Well, its been a month and a bit since Portal 2 came out, so I was ready to be wowed again by the second game to drop on my most anticipated list for 2011. Firstly I forgive Rockstar for releasing the game in Australia two days after the US even though it was developed in Sydney, cos I’m just a nice guy, but as I sit here listening to the free Portal 2 soundtrack, it’s kinda apparent that LA Noire didn’t have much of an impact on me. It might be because I’m too dumb, I thought the game was well made, but nothing special. In this article I will go through the negatives I experienced in the game, if people think I’m hating on it then don’t, I’m just going through what I found was wrong. Correct me on it if you want, write your own fanboy article if you want, be my guest.

Before I properly start, this article will judge the game for game’s sake and not on the fact that Rockstar published it or Team Bondi developed it or SCEA originally funded it before Rockstar bought it. That’s just arbitrary, the game is what is actually important about LA Noire.

I played LA Noire on PS3. It took me 24 hrs of game time to get through the main story, play all the Street Crime side missions and achieve 45% trophies (unfortunately including trophies from DLC missions which I can’t get on PSN yet due to the Store still being down).

First up, if you haven’t bought the game and are worried that the game wont look like the screenshots and the trailers, then fear not because it looks just as pretty… Alright that should be enough being nice, time to go nasty.

This game will be great as a present if you know anyone who wants to spend most of the game failing. Even by the end of the game I’d be dished out with 2 stars out of 6 because I failed most interrogation questions. I even knew what I wanted to do in the questions, but picking ‘Lie’ instead of ‘Doubt’ because I misunderstood evidence. I think that happened wayyy too much for me to take it as an error on my part.

It was unclear whether some evidence would be relevant because they don’t note all the details of the pieces of evidence in Phelps’ journal. For example you will find a list of names and Phelps will note it in his journal in a very basic form so when the time comes to interrogate the suspects, it’s difficult which person the list would be relevant to or if it would be relevant to the case at all.

And speaking of names, Team Bondi assumed that my memory was immaculate. I have trouble remembering names in real life, so it doesn’t help that each case in LA Noire requires you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the suspects names, then after the case is over you have to forget them and remember a whole other set of names in the next case. Then they go and make references to previous cases (like during specific Street Crime side-missions) expecting you to remember who people they are out of a collection of at least 50 names and faces from past cases. I just ended up letting it skim over my head as there was no way in the world that seeing a former suspect for 5 seconds was adequate time to remember what he was accused for and which case(s) he was in.

They used ‘revolutionary’ facial capture technology (which everyone would know by now) and assumed that you’d be able to remember faces better that way. I don’t want to sit here and say that it was game that sold entirely on a gimmick alone but, aside from the excellent use of shadows/shadowplay, the facial capture technology was the most impressive part of the game. Plus, I personally don’t think it was a technology properly utilized in the game. To be honest I remember different faces in Final Fantasy 7 for the PS1 better than I can remember and distinguish faces in LA Noire. This probably could have been solved easily by just adding in more close ups of character’s faces which not only familiarize yourself with the character but also enable you to better emotionally relate to them. I suppose they could be excused by saying that their facial models weren’t detailed enough for shots that went any closer than shoulder-to-head, but I’m pretty sure they could have done it.

The hidden vehicles all look awesome and are fast but they aren’t practical because they don’t have a siren or a dispatch radio which, in a game that doesn’t encourage free-roam except for an impossible list of useless collectible film reels, means you wont spend more than a minute enjoying a fancy fast car before ditching it for the stock standard police vehicle. On the topic of sirens, in LA Noire they are pretty much useless if you’re trying to get anywhere fast because 1) traffic stopped at traffic lights will not pull over for you to pass them 2) Moving traffic wont move to the side until the last minute, especially if you are driving fast 3) If you are on the outside lane the moving traffic will still pull over to the side of the road, resulting in them crashing into you 4) cars coming across intersections wont stop or move out of the way also resulting in them crashing into you. In a game that judges you for vehicle damage among other things, that’s a long list of unrealistic elements within the game’s traffic mechanic which shouldn’t have been too hard to get right.

LA Noire claims to be made up of 90% historically accurate buildings. It’s great to see that they are also 90% historically accurately racist toward African Americans and sexist toward women, props to you LA Noire.

Flashbacks seemed like spoilers that dull the main storyline in an attempt to make the game shorter to fit on discs for consoles. They don’t really reveal anything important about the story and just serve as breaks between cases.

Every element in this game that they used just seemed to immerse me less and less emotionally in the story. The game went downhill in the Vice cases after a plot point which stumped me and many other players as to why it happened and what actually happened. For a game that explained everything to the dot, it definitely marked the rest of my experience of the game. I suggest playing the game on repeat during the Homicide missions, which I think is where the game really shined and should have climaxed. Some criticized Portal 2 for being too short, but in my opinion it is the opposite for LA Noire. It will be interesting to see if Rockstar will disown the game as a publisher after the DLC cycle like Bethesda will most probably do with Brink.

Let me know in the comments if you found the same issues as I did, if you think I’m wrong, if I saved you 60 bucks or if this article made you like the game even more because you wanted to decide what you thought about it yourself. Like I said, LA Noire was a decent game, I finished it and the side missions, but I’m just listing the holes I found in the otherwise smooth road. I didn’t mention anything about the graphics or the shooting mechanics because they were good… well the cover system was a little sticky… but the half of the game before you hit Vice was really darn good.

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

Q-Games brought out their latest PixelJunk game in the week just past, PixelJunk Shooter 2. I really liked the first PixelJunk Shooter and I regard it as the best downloadable game I’ve played. So it’d make sense that I was really looking forward to this sequel ever since it was announced. Right now after finishing the single player campaign, I’m not so sure.

PixelJunk Shooter was great fun, I would have loved more of the same from Q, but they complicated it in much the same way that I didn’t get hooked on LittleBigPlanet 2 compared to LBP 1. If you ever played PixelJunk Shooter then you’d know it was all about flying around in your spaceship rescuing scientists and jumping into elemental suits to either combat the environment (Fire, Magnetic Oil, Water, Gas and Ice) or just have a load of fun, it was always challenging but never annoyingly difficult. PixelJunk Shooter 2 differs from that formula, adding Light, Dark, Purple Sludge, Green Sludge, Purple Gas, Green Swarms and probably more that I can’t remember. To me there wasn’t enough time to establish why these new elements were put in the game, it seems as if they were just there to make the game harder – and boy, was this game harder. I got more frustrated by the level of difficulty in the puzzles than I have ever been in a game before (FYI I am a lightweight, having not played Ninja Gaiden). In the first game the enemies would spawn before they were on the screen, in this game it seemed at times you had to be right in front of them before they would spawn, killing you instantly. Often it would happen at the end of a level you had just worked really hard figuring out. PixelJunk Shooter 2 was not poorly made, it was too short for what it was trying to achieve. The simplicity of the first game allowed whole levels dedicated to having fun with water and magma suits that you and your friends could fly around and try and burn each other in co-op. PixelJunk Shooter 2 only ever has one suit per level, which is no fun at all. There is no room for error like the first game, if you want to beat a level real fast you are bound to be cut down within the first few seconds (mainly by those surprise spawns I mentioned earlier or a particularly accurate lava turret). I’m not the sort of person who likes a situation where a really crazily easy enemy has beaten you down ten times in a row because I tend not to feel really great when I do finally beat the level. Also spending a quarter of an hour taking out a boss then dying while trying to figure out the finishing move = killjoy. The game is ok and all, but if you want to know which of the two PixelJunk Shooter games to pick up if you can only choose one, I’d suggest the first. Final note on the campaign, they introduced dummy scientists that look exactly like normal scientists and transform into bats for no reason that will kill you if you aren’t paying attention, Q-Games, that was a stupid stupid stupid idea.

PixelJunk Shooter 2 introduces Multiplayer that I can’t really comment much on as apparently the servers I am linked to in Australia are only playable with Japanese players, which are isn’t…urg who am I kidding, this game has made me soo frustrated, I don’t wanna talk about it anymore until I’m in a better mood. Buy it if you want, I’d wait until it’s dirt cheap if I was you. Sorry Q, but I’m sure you appreciate the constructive criticism

More of my reviews/ideas/thoughts/bizarre at twitter.com/warmanator

There are few games that bring back as fond a memory as “You Don’t Know Jack!”. Every week a new webisode would premier and my friends and I would gather around and play. Unfortunately new webisodes stopped coming and no word was heard for a long time. During the last E3, Cookie Masterson appeared on the Giant Bombcast and announced it was coming back. My heart sung and last week my loving wife listened well and picked up “You Don’t Know Jack!” for V-Day. Unfortunately I didn’t get to play it until the next day (pluses and minuses of Valentine’s Day).

“You Don’t Know Jack!” is a trivia game. It’s not Trivial Pursuit and it’s not Jeopardy, this is hilarity in trivia form. There are 2 rounds of trivia followed by a third lightening round. Each player is given a screw which you can use to screw others if you think they won’t know the answer. The questions are fun and the series is hosted by the amazing Cookie Masterson. He is snarky but not annoying. The questions are varied and make you laugh while you’re trying to answer.

I can’t recommend this game enough. I’d say it’s a 10/10 but that wouldn’t be doing it justice. PLEASE BUY THIS GAME! Both for your benefit and for mine, I want sequels.

One caveat : This game is best in a local play setting or with some friends on Live. I don’t recommend it for anyone planning to play with strangers. It is a great game to get your wife / girlfriend to get gaming with you.

I thought since I study film, and these are two newly released game fan films, I’d chuck my two cents worth into a comparison/review of them.
The films in question are Fallout: Nuka-Break uploaded on January 24th and Beyond Black Mesa (Half-Life) uploaded on January 21st. (No spoilers will be dished out, so you can read without ruining the endings)

To start off, the idea of a fan film of your two favorite video games was an exciting idea for me, but I was prepared to be disappointed. I probably would have been sad if they were hollywood translations of these two games that, in my opinion, blazed the trail for post-apocalyptic storytelling. So luckily it was pure enthusiasm that fueled the two small groups of independent filmmakers that made these two films, not money and target audiences.

Now, if you think this means I wasn’t disappointed and had the best time of my life, that is not entirely true.

Half-Life: Beyond Black Mesa

(It’s actually just Beyond Black Mesa, but for all intensive purposes it is a Half-Life fan film)

Beyond Black Mesa is about the US Marine called Adrian Shephard who appeared in the Gearbox Software-developed 1999 expansion pack of the original Half-Life. In the film he basically goes around, fights some Combine and some supposed “Headcrabs”, meets up with a chubby guy and an attractive lady and they do some stuff that I don’t understand. I THINK the whole film is a message broadcast to any survivors left and the film is about them having to climb a seemingly specific set of stairs to broadcast the message that you are watching. Not sure how they all knew that’s what they had to do, because they only just meet each other and none of them speak in the entire film.

There was one thing in Beyond Black Mesa that made me sad. This Half-Life tribute is set in and around the Half-Life region of Ravenholme, and if you have played Half-Life 2, you’d know that it’s a place where the Combine dropped the headcrab torpedos the hardest. In the game, the only people alive in the area is you and a crazy priest wielding powerful words and a nifty shotgun. In Beyond Black Mesa, there were two problems. The headcrabs were replaced by standard zombies picked straight from Dawn of the Dead. I hate to say it, but this minor change ruined most of this adaptation for me. If the filmmakers couldn’t get people with Headcrabs on them, then why didn’t they just solely focus on the Combine army instead? Also in the game the Combine and the Headcrab infected humans battle each other, but in this film it seems to have no relationship at all. The second problem is in the game most of the time you were alone, especially through Ravenholme, to heighten the fear and tension of how hideously outnumbered you were at times. In the film Adrian Shephard is alone against the Combine but has two strangers he meets when the ‘Zombies’ attack. There are only like three zombies in the film if I recall correctly, not too scary. It watered down any fear I had for the main character’s safety. Also the existence of the narration suggests that everything will be fine in the end. One last thing: in the expansion Adrian Shephard was assigned to cover up the Black Mesa incident, but in the film he is trying to let everyone know it happened?

Despite these grievances that would make the hardcore fans feel a little bit cheated, it’s a neat little film, very pretty for just one person editing and directing the piece. If you want to watch a crowbar fight, you will be sated. Also the twist at the end is pretty awesome.

Fallout: Nuka-Break

If you read the last review and thought ‘what a nasty person, it wasn’t that bad’ then you will be pleasantly surprised by what I have to say about Fallout: Nuka Break.

Fallout: Nuka Break is a charming story about a typical Fallout wasteland ‘family’ that we all know and love. a Vault dweller called Twig who shoots first and asks questions later, not because he is a loose cannon but because he is a coward; a Ghoul named Ben who likes a bit of a joke when he can be bothered to open his mouth; and a sassy ex-slave named Scarlett who is more or less the brains and the glue that keeps the group together. This combination of characters is simultaneously strange but makes so much sense for the Fallout universe. In the story basically they are just walking around doing what you do in Fallout games: trying not to accidentally kill people, getting jumped by bounty hunters, looting, using VATS and witty banter – a LOT of witty banter.

In comparison to post-apocalypse films (dialogue and visual appearance wise), Beyond Black Mesa is The Road and Nuka-Break is Zombieland. Nuka-Break is a wonderfully cheerful look at life after the apocalypse. It is incredibly faithful to the games and the plot and dialogue is possibly even better than what you’d find in a Fallout installment. This film is worthy of the Fallout franchise, and if Bethesda tries to take this down off YouTube it would prove that they are too big for their boots.

There isn’t much else to say about this except watch it! Or do what I did and go on ps3youtube.com on your PS3 and download yourself a copy in 1080p to enjoy over and over again

I wanted to wait until I played the last game in the list of what I considered to be game of the year candidates before I rendered my opinion of Assassin’s Creed II.  My list, by the way, in no particular order – Resident Evil 5, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman: Arkham Asylum, COD: MW2, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed 2, L4D2, and The Saboteur.  Now back to Assassin’s Creed…

For those of you who have not played Assassin’s Creed 1 or 2 – first of all, shame on you.  Taking place in the near future, you play as Desmond Miles, a regular guy who happens to be a direct descendant of a group of ancient assassins.  Desmond is captured by the evil corporation Abstergo, run by the Knights Templar.  Through a device called the Animus, Desmond is forced to re-enact the memories of his assassin predecessors in order to find clues to the whereabouts of  mysterious technology called “Pieces of Eden”.  Assassins Creed 1 concentrates on the life and memories of Altair, an assassin from the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades.

Assassins Creed 2 picks up right where the first left off, with Desmond trying to escape from the evil Abstergo.  Desmond is aided by a group of modern day assassins, who are looking to thwart the efforts of the Knights Templar.  Once out of Abstergo, Desmond is taken to a hideout where a new and improved Animus 2.0 is set up, ready for him to relive the memories of another assassin, Ezio Auditore.  In addition, Desmond’s new modern assassin friends have learned of a “bleeding effect” that the Animus produces where the user can physically gain the skills and abilities of the ancient subject.  So – modern day Desmond can become as badass as his assassin relatives.

The vast majority of gameplay in the second game takes place while inside the Animus,  in Florence, Forli, and Venice Italy.  Creed 2 improves on nearly every aspect of Creed 1.  Combat – in addition to new weapons, Ezio has a new arsenal of moves he can use.  In Assassins Creed 1, combat became jokingly easy at the end of the game when all of your combat skills were learned.  All you needed to do was wait for someone to strike, counter, and they were done.  In this way, I was able to take on 15-20 enemies at a time, barley taking a hit, if at all.  In AC2 there are new enemy types, two of which are difficult to counter, forcing you to vary your moves by using disarms and evades along with counters.  When all said and done, combat is much improved, more difficult and fun.

Missions – if I had a nickel for every time I heard Assassins Creed was too repetitive, I’d be richer then Tiger Woods’ flower salesman.  Ok the first one was repetitive.  But it was fun, and what game nowadays isn’t repetitive?    New  types of side missions, along with the interesting story line involving the likes of Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo DaVinci, and Machiavelli keep Creed 2 fresh.  In addition, new ways to “blend” with your environment to escape from enemies and the ability to swim gives you even more options.

Collectors and completionists will love this game as well, since there are symbols or “glyphs” spread throughout the game that take you through minor sub-story line, as well as feathers that can be collected in each area for various bonuses and a special Auditore family cape to wear.  Another new aspect of the game I loved was the assassin tombs.  Each city in the game and one or two tombs that were only accessible by assassins.  Each tomb involved a Tomb Raider style running/climbing/jumping puzzle to unlock the tomb treasure room.  Each treasure room contained a stone seal used to unlock a special outfit in your family villa.

Overall, there are very few reasons not to play this game.  If you played the first but didn’t quite like it, play this game, it’s much improved.  If you have never have played an Assassins Creed game, this is the one to try.  If you liked the first game, well then this is a no brainer.  I took about 25 hours to complete this game, doing only a handful of side missions.  I’m not the fastest game player, but this game definitely gives you your money’s worth.

I can’t recommend this game enough.  That’s why it’s my game of the year.

The median age of a gamer is in his/her mid 30′s, and those statistics show that the average gamer grew up in the golden age of electronic entertainment, the 80′s. If the names like Galaga, Life Force, Dragon Warrior, and Bad Dudes causes a grin from ear to ear, then make sure and give Retro Game Challenge a try. Click on the jump for the full review!

Evil Game Master(Fanboy), Arino sends the heroine back to the past to play these Retro games. Most of the Retro Games are knock-off’s of their actual counterparts. Cosmic Zone, is actually Galaga. Arino has a set of 4 challenges for each game. Some of the are easy and are points oriented, while others require research. Don’t write the game off, because of research. Each game comes with a manual, and some of the challeges require a quick glance at the manual to learn certain tricks. This part of the game is done very well. Our heroine also has game magazines he can read for further knowledge, about the game loaded with tips and tricks. The magazines rekindle that old school EGM spark, and even feature some editors that you might recognize. After each of the four challenges are completed, a new game is opened.

Some might find the grind of the game annoying, but this is gaming  before achievements. Finding portals in Cosmic Zone, or trying to pass the 200,000 point barrier was the ultimate bragging right. Rally King is similar to RC Pro Am, while Phantasy Zone is similar to,( insert generic 80′s RPG here). This game sat around in the pile of shame for months, and now it had made a home in the DS. The game magazines are a great homage to the days when waiting for the mailman to bring a new EGM was norm, and the first section you looked at were the, Tips N’ tricks. RGC has a more to offer instead fancy graphics and short quest. It reminds us why we fell in love with games 25 years ago.

Pros: Great Spinoffs of 80′s era games, like: Galaga, RC Pro Am, Dragon Quest(Dragon Warrior). challenges are fun and not too hard. Hours and hours of retro gameplay. The games have a lot of content. the magazines are funny to read and provide with hints and cheats for the games.

Cons: The grind might prove to be to tedious for modern gamers. Graphics show their date. Some of the challenges  require a lot of replay.

Score: 9/10

Quick Notes:

Developer: indieszero
Publisher: Xseed Games
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release date: February 2009
Rating: Everyone

We’ve kinda neglected the Zune Marketplace for too long, so to you Zune owners…we apologize. Here is our Podcast…er, Zunecast on their website. If you get the time to leave us a review there we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for all the reviews on iTunes that you’ve given us, now we want to let Zune owners find us and give us a listen. Thanks again.

Hey blog readers! Head over to the Reviews area of the site to check out our take on Dead Space, Spiderman: Web of Shadows, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, and the Astro Gaming A40 Audio System. Any games or accessories you’d like to see us review? Send an email to contact@gamerhusbands.com if you’d like to suggest something!

Being that we were lacking reviews on the Nintendo Wii games, “Emanon” also know as Chaz will be helping us in that department. Chaz was featured on Episode 7 as our first ever Community Q and A interview. Check out his review of Wii Mario Kart now up in the Reviews section. Also, he has purchased Wii Fit so look for a future review over that to come along too.

Thanks for your efforts Emanon.