My Usual Spiel: Motorstorm Apocalypse, and I thought it couldn't get any crazier

Release Date: March 17, 2011
Genre: Offroad Racing
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Evolution Studios
Platform: PS3
Payers: 1-4 Splitscreen, 2-16 Online

I like my Library, the Yarra Plenty Regional Library is cool enough to have Music CD’s, Graphic Novels and Magazine subscriptions one of which happens to be the Official Playstation magazine. I especially like it when they have the newest issue out for the month and it happens to have a slip for 1 months free access to Playstation Plus which hasn’t been used yet. I suppose you can see what I’m getting at, I obtained Motorstorm Apocalypse for free through the Playstation Plus site plus other things though I wasn’t really interested in what else was there, oh there was LittleBigPlanet 2 and Infamous 2 and Just Cause 2 and Bulletstorm… er 1 though I’ve some of them already on PC or otherwise and others I really couldn’t be bothered though I did get some cool ‘dynamic themes’ for my PS3 menu. I‘ve had a little bit of history with Motorstorm as I may have detailed in my Pacific Rift review.

Since I saw Motorstorm as a launch title for the PS3 I always wanted to see what it was like, motorcycles and ATV’s racing against monster trucks and big rig’s? So when I finally got round to buying one I had three to choose from though I wanted to try out the first one as I think the Monument Valley canyon setting really suited the genre though I soon had to take it back as I hadn’t realized it was 1 player only which was pretty unacceptable for a game like this. So I bought Pacific Rift which was the second in the series and had a blast tearing up a remote volcanic island in the pacific and was even able to do it with friends and online once or twice.

Pacific Rift: "To hell with nature I've got a truck"

 I’d never intended to purchase Motorstorm Apocalypse as in my opinion one of these games was enough, though it was apparently said to be pretty exciting as it’s the first racing game I’ve come across where the track changes as you race. Apocalypse is set in a earthquake-ravaged city which is practically still quaking and has an ongoing war between the “crazies” who refuse to leave the city and an increasingly aggressive military security force. In case you didn’t realize, Motorstorm is in fact a racing tournament yes these people actually came to this place via some kind of unused aircraft carrier intending to build tracks and race around incredibly dangerous crumbling city, the logic is all there. The other two games were in at least believable places you could have a race tournament yet still incredibly dangerous but of course it’s just a game isn’t it.

This is what is a usual race is like.

There is a few new vehicles added to the lineup, the Superbike, Chopper, Super Mini, Muscle Car and Super Car are all new additions bringing the total up to 13.  The controls are slightly differently set out but are the same as usual, you basically go full bawl most of the time taking your foot of the accelerator and powersliding occasionally and sometimes actually braking though unless you do it perfectly the other racers always seem to overtake you. One of the most important features is the turbo boost which overheats your engine to get a temporary speed boost but you have to be careful to keep your engine from blowing up, you can also ram your opponents out of the way which also takes up boost. The graphics are largely the same but the racing is as hectic as ever this time with tracks set in the suburbs, the trainyards and subway, the shipyards and boardwalk, downtown, some place that looks a lot like the golden gate bridge and of course track set along the rooftops of buildings themselves.

Yep, Motorstormers are this crazy, though I'd like to know how quickly they got this track set up.

 You’ve got to wonder how they build these tracks but they all seem to have a hastily cobbled together sign proudly displaying the name of the current “track” that it’s the start of, sometimes the only way of knowing where to go is the yellow signs in the distance pointing left, right or sometimes down. But of course this is a major example of a game where knowing the track really helps especially with the multiple routes and chaos of the track as I’ve had to do some races twice cause I’ve needed the first race as practice specifically because this latest Motorstorm is possibly the hardest of all of them to see where the fack you’re going, it’s true I did feel sorry for anyone I got to play the game with me as if you’ve never played the game before and are racing at breakneck speed through a city that is sundering in itself with debris flying everywhere and the screen shaking all the while you’re playing 2 or 4 player split screen, not matter how big your TV is you’re going to have problems.

Actually it looks pretty clear in this shot.

 I only played this one split screen multiplayer briefly both at home and at a lan, and I didn’t see all that much difference. There was apparently supposed to be some kind of new singleplayer “story mode” but I wasn’t expecting much when I booted up my copy at home. In the singleplayer there is basically three different stages you go through rookie, pro and veteran,  there isn’t much in the way of story, in each section you just basically arrive to the city on the aircraft carrier and have an intro race then do races for a short two days (that’s all the adrenaline you need I spose) then you always seem to have this amusing outro race where you have to race the clock or someone else to the carrier, the end of the veteran one is quite epic. The singleplayer was fun and frustrating at times as usual and it didn’t take me long to complete, though the replay value comes with going for gold and completing all the extra events inc the Hardcore festival which pits you against a series of the same tracks except with faster meaner opponents and a time limit, needless to say I only did a couple of these before leaving it for some other time. There’s also time attack though the rules are interesting, instead of racing a ghost all you have to do is complete the course without crashing, which is sometimes a bit harder than it sounds. I found that this time around I didn’t unlock much by completing the story mode, only the hardcore events if I came first in them.

Well thats one way of getting back on the carrier.

 A lot of the unlocks are through playing Multiplayer, things like the Perks which allow you to modify certain things about your car handling, boost and combat for example: increased grip or faster boost cooling. There is also a “Weekly Challenge” where you complete 3 races of varying difficulty to unlock new vehicles and parts. You can fully customize your vehicles this time, not just change the paintjob completely you can spend hours designing the perfect vehicle even changing the parts to get a different look. With the drivers instead of random rough and tough looking individuals, this time around you get a selection of rough and tough looking named individuals some of which who you unlock in the story mode.

And this guy doen't even wear a shirt, seriously I do try to pick the most safety-conscious-looking person I can find.

 I felt a little discouraged that I didn’t unlock any more vehicles doing the singleplayer though it doesn’t really matter that much I guess. A thing I liked doing with Pacific Rift was to change all the colours of my currently selected vehicles to match my driver, I’ve noticed that they do this in the singleplayer mode and it looks awesome, though it’s hard to imagine needing 13 vehicles just to enter the tournament. I didn’t actually check out the numbers of who was playing online multiplayer but it would definitely be more than Pacific Rift, I’ll have to go on for a bash sometime as like Wipeout Fusion, playing against real people who have played the game before is a lot more challenging then both the AI opponents and random friends.

"oi, we're trying to have a race here"

I really don’t know what else to say that I haven’t said before in the other review, it’s really just a lot of crazy fun, this time especially. Apocalypse is the most feature-rich of the series so there should still be a few people playing it on the PS3 network, I wasn’t going to bother with it really until I got it as a freebie, but the experience has been fun, and extra fun with friends (who have possibly played it before) so if you’re in the mood for a cheap or possibly free game which is possibly the most chaotic and fun racing you’ve ever had where barrel through an earthquake ravaged city and crash spectacularly every so often then look no further.

JD

Speeding in a blind rage.

My Usual Spiel: Way of the Samurai 4, Samurai Swords and Sexy times

Release Date: 1 October 2012
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Aquire
Platform: PS3
Payers: 1



When a friend first told me about a “Samurai RPG” for the PS3 I was enthralled, after all I’ve pretty much given up hope about a new Tenchu game being on the PS3, being a Samurai in feudal Japan,? yes please. As a practitioner of "Iaido" a brand of Japanese sword art myself as well as fan of any Samurai movie, I couldn't wait. Though after some research I found that this particular “way” of the samurai was fairly comical as it involved ridiculous dialogue, over-the-top swinging and bodies flying in the air swordfighting and mini games such as torture and “Night-crawling” where you sneak through a woman’s house while knocking out family members in order to find her and take her to the inn for some more erotic games. The game also did not review very well with Metacritic giving it an overall 59.

Despite this I still had to buy the game to experience what it was like “to laugh at the game or with it” as one reviewer said. Well I’ve done one playthrough of it already so I can come to a brief conclusion that it’s quite short, but there’s a reason for this which I will go into. You  set up your samurai before you begin the story with a name and clothing though there is little or no customization options available the first time you start and the NPC’s with voice dialogue never refer to you by name anyway. The game’s storyline consists of the age old formula of you as a Samurai from somewhere or other coming into a new town and immediately getting plunged into a conflict where you are forced to take sides depending on what actions you take.

So for example the game takes place in the period in Japan after the arrival of Commodore Perry’s black ships where British settlers have come to a fictional Japanese town of Amihama. The story starts with me being rowed to shore on a  small boat where the arrival of a British ambassador (who looks about 12 or 13 years old) has caused a local gang of Japanese nationals called the “Disciples of Pajna” to attack the British as they obviously don’t like foreign invaders. So you have the choice of helping the local Shogunate law enforcement defend the British or attack them, this main story carries over the entire game which lasts only 4 days. It splits into three different options you can take which starts events for example you can help the British ambassador and her people,  join the Disciples of Prajna or help the local Shogunate government act as a mediator between the two.

Your humble protagonist.

The movement and combat is pretty simple I do like the sheathing and unsheathing of the sword but the combat is just a bit too easy, there’s a button for fast attack and a button for power attack and you can just mash them until you opponent is dead, I found myself trying to be realistic (as I usually do) trying to do the button combination moves, blocking, dodging etc to make it a bit less cheap. There was a few helpful message screens stopping play and coming up on how to play the game i.e. fighting which I am sure would annoy the hell out of less-tolerant people who just want to button-mash and work it out for themselves. I myself am patient, but I am rapidly losing my patience with this move I can’t do, it’s like this slashing power move that you pull back on the stick then press triangle but it never seems to work when I want it. But anyway the fighting is pretty basic, I just get into the groove of basic and power attacks and if they get close just block them and throw them. Basically you just get the hang of doing forward stab moves and slice moves and dodging your opponents attacks, you can do several moves in the blocking stance including small dodges, a grabbing throw and a short kick which also acts as a quick way to pick up swords and other loot.

"What, you aren't dead yet?, let's fix that"

Most of your items you acquire from defeating enemies, and the way you do it is quite ridiculous. You seem to be able to get items in two ways, you can search them after they have been killed, though most of the time this isn’t preferable as often once all the enemies have been killed it switches to a cutscene where you end up in a different place unable to loot the bodies. So annoyingly you have to loot them while you’re fighting and the way to do this is by ‘kicking’ them which looks pretty funny, once I defeat an opponent I kick his sword up into the air (which conveniently disappears inside my “sword bag”) then move on to the next. Then after the  battle I sheath my sword all samurai-like then proceed to repeatedly kick the dead bodies until whetting stones or onigiri pop out. You can also acquire new clothes from shops and accessories such as hats and masks from playing different parts of the game. I’ve found with the short length of the game it’s pretty easy to gain money fast by both doing the story missions and doing odd jobs around.

Buying new clothes can make you look pretty stylish, and the accessories can make you look pretty silly as well.

 A large part of the gameplay revolves around your weapons and fighting styles, for example you have to make your sword is upgraded with strength and sharpness along the way and make sure it doesn’t degrade so far that it breaks, I’ve had to resort to martial arts against sword-wielding adversaries because my sword broke in the middle of a fight, so you have to either repair your sword with a whetting stone that you find from defeating enemies or from the Smith. The Smith himself is your best buddy, he can repair your sword, make it do more damage, make it last longer before needing repair and even put “inscriptions” on it which give it more powers such as unbreaking.

"You want some work done on your sword boy? it's gonna cost ya"

 The town of Amihama is split into 8 areas, the Harbor, the Town, the Main Plaza, The Magistrate, Little Britain, the back roads, the shrine and the cemetery. Different story events happen in the different areas and the three factions having their home bases in different areas., you do a lot of running and the wait time between switching areas and going in buildings is sometimes annoying but it’s bearable. Throughout the game you can interact with others and do oddjobs like a normal sandbox RPG which include random jobs which could be good or bad, for example there’s a level of crime in the city and you can do jobs that will either raise or lower the crime rate. You can also start a Dojo and recruit members or do a quite funny but useless thing called “Night Crawling”. In order to do the Night Crawling you have to first approach a woman say the right 4 sentences (which are always random) then at night you sneak into her house and have to sneak around while avoiding or knocking out their family members and pulling the blankets of futons until you find them, all the while trying to do it before your opponent (yes opponent) finds her first. Once you found her you both go to the inn where you have a playfight and try to throw her on the futon which once you’ve  done you proceed to do some wacky jump onto her and then it fades to black and horse and sword sounds ensue.

"Ah hah! she must be under here, good thing there are no family members around to see, and what the hell does that thing on the left mean?"

 The story though is the mainstay of what you’re doing as I’ve mentioned before the game is quite short as all the action happens over the course of four days and includes choices at almost every juncture that change the story inc who you are aligned to and what events you can do and which ones you miss because you chose a different factions quest. The first time I went through the story I found myself just going from one event to the next not knowing where to go or what to do and ended up having my sword break in the middle of an important fight and having to give up where I received an early ending and a ‘shameless’ rating for my finish. Luckily for my next run through my brother was away so I could use his laptop and read Gamefaqs (which is a very useful site I must say) while I was playing otherwise like before I would have had no idea.

It’s amazing how much you have to resort to the walkthrough to make sure you’re doing everything correctly as you don’t get another chance if you muck it up, that’s why I save constantly in case I take a misstep. My second play through went pretty well, I read from a gamefaqs guide that there was different endings you could get so I went for the one where I join the local Government to keep the peace but try and stop the evil Magistrate and to do that you have to make sure you do the right events in the right order. Managing your sword and your money isn’t too hard, with clothes I just bought a similar thing to what the local constables were wearing to fit in with my role. The whole thing ended pretty quickly I did all the right sequences to get the ending I wanted though the real ending where you unite all of the town against the evil emperor is obviously the hardest to get.

The British with their 14-year-old-looking-and-sounding "ambassador" All the main British characters are all voiced by Japanese actors speaking Japanese which is kind of odd.

Overall the game didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought, sure it’s kind of weird in parts and the writing and the combat is a little strange. The voice acting would annoy some people as it's all in Japanese with subtitles though I only have a problem with the British speaking fluent Japanese in Japanese accents which is really odd. But the story and replayability make up for it. You can be pretty certain that you’ll be playing through the game several times to see what different endings you can get , and as you play more you unlock more for future playthroughs as well as finding out new things each time. I’m glad I did buy it but if I can’t get a stealthy-ninja style game for PS3 do hope there is a Samurai RPG that is more authentic and historical and not quite as slapstick that can take its place.

JD


With a trailer like this, it's obvious the developer wasn't serious about the game either.


封建時代の日本を確認し、私が思っていたよりも滑稽。