Portal is one of my favorite games of all time. It is one of the few examples I can point to when the topic of a "perfect video game" is brought up. When Portal 2 was announced my expectations weren't extremely high; I didn't think anything could touch the perfection I had seen in the original Portal.
I stand corrected.
Portal 2 is without a doubt, one of the single most impressive accomplishments I have seen come out of any game studio. Valve took the foundation of the original, and expanded it in ways I didn't think could be done. While Portal's writing was pitch perfect for a short 3 hours or so, Portal 2 is consistently funny and entertaining enough to span 10+ hours. The puzzles are ingeniously well done, more-so than any other game in recent memory. The overall quality of Portal 2 is so outrageous, I'll be surprised to see anything this well polished for a long time to come. Portal 2, congratulations on being Game of the Year 2011... at least for now.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Shadows of the Damned
Suda 51. Shinji Mikami. Akira Yamaoka. Three of the brightest minds in the Japanese gaming industry have come together to create a fantastically odd new game. It doesn't take very long to figure out that this game knows what it is, and it proud of it every step of the way. If you are familiar with Suda (No More Heroes, killer7) you'll understand what kind of game this is. For everyone else, I promise that you haven't experienced anything like it before.
The characters and writing are as excellent as ever, and the shooting mechanics will be familiar to Resident Evil 4 fans. While nearly everything about the game is great, it never reaches the highs that I expected from this team of masterminds. A few things just seemed a bit off (like the weapon upgrading system) but nothing really feels broken. I definitely enjoyed this game, and it did a lot of very cool things that I hadn't seen before. I can hope for a sequel to fix a few of my little gripes, but for now we have one of the most unique games of this generation.
The characters and writing are as excellent as ever, and the shooting mechanics will be familiar to Resident Evil 4 fans. While nearly everything about the game is great, it never reaches the highs that I expected from this team of masterminds. A few things just seemed a bit off (like the weapon upgrading system) but nothing really feels broken. I definitely enjoyed this game, and it did a lot of very cool things that I hadn't seen before. I can hope for a sequel to fix a few of my little gripes, but for now we have one of the most unique games of this generation.
Child of Eden
Playing Child of Eden with Kinect your first time through should be a requirement. The pure joy that comes from controlling the delightfully orchestrated chaos that is happening onscreen rivals anything you'll play this year. Using your hands to control this game really does feel like the future, and is the most exciting use of Kinect I have seen so far. This is an excellent game, it feels like you are inside the mind of an artist. The visuals and the sounds all come together to make a wonderful symphony that you are in control of. Child of Eden makes you feel powerful like no other game has done before.
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