Mass Effect 2 (7.9/10)

Don't misinterpret my score; I enjoyed playing through Mass Effect 2. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to make it through the whole game. But by no means is this the same game as the first. The developer did an excellent job of streamlining the entire game, but Bioware may have gone a bit crazy with the pruning shears, and what they ended up with was an excellent shooter game that includes a few RPG elements and serves up a cold unfeeling experience that feels forced and far too frantic.

Its fair to say that sweeping changes were made to the gameplay aspects of Mass Effect, and many of them are for the better: the alteration of both the inventory and transportation aspects were definitely stand-out improvements. While I was sad to see the abundant variety of weapons and armor + mods that I could equip go out the window, I certainly wasn't very torn up about not having to sort through and sell or junk the equipment I didn't need anymore. One of my issues with the original game was how unfriendly the inventory system was, and Bioware's solution of eliminating the inventory entirely was certainly welcome. In addition, out the window are the long elevator rides that were prone to glitching, and the troublesome task of navigating the ATV from place to place on certain worlds; load screens have replaced these arduous passages, and this is most certainly for the best, as I would rather know the game is loading than have me thinking that the game is just being annoying. The elevator ride from the dock to the C-Sec station in the original game was probably the worst design decision in the entire game. In Mass Effect 2, however, I've not seen a load screen that lasts more than 15 seconds.

The included character import functionality was very impressive; all the player's choices and his custom made face from the first game could automatically be transported over to the new game, and would have a surprising amount of relevance throughout that game. It was a pleasant surprise to receive, at various points, e-mails or face to face contact from characters whose lives I had affected in the first game, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, this is where the nice things I have to say about this game come to an end. If you'll remember, what set Mass Effect apart was the vastness of the worlds, the relationships you could form, and how far-reaching the effects of your decision could be. It would have been really nice to have seen the depth of these impressive qualities increase, to make the world even more immersive, with realistic relationships and locales. Instead, I feel like Bioware lost ground in these areas, a sad effect of their desire to speed up the pace of the game.

My gripe with the maps and locations included in the game is this: it seems like, while there are more visitable locations, they are all predictably linear in design and most of them make me feel claustrophobic. In Mass Effect, wide open spaces were the norm, but in the sequel I almost feel like I'm dungeon crawling in a Zelda game.

The romance plot line feels like a routine. If not more predictable, it is at least identical to the process you had to go through in the original game in order to secure a night of passion with your chosen love interest. I would have preferred a more fleshed out, realistic romance, with more wooing involved, rather than whatever mate you choose falling for you if you complete their mission and just talk to them a few times. As for the decision engine and how that affects what happens throughout the game.... the inclusion of the heroic and renegade intervention options that allow you to affect the outcome of cutscenes is a cool addition, but i have yet to really feel the effects of choosing to perform renegade actions a few times.

For every step forward Mass Effect 2 took toward being a better game, it made two steps backwards in story and artistic merit. Eventually, the game feels like routine: Figure out who i have to hunt down, go in and kill a bunch of people, and then either kill the objective or resolve the end situation peacefully, rinse, and repeat. Relationships don't matter, the decisions you make don't matter, it becomes a hack'n'slash in space.

In trying to draw a comparison between the artistic merits of the first and second games, the conclusion I came to is this: Mass Effect 2 is to the original game as Tropic Thunder is to Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now. They took out the slow, plodding plot line for the ADD generation, but in doing so you removed the emotional attachment and the plot devices that lent symbolism and meaning to the first game. I think the Ars' reviewer missed the target: "Mass Effect 2...streamlines the experience for a much more action-oriented package, all while keeping the depth and heart of the first game". The depth of the first game was there, all right, presented in the exact same fashion, with no new content or meaning. The heart of the first game was removed and placed in the body of the second without the creators realizing that it had stopped beating somewhere alone the line.

(Mass Effect 2 is rated M for Mature. Offensive content: blood, a drug reference, sexual content, strong language, and violence. It is available for the Xbox 360 and PC. It currently holds a rating of 96/100 on metacritic.com)

Other Albums: 7/14/09

The Dead Weather - Horehound (7.8 / 10)

Jack White's latest venture and collaboration with Alison Mosshart puts a synthy twist on songs that are clearly still derivative of his earlier work. Songs like "Bone House" recall some of The Raconteurs better songs, with amped up guitar work for good measure. Interestingly enough, some songs such as the single "Treat Me Like Your Mother" are clearly rooted in classic rock, including Jimmy Page-esque riffs. It's catchy and innovative, and definitely worth a listen, though if you're not a fan of White's previous projects, this may not be for you.


Owl City - Ocean Eyes (9 / 10)

This solo effort from Minnesotan Adam Young combines whimsical lyrics, an impeccable vocal track, and a slick electronic background to form songs during which you can't help but smile. Usually the drawback to light, catchy electro-pop like Owl City is that it is like cotton candy: sweet, but insubstantial. The same cannot be said of Ocean Eyes. The movements are sweeping and the melodies pure brilliance. Just when one element is starting to become repetitive and boring, he removes it and replaces it with something new and interesting. You don't have to enjoy electronic music to enjoy Owl City; it's perfect for brightening up those cloudy days.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (8 / 10)

In my mind, before this afternoon, the greatest tragedy to strike the Harry Potter world was the death of Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in both Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. His replacement, Michael Gambon, never quite lived up to the Dumbledore mystique in my mind. Harris brought such a quirky and yet serious quality to the role; he always seemed as if he knew something that nobody else knew but he couldn't decide if it was hilarious or sobering. Gambon seemed to lose that depth, taking some of mystery of Dumbledore away and reducing him to the level of an old man who happens to be able to do magic.

That was all before I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, however, a movie that clearly aimed for and achieved a cinematic quality that has been missing in the last few series entries. Even Gambon seems to come into his own: he doesn't pursue the enigmatic air of Harris' Dumbledore, but exudes an aura of power and authority that make me wonder why we didn't see this side of him before now. Even in one of his weakest moments in this new film, I never felt like he lost that air of control.

Half-Blood Prince picks up right where the previous film left off, with Harry battered and bruised from his battle with a group of his nemesis' followers, and mourning the loss of his godfather Sirius Black. Immediately following is a scene of destruction that has no real bearing on the plot, and appeared contrived to add more excitement to movie trailers. This was, fortunately, the last time I saw such a blatant marketing ploy in this movie. As the movie progresses and Dumbledore and Harry try to discover more about the life of the man who would become Voldemort, things on the academic side become more challenging as a new Potions professor is introduced, one who plays a more integral part in the story than Harry suspects.

This entry in the Potter series brings a more detailed romantic subplot into play. It was slightly sup rising to see this as such a significant portion of the movies, because often it is these subplots that get neglected and left out in all the action of the movie. A large part of what made this movie better than its predecessors was its willingness to slow down and address one thing at a time. There is one scene where Harry and Hermione commiserate and bear each others burden of then-heartbreak, and there is no motivation for that scene other than to relate the pain of the two characters. It's admirable that the film is able to do that.

There was something very quiet, very sobering about this movie. Instead of throwing the effects in your face, as if to say "Here's our special effects! Awesome, no?", they become secondary to the unraveling plot, which is certainly a switch from the previous few films. The musical score is also spectacular, capturing the magic of a snowy Quidditch match, the sobering reality of death and its ability to unite, and the quiet strength of two friends bound by a shared experience.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is easily the best entry in the series since Chamber of Secrets and is worth a view, even if you've missed the others.

(Rated PG. Offensive content: scary creatures, violence, mild language)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (8.9 / 10)

Nintendo loves their franchises. Despite being formulaic and derivative, many of their in-house productions are released to commercial and critical success. The worst victim of Nintendo's reliance on franchises is the Zelda series, which has never seen any real reinvention. Mario had the transition to 3D, Metroid had the transition to 1st person, and Star Fox got to run around on land, but Link's been doing the same thing since he first swung his sword on the NES in 1986.

Don't get me wrong; I love the Zelda series. I think each new game, as much material as they take from previous games, offers something new and exciting that keeps me coming back for more. It was an interesting experience, though, to go back and play A Link to the Past, since much of the formula for the plot of most console Zelda games is derived from it. The items, the 3-dungeons-then-7-dungeons device, and even the music in the contemporary series entries date back to this SNES title. I am ashamed to say that this was my first playthrough of the classic, though I had been exposed to the game many times before.

A Link to the Past starts out with the player taking control of the character Link, who has woken from a dream about needing to rescue a princess to find that his Uncle is preparing for battle. Ignoring his Uncle's command to stay in bed, Link follows him to a castle where he becomes entwined in an evil plot to take over the world by using the Triforce, an object that grants the wishes of its possessor. Unfortunately, after you defeat Agahnim, the evil wizard, and he sends Link to the dark world, the plot becomes a little lost in the midst of trying to collect the seven pieces of the Triforce, and I lost focus because I there was little plot motivation to continue collecting. I would have appreciated an advancing storyline outside of what we see after collecting each Triforce piece.

As I expected, the actual game mechanics were polished to perfection. That's a standard for the Zelda series: rarely can you find a control scheme or hit detection to grip about (though horse riding has never really been well done, not even in Twilight Princess). The enemies are carefully balanced to be just tough enough for the player according to the items they have acquired, and the ability to access new areas by teleporting from the dark to the light world is absolute genius. There were a few times when I teleported onto something I shouldn't have, but instead of sending me back, it got me stuck. That was frustrating, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect perfection; players could play through the whole game without every doing what I did.

The use of imagery was appropriate and set the mood for certain areas very well. For example, upon teleporting back and forth between light and dark worlds in the Lost Woods, the sheer amount of live greens and bright light that shown through in the light world contrasted sharply with the foggy dead feeling of the dark world Lost Woods. The music wasn't as fantastic as I've come to expect from Zelda games, but many of the predecessors to some of the great themes were there: Kakariko Village, Legend of Zelda Main Theme, and Zelda's Lullaby just to name a few. They were unfortunately limited by the technology they were working with, and I think that they had grand and epic scale intentions for the score that they just couldn't make happen until Zelda reappeared on later consoles. In comparison, Earthbound had no such great aspirations, but rather was able to make music that sounded like it was made for the system, rather than written for an orchestra.

I enjoyed this game, with some reservations. In the latter half of the dark world plotline, it all got rather old, and so I became bored and focused on beating the game as quickly as possible. Perhaps it's because I don't come from the generation that grew up with this game, but I just don't think it measures up to the bar set by Zelda 64. However, it is still a powerful game, and one that deserves a playthrough simply because it is a true piece of history, as the granddaddy of the modern Zelda.

(Rated E for Everyone. Offensive content: None)

Daughtry: Leave This Town (5.2 / 10)

As a contestant on American Idol, Chris Daughtry brought something to the stage that it hadn't really had experience with before that: mainstream, marketable rock. To be sure, Constantine and Bo Bice had mild success on the show before Daughtry, but Bo Bice had too much south in him and Constantine was too odd for any real mainstream success. I wasn't a big fan; his vibrato annoyed me. Still, I enjoyed what he was doing to the show, expanding the judges understanding of what defined an American Idol.

His first album was a shocker to me, because I actually enjoyed it. He had a certain edge and grit to his sound that I prefer over the whining of "rock" bands like Nickelback, and the collaboration with Slash was absolutely fantastic. Daughtry's new album, Leave This Town, is a major letdown. I went in expecting the hard-hitting rock but for the most part all I heard were pop cliches.

The record opens ambitiously, with a throwback to his old rock and roll self on "You Don't Belong". It gave me hope for the rest of the album; even if the rest of the album had been like the opener (and thus, like his previous album) that would have been alright; in this case, a retread would have much preferable to what I got instead. The next song, "No Surprise" (also the first single), launched me into a four song set of pop-rock trash; considering most of those were co-penned by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback fame, I shouldn't have been surprised. Forced lyrics, a less than powerful vocal performance, and substandard guitar work on all four only reaffirmed what I knew by the time I finished the second song: I wouldn't be buying this album.

Then it was on to the roller-coaster section of the album: Up, down, up, down. Songs like "Open Your Eyes" with its acoustic lilt and the the head-banging "Ghost of Me" gave me hope that maybe the rest of the album would be better, but would immediately be followed by a song like "September", which is probably the most forgettable song in the whole album.

Certain songs reminded me of other bands, too, and these are not the comparisons that Daughtry was looking for: "Tennessee Line" revisits an area already seen in the latter half of Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" album, with the violin accompanying a singer reminiscing about the good old days, while "Supernatural" could have passed for a Kelly Clarkson song from the "Breakaway" era.

To distill how I felt about this album down to one sentence: there was no creativity. No new material was introduced, there were no new concepts in the music or the lyrics, and it seemed like a big rip-off of all pop-rock of the last five years. The only redeeming quality about this album was the last song, which was superb. While I was listening to it, I couldn't help but think that this would be one of my personal favorite albums if the whole thing showed this level of creativity. What are the elements that make this a great song that none of the rest of the album has? Meaningful lyrics telling a beautiful story, fantastic guitar work (including an excellent solo near the end), a well-incorporated piano, and a second half that absolutely rocks in the way I was hoping the rest of the album would.

My summary: Don't buy. It's a retread and it's boring. You'd be much better off spending your hard earned money on Brooke White's new album, if you want to hear something innovative.

(Leave This Town - 19 Recordings Ltd. Offensive content: Very mild language, sexual innuendo)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (9.6 / 10)

There's something innately wrong with a game industry that believes that in order to be successful, games have to have cutting edge graphics. Even ten year old games that were well designed and had a compelling storyline and characters are still fun to go back and play, even if its not your first time through. Someone at Konami knew this when they began designing a new Castlevania for the Playstation, and instead of changing a 2D formula that worked for so many years, they merely took it and perfected it, creating what many consider to be the as yet unparalleled pinnacle of the series.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night begins a little confusingly for those unfamiliar with the history of the series. The player takes control of Richter Belmont in what is announced on screen to be the "Final Level". This final level ends with the destruction of Dracula, which most would presume to be the end of a game about vampire hunters. Several short cut-scenes later, the player suddenly controls a new character: Alucard, the son of Dracula.
It doesn't take long to grasp the control scheme of the game. Jumping and weapon use become second nature after about five minutes of play time, which is about all the time it takes Alucard to have all of his equipment stolen by the Grim Reaper. In a surprising twist, Konami added a full-fledged RPG leveling system into this game, with equippable swords, shields and even rings and charms. This system leads to some interesting in-game choices for the player. Will he/she sacrifice some strength of attack for the opportunity to find more valuable gems? What kind of armor do you want, spike-breaking or chill-protective?

The layout of the game is a bit unorthodox for a platform-centric game. Whereas classics such as Super Mario Bros. are laid out in a linear fashion, Symphony of the Night maps out Dracula's castle as a complicated maze of halls, staircases, and underground tunnels. Navigating this large maze and trying to visit every area would be a much larger pain and undermine the fun of the game if not for the conveniently placed teleportation rooms. While there are still Bosses associated with each area and a particular progression of Boss difficulty, this doesn't necessarily mean you have to face them in the particular order in which they are meant to be faced. This is both frustrating and excellent, because it means that the player's game experience will differ from that of others who play the game.

It's impossible not to notice the background art and music while playing through. The artists took advantage of the 2D perspective and created intricate murals on the back wall that one can stop and admire during play. Certain areas have beautiful stained glass windows, and others have extremely Gothic style statues passing in the fore and background. The music, too, is on par in most areas, capturing the spirit of a 17th century European Castle. There is one area (yes, Arena, I'm looking at you) whose music seems too bombastic and heavy handed to be appropriate for inclusion in any section of the game. This is nicely balanced out, however, by the fantastic accompaniments written for the Underground Caverns (a lilting, jazzy tune that adds to the sparkling crystal feel) and Abandoned Mine (a creepy, nearly piano-exclusive melody that could be right at home in a haunted house).

There is no question that this game deserves its place among the top games ever made. I believe that the 2D perspective of the game has made it age much more gracefully than some of the other, 3D games that graced the Playstation (such as Final Fantasy VII; great gameplay, but it looks unbelieveably dated). The only reasons this game didn't receive a full score were the few gripes I had: the shield is hardly ever useful, saving takes too long, and the ultimate sin, extending the game by reusing the same map twice. Outside of these minor details, I highly recommend this game to anyone over the age of 12 who enjoys experiencing a part of gaming history.

(Rated T for Teen. Offensive content: portrayals of blood, implied non-explicit nudity, frightening situations/creatures)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (10 / 10)

Since I already have a review of this written up, and since I want to establish the format and method of my reviews, I decided to do an old game. I'll try to keep things relevant for the most part, though.
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Sometimes I wonder if the real reason I treasure this game is because of the nostalgic value it holds in my memory. It's one of the very first games I bought on my own, the first Zelda game I ever played, and perhaps in my memory I make it better than it really is.

But pause to consider that it consistently wins these polls for best game of all time again and again, forcing me to reconsider my first assessment. Upon its release it received almost universal acclaim, and has yet to be matched in its metacritic.com score of 99. It generated the first ever perfect score from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. But now, 11 years later, the game is still widely acknowledged as the best game ever, to date.

What distinguishes this game from the other top games from 1998, such as Starcraft, Half-Life, or Metal Gear Solid? These games are still well regarded, but they have all fallen down the list of best games of all time, pushed over by games such as Super Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4. Why, then, is LoZ: OoT able to retain the top spot year after year?

Part of the answer lies in the games ability to immerse the player in a world unlike any he has ever seen. Perhaps the openness of Hyrule pales in comparison to the wideness of Rockstar's San Andreas, and the characters lack the interaction complexity and intelligence of Bioware's latest RPG, but being able to explore the diverseness of a land that seems to be lost in time and watching it evolve when seven years suddenly are wiped away is an experience that not many games offer to the depth and honest to which does Ocarina of Time. Visiting Lake Hylia numerous times, and coming back to find that there is a secret dungeon hidden below the lake is practically mind-blowing, and the fact that there is a whole region of the map that isn't revealed until almost the end of the game lends the Gerudo Desert an air of mystery and excitement that elevates the game to a whole new level.

This game paved the way for all three-dimensional adventures to follow. Super Mario 64 introduced the 3D platformer and 3D camera and movement, but Zelda took it and ran. The control system was anything but frustrating, and the Z-targeting system let you face any direction you pleased, an innovation unheard of until then. The inclusion of an inspired, sweeping score composed by Koji Kondo wasn't just icing on the cake either, but capable of creating tear-jerking moments from campy ones.

Perhaps the most fantastic aspect of this game that kept me coming back for more was the extent to which there were hidden bonuses in every nook and cranny of the world. The player could beat the game without ever seeing a Big Poe, getting Biggoron's Sword, or planting the magic beans. However, each one of these sub-missions were rewarding if you chose to explore what they had to offer, and they opened up new avenues of play.

(Rated E for Everyone. Offensive content: Animated blood, frightening creatures/situations)