A Weekend With inFamous

This week the PS3 saw two exclusive retail releases in Sucker Punch's inFamous and NIS America's Cross Edge and I had the pleasure of receiving them both in the mail this Saturday afternoon. Great news, but I had to decide which game to open up and which one finds a place on my shelf to be returned to when the weather is hotter. And as you may be able to infer from the title, Cross Edge is on my game shelf sitting next to unopened copies of Valkyria Chronicles and Disgaea 3.

Now on to the meat.

So I spent the majority of my Saturday and Sunday playing the hot new Sony exclusive and I'm going to say it was well worth not getting anything done. The game starts with a bang (literally!) as you're set in the middle of a disaster area known as Empire City as soon as you hit start on the title screen not fulling knowing what has happened to the city around you; but the one thing that is for sure is that you need to make your way out. As you escape what is seemingly the epicenter of the blast you witnessed at the title screen you're introduced to the first of three districts you will either work to conquer or reclaim as the gravel-voiced protagonist Cole MacGrath. The fate of Empire city is in your hands as you have developed the ability to harness and manipulate electricity in a variety of unique ways. Cole has an effective arsenal at his disposal, which only grows in power as you progress through missions at your leisure.

I decided to live out my dreams of becoming a superhero, so I walked the path of the righteous and defend Empire city from drugged up thugs and crazy homeless men thus far. In what I would estimate is roughly 2/3 of the story progression I have encountered countless minions of evil and some great complementary characters. The city itself is a character as it is in shambles after you start your journey. The more good deeds I did for citizens and police in specific districts, the more land I reclaimed for the people to conduct their lives safely. The safer the land, the better the city started looking as trash was cleaned up and life started to get as close to normal as a quarantined city recovering from a large explosion can be. Along with the rejuvenation cane the support of the people who once labeled me a terrorist. Initially I was assaulted verbally and threatened by people on the street, but once they saw the work I was doing I became the belle of the ball! The same people who wished I was dead are now flashing pictures of me as I go by and supporting my fights with lesser enemies by throwing rocks at them as distractions. You really feel a part of the city as the people rally behind you.

As for how the game play, you can tell these guys made the Sly Cooper games for the PS2. You can climb on anything you see and it controls as smooth as butter. Your primary lightning attack controls like a third person action shooter and the further your progress, the cooler your abilities come. Whether you're jumping from the tops of buildings bringing down the thunder on some fools or grinding the rails as you zap nearby enemies the game never stops being fun and never reaches any significant level of frustration. The variety of missions will keep you from feeling like you're repeating yourself and the rewards for completing your missions will give you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment.

All in all this is a good looking game that performs exceptionally well with absolutely no loading times. The comic book style cut scenes compliment the stylized character art and give you the feeling of playing through a graphic novel. The character voices are well acted and the dialogue never feels cheesy or forced.

inFamous is the perfect cure for the summertime blues and a must buy if you own a PS3. The trophies are awarded in such a manner that encourages you to play through multiple times as there are morality specific choices that can't be repeated. I have a feeling playing as a bad Cole will result in a far different experience than my good Cole has produced so far, so I'll be back for seconds when this play through is up.

The Return

For a long time (53 weeks if you're counting!) I've been away from this blog, still reading and dreaming of becoming a gaming journalist. Well, in January of this year my dreams started slipping away with the unceremonious end of Electronic Gaming Monthly--better known as EGM. I was a subscriber to EGM when it was left to die and had a dream of one day writing for my favorite magazine and when the magazine was discontinued by parent company Ziff Davis my writing aspirations began to leave me as I finished my final semester in college. As I took my last finals and applied for graduate school my urge to write reamined, but my shining beacon of light was gone; EGM was finished and I needed to continue on with my path to becoming a teacher. As teaching opportunities dry up in the midst of a state budget crsis with no forseeable I am still determined to become a credentialed teacher, but my dreams of writing have been given a new life.

After a day of observing high school students I saw something in a Kotaku headline that reivigorated my desire to write: Electronic Gaming Monthly To Return! So with the return of my favorite magazine I've been inspired to return to Last Generation games and write once again, but take a different appraoch to what I was doing. I no longer want to focus on older games or just writing reviews, I want to cover news and give a personal input with my own style. So we (and by we I mean the "royal" we) here at last gen are back!

Have a look at the EGM press release announcing an imminent return.

[ EGM Press Release ]