The five big games in November, The Beatles: The Game?!, and Obama with a machine gun.

There are so many games coming out in November, just as there were so many games that came out in October. December has a few good ones as well. But forget that, I’m focusing solely on the big month of November, and the five games coming out this month that I am the most excited about. Prepare yourself, you may see a few surprises.

Follow the red to the promise land…or just the next level.

The demo for the highly anticipated Mirror’s Edge was released today for the PS3, and will be released tomorrow for the 360. And while I’m most likely getting the 360 version, I just couldn’t wait an extra day to try it out. And let me say, it has exceeded my expectations greatly. Simplified controls, a quick pace, beautiful graphics, an enjoyable story, and just enough pulse pounding action to keep any gamer on the edge of his seat. This is one game that you just cannot miss.

The fun that is Penny Arcade Adventures and the disappointment that is Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

While I’m still enjoying both LittleBigPlanet and Fallout 3, today saw the release of another game I’ve been anticipating. And while this one isn’t as high profile as those two, (or expensive) it’s certainly one that is worth my time. Today, on Xbox Live Arcade, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Two was released.

War. War never changes.

I can’t say it enough. Today saw the release of Fallout 3, a game I’ve been looking forward to for a loooooooong time, and when I heard about the new direction that Bethesda was taking the series, I was even more excited. Fallout 3 shares very little gameplay similarities to the original two games in the series, and this is in no way a bad thing. I was a huge fan of the first two Fallouts, but unlike a lot of hardcore fans of the series who are afraid of change, I embraced the changes with open arms! This game is amazing, no questions about it. And while it does share a lot of similarities with Bethesda’s last epic, Oblivion, it is by no means “Oblivion with guns”.

"I agree, Fallout 3 is a brilliant game."

While Fallout 3’s story, at least not at this point in the game (I’m about four hours into it, and I would be playing more if I didn’t have to worry about passing my classes!) isn’t as good as the magnificent and dark story found in the first two games, the gameplay in Fallout 3 outclasses the original two in pretty much every way. While “Fallout fanboys” may complain about…well, everything that has been changed, they really should consider actually playing the game first. On second thought, no, please keep them away from it. No matter how much they secretly love the game, they will always find something asinine to complain about.

Is there anything bad about Fallout 3? Aside from a few barely noticeable technical issues, I can’t really find anything that truly degrades the experience overall. The game is definitely more open, at least in terms of the amount of choice you have in the game, than Oblivion, which will definitely please those who weren’t a huge fan of Oblivions “You have to be good” campaign. I always appreciate the choice between good and evil in games, and while I love Oblivion, the change here is definitely welcome.

The original teaser trailer (and the beginning of the opening) for Fallout 3. Fall 2008 seemed so far away back during the summer of 2007. And what do you know, here we are! I’m happy that they stuck by the “Fall 2008″ release from the very beginning. I’m sure the actual date was changed a few times, but there was no major delays for the game, which made me (and many other people) very happy.

I can’t praise the game enough. The involving story, just how deep the entire experience is, the very precise and tight controls, the use of VATS (which is actually quite useful, and does not make the game “too easy” since you can’t use it ALL of the time, and you have to be strategic with what parts of the person’s body you decide to aim at) and…well, everything else. It’s further proof that Bethesda is one of the best developers around today, and I can’t wait to see what they have planned for the inevitable expansion, as well as any future installments.

War never changes? If it’s as good as Fallout 3, let’s hope this is true.

My Favorite Games of All Time: 22-20

Here is the next part of my favorite games series, if you want to call it that. Now let’s move on to a PC classic from 2000. (It doesn’t seem that long ago, but in a way, it really was!)

#22: Deus Ex (PC)

It may look like just another shooter, but it's actually an RPG of sorts. Crazy, huh?

This is the definition of an instant classic. A game that was instantly recognized by many people, including critics, other developers, and gamers themselves, as one of the best of all time. This game had a incredibly deep and satisfying story line that stemmed multiple path ways based on your decisions, very convincing characters, and an overall believable world. Oh, did I mention the game was addictive as hell? I swear I spent way too much time playing this game back when it was first released, and then again when the Game of the Year edition was released…and then I bought the PS2 version, just because.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s talk about the main character, JC Denton. He was a bad ass, but only if you wanted him to be. And while his character alone was cool enough, it was the fact that you really felt that all of your decisions had serious impacts not only on him as a character, but on the world around you. And yes, at this point, we see that in a lot of games, but back in 2000, stuff like this was still relatively new, and it was handled in a way that no other game to date has been able to. Plus, the game had an absolutely fantastic soundtrack that still, to this day, is remembered as one of the best in any game of its kind.

The above video shows just some of the many choices you can make in the game. This is from a pretty early part, so don’t worry about spoilers if you have any interest in checking this masterpiece out. And if you have never played it, I suggest you check it out on either the PC or PS2. Both versions hold up rather well, and please, whatever you do, do NOT play the sequel, Invisible War. It is disappointing on nearly every level, and while on its own it’s a pretty decent game, you just don’t get that Deus Ex feel from it.

#21: Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

Some beautiful box art for a beautiful game!

Now let’s talk about one of the best looking games on the PS2, and a series that is know for…well, just looking damn good. The Ace Combat series is the best around when it comes to flight “simulation”, and it manages to have a perfect blend of realistic air combat and arcade fun. Two things that always stood out about the series, however, are the incredible stories (I would say the series has some of the best in all of gaming) and some truly groundbreaking music that brings you into the action and the story itself more than any other game like it. Even if you haven’t really played any of the earlier games, start with this one and work your way up to the also excellent Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360. The entire series is one of my favorites, but this is the game that stands out from the pack as the best of the best.

The story is told so wonderfully, and all of the characters around you are so…human. You rarely see that in a game like this, and it mixes it all together with some of the best flight controls you’ll ever see in any game, and some incredibly intense action as well. The game’s difficulty is pretty standard, and once you get the controls down, you should have no problem playing through the game. But on the highest difficulties, it can truly test your patience more so than a lot of other games I’ve played. It requires more precision and skill…and, well, patience than a lot of gamers are willing to put fourth. But this is a game (and a series) to turn to for true challenge.

Wow…watching that video brings back memories. I can’t praise this game enough! The series has its fan base, sure, but I just wish it had a more mainstream appeal. Give this game a chance, and if you like it, you’ll like the rest of the series. It’s one of those games that endures, even after the credits are rolling.

#20: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2)

What's this...box art doing here?!

The Metal Gear Solid series is very near and dear to my heart. And out of the four games in the main series, (five, if you include Portable Ops…but I don’t) I would say MGS2 is the worst. But that by no means makes it a bad game. It’s still an amazing experience, and despite a large chunk of the story being near endless Codec conversations near the end of the game, (which was a bad move on Kojima’s end, and was handled much better in MGS4) I still love it. Still considered by many to be the best in the series (even after MGS4’s release), to call this game a classic is definitely an understatement.

Raiden is not my favorite character, I will admit, but he was a good enough character to keep me interested, and by the end of the game, I found that I liked him a lot more. No, he’s no Solid Snake, (and the Tanker chapter is still one of the best in the entire series, hands down) but I thought it was the right move to give the series a slightly new perspective. The game is still the classic Metal Gear Solid everyone knows and loves, despite the change in the main playable character. And I’m not going to get into the story, since that would be an entire blog post on its own, (and I might save it for a more suitable MGS fan), but it’s pretty incredible.

The gameplay is just as flawless as ever, the story as engaging as ever, and it’s a timeless classic and a must have for any PS2 owner. Whether or not you consider it the best or the worst in the series, you know it’s still an incredible achievement and a game that will be remembered for many years to come.

LittleBigPlanet Part Two

Another short blog post, but everything I said about it in the first post still holds true. While I don’t think I would consider this a Game of the Year contender (at least not for me), it’s still a very good game. I didn’t delve into the creation mode too much, and I still have yet to play any user created levels or access the online at all (servers will be up tomorrow, supposedly), so it may still continue to get better from here.

One thing that really surprised me was how challenging this game becomes, especially near the end. I’m pretty sure I’m pretty close to finishing the single player itself, and while I never expected a walk in the park, it’s definitely more challenging than a lot of other games I’ve played this year. I think I can continue to praise the fact that everything that is created in the single player could have been easily made by anybody, since the developers provide you all of the exact same tools they used to make those levels. And while it’ll definitely take you a while to make some up to that standard, I’m sure very soon we’ll begin to see user generated content as good, if not better than the levels packaging in on the disc.

I also went back into Gamestop today to pick up my special code I was supposed to get for pre-ordering the game. I completely forgot about it until a friend of mine brought it up, but I can’t use it until tomorrow anyway. Silly Gamestop employees. The code gives me access to the Kratos Sackboy and the special God of War themed level, which looks fun. I can’t wait to get the Old Snake and Sephiroth Sackboys as well, whenever they are released.

I wonder if it's possible to make him smile.

Right now my Sackboy is a Shakespearian lion with some David Caruso style sunglasses. He looks pretty cool considering I got most of those parts near the beginning of the game. After I finish the single player, I need to go for 100% and get all of the goodies from all of the levels, a few of which require an extra Sackboy or three. Hopefully once the online goes up on Monday, I’ll be able to get those.

That’s enough rambling. There isn’t much more to say, but I will say that LittleBigPlanet is great and tomorrow I will have a much longer blog post. I’ve lost track of time playing LBP, so I had to make it short. Let’s hope I can try the LittleBigPlanet Ninja Warrior course tomorrow, or at least one similar to it.

LittleBigPlanet Part One

I don’t feel like writing up a full blog post about LBP right now, but I just want to say a few things.

There is the very first time we saw LittleBigPlanet back at GDC in 2007. I remember thinking “That looks pretty neat, but I don’t get what’s so amazing about it.” And so did a lot of people. But you never are able to fully understand why it’s worthy of so much praise until you actually get to play it. It’s intuitive and easy for anyone to jump in and play, or even just make your own levels. The level editor itself is so simple, and I guarantee with a little bit of time, you’ll have your first level ready to go.

Any gripes about the game? Well, the shifting of planes is a bit weird, since it plays generally like a 2D game, but you can actually move back and forth in the level (not just left and right). At first, this is weird, and in certain situations it can be a bit frustrating, but since the game doesn’t penalize you at all for dying, and with the large amount of check points, you get over it pretty fast. The controls are fine, despite some complaints about them being a bit slippery, I’ve had no problems so far.

I’ll go more in depth about this game tomorrow, but I just wanted to say this game is amazing. It really did not disappoint one bit, and every person with a PS3 owes it to themselves to pick it up.

A brief look at Insomniac Games, one of the best developers around.

Last night I received an e-mail with my Resistance 2 beta code. Now having played a couple of full 60 player matches, I can safely say that this game will probably be my favorite multiplayer game this year. And I have yet to try the 8 player co-op, so it can only get better from here. And if the single-player is as amazing as the campaign in the first game, then we have a real contender for the best FPS of the year here, or maybe even game of the year.

The big disappointments and the nice surprises so far in 2008.

So far, this has been one of the best years in gaming. Well, the last couple of years have been, and despite the fact that many publishers are still releasing too many games during the last part of the year, this year is still a bit more balanced. But there have been some very big disappointments this year, and at the same time, a couple of big surprises. Now let me discuss the two games that disappointed me the most, and the two games that just came out of nowhere and surprised the hell out of me.

Why it’s good for gamers to make games. And a special guest post about games based on movies.

Did you know that there are game developers who don’t actually play games? Well, they play their own games, sure, but outside of that they never play games made by other developers. Maybe they get sick of being around games all day, they imagine going home and playing a game as the least enjoyable thing they could do when they finish work for the day. But what about gamers who aren’t developers? Gamers, like you and me, who just enjoy the games that these developers slave over day in and day out. We could make games!

Sometimes developers forget that they are making games for gamers. And I’m talking everyday gamers, not any game journalist whose job it is to play games. Taking a game to this past E3, seeing the reaction from a game journalist, well…that may not be the reaction you are looking for. Maybe they like it, maybe they didn’t, usually it doesn’t have the same impact as it would at a show like PAX. The Penny Arcade Expo seems to get bigger each year, and many developers have commented on how seeing the reaction from journalists day in and day out can be a bit…tiring, after a while. They say it’s refreshing to see how gamers react, and at PAX, that’s exactly what they get.

But some developers don’t care about this, maybe they go to PAX not with the intention of having ordinary gamers play it, but instead having an excuse to show off their E3 award winner once again, except this time with a different level or a new multiplayer map. These developers sometimes get so involved in the game industry itself, the developers, publishers, and journalists, that they forget to look outside of this circle of “professionals” and to the gamers themselves. Because ignoring these gamers is ignoring the talents that some of them possess.

Take Counter-Strike for example. Started out as a mod made by gamers based on Valve’s classic, Half-Life. It soon became a full fledged game, and even with a remake (or updated version) of sorts called Counter-Strike: Source. Small games like Blast Works: Build, Trade, and Destroy for the Wii or upcoming big titles such as LittleBigPlanet strive on the creativity of gamers, giving them the same tools that the developers used to make the levels shipped with the game itself. This shows that those developers focus more on the gamers, and how many of them could be future game designers in training.

And then, you have the fan made remakes of classics. I stumbled upon this little gem, which is a remake of the Gameboy classic Metroid 2. And it’s entirely created by the fans and for the fans. Sure, it’s taking an original game and adding to it elements from newer games in the same series, but it shows that many gamers truly have just as much talent as some big name developers.

So, hopefully we’ll be seeing more games like LittleBigPlanet, which focus on creativity, and which may inspire…future level designers! It’s great when gamers like you and me are able to make a game, and maybe someday, all developers (or even publishers…wait, never mind, they don’t care) will begin to take notice. Until then, keep on gaming!

Now I turn it over to another guest writer, Grey Fox, who is going to be talking about games based on movies.

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WorldDude recently wrote about movies based on video games and how poorly they tend to be. Well I’d like to turn that around right now and briefly talk about video games based on movies. I think it’s safe to say that these usually turn out better than the movies based on games. Of course they aren’t always wonderful, but there’s no denying that they can be simple-minded fun or even incredible.

So why exactly are the movie-based games generally better than the game-based movies? I think the answer isn’t too complicated at all. Movies are a storyline with action, drama, and /or romance. They entice viewers in their short time spans, providing a nice form of escapism with no involvement except potentially stirring thought. Movies can tell true stories that tug at the ol’ heartstrings, or present a sci-fi epic with aliens and lasers pew pew pew. Translating 10+ hour games into two hour movies requires substantial editing of the source material, which generally results in disappointed fans. Games, on the other hand, provide more leeway. They enhance the experience by making the movies more interactive. Watching the story unfold is one thing, but playing through it is another.

Return of the King was a phenomenal movie, and the game wasn’t too shabby either.

Unfortunately, you don’t always get to have fun playing through your favorite movies. Chances are if a big movie is coming out, then a game will be rushed to meet the movie’s release date. These movie-based games are becoming so abundant that they are practically their own genre. You see them everywhere you go, and a few weeks later when the next big movie is out, its game will overtake the last one which in turn mysteriously disappears. It’s truly sad that both games and movies are reduced to quick money-grabbing schemes instead of presenting fun and/or art (yeah I said it, games are art). Hopefully consumers will start thinking more and realize this trend before more crappy games overshadow the good ones.

lolwut

So please, to anyone reading this who may have written off movie-based games as contrived bore-fests, don’t. Sure you may have to wade through vast pools of unrelenting garbage, but in that pool are quite a few gems. They may possess a few tarnishes here and there, but they are still definitely worth checking out. It is inevitable that the future will contain more feeble attempts at games based on films, but at the same time it possesses an uncertain level of potential. We can almost predict which movies will have games attached to them, but some of them may just prove us wrong.