Xbox 360's Binary Domain

I've been playin games. What have you been doing?


Aaaaaaaat any rate. I love single player, 10-20hr, third or first person shooters that hardly make waves.

Binary Domain is one of those games. The Japanese made this game. It has a very heavy Final Fantasy/ MGS vibe to it. But come on, you can't beat a straight-forward shooter with a simple concept, simple storyline, and solidly presented gameplay.

Something about robots looking like humans, and an evil robot manufacturing plant taking over the world. Or something. Post-war soldiers all group up from different countries and head out to arrest the leader of this evil plant. Yup, simple storyline.

I mean, in a sense it's simple. A group of soldiers trying to capture a single person.

The storyline allows for lots of strange situations, giant robot creatures (a robot motorcycle-thing with a rail-gun chase on a highway), but they all seem.... plausible? Well, if nothing else, they'll remind you of some of the weird summons you find in FF.

It's a third-person shooter, on a solid engine. You can rush to and from cover, shoot from cover, roll, duck, dodge, dip, dive, and... dodge. I never once was frustrated with the controls. That's more and more a big reason why I'll continue to play a game, if the controls are solid and effective.

You play as Dan, an American teamed up with a bunch of others, blah blah blah. Dan is a relatively likeable guy, if not a little stubborn. The interactions between the other characters are standard for the most part. You're given opportunities to reply to teammates questions and statements, which builds or destroys their trust in you.

This trust system is pretty common in games today, if not a bit overused. I was generally well-liked by most people on my team. You do lose trust for friendly fire, which to me didn't exactly seem fair since the AI sometimes has a tendency to try to take the same cover spot you're using, or just blatantly walk in front of you while you're unloading a clip. But it's nothing a "good job" later on from you can't fix.

I like to keep these short. So think Gears of War if they wanted you to finish it in about 20 hours, not remember any of the characters names, and just overall like the game. There's multiplay too, but no one plays it. Sorry, fact.

Will I play it again? Probably not. Was it worth buying? Absolutely. A good action shooter is a nice time-waster if you don't have hours and hours to devote to a game. Any major flaws? Not really, a few cover hiccups here and there. There's depth in the game if you really search for it, but on the surface the game is just fine enough. Think of it like any number of rainy Saturday afternoon movies. They're entertaining as hell while you're watching/ playing, don't make much of an impact, and only take up as much time as you'll allow it. I say give it a chance, you most likely won't regret it. If nothing else, it's a good rental for a few days.

So you've just found out you have the templars curse...

Cursed Crusade on 360 and PS3. Ever heard of it? Probably not. Ever heard of Atlus? Maybe. They were guilty of such titles as Catherine, Divinity 2, Rock of Ages, Operation Darkness, and King of Fighters.

Now before you fan boys start to flip out, I own every single SMT game they made for the PS2 and PSP, so you know.... I got the chops.

At any rate, Atlus is known for their rather difficult and unforgiving RPG, JRPG, and RTS games. Divinity, KOF, and Rock of Ages were a few outliers. Then along comes Cursed Crusade.

Not kidding, the title of this blog is also the tag line for the game. The concept is pretty confusing, but basically, you're a templar of sorts, you join up with a spaniard, and you both have matching curses. It's a french game, made by french people, with french tendencies, in a french area, so you'll notice a few slight irregularities in the game. Mainly the odd accents, and the very small amount of gaming guts (menus, tutorials, class descriptions and the likes).

Why am I even discussing this game? How did I run across it? It came out a few weeks ago and was $60. Now we all know I love to play obscure games that no one else will touch. (Sherlock Holmes vs Jack The Ripper I'm looking at you), but $60 this fall was a bit rich for my blood. 2 weeks after it was released, it dropped in price to $40, then to $30 the following week. A clear sign that this was a game I needed to get my hands on. A bad game being released in this day and age is alway so strange I simply must be a part of it.

So what is it? Basically a co-op hack and slash. You have a bevy of weapon combinations you can use, two swords, two maces, one sword, one mace, great sword, sword and mace, you get it. You and the NPC or you and a pal run around and... well, hack and slash. To add a bit of flair to the gameplay, you have a curse where you turn into a demon and can use magical attacks. This all takes place during the templar crusades. Get it? Cursed cru... nevermind.

Why isn't a split-screen co-op flying off of the shelves? Well, probably because people don't know it is what it is. Or maybe because they decided to release this fall, amongst a dozen other AAA games. Or maybe it's because no one is expecting a decent co-op split screen to ever be released again?

I played the crap out of their other 360 slasher Divinity 2. Now I know I know, it wasn't originally an Atlus game, but any Oblivion/Gothic-esque game I can get my hands on (aside from Gothic 4) I'll play the crap out of.

Any big problems with the game? Sadly no. This is one of the few titles I wish would get some recognition, since it doesn't do anything terrible, and it doesn't do any one thing that great, it's just basic mayhem. Reminds me of most of the games released in the early 2000s, nothing that ground breaking, just good fun.

Buy, rent, or avoid? I'd say rent. Give it a whirl for a weekend, you'll enjoy the time you spend with it. Buy it if you have another gamer living amongst you, for $30 you both will easily be able to get 100% out of it, and still have the ability to replay.

Furtive is just another word for sneaky.

Been playin Assassins' Creed: Brotherhood recently. I know I know, Batman, Battlefield, Uncharted, they're all waiting for me, but I'm annoyed that I never finished Assassins Creed before. I finished the first Batman when it came out. I finished Battlefield ages ago. I'm almost finished with Uncharted 2. Look, I got busy! Moral of the story, I've been playing older games over again. Except I'm stuck. Yep, stuck on AC:B. I understand that some of the missions have to be sneaky, and they don't want you to get caught, but it doesn't make any damn sense.

I'm a highly trained, seasoned, and equipped assassin. I've killed hundreds, hundreds more will fall, but get caught by one guard on a single mission, and the whole thing goes down. Now I can understand if it's something storyline specific, like you're tailing someone. But if I'm trying to just capture Da Vinci's weapons? I can't get caught then? I suppose I understand that they're trying to break up the monotony of the gameplay, but come on.... some people had to have gotten to those parts and gone "forget it, done with this game".

I'm not going to be one of them. I'll take a break, play something else, then go back to that game and see if I can figure it out. But I am also extremely stubborn, and I have also played through all of Rogue Warrior, so my tolerance for bad games knows no bounds.

There are already super-sneaky games out there, and most of them fail horribly. If everyone wanted to play a sneak-only game, they would be demanding Thief to finally be remade. They would be hailing Velvet Assassin as one of the greatest games ever. Splinter Cell would win game of the year consistently. But here's the thing, gamers get tired of the super sneaky. Well.... most gamers. Not all, and not you if they're your cup of tea. But let's face it, I probably talk to about 50 gamers every day, and not a one of them actually prefers the sneaky missions.

It's just messing with the flow of the game!!! Come on! "Yeah, killed that guy, oooo! killed 2 guys at once, then stole a bunch of gold! Awesome!.... oh... one guy 4 buildings over saw me, and I failed". It's not "oh you've been caught and we're going to send 30 guards to kill you. Because you'd be able to handle that, oh no, the game just uses the god ability and forces you to try it again.

This all raises an interesting point that the Assassin's Creed series actually isn't a sandbox game, and should quit acting like it. You're required to go from A to B to C, but you can make detours on the way, so it might seem like you're directing the action. If nothing else, just give me a reason to demand sneaking. That's it. A door would close or a person would be notified or something? Anything. Just quit using the scapegoat that it's what you're supposed to do.


On a side note, both Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell are made by Ubi Soft. Now I like the company, but they have some changes to start making. Splinter Cell allowed you to try to take everyone on if you were caught, but you had limited armor, so it made it a bit more clever. You can't use the same theory for Assassins Creed?

Revelations will be a great game, I'm a little surprised at the amount of editions they've come out with.
link and scroll down to "marketing"

Meanwhile, COD will be basically releasing a single edition. And outsell Assassins Creed by millions. Comical at best.


Let's not get off topic. Sneaky. All the way back to games like MGS I've had no interest in sneaking around. Sure getting a kill or two stealth-style is always fun, I guess. Ugh.... Manhunt. I don't need to say anything else.

Ok maybe I do. I'm not saying that game was good, I'm saying that what I feel like I have to accomplish each time I get a stealth kill. But not only that, Assassins Creed wants me to stealth all around, but not even kill anyone! Since bodies make it obvious! Just not something I feel like doing right now. What's even more hilarious is the idea of stealth 1st person. Deus Ex I'm looking at you. Yes I got caught, and often. Good thing I had a completely upgraded shotgun with a silencer. No need to run to that alarm panel. Also, Goldeneye. Siberia base, "don't let the cameras catch you!".....can I just shoot out the cameras?...."well......yes". Those, all of those made more sense then- OH! YOU'VE BEEN CAUGHT. THE PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE. NO FAIRES IN JARS. START THE F OVER.

Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but what can kill a killer? Well, according to Assassin's Creed, being seen by some nobody on top of a guard tower. Not spears, swords, crossbows and poison, but a simple observation. Jane Goodall > Ezio.

Nana-nana-nana-nana- LEADER. Top games?

I mean.... BATMAN.

omgthereissomuchtodoandi'llneverfinsh.

Dear Rocksteady.... proud of you. As I watch the "Perfect Score" reviews coming in, I couldn't be happier with this damn game. I'm at the 10 hour mark, I literally started playing at 12:01, and I've enjoyed every bit of it.

Batman: Arkham City. I've always been a Batman fan. Batman sheets, Batman underwear, Batman toothbrush, and this was all after I hit my 20's. Hey-o!

Seriously though, the work and time they've put into it shows, there are about 15 side mission quests (but they're long, like storyline long) and then the main storyline. NOT TO MENTION the Riddler challenges, the challenge maps, the expansions, it's just... a lot of game for one price.

A review wouldn't exactly do it justice, just read the reviews. It's up there with GTA4, Red Dead, Oblivion, and Gears 1. Where it belongs.

Buy the damn game. One of the best games to come out this year, the best Batman game so far, and an extremely enjoyable experience.

However. Here's my problem. A little education for the masses that I'll coat-tail onto Exploder Blades blog. You see.... gaming companies usually release big games (or AAA titles as the industry calls it) in the fall, right around October/November. Why? Well, their big sales will be right before the tax season, people are back to work and school from the summer vacations and they entertainment and they have more money rolling in, and of course.... Holidays. Mostly Holidays.

Come out with your big game in November, when people are holiday shopping, and you know it'll sell. If you really peel an eye towards the games coming out this fall, you'll see that they're all (with a few exceptions) targeted to different audiences. Shooters, RPGs, wrasslin games, comic book games, and sandboxes. A few overlap (AC:R & Saints Row 3, BF3 & COD3), but they're all guaranteed sellers. Gaming companies know that summer sales suck. Always have. Had Gears or Rage come out in June or July would it have gone over as well? Nope. It's the way the business is designed. Fear, Shadows of the Damned, Hunted... those were the early summer games, and their sales showed it. Only desperate gaming weirdos bought those games..... wait.

Sports games are different, since they have to match the sports season, so that's cool. But time and time again, games come out in the fall, big ones. Fall then early march/april. How it's been for years, probably has something to do with the farming or something.

Point is. Batman is a great game. Skyrim will be a great game. Assassin's Creed and BF3 will be great games. COD:MW3 will sell lots. If Batman is any indication of how this fall will go, I'm in no rush to finish any of these games, since they'll all be very well made, and deserving of great awards.

Now back to Batman, I'm almost done with the Titan container missions, at least my half and...

This October's Rant bought to you by....

Blah Blah blah, school, wedding anniversary, new job (career?), I have been busy so I missed updating September. Well, on to games!
I got a lot to say so it’s another one of those smorgasbords of thoughts month’s.

1. So I picked up a relatively rare game for the DS called Infinite Space. I have a love-hate relationship with this game so far. It’s about space travel and combat, and you do get to build your own starships in it, almost from scratch. Little things like placing officers in specific roles to give the ship bonuses to measuring the fatigue of your crew to watching your fleet of sips traverse through space make this title intriguing indeed. You know what doesn’t make it intriguing? The bare bones, phoned in plot. Seriously, for a supposedly 40 hour RPG (I am only 6 hours in and so bored with it) this story better bring it’s A game in the second half. Boy goes on adventure through space, recruits friends along the way, blah blah cookie cutter RPG story.

Also, the combat is a real let down. When you create and build a fleet from the ground up, you expect to have a plethora of combat options to make the game more interesting. Nope. The combat boils down to a timed game of rock-paper-scissors, or as Infinite Space calls it, Barrage attack, Normal attack, and Dodge. Barrage’s do heavy damage, but if Dodged, they are easily avoided. Normal attacks do…well…normal damage, but if the enemy Barrage’s you, you’re screwed. And Dodge works well against Barrage, but does nothing against normal. Oh, and you can move in on a linear battlefield to get into or out of weapons range. There, I just explained Infinite Space’s entire combat system in five sentences. That was seriously all there is to it. When a game lets you build your own starship fleet, exclusively for use in space, then it stands to reason why a simplistic combat system might not be what I signed up for. One day I will complete it, but lately I have had to work up the fortitude to sit down and play it.

2. I have been on an old-school game kick. I beat Metroid, then Metroid II, now Legend of Zelda is on the docket along with Zelda II: Links Adventure. Ahhh the benefits of buying a 3DS on launch day. So Metroid…
On this month last year Nintendo and Team Ninja decided to collectively insult every Metroid fan in the world by releasing Metroid: Other M. It is still the worst one in the series…wait shut up, YES, it is worse than Metroid II. I liked Metroid II: Return of Samus and I think its mechanic of killing every Metroid on SR388 is not only the most important plot element for the entire series. That, and the game is damn fun. Other M did do what no other Metroid game did before it; it gave Samus a voice, and a terrible one at that. It also gave her a personality, and a terrible one at that. You know, let’s skip talking about Other M, I really didn’t like that game…
But the first Metroid game, there is a classic right there. It’s you, as Samus, alone on a fortress planet and you must kill Mother Brain. This game is challenging, but fair. Graphically inferior, yet still way ahead of its time. Small tip for everyone that hasn’t beaten the gae yet: Ice Beam. Once you find it, keep it. Fu** the Wave Beam. The Ice Beam actually makes Ridley the easiest boss in the game.
Metroid II: Return of Samus, as I mention, is a small masterpiece. It doesn’t make you want to jump for joy at any particular element, and the music is the worst thing ever, but the game is still solid. Samus has a large character model, gains some mainstay weapons and items in this game such as the Spazer and Plasma beams, Space jump, shoulder-padded Varia suit, Spring Ball and the rarely visited Spider Ball all make their first appearance in this game.

OTHER M SPOLIER

If you were ever wondering why Samus jumps into the Queen Metroid’s mouth near the end of Other M play this game and use that tactic to kill the Queen Metroid in this one. Works wonders

Spoiler Over

3. Star Fox 64 3D! Yay!!!! Wait…it only supports LOCAL wi-fi play with multiple 3DS’? Back to Gamestop you go, Yayyy!!! Come on now, Nintendo, you can’t keep pulling that crap. It’s 2011. Everyone has an Xbox Live account because online play has proven to be “cool” and “convenient” and “smart”. Hope on the bandwagon already. While we are on the topic…

4. Monster Hunter 4 for the 3DS…looks pretty good. The slide on analog pad for the 3Ds…is kinda gimmicky, but if it does retail for $20 I suppose I could live with it. Now, hows about a US release date, eh?

5. Battlefield 3? Skyward Sword? Arkam City? Skyrim?! And AC:Revelations?!!! ALL IN THE SPAM OF TWO MONTHS!!! Where the fu** was all these games during the summer! Now I feel like I have to take out a bank loan just to…OMG SW: Old Republic gets a release date and it’s in December!

-Dear Game Companies: It is not a good idea to oversaturate the market like that, because believe it or not, I am only going to buy two games on this list. Yes, I wants them all, but the demographic this games are being marketed to have primary responsibilities and time constraints, what with our jobs and such. Like the whole thing with two companies releasing Battlefield 3 and Modern Warefare 3 in the same two week period. As gamers that like multiplayer games, we will chose. One of you will lose. Battlefield 3 could have come out in March like Medal of Honor did or vice versa, but noooo. You guys wanna fight it out with your most important asset, your sales figures and customer base. Activision, IMHO, I think you may be surprised…



That’s all I got for this month. Tune in next month when I wax philosophical on how much fun I am having playing Skyward Sword and Battlefield (yes, those were the two).

Despite all my... gaming? I'm still just a Wastelander in a desert.

Rage. I like you. You like me. We have a pretty decent relationship. I occasionally stop by, hang out for a while, enjoy my time with you, and I go do other things. It's nice, it's safe. It's just.... you're starting to ask a lot out of me. When we first started to spend time together we'd explore the world, trade some stuff, and maybe run a few errands. But now... I dunno, things are different. I get back from a long day of work, I have to drive from one side of the city to the other, put hours into a place I don't even really enjoy being, drive all the way back home (and traffic is just a nightmare) and you greet me with even more errands to do tomorrow. It's not that I don't appreciate feeling needed, it's just sometimes too much to handle.

Seriously though, this is my thought as I'm playing Rage. It's a great game and all, just asking a ton out of me. Had it come out this last spring, I'd be a Rage expert, but I mean, there's Batman coming up, Battlefield, Skyrim, it's just a lot to take in.

The game, however, it simply delicious. Gorgeous graphics, some of the best I've seen on the 360, and what continues to be top-notch on the PS3 as well. It chugs along nicely on either system, and has everything I ever wanted. Would I call it a perfect game? Not by a long shot. But what it's missing are just elements from other games that have just spoiled me. Now if I'm playing a wasteland FPS and there isn't a radio, I simply hate the in-game music, soo.... thanks for that Fallout. Considering that the Ink Spots sales increased nearly half a century after their existence was due in no small part to Fallout 3, it makes me wonder why Rage decided to skimp on the music. Also, did you ever notice that Cage the Elephants song was featured in Borderlands, but only in the opening? What's with that?

Fallout, Borderlands, Rage? They all so similar? Well............yeah. Take Borderlands mechanics, mix it with the atmosphere of Fallout, but the looks of Borderlands.... and the controls of Borderlands, and... ok. I was once told that a bad reviewer mentions other games in their reviews, but the comparisons to Borderlands will be so very obvious. Rocket launching cars, upgradeable weapons, sharp-edged wielding maniacs. Fine, it's Borderlands 2.0.

Of course they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and if that's the case, they've nailed it. Rage is what I wanted Borderlands to be. I just never felt like I was getting anywhere in Borderlands, and I never wanted to play with other people, so take those parts out, and give it a somewhat believable storyline, and you get Rage.

I'll keep this one short, there are a ton of quests, it's gorgeous, the vehicle combat/racing isn't terrible it's actually occasionally fun, and it's made by people who know how to make shooters. Should you play it? Of course, you just might not keep it forever, but the time you spend with it just might re-ignite your love for solid single player FPS games. It did for me.

Saving system to save souls. Sandwiches too.

Dark Souls, you confuse me. You pride yourself on being an extremely difficult game. Requiring the player to "learn from their mistakes". I get that, I trodded my way through Demon Soul all those years ago, and was frustrated each time. The game itself is gorgeous, think of a third person Oblivion with darker, more artistic graphics and vastly different and complex character/inventory system. It's like playing a live action AD&D with just a few small constraints.

But for crying out loud... that saving system? Perfect example: The game starts you off with a basic tutorial, then a small boss battle where you have to sort of backtrack to find the way to defeat the boss. Standard Dark Soul fare. Only problem is, I have no idea where the save spots are! So I die, and I quit playing (which is obviously something they don't want you to do) I come back, and I'm directly at the starting, but at a save.... weird.

Another time, I wanted to see what would happen if I jumped off of a cliff, the game saved right before I jumped... so... wait, are you actively saving, well that can't be the case, since I put in about 45 minutes into a character just to find out it didn't save once. (RIP BAALLLLLZZAAAK).

After asking around to the other people I know who play the game, they've all told me that it saves when you go to the bonfires. Ok, makes sense, until I load up a game and I'm no where near a bonfire.


At any rate, it got me thinking about the importance of save points in a game.

In some games like Fear Effect, you were required to find a save point, then select your phone from your inventory, select save then you select the memory card, then you saved your file. Ok, that's fine.... except this was all happening during the game, and you didn't exactly have the ability to pause, so if an enemy or NPC were to stroll across you while you conducted your little save ballet... you were screwed.

My only complaint with Oblivion, and the entire Elder Scrolls series isn't so much a complaint as it is a frustration that has saved my bacon a few times. You have unlimited saves. Save as often as you'd like (except in mid-air). I ended my 100% completion Oblivion playthrough on the Xbox with about 250+ game saves. On the PC it was even worse. My complaint is that if you wanted to go back a few files, you could, but saving and playing multiple characters was practically impossible if you used auto-save. I guess that's more of a design choice than anything else, but it was fun making each character and leveling them completely different, not having to wait until you're completely done auto-saving a single playthrough.

Dark Souls allows for multiple characters to be saved, which is great, I just wish I could pause and select save. Well, for that matter, I wish I could select pause.

Which brings me to my second gripe. The lack of a pause menu. I know this is a design choice, and it's very edgy and cool, but come on... I can't pause my game? Not even for a moment? To get lunch? Personally, I think this is a dumb choice. Reason you can't pause things like WoW and other MMOs are because other people are involved and well... that'd be impossible. But not being able to pause a single player game just forces the player to find a hiding spot and hope no one finds him. OR stop playing. Well... the second option just isn't possible since... you know.... weird auto-saves.

Remember how bad Metal Gear Solid made you feel when you saved too much? LOOK PSYCHO MANTIS, I SOMETIMES HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO WITH MY LIFE I CAN'T JUST SIT DOWN AND PLAY STRAIGHT THROUGH.

Opposite end of the spectrum though, when I first got my PS1, I didn't have a memory card, so I had to leave it running and turn the TV off if I wanted to do something else, and I still managed to finish Resident Evil 2. So what's the difference? Xbox 360s and PS3s can overheat after a few hours of playing, even if they don't overheat it isn't good for them. Let me take breaks from the game Dark Souls, even if I don't get a pause menu. Or maybe just explain the saving system.

Batman in 2 weeks!!!