A slew of demos

So on a whim I decided to download some newly released and some older demos to see if I wanted to spend my new found Christmas money on them. First up:

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I already kind of figured from the look of this game, and the fact that I had never played a Castlevania game before, that it wouldn't be for me, yet it was getting good reviews so I figured I'd take a shot and give it a look over. Now, I understand demos are almost always poor representations of the full game, but frankly it seemed like just another mindless hack and slash, though admittedly the controls were tight. Still, looked fairly boring.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2. Oddly enough, playing this demo felt eerily familiar to playing the first Force Unleashed's demo. Hordes of stormtroopers who are simply fodder for your force powers, some bigger baddies who require a little more thought, and a shoddy control mechanic that took away what little fun there was to be had. It felt like just another hack and slash which looked flashy, but had no real substance. Pass on this one, it appears the developers didn't learn from their mistakes like they assured us they did.

Maijin and the Forgotten Kingdom. Boy did this one lose me on practically all counts. The graphics were poor, the voice acting/dialogue was beyond childish, and the fighting vs. stealth mechanic was beyond rudimentary. The only interesting bit to this demo was the strategic element it introduced with, say, setting up the Maijin to throw a wall down while you jump down below and lure the enemies over to where it would crash. Held some interesting possibilities, but I'd doubt from the way the demo played out they made much use of it in the regular game. Big disappointment.

Costume Quest. I'm a fan of Tim Schafer. I understand the man has some brilliant and hilarious ideas. The main problem is he just doesn't know how to craft the game from there. Now, unfortunately I haven't played Psychonauts, which according to critics is the best most underappreciated game of all time, nor have I played any of his earlier work which everyone seems to agree were awesome games. Still, I played Brutal Legend. I saw what should've been an awesome game in there, but just never came together. So when he announced he was planning on doing smaller, more kind of indie downloadable games I was all for it thinking it would be a better space for him to simply present his vision. So I pick up the demo for Costume Quest...and am underwhelmed. Yes, the humor is there. Yes, his unique vision is there. Yes, it seems like it should be an awesome game. And then you get to the game itself, which has the most simplified combat system I've ever seen. It's highly based on exploration, yet there's no map, no way to pinpoint which houses you might have missed besides running all over the town until you spot the one that was hiding from you. You can change costumes, and each has a specific function in and out of combat, but they don't seem to make much of a difference besides opening up new areas to explore. It's just sad to me because even in this smaller downloadable space, just like Brutal Legend the great ideas are there, they're just really poorly implemented. Costume Quest feels like it should be a lot of fun, but then the actual game gets in the way of that. We'll just have to wait and see what happens with his next downloadable title, and hope the trend finally breaks.

Split/Second. I'm not a big fan of racing games, mostly because I'm no good at them, but my favorite series that I've played was the Burnout franchise. There was something so lovable and enjoyable about crashing anywhere you please and causing as much mayhem and destruction along the way as you could that I couldn't put it down. Split/Second is essentially Burnout's bastard child, fathered back in it's heyday on the PS2 before it moved on to the (in my opinion less fun) open world of Paradise. It works on much the same mechanics, except where in Burnout you did certain actions to raise your speed boost, in Split/Second you do certain things to fill a meter that allows you to make "Power Plays" which cause explosions to rain down from the sky, sometimes even amusingly completely rearranging the course, to knock down your opponents. There was unfortunately very very little to play, but what there was seemed fun enough. Might be worth a look.

Little Big Planet 2. This game made the best case for getting a 3D TV that I've seen. Not just for the eye popping effects, but because it appears it can be a vital part of gameplay. There were several points in the first level where I couldn't tell what I was supposed to do next because I was actually meant to go towards myself or away from myself. If there had been 3D, I'm sure that depth issue wouldn't be a problem. However, will this heavy investment in 3D detract from the game? I doubt it. It was still fun, and while I'm not particularly interested in creating my own stuff for this game, I cannot wait to see what other people do with it. This game looks to have infinite potential.

Mass Effect 2. I've already played this game on my PC when it came out at the beginning of the year (though not since all the DLC has come out), but I still wanted to take a look and see if the graphical upgrade would be worth a new purchase since my poor PC can't handle anything close to max graphics settings. And I have to say, I'm considering it. Definitely not at the new game price point of $60, I mean...come on. It's a year old, and I understand the developers put a lot of effort into it, and it really does look VERY good now, but seriously? It's selling for less than $20 just about everywhere, and while all of the DLC you get for free on PS3 totals up to $32, $32+$20=less than $60. This is not a new game, don't try to sell it like one. Anyways, the demo is quite extensive, leading you through both the initial escape from the lab complex and the mission to find Mordin Solus. The graphics have received an obvious boost (you can find comparison videos between PS3 and Xbox), though I still noticed significant frame rate drops during cutscenes and screen tearing. It wasn't that bad, but the obvious improvements elsewhere made them stick out all the more. Basically, if you've never played Mass Effect 2 before, pick it up now because this will be the best version out there. However, if you've already got Mass Effect 2 and the DLC, the graphics aren't really enough to say go out and spend that money all over again.

Dead Space 2. This game has had me the most excited since it was announced and showcased at E3. And so, I would like to present to you my thoughts while playing the demo:

"Wait...this part wasn't shown at E3...........why is nothing attacking me yet....why is there nothiOHCRAP...WHAT...THE...HELL?......Okay, first new necromorph pukes at me, lovely...man it takes a lot more damage than the old onesNOWTHEREAREFOUROFTHEMOHGODWHY...Okay, this part was at E3, shouldn't be too shocking...doing okay, doing okay, doing....okay...damn it...DAMN...BABIES....EVERYWHERE...CLAWING MY FACE.....NECROS EVERYWHEEEEEEEEEERE.......Phew, made it....preorder, done."

It was real freakin impressive. I had seen a great deal of the demo played already several times over at E3, and it STILL managed to freak me out. And with what I'm sure will be a really fun Aliens vs. Predator type multiplayer to back it up, look out for this one to pull a Mass Effect 2 and be a game of the year released in January. Though admittedly its competition is stiff (see "2011 is going to take all of our money"). But boy oh boy am I excited for this game. It looks to surpass the first game, which I gave a 10/10, by a healthy margin. CAN NOT WAIT.