Contrarian Corner: Alan Wake

Spoiler Alert: This article discusses specific plot points in Alan Wake, including revelations tied to the main storyline. Also, it spoils a Virginia Woolf story.

Contrarian Corner is intended to be a place for a more holistic discussion of games which have been the recipient of either an abundance of single-minded praise, or an undue amount of criticism. Our intent is not to contradict or undercut our own reviews, but rather to expand the spectrum of discussion on some of the most important games of each year. If you’re interested in joining that discussion, keep reading. Read the official review of Alan Wake for Charles Onyett’s extensive thoughts. (more…)

E3 2010: Tiger Woods Updated Impressions

Tiger Woods PGA Tour has always offered gamers two ways to play: either you ramp up the difficulty to Tour Pro for a super-realistic depiction of golf, or you had to settle for a game with all sorts of unrealistic touches like powering up your shot and generating spin mid-air. There were a few permutations of these mechanics here and there, but this year EA Sports seems to be taking aim at delivering a new and relatively realistic golf mechanic while retaining the power ups that still let you know you’re playing a videogame.

They’re doing this a couple of different ways. The first, and, in my opinion, the coolest is what’s called TrueAim. TrueAim gives players the truest (see what I did there?) representation of golf in the sense that there are no longer targets that players can move around to perfectly place their incoming shot. Instead, you’ll have to look at the carry distance for the given club, then check how far you are from your target using marks that you’d see on any real world golf course. Not only that, but once you’ve taken the shot, the camera actually stays right behind your character and tracks the ball instead of flying alongside it. That means you’re locked behind your golfer, waiting, sometime struggling to see where your ball lands. If you’re hitting up an incline, that means you’ll likely have to wait for a vocal response from the crowd to figure out how well your shot fared. (more…)

UFC Undisputed 2010 Review

When I turned on UFC Undisputed 2010 for the first time, I thought I was hooked. I got to pick my fighter’s interview responses in career mode, I had a sexy UFC lady wanting to stop by and film my workout, and Joe Rogan was remembering what had happened in my last fight and was talking about it. The game seemed like it had improved on the one thing the last version was missing – the UFC presentation that makes it feel like you’re watching the sport you love.

However, over the course of the hours I poured into UFC Undisputed 2010, the seams began to show and the presentation actually began to annoy me a bit. I started hearing my fighter say the same things in interviews, the lady kept e-mailing me every frickin’ week, and Joe Rogan’s commentary was the same again and again. (more…)

Blur Review

Generally I’m one of the best gamers I know. I don’t say that to brag — I say it to provide some context when I say that Blur, the new racer from developer Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing), can be damn hard.

The single-player Career mode in Blur features some brutal A.I. While I was desperately trying to master my drifting skills and just maneuver the game’s treacherous tracks, the A.I. was busy launching attack after attack on me at the most inopportune moments. You see, in the world of Blur, despite all its real-world trappings, cars can’t just race and see who drives the fastest — they have to launch weapons at one another as well. (more…)

Resistance Creators Go Multiplatform with EA

Several months ago, rumors began circulating that well-known developer Insomniac Games would begin developing multiplatform games. Nothing came of that rumor officially — until now. Today, EA announced an agreement with Insomniac to publish a brand new game internationally for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 through the EA Partners program. This is the very first multiplatform title that Insomniac has developed, and the studio will retain ownership of this new property.

PlayStation fans need not panic, however. This doesn’t mean that franchises like Ratchet and Clank and Resistance will suddenly appear on the 360. Insomniac Founder and CEO Ted Price told IGN, “We definitely take a measured approach to what we do at Insomniac. We’ve never made overnight decisions about things and we’ve been thinking about going multiplatform for a while and planning it, and we’re now at the point where we can do that, as well as continue our relationship with Sony that we’ve maintained for the last 14 years.” Price continues by noting that Insomniac is “just as dedicated to Ratchet and Clank and Resistance as [it] ever [has] been.” (more…)

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