Fresh Loaf

A Beatles-centric Rock Band game was announced last fall, but until this morning there’d been very little concrete information from anybody involved. The Beatles: Rock Band is the official title. It hits America Sept. 9 both as a stand-alone disc and in full instrument bundles for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Those whose living rooms are already cluttered with fake plastic instruments will be happy to hear that all Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour peripherals will work with the game. No word yet on a track list, but I’m pretty sure “Revolution #9″ won’t make the cut.

From the press release:

The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.

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Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
Rated M for Mature
Released Feb. 17
Xbox 360
Published by Rockstar Games

If you were to look over my favorite games of 2008, you might be surprised by the absence of Grand Theft Auto IV. True, the internet uni-mind has invariably done five or six about-faces on the game by now, but GTA IV generally racked up in the year-end accolades department. It’s not one of my favorites, though, despite some of its more amazing capabilities. The dialogue and voice-acting are some of the best you’ll find, and Liberty City’s the most immersing virtual urban environment since whatever that town was in Final Fight (New Mechadetroit?). Like previous GTAs, IV excels at presentation, making a good impression even if you don’t enjoy the gameplay.

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(Photo courtesy Amazon.com)

MLB Front Office Manager
Rated E for Everyone
Released Jan. 26
Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Published by 2K Sports

Apparently the M in MLB stands for menus. That’s my take-away from MLB Front Office Manager, at least. The game’s a great idea strongly undermined by indifferent execution. I’m a crazy baseball fan, with an all-consuming obsession for both real and fantasy baseball. I’m so single-minded during baseball season that my amazingly patient wife can now talk about park effects and VORP and ERA+ like a hardened sabermetrician. She’s convinced my irrational anti-Jeff Francouer ranting is going to give me an aneurysm some day. I’m passionate about baseball, so I was both excited for and disappointed by MLB Front Office Manager.

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Who are you calling 'Chromedome?'

DC Universe Online
Sony Online Entertainment
Playstation 3 and PC

DC Universe Online is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) set in the crazy mixed-up world of DC Comics — the publishers of Batman, Superman, and the Justice League. There’s a fundamental issue plaguing MMOs set in an established fictional milieu: Everybody wants to be the famous dudes. There would be millions of Flashes, Wonder Women, and Green Lanterns buzzing around, with maybe only three B’wana Beasts, if limits weren’t set. Any semblance of a coherent game-world would be impossible, but as Nightwing has proven, there’s little fun in brutalizing Gotham hoods without wearing a ridiculous bat costume. Microsoft scuttled a similar MMO based on Marvel Comics for this very reason.

Would-be Bruce Waynes might be disappointed to hear that no genuine DC characters are playable in DC Universe Online. Players will make their own heroes or villains from scratch. Any crimes busted or perpetrated by comic characters will be controlled by the computer. This might make the game less immediately exciting, but it’s the only sensible decision.

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The Jacob Javits Center was the epicenter of the American comic book industry last weekend, as editors, creators, and business types from almost every major publisher congregated at the fourth annual New York Comic Convention. They were surrounded by an at times impenetrable wall of fans, as several thousands of comic book and pop culture obsessives clogged the convention center hallways. It was as if the economy wasn’t halfway through a Triple Lindy.

One thing overshadows all else at a comic convention, though, stealing the spotlight from the panels, the creator signings, the video game demos, the dealer tables, even the 50-minute previews of unreleased Pixar films. I’m talking about costumes, and the fully grown individuals that spend exorbitant amounts of time, money, and effort on them. They call it cosplay, and it was inescapable at the NYCC.

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Screen shot from Sega's MadWorld

The term “comic convention” has been a misnomer for a while now. Time and attention has been mostly redirected to movies, TV shows, and the ogling of half-naked women. Comics are just a foundation upon which to build a momentary edifice to all remotely nerdish cultural matters. Comics’ vestigial impact was more pronounced at last week’s New York Comic Con than at the big shebang out in San Diego, Calif., but still far from overwhelming. Video games dominated a surprising portion of the floor, with several companies wheeling out demo versions of forthcoming games, from pre-alpha builds all the way up to final release copies. Here’s the first of a few posts covering my thoughts on the games of NYCC ’09.

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The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
Rated T for Teen
Released on Jan. 13
Developed by Pandemic Studios
Released by Electronic Arts

The Lord of the Rings saga, available in both book and convenient film formats, has always prioritized grandeur, pageantry, silly names, and ridiculously bloated lengths. A straight-up hack’n’slash button-mashing game adaptation might seem at odds with all that, but it’s not inherently a bad concept. The idea does have at least one major strike against it, though. It’s 2009, and Lord of the Rings is about as fresh and exciting as Jay Leno. The caboose to this Tolkien gravy train should’ve come chugging along a good while ago. Even Star Wars merchandise fell off the map between Return of the Jedi and the late-’90s special editions. Yeah, the first couple of Lord of the Rings tie-in games were surprisingly good at the time, but that was back when the title of “worst president ever” was still a twinkle in W’s squinty eye. Middle Earth and its characters are no longer exciting to visit in and of themselves, so any game will have to approach them in a fresh or novel way.

Unfortunately, little about Lord of the Rings: Conquest is fresh or novel in any way. (more…)

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Skate 2
Rated T for Teen
Released on Jan. 21, 2009
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Developed by EA Black Box
Published by Electronic Arts

Skate It
Rated E for Everyone
Released on Nov. 19, 2008
Nintendo Wii
Developed by EA Montreal and EA Black Box
Published by Electronic Arts

Some video games are easier than stealing a flat-screen TV from a Grant Park condo. (more…)

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Valkyria Chronicles
Rated T for Teen
Released on Nov. 4, 2008
PlayStation 3
Deveoped and published by Sega

You know what would’ve made World War II better? Miniskirts! Or so says Valkyria Chronicles, Sega’s excellent new tactical role-playing game. It’s not officially about World War II, but the parallels are blatant, with a fascist power marching across a continent called Europa while imprisoning a dark-haired ethnic minority. The big picture is similar, but the details are all wrong, like a history class essay by a 15-year-old who spent the entire semester doodling record covers.

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Photo courtesy Amazon.com

Samba de Amigo
Rated E for Everyone
Released on Sept. 23, 2008
Nintendo Wii
Developed by Gearbox Software
Published by Sega

Samba de Amigo, Sega’s beloved maraca-based rhythm game for Dreamcast, seems like a natural for Wii; gamers are already accustomed to rapid arm movements thanks to Wii’s motion controls. The resolutely bright and colorful game also possesses Sega’s most adorable mascot, a sombrero-sporting monkey that’ll kill the kids with cuteness and the adults with kitsch. Yep, this remake should’ve been a quick and easy process, just a matter of improving the 9-year-old original’s graphics, maybe tacking on some sort of online mode, and bundling in a pair of wireless maracas. Nothing could be simpler, absolutely nothing. (more…)

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Wonder World Amusement Park

America’s got more Wiis than diabetes, but many critics and gamers regularly disparage the little white box. Their tremendous skepticism might seem like sour grapes, as if nontraditional gamers are trampling over their hallowed subculture, but it’s not entirely unwarranted. Despite a few great releases early in the year (No More Heroes, Boom Blox, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Okami), 2008 saw a painful dearth of high-quality traditional video games for the Wii.

There wasn’t much to appease gamers interested in the sort of long-form, story-based experiences that have typified gaming since the original Nintendo Entertainment System. That doesn’t mean the Wii had a light release schedule, though; there was a deluge of Wii titles in 2008, both technically minimized installments of multi-platform hits (Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Lego Batman), and mounds of carelessly produced rush jobs that have helped earn the system its bad reputation.

At first glance, Guinness World Records: The Video Game and Wonder World Amusement Park both look like the latter. (more…)

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Without further ado, here are my top five video games of the year. You can find numbers ten through six here.

5. Braid (Xbox Live Arcade)

Braid, a puzzle-platformer built around a unique time-manipulation mechanic, would be one of the best games of the year even without its narrative ambitions. (more…)

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Oh, 2008: some might remember you for your global economic meltdown, or your historical presidential election, but to me, you’ll always be the year I struggled with malaria in an anonymous war-torn Sub-Saharan country. You know, in a video game. Overall 2008 didn’t see quite as large a crop of great games as 2007, but there was still no lack of high-quality experiences to be found. I’ll be counting down my top ten favorite games of the year here today and tomorrow, and here’s a look at the first five. For more video game year-in-review nonsense, feel free to take a look at my blog, Hot Fighting History.

10. Bionic Commando Rearmed (Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC)

Sure, it’s just a remake, and a surprisingly faithful one at that, but it’s a remake of the greatest NES game ever, so it totally deserves to make this list. (more…)

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Lips
Rated T for Teen
Released
Xbox 360
Developed by iNiS
Published by Microsoft

All you need to know about Lips is that it’s a karaoke game. If you like karaoke, you’ll probably like Lips. If you’re a fan of Karaoke Revolution or Sony’s Singstar series, and have been hoping something similar would come to the 360, then here you go. If karaoke frightens or repulses you no matter how many scorpion bowls you’ve downed, then Lips is most certainly not for you. (more…)

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Animal Crossing: City Folk
Rated E for Everybody
Released Nov. 16
Nintendo Wii
Developed by Nintendo EAD
Published by Nintendo

The Sims has always confused me. Video games exist to help us forget about our jobs, families, bills, Irritable Bowel Syndromes, and all of life’s other inconveniences. Why would we want to simulate the life we’re trying to avoid? Where’s the fun in that? Now, replace all that semi-realistic stuff in the Sims with a magical fantasyland populated by anthropomorphic animals with the temperaments of spoiled and highly caffeinated children, and you’ve got yourself a game. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: City Folk to be specific.

Animal Crossing isn’t a typical video game. There are no levels, no enemies, no concrete goals other than being friendly, and there’s no end to it. Ever. Like the Sims, Animal Crossing is about living life, but a highly absurd and unrealistic version of life. The bulk of the game play consists of interacting with neighbors – running errands for them, writing letters, trading objects, or even just hanging out and chatting. You can also collect furniture and other decorations for your house, buy and design clothing, go fishing, dig up fossils, get sassed by an attitudinous pelican post office worker, hang out at the museum café and listen to noted dog troubadour KK Slider… you know, the sort of typical mundane junk that you do every day in your real life. (more…)

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Mirror’s Edge
Rated T for Teen
Released Nov. 12
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Developed by Digital Illusions CE
Published by Electronic Arts

Some video game players aren’t especially into violence. Not every gamer is dying to play through graphic recreations of historical and modern warfare. Sometimes there’s a limit to how many aliens, Nazis, and zombies one can willingly perforate any given day, much less alien Nazi zombies. The industry needs more high-quality nonviolent games, or even just less realistically violent games. But as awesome as Super Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing and Viva Piñata are, an adult can’t survive entirely on child-friendly games. So thank the maker for EA’s new first-person parkour action-adventure Mirror’s Edge, as now gamers can experience some fast-paced action-packed thrills without either exploding heads or feeling like a 10 year old. (more…)

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Gears of War 2
Released Nov. 7
Xbox 360
Developed by Epic Games
Published by Microsoft Game Studios

Con Air is one of the best movies ever made. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. It’s a pitch-perfect parody of big dumb action movies, hitting every idiotic note with outsized aplomb, and with a roster of fully committed actors who play their cartoonish stereotypes with conviction. Those idiots that make Epic Movie and Date Movie never need to do an Action Movie, because Con Air got there first more than a decade ago, and did it with far more subtlety than those guys could ever hope for.

Gears of War 2 just might be the Con Air of video games. (more…)

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Fable II
Released Oct. 21
Xbox 360
Developed by Lionhead Studios
Published by Microsoft Game Studios

The concept of choice in video games is tricky. Does free will really exist in a situation where every possible decision has been programmed in by another person? Fable II wants to say it does, and the game impressively presents an illusion of meaningful decision making. At heart, though, no matter what the player chooses, he or she is merely treading down one of many branching paths laid by an overworked team of programmers and game designers. That doesn’t make Fable II a failure by any measure, but knowledge of the fundamental lack of free will does run somewhat counter to a large part of the game’s appeal. (more…)

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LittleBigPlanet
Released Oct. 27
PlayStation 3
Developed by Media Molecule
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment

Earlier this month, I wrote down some thoughts after poking around in LittleBigPlanet’s online beta testing period. Newsflash: I liked it, a lot. The beta revealed how far the game’s potential reached, as user-created levels both fantastic and mundane continually sprouted up. It didn’t give a good impression of the single-player mode, though, as only the first few tutorial stages were available. Well, after months of hype, and a last-minute one-week delay, the game has finally arrived, along with the 50 or so levels designed by the developer. They didn’t change my mind about the game one iota. Although fundamentally an old-school 2-D platformer, LittleBigPlanet transcends its limited run-jump-and-grab game play via a comprehensive suite of editing tools and an irrepressibly adorable design aesthetic. It may not be the best game of 2008, but it’s hard to think there’ll be one memorable and important than LittleBigPlanet. (more…)

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Dead Space
Released Oct. 14
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Developed by EA Redwood Shores
Published by Electronic Arts

Dead Space, a thoroughly enjoyable new entry in the survival horror genre of action games, has helped me realize some heady truths about myself. If I’m ever stranded on a massive spaceship during an infestation of flesh-eating aliens, I’m pretty much gonna be totally screwed. Even with tri-beamed plasma lasers and deployable saw blades, I’ll probably get eviscerated about a thousand times over. It doesn’t matter how many razor-sharp mutant limbs I blast off, or scurrying balls of sudden death I stomp into smithereens, there’ll always be at least three more around the next corner waiting to graphically vivisect my incompetent self. Yes, I really suck at surviving. (more…)

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Lego Batman
Released Sept. 23
Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, DS and PC
Developed by Traveller’s Tales
Published by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment

Batman is the third cultural touchstone to get the Lego videogame treatment after Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It’s a better fit than the previous two, with a richer, deeper body of source material to tap. It also shares more of a focus with the series’ primary game-play mechanic, which is pretty much just busting stuff and handing Lego dudes their blocky asses through a variety of foot- and fist-based techniques. Oh yeah, and vehicles. You can’t have a Lego game without ’em and Batman’s got a ton, from the Batamaran to the Segway Personal Batsporter. So it’s basically a perfect combination of franchises, right? A surefire recipe for endless hours of fun, no questions asked?

Well, not quite. (more…)

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de Blob
Released Sept. 22
Nintendo Wii
Developed by Blue Tongue
Published by THQ

The Wii’s got a bad rep among gamers — one that’s not entirely unfounded. Personally, I don’t care that the system isn’t as technically powerful as the XBOX 360 or PlayStation 3. Games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Zack & Wiki prove that greatness doesn’t depend upon state-of-the-art graphics or processing power. There aren’t nearly enough of those games, though. Most publishers treat the Wii as a dumping ground for underdeveloped, outdated embarrassments. Unfortunately, the sales figures tend to back up the decision to shortchange development, as quality non-Nintendo titles on the Wii rarely sell any better than the trash. It’s a genuine problem, and there’s no easy solution in sight.

Thankfully, the poor performances of most quality third party titles didn’t prevent THQ from putting some effort into the novel 3-D platformer de Blob. De Blob isn’t just one of the year’s best Wii games, but one of the better video games I’ve played on any system in 2008. From the inventive concept — a paint-filled blob helps a ragtag band of underground revolutionaries liberate Chroma City from an occupying force of color-hating black-and-white fascists — to the charming presentation and character design, de Blob offers a heavily detailed, thoroughly satisfying experience. (more…)

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Rock Band 2
Available now for the XBOX 360; in November for the PS3, Wii and PS2
Designed by Harmonix
Published by Electronic Arts/MTV Games

It’s been less than a year since Rock Band debuted and immediately made its precursor and chief competitor, Guitar Hero, irrelevant. Developer Harmonix, who created both games, consistently referred to Rock Band as a platform more than a game, seemingly precluding the endless series of ever-diminishing sequels that plague the video game industry. Still, it’s not at all surprising to see Rock Band 2 arrive so soon after the original. No entertainment industry is as crazed about sequels and name recognition as this one, and Rock Band’s publisher, Electronic Arts, is one of the worst offenders. There’ve been enough Madden Footballs to choke Madden himself, even though the annual installments’ chief selling point, updated rosters, could easily be released as downloadable content. With video games, if something sells, it will be repackaged, remade, and retailed at full price; so, Rock Band 2 was inevitable.

It’d be easy (and not entirely inaccurate) to dismiss Rock Band 2 as an expansion pack. The core game play is identical to the original. You’ll still be covering various rock hits of the last four decades on chintzy, space-wasting plastic instruments, while playing through a tour mode full of tongue-in-cheek humor. (more…)

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