two-fisted six-gun action and horse riding and even a lasso or two. You play alternately as Tom and Ray, defending your car repair business from angry public radio listeners who haven’t received their tote bags yet. Or rather, Thomas and Ray, two nasty Confederate soldiers who abandon their posts to try and save their farm from the evil Sherman as he marches through Georgia. That doesn’t work out too well, and the brothers end up fleeing to the wilds of the West, their preacher little brother William in tow. There they hear tell of lost Aztec gold, both fall in love with the same Mexican seductress, fight various tribes of Indians, and have their pasts come back to haunt them. There’s a lot of shooting. Read the rest of this entry »

We reminisce about the early days of the UFC, and how incredibly dull it was compared to this game. Think of UFC: Undisputed as a typical fighter and you’ll have some fun. Delve into the combat system — which is vastly deeper than any other out there — and the game is a long-term keeper.

Better yet (at least for the UFC) it does a hell of a lot for promoting the franchise outside the sport’s usual fan base.

(Check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or via the Gamma Testing podcast RSS feed.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep10 – UFC: Undisputed

Some reviewers gave up on Velvet Assassin before they even made it past the first half. We fought our way to the end, then gave up after our 45th attempt at completing the final level. It’s an unforgiving stealth game, and we would like to return the favor by not forgiving its stupid AI, boring gameplay, and general lack of fun. Then we opine about the responsibilities of game reviewers.

It’s a tough job, especially when you have to play games like Velvet Assassin.
(Check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or via the Gamma Testing podcast RSS feed.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep09 – Velvet Assassin

Did you like the most recent X-Men movie? Neither did we. But never fear, the video game based on that horrendous cinematic debacle is considerably better. Mostly, thanks to the lunge tactic.

Sadly, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is saddled with the movie’s fundamentally flawed plot — and a few stupid boss fights — but it’s easy to forgive the cut scenes after a few minutes of repeatedly shivving dudes with your adamantium-sheathed bone claws. And don’t forget this month’s theme: Wolverine apparently hates helicopters almost as much as 50 Cent, and a little more than ninjas.

And somehow, we three former (or current, in Matt’s case) comic industry professionals manage to keep the geek quotient to a minimum. Well, when it comes to comics, at least.
(And check out all the Gamma Testing podcasts.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep08 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Unlike the largely derided Bulletproof (bullet-absorbent?), Mr. Cent’s first video game outing, Blood on the Sand is more fun than it has any right to be. Which seems to say a lot about the appeal bigger-than-life hip hop stars hold for middle class white boys interested in living out violent adolescent fantasies (like us). It also says a lot for taking a tried and true third-person shooter engine and wrapping it in an absurdly hilarious “plot” instead of spending a lot of time trying to innovate.

And unlike seemingly all the other video game reviewers out there, we don’t ever feel the need to apologize for liking Blood on the Sand. (Checkout all the Gamma Testing podcasts.)

LISTEN TO Gamma Testing Ep07 – 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

That’s two weeks in a row where I’ve spent a significant portion of my free time exploring a city that has recently suffered from a massive explosion. Last week it was Bionic Commando, and I was just the guy to traverse the urban wasteland because I had a bionic arm. This week, it’s inFamous, and I’m just the guy to explore the city because I’m the one who set off the bomb. Plus, it gave me super powers.

InFamous is a super-hero game, or a super-villain  game, depending on your personal preference. You play as Cole, a bike messenger who sets off a bomb that screws up Empire City and gives you the power to control electricity. Why did you set off the bomb? You have no idea, but given the cadres of villains, FBI agents and shadowy figures who immediately start pulling your strings, maybe you were set up. The only way to find out for sure is to explore Empire City open world, Grand Theft Auto-style, do a bunch of missions and shoot lightning at anything that gets in your way. And when you’ve done all that then yes, inFamous delivers a satisfying conclusion to a solid story full of twists and turns, but really it’s all about the lightning powers that get you from here to there.

Well, lightning and parkour. Because Cole can scale buildings like a monkey, leap with ease from ledge to wire to light post, and generally navigate the city via sidewalk or rooftop with equal ease.

Read on for more info and video below the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

In this episode, the GammaTesting.com guys make their bones while you’re still going out with cheerleaders and see if this new Godfather game makes us an offer we can’t refuse.

Turns out, we could refuse it, but this GTA-knockoff/Mafia sim game is just fun enough to keep us taking over businesses and knockin’ off made men. And unlike this blog entry, we avoid overusing the massive pun potential of Godfather movie quotes.

Listen up!

Gamma Testing Ep06 – Godfather 2

Gamma Testing is a podcast that goes in-depth in a single game each week to let you get more fun out of the games you play. Check out out other episodes.

GammaTesting.com’s fourth episode is a classic romance: boy loses donkey, meets girl, fights demons, releases evil god. All for love. We also love – mostly — Prince of Persia’s seamless gameplay, capable writing and gorgeous Disney atmosphere. Almost enough to marry it. But is there enough going on to resurrect the game after the first play through? Hmmm.

Gamma Testing Ep04 – Prince of Persia

Gamma Testing is a podcast that goes in-depth in a single game each week to let you get more fun out of the games you play. Check out out other episodes.