Deadpool: Mouthing Off 2

Part 2 of 2

I've done my best to stay away from the review sites across the Internets, but I'm assuming this game is going to be well received by Deadpool fans and lumped into an average rating by most gamers. The Deadpool game fits the summer-popcorn-movie stereotype. It's good but not great; kind of short for the $49.99 release price. I'm also guessing that people who are unfamiliar with Deadpool will be put-off by his antics and confused by his humor. Or just irritated. Probably irritated

Now that I've finished the story campaign, I wish there was more to the story campaign. I feel like I got enough; I played the game for three hours a night, starting on the Tuesday night that it released. I finished the story campaign on Thursday night. Normally, I hop around from game to game while playing. Deadpool had me hooked and satisfied from the minute I started playing. That doesn't happen very often. Now that I know the story and how it ends, I just wish it could continue...or have a new arc start in the same universe.

To wrap this up, in the best way that I can, I have to label the Deadpool game as scatterbrained. If this were a normal game, that label wouldn't be compliment. I think the game would be accused doing or including too many things. For example: most of the Deadpool game is a hack n' slash, beat 'em up....but it's also a third-person shooter/platformer/adventure/stealth game. It contains a side-scrolling level (I would take more of this), a couple shooter-on-rails sections (think turrets), and a retro-style Atari level in the sewers (only for a couple minutes). The point being: it is all over the place.

And that's Deadpool. He's all over the place.

Speaking of all over the place, go to Part 1

Deadpool: Mouthing Off 1

Part 1 of 2

After sinking 3 to 4 hours in it, I think I'm qualified (by Internet standards) to talk about the new Deadpool game that dropped this Tuesday. I walked out of GameStop with a copy of the PS3 version, stopped at Chick-fil-A (sorry, no chimichangas), and plopped down on my couch to get reacquainted with the Merc with a Mouth.

The first little section of the game serves to do just that, teach the player about this masked madman by exploring his apartment. I was laughing the whole time, especially while Deadpool made fun of achievements by giving me the first and second ones for "free," I'm glad Deadpool shares my opinion on trophies and achievements.

Once out of the crazy-filthy apartment, it was sword-swinging, gun-toting, tutorial time. At first thought, I'd call Deadpool a hack n' slash game with a bit of platforming, but that's because I didn't want to use my guns, like ever. I guess I have more fun slicing and dicing enemies; even when the enemies were poised for a duck-and-cover shoot-out, I would run head-first into enemy fire (what's the point of a healing factor if you're not going to use it) and stab, stab, stab.

The non-shooting combat is easy to learn and the enemy AI is pretty dumb. And, oh I forgot about the teleport dodge: it makes the sword combat and countering very over-powered. I had honestly forgotten that Deadpool had that teleport technology. Where's Weasel when I want to thank him? Anyway, it was later into the game when I realized I was in trouble for not using/upgrading my gun arsenal.

The "heavy" baddies are much easier when Deadpool is dual-wielding shotguns. Maybe that's the case for all the baddies. Still, I get bored with third-person shooting faster than I do stringing together bloody-bladed melee combos. The melee gameplay is no Arkham Asylum, but I still enjoyed it. I like my Deadpool with his blades; I also like the sai, but I haven't used them much. The swords are fully upgraded, the sai are newly unlocked, and the hammers, well, I haven't purchased them yet.

Most of the glitches that I've seen have occurred during combat, but nothing has made me want to eat my controller. Occasionally an enemy will end up on top of Deadpool; sometimes my hits connect with the displaced enemy and sometimes they don't. Meh. Deadpool points (DP) don't always revert to the previous amount if you die and then continue from the nearest checkpoint. Last, but not least, enemies can deal lots of damage to each other; I've always thought friendly fire is a stupid concept, so when a "heavy" baddie clears all the normal enemies for me, I wonder if that was intentional.

Even though the game is linear, I'll praise the level design and variety. From Deadpool's apartment to the mucky sewers to the catacombs of Genosha, the scenery is a sight to behold. I'd also like to get my hands on some concept art, especially the final level in Genosha. Floating platforms as far as the eye can see. Again, thank you Weasel for the teleportation.

Speaking of teleportation, BAMF over to Part 2

What About The Rest Of The Year?

Blogging? Am I still doing that? By missing E3 this year, I shot my blogging-self in the foot. Last year and the year before, E3 was a prime time to chime in on the world of gaming. Starting right now, there are only 4 games that I'm really looking forward to for the remainder of 2013. They are, in order of suspected release:

6/25/2013 - Deadpool
9/3/2013 - Diablo III (Console)
9/17/2013 - Grand Theft Auto V
Q4 2013 - South Park: The Stick of Truth

I'll definitely be talking about the Deadpool game, because it looks awesome and hilarious.

The other two games, Diablo and GTA, look to be early fall releases but I'm not really sure about South Park. Who knows? Anybody. I can wait for that one, because I want the South Park game to be done right or not done at all.

Good news though, I'll have plenty of time to play Deadpool before I get bogged down with the other new games. Deadpool is my favorite Marvel Comics character and I've been anticipating this game since I first heard about it. And it's about damn time that it was released. I'll try and get a huge chunk of it played shortly after release so that I can post my thoughts on the game.

There were some tempting pre-order bonuses, but nothing too blingy. So I put my pre-order in at GameStop and got two more challenge maps, two extra costumes, and a wallpaper. Let me see if I can dig that sucker up.

Xeno-swag: Anticipating Aliens

Certain franchises just stick with me. Perhaps the one that I chatter on about the most is Resident Evil. The RE universe has stuck with me because it used to frighten me; the games don't do that anymore, but I still play. Before Resident Evil came along, Aliens satisfied that fun and frightful itch. Yes, I was way too young to be watching rated-R movies, but I did anyway. And man, I loved the Alien franchise back then.

Actually, I still love the Alien universe. Whether it's Ridley Scott's Alien or Joss Whedon's Alien: Resurrection (he wrote the screenplay) or the retarded little brothers Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, I have thoroughly enjoyed all the films. I can't say that I've spent too much time with the games: I completely missed out on the early Nintendo and Sega cartridge games and the AVP PC games were quick romps (if that) because I wasn't interested in their stories.

February marks the return to the Alien universe with Aliens: Colonial Marines, a first-person-shooter and spiritual sequel to James Cameron's Aliens; it's the one of the few video games without all the muddled predator pollution. I am one to ignore the FPS genre, but I will make an exception for Aliens: Colonial Marines because I really want to know what happened after the terraforming reactor and colony on LV-426 were supposedly destroyed.

Picking between the Xbox and the PS3 will be a tough choice, but the pre-order deals look pretty amazing. I'm a total sucker for gamer swag (especially games/franchises that I love) and ACM has a $99.99 treasure trove. The Aliens: Colonial Marines Collector's Edition comes with a statue of a power-loader fending off an alien. Patches and in-game items and characters, including Sgt. Apone and Pvt. Hudson. Man, I hope that includes their voices.

After hunting around online, I had to go with Amazon's pre-order because both Best Buy and Gamestop's pre-order allocations were all used up. Dry. This might be the hardest collector's edition to get your hands on right now. Here's to hoping that the aliens thrill and terrify just as they did when I first saw Alien.

For once, I am looking forward to February.

Gravity-Bending Astro Cats and Lip Rings

While browsing through a GameStop yesterday, my curious fingers found a wall-tethered display PS Vita with a demo of Gravity Rush. One of the two games I care about on the PSV right now. So I settled in and started the demo (I really hate that I have to touch the touch-screen and can't arrow-key through the "home" bubbles and hit X to make a selection) it was quick to load and quick to start. No complaints there. The demo's control tutorial guide was even a cat. Not just any cat, mind you, but a gravity-bending astro cat.

You can't go wrong with gravity-bending astro cats. I wouldn't want to meet a pack of them in a dark alley. But you get my drift.

Once the movement tutorial was over, the fighting tutorial started and I was gravity kicking little blob monsters, which was fun. Well, that apparently pissed off a larger blob monster. The tutorial boss seemed easy enough; I started landing hits on it immediately. Then, suddenly, I wasn't able to deal damage to it. I couldn't figure out what had changed, because I was just spamming gravity kicks the whole time. Annoyed, I hopped back to the Vita's bubble home screen and walked away.

The demo hinted at a story with the introduction of a pathetic police officer and a stuck-up, anti-gravity chick with a raven. An astro raven, to be exact. But other than that, I couldn't glean any juicy story details.

Right now, to me, the game is pure eye candy. The city looked big, expansive even. A place that I want to see and explore. Other than that, I can't say much more.

I'm no fan of GameStop; however, I reserved Xenoblade Chronicles (apparently a GameStop or Nintendo Online exclusive) which is why I was there in the first place. Honestly though, I do like this store's location (on the way to my grandmother's house) and I was surprised by one female employee who actually has opinions about games. She caught be off guard enough that I had an intelligent conversation with her about the Persona series (I don't go to GameStop looking for intelligent conversations) which I've never played.

Anyway, this encounter made me realize that I enjoy discussing what other people play and why. Plus, a spoken endorsement is worth millions more than an online review.