Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom... coming to XBLA/PSN

If you're wandering why I'm posting the awesome intro of Sonic CD here with that "Sonic Boom" song, its because what is arguably still the best Sonic game ever, Sonic CD is finally getting a release on Xbox Live Arcade and likely Playstation Network as well. Like most people, I never owned a Sega CD when this originally came out, so this release will make me finally play it and see for myself why it is the best Sonic game.

A LTTP "Review" of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

Note - Spoilers will be mentioned, so you are warned if you still want to play this game and don't want the story ruined (Same goes for the Endor DLC too)

I played through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II last weekend, but it is more like one afternoon with the main campaign since it was so short. This game came out last fall and it promised to fix the problems the first one had, but I didn't think they did and added along more issues that seemed like a rushed job on LucasArts' part. Then again, you probably can consider how the game ended up the way it was with the whole team being let go by LucasArts shortly after its retail release. At the end of the day, The Force Unleashed II is simply not a good game and even having the Star Wars name does not help either.

If you played through the first game, this sequel follows the light side ending from that which Starkiller, the protagonist of this series and apprentice of Darth Vader, sacrifices himself in attempts of defeating the Empire and forming the Rebel alliance that is in the good trilogy of movies. Vader comes up with a plan to clone Starkiller in the Force Unleashed II in which that is who you play as. This clone is supposed to have no memories of his personal connections with the Rebels, especially his love interest Juno, and able to follow Vader's orders . However, those visions and memories slowly come back to this Starkiller's mind and the game starts out with an escape from the Kamino cloning facility. The whole cloning business feels like a lazy way to have a story arc and let LucasArts to say let's have a sequel since the first game had successful sales. It makes you wonder if it is really that necessary for this whole idea of a Starkiller clone to make some sense. Even with that clumsy story arc, Starkiller has to regroup with the rebels (mainly General Kota) to forge a plan to get rid of Empire and reunite with Juno as well.

The way Force Unleashed II's story plays out until the end is filled with questionable and absurd decisions by LucasArts. Going to Dagobah just for Starkiller to rethink of the whole situation feels like a waste is and basically a filler moment for the sake of pacing (even Kota agrees about being rescued). Dagobah itself is a pointless level with no action and gives the developers a lazy reason to include Yoda in the game. There is also a lack of memorable moments throughout the game as I can only consider two or three of them worthwhile even for Star Wars fans. Even the good ending that continues the canon feels uninspired with no sense of closure to the game setting things up for another sequel that won't happen because the development team is already gone from LucasArts. The dark side ending is a little better based on how it looked alone. The storyline as a whole is a mess from beginning to end and pretty much ruins anything good the first game had on that department (I felt that the first game ended right and had closure to a degree).

While the story feels messy for the duration of the game, even the game design has its own set of lazy problems and numerous technical issues. I already mentioned earlier how short Force Unleashed II is, which is about five to six hours on normal difficulty. This is due to the lack of levels as you're only going to see four locales throughout the game with Kamino (you return there for the finale), Cato Neimoidia, Dagobah, and the Salvation ship. Speaking of the levels, the level design looks and feels uninspired with repetitive backgrounds and corridors as if you're playing a corridor-only first-person shooter (Doom, Quake days). Basically as in any recent action game, you're just playing through sets of kill rooms and going from point A to point B. The game is as linear as it gets even though there are hidden holocrons that can be found to gain more experience, increase your health/force meters, and saber crystals for various status effects. In addition to the boring level design, even the enemy design is unoriginal too from your normal Stormtroppers, sniper troopers that are annoying, enemies that also use force powers against you, various Star Wars-like mechs like the AT-STs, and so on. All of Force Unleashed II's design issues just makes it boring and repetitive to play through along with other frustrations I will talk about in a bit.

Controlling Starkiller is still fine for the most part especially having two lightsabers at your disposal throughout the game. It is still cool to decapitate enemies' body parts off with your lightsabers and use force powers to decimate the opposition by lightning, push, and force gripping them to bottomless pits. Even all of that gets tedious and tiresome after a while especially near the end of the game where kill rooms become more frustrating than fun. You can't really go nuts with the powers on the later enemy encounters as you think you can considering you are some Jedi badass as you can get killed quickly if you don't have some sort of plan of which enemies to tackle in a certain order. This is crucial on harder difficulties where the enemies deal more damage, so even someone as badass as Starkiller has to pick his spots to fight these battles right. Then there are the platforming elements, which is the only reason I hate about controlling Starkiller. Sure, he has a double jump and a dash, but the game's physics make the platforming more of a nuisance than enjoyable as there are times I feel like I made the jump, but turns out I don't (this gets really frustrating in the playable challenges). Since it is a modern action game, quicktime events are everywhere in Force Unleashed II, specifically in big time moments and the boss fights, which have their own problems. There are really only three boss fights in this game with the last one being one of the worst final boss encounters I played through in a while. The finale with Darth Vader is dragged out for too long as it supposes to be some epic battle transversing through numerous platforms, but it ends up being another lazy design decision by the developers.

While the graphics in The Force Unleashed II look sharp in certain areas, especially the skyline at Cato Neimoidia, the game is a buggy mess at various times with lots of technical issues. The framerate does not stay consistent throughout the game dropping below 30 frames per second at times (its worse on the Endor DLC). Enemies get misplaced at certain times to their death right away. They even pop in and pop out appearing out of nowhere once you activate their presence in a combat section. In addition, my character gets stuck in the environment at certain times too and the frustration really kicks in when you get killed by something off-screen for no reason at all. The checkpoint system can be generous at times, but not as so in the later enemy encounters. The CG cutscenes look fine even though I didn't find any issues with the in-game ones. The sound production is on par for Star Wars standards, which is usually the only thing LucasArts does not screw up with these games. You're getting your expected theme songs when the game starts and whenever Dark side related action happens. The voice acting is okay as the script and dialogue is typical for a Star Wars product with some dumb, cheesy, and hokey moments.

I did play through the one dollar Endor DLC as well, which is not that bad being only a dollar. In this one hour what-if mission, you play as the evil Starkiller clone (if you remember the dark side ending of the main game) to prevent the Rebels from arming the charges to destroy the shield generator at Endor. In other words, you're basically reversing the events of Return of the Jedi assuming you already killed Luke in the first game's downloadable what-if Hoth scenario from Empire Strikes Back. Endor itself is a straightforward level like the campaign levels except with rebels to kill and ewoks to kick, which never gets old. Your Starkiller has different force power stats from the main campaign, but you're able to use any of the saber crystals you found. This mission does include encounters with Han Solo and Chewbacca in the captured AT-ST along with a surprising yet good boss fight with Princess Leia (you can probably guess why she is a formidable opponent at the end). That boss fight is better than the all of the boss fights in the main game because it felt like more a one-on-one duel than an ordinary boss fight with obstacles in your way. The Endor DLC does has its share of technical issues from not allowing to skip the intro, cutscenes, and credits at all along with an unstable framerate as well.

At the end of the day, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II felt rushed, lazy, unpolished, and the game is just flat out boring. That is something to say considering the Star Wars name, but I still stand by that statement. It is disappointing on so many levels from the short campaign, technical bugs everywhere, lazy game/level design, and more that has been mentioned already. The replay value isn't much other than some bonus challenges and harder difficulties to play through for achievements/trophies. It definitely is one of those unnecessary sequels that exists in today's world of entertainment, but since people still love Star Wars and they wanna have the chance to control someone as powerful as Starkiller, LucasArts basically made a cash-in game to feature all of that. There are still some redeeming qualities such as the core gameplay remaining intact and some cool Star Wars-like moments, but those qualities alone can't make Force Unleashed II a good game. Star Wars fans will probably still find some enjoyment out of it, but even I can not recommend getting this game back when it came out last year and even today.

Score I would give it = 6/10

Dance Central 2 = The "Rock Band 2" of Dance Games

Dance Central 2 is shaping up to be (pretty cliche statement coming up) what the first game should of been even though it was there to establish Harmonix's full-body dancing formula. Just on the formula alone, it became the Kinect's best game at its launch and still arguably the only reason to own a Kinect. What I mean of this sequel being the "Rock Band 2" of dance games is that you're getting a more complete game stacked with features that were missing from the original game. More modes, two player simultaneous dancing, and drop-in/drop-out multiplayer are just some of the things what's new with Dance Central 2. The Giant Bomb Quick Look EX above shows off an improved break it down mode, voice commands via Kinect especially when picking songs, and crew-on-crew dance battles. I'm liking some of the soundtrack that has been revealed so far with current songs such as Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," clubby stuff by David Guetta, some oldies that are goodies like Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It," Dance Dance Revolution classic "Sandstorm" by Darude, and more. However, some of the recently announced songs are weird like "Grenade" by Bruno Mars. Of course as expected with Harmonix games, downloadable songs will be coming out after the game's release and an export fee to include the original's soundtrack in the new one. Get ready to dust off that Kinect camera when Dance Central 2 releases on October 25.

Hands-On with WWE '12 from Summerslam Axxess

I got a chance to play the latest build of WWE '12 over at their Summerslam Axxess fan event last Saturday. THQ and Yuke's have been pumping out yearly games for over a decade, but recent years have been somewhat disappointing for the franchise as WWE '12 is being advertised as a "reboot" to start things over from scratch. Simulation aspects took over simple and fun gameplay especially when meters are everywhere on the screen to watch out for. In addition, animations have been janky for quite a while even though the developer Yuke's have been slowly improving those. From what I seen and played so far, WWE '12 is shaping up to be a return to the good days of the Smackdown games in the early 2000s.

One thing the WWE games have gotten right lately (not counting All-Stars) is the presentation, or in other words overall feel as seen in a normal WWE broadcast. For WWE '12, you'll see no HUD displayed at all when you're playing. No more meters to worry about as inputs would be displayed for reversals and signature/finisher moves when the opportunity comes. The core controls have returned to the face buttons especially grappling just like the last generation Smackdown games (Here Comes the Pain is the primary example as the THQ guys show off the new features in the clip below), which is a good thing. Sure, the animations haven't been fully improved yet as I noticed wrestlers glitching up like crazy (preview build folks!), but hopefully they're polished up in the final game. Another interesting gameplay mechanic is their comeback factor where it is an quicktime event where superstars string together moves to set up their finisher. An example of that if watch WWE programming on a regular basis is Cena's "five moves of doom" where he does two diving shoulder blocks, his signature back suplex slam (I don't know what is actually called), the Five Knuckle Shuffle which then sets up his Attitude Adjustment finisher. Signatures and finishers can be stored again, so for instance you can have Alberto Del Rio (who I tried out in the only match I played) have three cross arm breakers ready to go for the submission victory. Speaking of submissions, there's also a breaking point meter in which you can mash out if you're locked in a submission maneuver. Taking things back to the glory days of the franchise controls-wise is a great decision on the developers' part making the game faster and more fun to play.

Will WWE '12 live up to truly being bigger, badder, and better? We'll see when it comes out this November when an accurate roster of over 60 WWE superstars, some legends, and divas. THQ and Yuke's haven't really shown off some of the other modes in the game yet such as if certain match types are improved, the "career mode," and the customization features (even though Create-A-Arena is debuting in this game), so expect more about those soon. I like what I seen and played from the game so far despite some technical issues which can be easily fixed in the retail version. The pre-order bonus is none other than The Rock (his latest incarnation since he is facing John Cena at Wrestlemania next year), which seems questionable since he has been in every game, but you know Gamestop wants something enticing as a pre-order bonus. Plus, you can vote on who gets on the collector's edition cover between Cena and The People's Champion (which should be no contest with The Rock getting that one) as well. If I would get this game, I would definitely get the People's Edition for sure.

Music Video of the Day for 8/16/11

Lady Gaga - "You and I"

Since she decided to put it up herself after it got leaked earlier today, might as well post it here too. Mermaid Gaga is on the loose as she promised, but after coming a disappointing "Edge of Glory" video, this one is taking things back to normal Gaga standards with its mix of dancing and crazy.

Ulitmate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Sees STARS & Gets Strange...

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3's presence at Gamescom is showing off two more new characters in the game, which are Doctor Strange and Nemesis from the Resident Evil franchise. I'll talk about the two of them in a moment as the new overview trailer above does show some new moves for the existing characters, but you'll probably read or heard about them from the Comic-Con/Evo builds. Wolverine has his new Swiss Cheese move, which is a mash attack command, so Logan players better not mash so hard if they still want to do his bread and butter combo that is unchanged from vanilla. Crimson Viper gets an optic blast-like projectile which is basically Capcom saying here's your Cyclops in the game (more like a slap in the face of those who want Cyclops back in a versus game). Hulk gets a new chargeable Falcon Punch-like move, which reminds me of the charge moves from the Smash Bros. games (kind of weird to say Smash Bros. when I'm talking about Marvel lol). Also new in these trailers are more variations of existing games from vanilla such as a day version of the carrier stage and the Biotech lab all burned out.

Doctor Strange finally is a playable character in a Marvel game as he is shaping up to be a great character with a variety of tools at his disposal. His magical projectiles are pretty self-explanatory, has an OTG super, flight, a teleport, projectile counters (even a hyper projectile counter - he counters Akuma's air fireball hyper with his own beam), and a level 3 grab. As of now with his mobility and potential to zone characters out, Strange can hang with the best characters of the game (below average health might be a concern if you're not careful).

Nemesis is more of a character I would play in my main team as I usually like to have one character that can hit hard and has a lot of health. He seems to fit that slot for me with my Dorm and Akuma (assuming this combination is still viable in Ultimate) as point. Anyway, Nemesis is pretty much Capcom's "heavy" character (sorry, Tron doesn't count) that can easily kill opponents in one or two combos while taking a beating. He has attributes I like in a character: jump S ground bounces, good projectiles (rocket launcher/ Dorm dark hole assist for keep away for instance), good hypers (his combination one has super armor startup, his bazooka one OTGs, and a level 3 grab. All of this make it seem like he is scrub friendly like Hulk to a certain degree as tourney-level players will figure out ways to easily beat Nemesis. For now though, Nemesis is certainly on my list of new characters I would main.

Expect more UMvC3 stuff at this next weekend's New York City fight club event as hopefully these two characters will be there playable (Likely not) and of course next month's Tokyo Game Show for the next character reveal trailers. Here's more match footage of Doctor Strange and Nemesis in action below.

Clips from Gamescom for 8/16/11

Gamescom is off and popping over at Germany as conferences and new trailers keep showing up this morning. (I'm saving the UMvC3 and SFxT stuff for a separate post)

Borderlands 2 just got announced some weeks ago as Gearbox puts up a short teaser trailer. Expect more of this game at PAX at the end of the month or if you want to read up on what's new with this sequel, check out the Game Informer cover story.

Now with something up that is up my alley, SSX has also a presence at Gamescom. The new trailer reveals what to expect in the multiplayer department, which EA is doing big things. There is some ghost attack mode, social networking stuff seen in previous EA games, and global events with up to 100,000 players. That's cool and all, but as we see more of this game, the more its becoming like the SSX fans like me know and love. Its definitely a good start for 2012 when SSX comes out in January.

Even Capcom and Ninja Theory's DmC (Devil May Cry) reboot is at Gamescom and I'm still skeptical how this will turn out. At least I'm not as angry as the hardcore fans who still want more of the same Dante from the past four games, but I'm still giving it a chance. This is just gameplay footage of Dante slicing and shooting dudes, but it seems like Ninja Theory is getting closer and closer to getting the Dante they want right. DmC I think is coming out next year as we'll see more of it at the Tokyo Game Show next month.

The improved combat mehanics in Mass Effect 3 will make it a better shooter, but I'm still wandering about the "RPG elements" BioWare promised they'll bring back from the first game. They haven't shown or talked much of it recently, but I understand that you have to show a combat section to get casual fans excited. I probably should not question BioWare's approach of how to show off this game as I know it will be good when its out in March 2012.

As you probably know, I'm still on team Battlefield 3 as DICE shows off a different environment for a multiplayer map. As teased in previous trailers, airplanes are indeed in the game, which is obviously cool and expected for the franchise. Since I don't have a proper gaming PC, I didn't get to check out the alpha version of multiplayer some weeks back, but I can't wait to play the beta next month. According to the fact sheet, there are only nine maps in the final game, which is not that much, but the trade-off is their scale of how big they are. This also means downloadable map packs like no other too, so get ready to pony up a lot of spacebucks if you want more of those.

I'll have more from Gamescom throughout the week...