Bioshock Infinite gets delayed again

Irrational Games announced today that their highly anticipated title, Bioshock Infinite, was being delayed yet again, but not by much.  The game is now scheduled to release on March 26^th, exactly one month after the game’s previous release date of February 26^th.  According to a report on IGN, Creative Director Ken Levine said the game required some additional polishing and bug fixing to deliver an experience worthy of our hard earned money (thanks Ken).  This delay is the second one to beset Bioshock Infinite as I am sure most of you remember its original release date of October 2012.

I don’t believe this delay will diminish anyone’s excitement for the upcoming game, but Bioshock Infinite has now entered a fairly crowded month for games including Tomb Raider, Gears of War Judgment, God of War Ascension and a little game called Grand Theft Auto V amongst many other high profile titles.  So while excitement may not be in jeopardy, time and money may become an issue for gamers deciding which titles to commit to come March.

What say you reader?  Will this delay affect your gaming in the month of March or will you not skip a beat?  Let us know in the comments and for everything Bioshock Infinite and gaming keep it tuned to The Gamer’s Abstract.

Jet Set Radio Review

In June of 2000, gamers the world over were introduced to something, that at the time was just a Dreamcast game, but would later be revered as a transition for the medium.  Gravitating away from just being simply entertainment, but being appreciated as an art form; Jet Set Radio was that turning point and to this day remains one of the most important games released on any platform–and also the main reason why you should play it.

Best and Worst at E3

Another E3 has come and gone and with it some awesome new stuff to look at and some things we would have rather not seen.

Here at the TGA we are going to show you the top 10 the best things that you should look at and the 5 worst things from E3 2012.

FFXIII-2 Review

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the newest installment of the FF franchise.  Trying to make up for the amount of complaints from the FF XIII and possibility of lacking creative ideas Square Enix attempts another console FF sequel.  The first thing that came to mind was, “Why?”  After the travesty that was FF X-2 I was very resilient to think that doing another FF sequel would be a good idea.  The feedback that I received from reviews and word of mouth put my worries at ease and also stating that the complaints I had about the first one were also changed.  Did the title live up to or exceed its predecessor?  Let’s take a look and see.

Gameplay:

The gameplay of FF 13-2 is very similar to that of FF13. The battle system is based off of 6 interchangeable class types and managing those into 6 on the fly class combos in order to heal, stagger, or devastate your opponents. If you played FF13 than you will feel right at home with the battle system. There were minor tweaks in place that now give some enemies the ability to wound your health making you unable to heal wounded damage, also some of the class abilities aren’t as vast as they were in FF13, and now your 3^rd battle partner is a monster. You now have the ability to capture, infuse, and level up monsters in the game.  While this makes it able to build the ultimate monster for each class type I would much rather have static characters that I can level up just like Noel and Serah.  Having to worry about grabbing new monsters or not knowing which ones are good to level up can be frustrating at times. Monsters can only be leveled up, depending on the class of monster, using items you can either buy or earn in battles. This can also be very frustrating as you have a limited number of items and don’t want to waste them on monsters that aren’t going to ever be as strong as the monster you are using now. The crystarium system of leveling up is back again but with a small change. In the previous title you could level up one of the 6 classes and each one had a cap and you could dump XP into any one you wanted. This time around you dump those points into each class type and get stat boosts in strength, HP, and Magic depending on which class you level. Each time you do that specific class will level up and each class caps at level 99. Each time you fill an entire crystarium field you also get a bonus which can range from boosting a class or raising your accessory limit amount. In this game you can’t just wear any accessory you want as each accessory has a number attached to it. If you don’t have a high enough number cap than a lot of accessories are dead to you and this really limits what you can wear to 1 maybe 2 accessories at best. Overall I feel gameplay took a step back from FF13

14/20

Presentation:

The game has Serah in search of her sister Lightning who she saw in a dream fighting in Valhalla in the beginning. Shortly after she is met with the last human in existence from the future, Noel as they both travel through time solving paradoxes created in the timeline in order to bring back Lightning. You travel to a great array of places scattered all throughout time as well as multiple versions of the same time but changed after fixing paradoxes.  In each time you spend anywhere from 30min to 3hrs following the trail of the next time period unlocked by gates. Since the previous title was too linear this one is too open. I quickly felt overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that I had open to me in the timeline, and had to also revisit the same places to see if I could find more fragments in each time. The storyline was sub-par at best as it unfolded with a cast of characters that never moved or inspired me. Over the 38hrs of my time with the game I found myself playing it more out of not having anything else better to play rather than wanting to know what happens next. Most of the game posed no difficulty except for the final boss that resulted in me spending another 5hrs of leveling and creating stronger monsters in order to just barely win. The ending (spoiler free) infuriated me with the direction in which it played out. Overall, I would have rather played through FF13 a 2^nd time than my one play through of FF13-2.

11/20

Visuals:

Visuals are usually a department that Square Enix does right. This title is an exception to that rule. The vast array of locations and geography always made it seem fresh. I would jump from one time period to the next and be immersed in a whole new world completely different from where I just was. However, the character models often seemed pixelated and it looks like there wasn’t a lot of effort into making this a well-polished and visually astounding title. The turnaround is that the cutscenes look as good as would be expected, but the environments, characters, and everything else outside of cutscenes looks like ass.

13/20

Sound:

The soundtrack for this game is atrocious. Most music consisted of not just music but some of them also had someone else singing in the background. I found the music to be so horrible that I would try to leave certain time periods quicker than others or play over the video game music with stuff from my computer because it just hurt my soul. I took the time to listen to what those people were actually saying I hung my head in disgust to hear that the lyrics were horribly written. Below I have linked some Youtube links to a few examples of what I mean.

10/20

Lasting Appeal:

The game has a vast amount of content with 160 fragments to collect, multiple endings, and a casino to blow all your money and time at. The only problem is that it was hard enough to stomach one full play through that I could never see myself going back to playing this title ever again.  Do yourself a favor and do not waste your money on this game.

10/20

Final Score: 58/100

I completed this game on the PS3 with a time of 38:27:20. I was able to collect 77/160 fragments in the game and was able to reach 56% trophy completion

What did you think about FFXIII-2? Post your comments in the section below and remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract

2011 Multi-Game Reviews

It’s been a while since I have had the time to be able to write an article. I was buried under the black hole that is retail as well as the start of my next college semester. However, some my time was well spent as I was able to polish off a number of hit games that came out during the holiday season that I will be reviewing today.

My time with Saints Row: The Third can be summed up in one word, Amazing.   My 30hrs spent lost in the nostalgia that was Steelport was nothing short of an incredible ride.  From the very beginning you get a sense of the crazy antics you should expect as you progress.  The game not only met my expectations it exceeded them.  From sprees of beating people with a giant purple dildo bat, killing waves of mascots in Prof. Genki’s, or tiger escort missions and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Needless to say that I never wanted my experience to end.  This game boasts one of the best soundtracks incorporating a wide range of genres and song selections that could satisfy any gamer’s musical tastes.  The gameplay is the heart and soul of the game giving you power ups as you level your saints, guns, cars, cribs, gang members, or yourself.  The game plays out just like your standard open sandbox world video game, but quickly you will notice that this game relays heavily on the WTF factor.  While the side missions are a fun means to tack on more hours the storyline is what ties the game together into the beautiful masterpiece that I experienced.  The closer you get to game’s end the more I could only sit there bursting out laughing at character interactions and the objectives that I had to complete.  The game also has a great deal of customization allowing you to customize any article of clothing or vehicles to the color or style that you want.  The graphics were not anything impressive, but that’s not why you’d be playing this game in the first place.  Places look as though a city would with a nice amount of detail but it’s a standard look that we’ve seen before from this type of game.  There are a few times that my gameplay got drastically slowed for having too many things on the screen, but this only happened a few times.  With co-op, single player, whored mode, challenges, plenty to upgrade, and a wide variety of side missions this is one title that will be a long and enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Gameplay: 18/20
Presentation: 19/20
Visuals: 17/20
Sound: 20/20
Future Playability: 20/20

Final Score: 94/100 I spent a total of 30hr playing this game, achieved 80% of the trophies, and completed 98% of the total single player experience.

Next up is the strange and horror filled love experience that was Catherine.  When I started the game I had no idea what to expect.  You play as Vincent a man who is tied down to his long term girlfriend Katherine, but after a long night at his usual bar he finds himself in a love triangle.  The story becomes so compelling that you will want to spend hours solving the games incredibly difficult puzzles in order to see what happens next. The game is divided into 3 sections: the part you watch, the part you play, and the part where you interact and shape how the game will progress. Each morning you are greeted with a series of cut scenes that reveal what troubling situation Vincent got himself into next.  The visuals in the animation are beautifully done in mostly an anime style of drawing.  Outside of these cut scenes the game does a good job at making the rest of the experience to be visually detailed even if you are too busy to pay attention as you run for your life.  The second is spent at your favorite bar The Sleeping Sheep where here you interact with people, text the two K/Catherines and try to help people with their problems and woes.  You can also play the bar’s arcade game which can help you work on your climbing skills, or sit and drink to increase the speed of Vincent as he climbs.  Once you leave the bar is where you’ll be running for your life.  Each night is the same in that you have a series of levels and you have to climb to the top in order to make it to the next stage. The difficulty curve climbed exponentially quick with the introduction of new block types and more difficult puzzles to try to climb up.  By the second night my opinion went from thinking the game was easy to Holy $&#* at this rate I am not even sure I will beat the game.  The game does a great job at immersing the player into a constant state of panic as you tackle each new puzzle.  However, no matter how difficult and frustrating they may be once the game sinks its teeth into you there is no stopping you from trying to finish the night to see what happens next.  The voice acting as I would expect coming from a Japanese game is impressive.  The score of the game sets the mood for the epic and puzzling climbs that you will have to make each night.  With multiple endings, high scores and medals to achieve on each puzzle, and a challenge mode that unlocks from getting enough gold medals in campaign there is plenty that will keep you coming back for more.

Gameplay: 19/20
Presentation: 20/20
Visuals: 16/20
Sound: 16/20
Future Playability: 20/20

Final Score: 91/100 I spent 12:38 playing through the game and got 35% of the games trophies.

Ezio Auditore and Desmond are back in another hit installment of the Assassin’s Creed series in Assassin’s Creed Revelations.  In order for Desmond to make it out of the Animus with his mind intact he must complete the tale of both Ezio and Altair that blur memories within his own timeline.  The gameplay hasn’t changed much since the previous installments with combat seeing very little performance tweaks.  If you love the fight, climb, and move mechanics of the previous titles than you’ll feel right at home in this one.  The game adds a new feature to create bombs to help kill, distract, or infect the minds of opponents. Another new feature is tower defense which has you strategize troops of assassins to stop invading forces from taking over your controlled bases. Truthfully, I feel that with each new Assassin’s Creed title the developers try to add more and more content that can be a bit too cumbersome at times.  The game would consistently break the flow of my game experience by wanting me to rush back to the complete other side of town in order to protect my bases.  The stealth mechanics are more difficult this time around as the developers want to try to force you to craft bombs to help progress even as it felt against my will to want to.  The Presentation is set in Constantinople as Ezio is trying to track down the keys to unlock the truth behind Altair’s secret room.  The journey will take Ezio through a love interest, building the Assassins Order in Constantinople, and becoming involved in a struggle for power over the crown. The game also adds backstory scenes involving Desmond before he went to Abstergo in the first one and Altair after the end of the first Assassin’s Creed took place.  The story developed in Revelations within Constantinople was bland and my only driving force was to continue the storyline shaped from previous titles. The visuals are on par with the last two Assassin’s Creed titles with nice visuals stretching as far as the eye can see from rooftops and the soundtrack fit the setting of the game. With tower defense, tons of collectables and gear to obtain, 2ndary objectives, an Assassin’s Order to manage, and multiplayer this is a game that could keep you busy for a long time to come. If you’re looking to continue the story I would recommend playing it just to see what happens. Otherwise there are far superior Assassin’s Creed titles in the lineup.

Gameplay: 14/20
Presentation: 14/20
Visuals: 16/20
Sound: 16/20
Future Playability: 12/20

Final Score: 72/100 I spent 12:01 playing through the game with 56.52% completion and 36% trophy completion

What did you think about any of the above games? Post your comments in the section below and remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract

Assassin’s Creed 3 box art is revealed

Soon after Assassin’s Creed 3 was announced earlier this week, details about the narrative, release date and the game’s box art were also revealed.  The game looks to take place during the American Revolution and our character may or may not be of Native American descent (leaning towards is).  This is a welcomed departure from the previous settings of past titles and it will be interesting to see how this new assassin is integrated into the overall narrative of the AC franchise (and his connection to Desmond).  Also depending on what locales are featured in the game could potentially alter the verticality gameplay the series is so well known for, but I have faith in Ubisoft to dazzle us with something amazing.

The game has a release date of October 30^th for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.  Also Ubisoft has a major announcement regarding the game coming up in a few days and will more than likely offer more information in addition to what everyone knows and has speculated about (AC3 site).  If you want more information regarding the historical implications of AC3 ride this link to an awesome video done by Colin Moriarty and Andrew Goldfarb over at IGN.  They break down the box art and Game Informer’s latest cover featuring art from AC3 (lots of interesting info).  As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.  Happy Friday everyone and have an awesome weekend.

Team ICO vs. almost the rest of Sony

By now anyone who plays games or follows them knows about the setbacks that have fallen upon Team ICO’s latest project The Last Guardian.  In a recent article on Kotaku, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide studios, said that Ueda, the game’s director, for better or worse is making the game tough to develop.  For those who played Team ICO’s previous two gamesm, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, know that they are very polished and enjoyable games, but for each game’s respective length is the development cycle a little too drawn out?  On the most recent episode of Podcast Beyond (227) the Beyond crew (Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements, Greg Miller) discussed this hot topic in the Sony world and how other studios are pumping out games faster that Team ICO and with almost the same pedigree in the quality department.  So this got me thinking about the topic a little more and decided to do a little research and I’d like to share it with all of you to give you some context to the absurdity of The Last Guardian’s development time.

Assuming that The Last Guardian went into development either concurrently or immediately after Shadow of the Colossus’s release it has almost been in development for 7 years (2005 – present).  So with that information I took to the internet to track down some facts about other studios and found out how many games have been released within other internal Sony studios in the same general time frame.  I warn you that these statistics may be alarming so approach the following with caution.

After looking at some (not all) of Sony’s internal studios I generated a list of games that came out after 2005 from each respective studio and then did some basic addition to derive a number that is borderline upsetting for Team ICO.  Since 2005 the studios I will list below (with games) have developed and released 45 games to Team ICO’s 1 that is still in development.  Like I said a couple sentences ago that isn’t all the games or studios so that number is far larger in the grand scheme of things, but 45 is still nothing to sneeze at.

Most of Sony (not all)

Average score for Most of Sony – 83.26

[Updated: Added available Metacritic scores and averaged them per developer and as a whole]

• Naughty Dog – average score – 88
  • Jak X: Combat Racing – (2005) – 76
  • Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007) – 88
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) – 96
  • Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011) – 92
• Guerilla Games (just Sony Properties) – average score – 84
  • Killzone Liberation (PSP) – (2006) – 77
  • Killzone 2 – (2009) – 91
  • Killzone 3 – (2011) – 84
• Santa Monica Studios (Internally developed) – average score – 93
  • God of War – (2005) – 94
  • God of War 2 – (2007) – 93
  • God of War 3 – (2010) – 92
• Insomniac Games – average score – 82.3
  • Ratchet: Deadlocked – (2005) – 81
  • Resistance: Fall of Man – (2006) – 86
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction – (2007) – 89
  • Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty – (2008) – 76
  • Resistance 2 – (2008) – 87
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time – (2009) – 87
  • Resistance 3 – (2011) – 83
  • Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One – (2011) – 70
•  Sony Bend Studios – average score – 83.25
  • Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror – (2006) – 87
  • Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow – (2007) – 85
  • Syphon Filter: Combat Ops – (2007) – n/a
  • Resistance: Retribution – (2009) – 81
  • Uncharted: Golden Abyss – (2012) – 80
• Sony San Diego (Internally Developed) – average score – 74.3
  • All the MLB: The Shows (PS3 versions only besides 2006)
    • MLB 06: The Show (2006) (PS2) – 83
    • MLB 07: The Show (2007) – 77
    • MLB 08: The Show (2008) – 85
    • MLB 09: The Show (2009) – 90
    • MLB 10: The Show (2010) – 91
    • MLB 11: The Show (2011) – 90
    • MLB 12: The Show (2012) – n/a
  • All the NBAs (Sony NBA) (PS3 versions only besides 2006 and 2009)
    • NBA 06 (2005) (PSP) – 72
    • NBA 06 (2005) (PS2) – 63
    • NBA 07 (2006) – 63
    • NBA 08 (2007) – 63
    • NBA 09 (2008) – 63
    • NBA 10 (PSP only) (2009) – 69
  • ModNation Racers – (2010) – 82
  • Sports Champions – (2010) – 76
  • Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest – (2011) – 61
  • ModNation Racers: Road Trip – (2012) – 61
• Polyphony Digital – average score – 78
  • Tourist Trophy – (2006) – 74
  • Gran Turismo HD – (2006) – n/a
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue – (2007) – 80
  • Gran Turismo PSP – (2009) – 74
  • Gran Turismo 5 – (2010) – 84

Team ICO – average score – 91

• Shadow of the Colossus – (2005) – 91
• The Last Guardian – (???)

There is no doubt that Fumito Ueda, the former leader of Team ICO, is a brilliant and talented video game developer, but that brilliance and talent needs to be coupled with focus and compliance.  Other studios within Sony’s umbrella have been creating and releasing games much faster than Team ICO and have been incredible (i.e. the Uncharted series).  Another thing the Beyond Crew pointed out is that this team has been getting paid for 6 going on 7 years and hasn’t even finished one product.  Name any other studio, besides Polyphony Digital, the makers of Gran Turismo, which would be given that kind of leniency in regards to development time.  Most publishers would have shit canned Team ICO if they took as long as they are taking currently.  This also begs the question does Sony give preferential treatment to Team ICO/Studio Japan for reasons outside of an industrial context?  Would Naughty Dog be given the same pass if they wanted to take another 5 years to develop The Last of Us (I sincerely hope not)?  We could speculate all day about the answer to that question, but we will save that for another day.  This will continue to be a hot topic in the world of video games until some ground is broke on The Last Guardian.  Until definitive information is disseminated down to us about a release date and any developmental resolutions, it will all continue to just be conjecture.  So what do you all think about this?  Do you think Team ICO needs to get their asses in gear and finish up the game or should they be allowed to take their sweet time to give us their “vision” of the game?  Sound off in the comments section and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

As a final disclaimer I want to play the hell out of The Last Guardian.  Also I give my consent for this article and research to be used on other sites/blogs.  I want this research to be continued and more detailed.  The numbers were provided via Metacritic.  I was given inspiration for this research by the Podcast Beyond crew from IGN which is comprised of Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements and Greg Miller.  So a thank you for them is in order as well.

Amazon Valentine’s Day Gaming DOTD

We want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day (that includes you single folk as well).  We haven’t posted many deals lately because we felt our site was becoming overly saturated with deals instead of actual news and original material, but today we make an exception because well, its Valentine’s Day.  Amazon has a very special game on sale today and it is none other than Catherine.  This amazingly original dating sim RPG is available on Amazon today for $29.99 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3.  The link below will bring you to the deal and we hope that all of you have a great Valentine’s Day.  As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

Catherine for $29.99 for Xbox 360 and PS3

Mass Effect 3 Demo coming February 14th

Mass Effect 3 is less than one month ago, but for those of us (which is all of us, let’s be honest) who can’t wait until then we will have a demo to hold us over.  The Mass Effect 3 demo drops on all platforms February 14^th and the Xbox 360 version will have Kinect integration.  The Mass Effect 3 demo will also have unlockable content for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (just like Reckoning had for ME3 and itself).  If you are among the super impatient ME fans (which again is most of us) there is also an option for you to access the demo even earlier.  On the Mass Effect 3 Facebook page there is a mini game that offers you the user a chance to win early access to the demo and will grant you access to ME3 avatar items (unfortunately Xbox 360 only).  The game is pretty ambiguous as to how it is supposed to be played and if you are unsuccessful in completing this puzzle game after three attempts you will be locked out from it for 2 hours; then you will have the option of trying it again (Big ups to IGN for the link).  That is all folks for Mass Effect 3 demo news.  You can either wait until Tuesday or try and beat the mini game on Facebook, but either way Mass Effect 3 goodness is not that far out.  As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

Review Roundup: The Darkness 2

The Darkness 2 launched this week and continues the adventures of a one Jackie Estacado and his destructive tendencies through New York.  We went through a few reviews and found the ones that best described the game and gave us a great opportunity to pass good information onto you.  Everything we think you need to know about The Darkness 2 can be found below to uncover whether or not this is a good game for you, enjoy.

Release Date: February 7^th, 2011

Available Platforms:

• Xbox 360
• Playstation 3
• PC

The ROUNDUP

Pros and Cons Consensus

Pros

• Great Art Style
• Great combat
• Great sense of empowerment
• New narrative elements help the pacing of the story
• Unique multiplayer components
• Great Voice Acting and Sound Effects
• Inclusion of a Skill Tree adds diversity to combat

Cons

• Relatively short campaign
• Some aggravating bugs
• Linear Levels and predictable AI

Site Reviews

• IGN Review – 8/10
• GamesRadar Review – 8/10
• GameSpot Review – 7/10
• EuroGamer Review – 7/10

Average Score – 7.5/10

Buying Decision:

From what we could derive from all these reviews and word of mouth from our friends The Darkness 2 is a must buy, day one purchase for Darkness zealots.  If you liked the first one, but weren’t a mega fan we recommend waiting for a price drop especially if you only plan on playing the single player campaign.  If you didn’t enjoy the first one at all then we recommend that you don’t buy the game period.  Also keep in mind that there is a demo so you can always try before you buy.

Alright folks this concludes our first ever Review Roundup.  We hope you found some great information about The Darkness 2 and as this is just a roundup and not an actual review please refer to the actual reviews for more in depth analysis and criticism of the title itself.  Thanks for stopping by and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.  Lastly any suggestions to make this better or any requests for Roundups let us know by commenting on this page, Facebook or on Twitter.  Thanks and have a great weekend everyone.