Demotopia!: Dark Void

Tyler:
Have you guys seen that funny little clip of the Dark Void “prototype” ? The 8-bit game that the upcoming game was supposedly based on? It’s all a marketing ploy to amp up the release of the DS version of the series. At any rate, the reason I bring this up is because I feel like DV is a game that would have been a lot better if that was an actual game that came out in my youth. If I did play something like the DS version when I was younger than maybe I could summon some sort of anticipation for the 360/PS3 one coming out this month. I might have some nostalgic importance to me. As it is, I just can’t see what it is about this game that has people thinking it would be anything other than a perfectly par shooter. Everything, except the near-flawless flight controls, seems borrowed from other games. While playing the demo I had significant flashbacks to Halo and Mass Effect. And just like in GTA4, when transitioning from the flight combat (driving segments) to over the shoulder combat with robots (police/gangsters) something is definitely lost in the translation– the controls seem off a bit.

I like the goal here — air combat mixed with a Gears-like shooter. I’m all for blending genres, but I can’t say that I think Dark Void hits the nail on the head… more like it hit the nail almost in, but on the last stroke it bent it down so that the nail head left a little mark on the wood. Then they pulled the nail out with the reverse side of the hammer and tried to straighten it out and nail it in again, but it’s not really flush now and there’s that little ding from earlier.

What I’m saying is that Dark Void is not Bob Villa.

Steve:
When I first tried the Dark Void demo, my first thought was “why the hell is there a fat dude with his shirt off, and what does this have to do with the story?!?” It’s a feeling that never really leaves you throughout the course of the demo either; the question changes but the general feeling of bewilderment doesn’t.
It seems the further you progress through the demo, the more you feel that it’s a poor demo of what appears to be a decidedly average game.

The demo is bad because it’s just not cohesive in any way at all; the story jumps and skips all over the place in order to let you sample the different types of gameplay on offer, all the while, random characters come and go unannounced, and unrelated events pass by without any explanation. This can be excused somewhat by the fact that it’s just a demo, and its main purpose is you let you sample what the game has to offer. However, it still leaves you with the impression that the story in the full game will still be forgettable gibberish.
Another impression that the demo leaves you with is that almost every element of this game seems to be generally unremarkable, and that every component is somehow lacking in one way or another; the graphics are standard fare (with the possible exception of the environments), the action feels unspectacular, the cover mechanics seem recycled, and both, along with the controls in general, feel just a little too loose to be entirely satisfactory.
As a side note, why didn’t devs Airtight Games include any sections featuring the much vaunted “vertical cover” mechanics they’ve been crowing about for so long? It seems like, if this feature was really as good, or as game changing, as they would have us believe, then this would be the perfect way to let people experience it.

It’s fair to say then, that you probably shouldn’t rush out to buy Dark Void.  However, whereas this would probably be a good game to rent or pick up (really) cheap when there’s a lull in the release schedule, this years schedule seems to be far too unrelenting to even bother thinking about Dark Void any time soon.  Save your money and play some of the games that demand your attention instead.

Demotopia!: MAG Public Beta

On the surface, MAG isn’t anything spectacular; visually, it’s a bit bland, character models aren’t incredibly detailed and gunplay doesn’t quite pack the punch you expect in a post-Modern Warfare world. If you’re willing to look past its deficiencies, you’ll see that MAG has a huge heart, beating to a tune of 256 players.

It’s a massive undertaking my Zipper Interactive, bringing out its fair amount of sceptics. “256 players? Isn’t that just chaos? Would it even be able to run properly?” Yes, it runs perfectly fine and no, it’s far from chaotic. Don’t be so surprised. It’s not like Zipper’s new to this or anything. They brought you the SOCOM franchise, whose history is ingrained with online console FPS. You feel other influences as well. It’s orchestrated encounters and sheer number of players echo an MMO world and its command structure and tactical manoeuvrability have the faintest touch of RTS. It’s by no means rigid, but the framework put in place goes a long way in providing an organised structure to prevent mass hysteria.

The first few hours of the beta were spent playing the Sabotage game mode. Rather than simply capturing points A and B, the attacking team must capture A and B simultaneously before point C is revealed, to be destroyed. With a maximum of 64 players, you start to get a sense of size of the fight. It’s not until you unlock the 256-player Domination mode at level 10, and you realise you’re amidst something much larger than you’ve ever encountered before. It’s almost incomprehensible to describe at first – even though you’re fighting this little skirmish with your 7 other squad members, in the back of your mind you know there’s another 16 of these battles happening right now. Your 8 becomes 16, 16 becomes 32, and 32 becomes 64. As the battle goes on, you’re moving between primary and secondary objectives led by your squad leaders. By following commands, you’re not only working better as a group to advance, you’re netting yourself extra experience points. It’s a smart play by Zipper to keep teams focused and on point, while not necessarily penalising freedom.

With all the action occurring simultaneously, it’s amazing I didn’t encounter any major connection problems. Matches are completed without error and framerate is consistent throughout. It may lack the polish and shininess of Modern Warfare, but MAG’s set piece isn’t in its levels, or in any scripted event. It’s the view of the dozens and dozens of real-life people fighting next to you. It’s bringing the online shooter back to the idea of people.

Demotopia!: Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

Here’s an awesome video game/real world connection for you. Last week, Thai authorities seized a plane that was connected to smuggling arms in and out of awesome places like Russia and North Korea (both countries of which I have been drunk in. True story). The type of plane? An Il-76; a plane made by the very same manufacturer (Ilyushin), that made the Il-2, which just happens to be the subject of the most recent demo I’ve played: Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.

Although it had just about the worst, and probably most racist voice acting ever in a game, I was big fan of Blazing Angels. It didn’t take itself too seriously by getting caught up in a bunch of details like flight instrumentation and an unnecessary variety of weapons, but it gave you just what you needed to have a good time: a machine gun, some rockets, and someone to shoot at. It was fairly shallow gameplay-wise, but it produced a lot of body-leaning good times.

Much of the same can be said from my demo experience wit Il-2. It’s not gaudy or flashy, and although it does have more depth Blazing Angels, it focus more on the ride than the small technicalities. There are a multitude of different viewpoints both in and out of the cockpit, and a target lock-on that ensures you don’t lose sight of what you’re going after. However, the tutorial mission puts you in the air with dozens of slow moving targets all around you, so I didn’t get a feel for anything as fast or intense as a dogfight. The controls are a tricky to wrap your mind around at first, especially since I feel I just mastered simple piloting techniques of the planes in Battlefield: 1942, but once I overcame that curve, it started becoming more natural.

Look, this game isn’t a Modern Warfare 2, or an Assassin’s Creed 2, or an Uncharted 2, but it can definitely be something a little less involved for you to get into after all those top-tier titles have run their course, and by then you’ll be able to pick it up on the cheap. If you liked Blazing Angels, or even really liked the flying in BF:1943, give the Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey demo a shot.

Demotopia!: Dante’s Inferno

Is Dante’s Inferno good as hell, or hella shitty? Read on to find out.

Russ:
Man, I had heard that this game was going to be similar to God of War, but I didn’t think it’d be this close. Everything little thing seems the same, like the quick-time events, button mashing to do actions (like breaking fountains for health, etc), a combo-counter, an upgrade system, lots of boobayes, and pressing a shoulder button to activate other actions like climbing ladders (who thought this was ever a good idea?). I was expecting some influence from Kratos and Co, but this makes Dante’s Inferno feel like a royal ripoff.

An issue I have with the game is its intense need to seriously alter history and reality. These crusaders are some real bastards. And your main character sews a cloth cross to his chest. No explanation or anything, he was just apparently bored. Death shows up to take your main character’s life, and he doesn’t even think “Holy shit!”, he just immediately decides to fight Death…to the death. There’s this level of unbelievability that really takes away from the experience. It’s like the developers knew that only gamers were going to play the game, so they catered directly to them. I feel like I should be drinking WoW-flavored Mountain Dew or something.

The game itself is pretty solid, and it feels fun to fuck up some hellions. The level layout feels very predictable, and in turn, very boring. And seriously, this game is so God of War that I feel like it is a total cliche, and it’s not even out yet. Probably looking to be a solid rental, if anything.

Mark:

I can’t…quite…put my finger on it, but I swear I’ve played this game before. I don’t remember the name, but I do remember that it had something to do with God, and War, and a guy on a bloody rampage in search of redemption from his sins of the past, and medieval boobs. Well, wither way, the church isn’t going to like this one.

Ok, enough hoo-ha. God of War is one of my fave game series of all time, and I will be god-damned (pun intended) if this isn’t the same game. You know what, though? I love it. It’s brutal, violent, beautiful, and bloodier than Kate Gosselin’s tampon (I’m just as ashamed of that joke as you are). Here’s the thing, though: knowing what this game is, and ultimately what it will be, I don’t feel the need to drop $60 on it, especially since GOW3 is right around the corner. I am looking forward to this Dante’s Inferno, though, and you should all give the demo a try; it will take you to some awesome places.

Demotopia! Bayonetta

Steve:

I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with action games which stems back to playing Devil May Cry on the PS2.  At that time, it was my first real experience with the genre, and initially I was very impressed; until I got horribly stuck on one of the games later bosses, and decided to give up.  As time went on, subsequent iterations of the Devil May Cry series became even less forgiving, and even more pre-occupied with embarrassing and juvenile depictions of its female characters and their sexuality. Likewise, the other games in the genre always seemed to offend me in some way; whilst the Ninja Gaiden games have an excellent combat system, they’re just too cheap, and my experience with God Of War 2 left me feeling underwhelmed.  As a result of this, I went into Bayonetta with extremely low expectations.

However, after playing through the demo I was really pleasantly surprised, as Bayonetta manages to avoid most of the pit-falls I usually associate with games of this type.  It’s good to see that the games difficulty seems to be manageable, and not just ridiculously hard, as is often the case.  The combat mechanics are deep whilst still being extremely simple at their core – I often feel that action games (especially the  Devil May Cry franchise) make the combat mechanics too involved, whilst not giving you enough indication as to how best to use the skills available to you, leaving you feeling slightly bewildered.  The game also rewards you quite heavily for evading attacks, as a last-minute dodge puts all enemies into slow-motion, and really lets you capitalise on the counter-attack.  The game doesn’t make this too difficult to pull off, and as a result, makes you feel powerful and also helps keeps the game moving at a brisk pace.

However, I do have a few gripes with the game, and though the graphics are generally very good, (there are a number of really neat visual touches – like the butterfly wings that appear when you perform a double-jump), in trying to accomodate numerous enemies on-screen at the same time, the camera sometimes feels a little too zoomed-out, which can make the characters look a little small.  By far my biggest gripe with this game though, is its infantile and un-necessarily sexual treatment of the lead character; for those who are unaware, the lead characters clothes are made out of her own hair, which also transforms into weapons during combat.  The caveat to this is that when the hair transforms into a weapon, the lead character is essentially left naked.  This just comes across as being gratuitous and naive, and that the only reason it has been included is for the developers’ amusement.  In saying that, though, it doesn’t seem to be handled quite as badly as in the Devil May Cry series (as far as I can tell from the demo, anyway) as there are no extended slow-motion crotch shots, or breast-jiggle physics on display.

Despite this though, my time with this demo was a lot of fun, and if the whole game turns out to be this good, I might even be tempted to buy this when it releases.  Given my chequered past with games of this ilk, that’s probably the biggest compliment I could give Bayonetta.

Russ:

As video game blogger, I thought there was an unspoken rule that we’re supposed to make fun of Bayonetta. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the main character looks alarmingly like Sarah Palin. Either way, I wasn’t planning on enjoying this demo at all, but I ended up really liking it.

To be fair, I had no idea that it was made by the guy who made the first Devil May Cry (but I figured that out in about two minutes), especially being that it’s a SEGA game. Honestly, this is my most enjoyable SEGA-produced gaming experience since some random House of the Dead game many years ago. Bayonetta looks really good, even down to the super-cool menus, although the Sarah Palin character sprite could be bigger. The easiest difficulty is dumbed down to automatic/single-button combat moves, so I actually opted for a more difficult setting; truth be told, I enjoyed the challenge and rhythm of this bloody button masher. The game feels distinctly Japanese, especially considering the cheesy techno background music, surreal/confusing story, and grading system after every major battle.

There are still some issues that I need to have cleared up before thinking about buying this game. First, the game must have a decent length to separate it from rental status. If it proves to have 10+ hours of gameplay, it might warrant purchase. Secondly, I didn’t see anything about an upgrade system, but I hope there is, because that would be a big selling point. Games like this need an incentive to keep playing, and I’m not too sure if the story will be enough to keep us going. Being that this game has already been released in Japan, I could probably find these two things out with a little research, but I’m lazy. Final verdict: I’m pretty sure that anyone that likes action-arcade games should try out this demo.

Mark:

I never understood all the hype behind this game. To me it just seemed like another forgettable Devil May Cry-ish beat-em-up, and even after a few minutes of gameplay, I was still ready to dismiss it as such. As the demo went on and I became more familiar with the controls and the pace of the game, it really started to grow on me. The action was smooth, it looked good, and was just campy enough to not take itself too seriously. I like that.

Of course it is still injected with that unique form of Japanese sexuality. You know the  kind where they try to design the girls to look like westerners, but they still have those unmistakable Asian faces and ridiculously huge boobs (I’m not complaining). I feel a little gypped, though, because I heard about this epic scene that the 360 demo has with falling clocktowers, dragons, and statues, but all the PS3 demo had was this very nice looking garden. I guess they’re pretty much the same thing.

Demotopia!: Resistance: Retribution

I wonder if I would have been more into this game if I had played its console counterparts first. That’s not to say that Resistance: Retribution is bad, but to me it was very close to being just another zombie nazi alien shooter. It had a nice little cuttie (my new term for cutscenes, get on board) to set the story, but within that first minute and a half, there were at least five names, three characters, and multiple references to the first game, and through my own fault I was buried in an alien (pun definitely intended) plot.

As an independent game though, RR played solid, and in the rare moments that the environment was at least a little brighter than extremely dark, it looked really good. However, I know that the intense and brooding look of the Chimera is one of main attributes of the Resistance series, but the small stature of the PSP screen makes them look more gray blobs clinging to a black wall. The action was done really well, and sported some of the best PSP shooting I’ve played yet. There is an auto-lock on to the baddies which negates the need to micro-manage the aiming. a-la the Medal of Honor: Heroes, and makes firefights fun.

I still think that Syphon Filter is just about the best shooter on the PSP, even though I’ve really only played about two other ones, but from the looks of the demo, Resistance: Retribution, seems like it could be close second. I just highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with the first games though, lest you be set adrift in a sea of “Umm…what”?

Demotopia! LittleBIGPlanet PSP

Right off the bat, LittleBIGPlanet on the PSP looks beautiful. It is obvious from the get-go that no expense was spared in the graphics department during the game’s jump to an even littlerBigPlanet. It still maintains that intentional kinda-real but kinda-fantasy look that the console version has, and because the PSP screen is so small, it actually looks a little better sometimes because you don’t get lost in visual details. I can say without a doubt that this is the best looking PSP game to date.

As far as gameplay, the one level that the demo contains pretty much sums up what you find in the console version of the game: Sackboy, platforms, collect-em-ups, and even a song so catchy that you’ll be nodding to the beat while you’re swinging from sponges. Through no fault of its own, however, using the PSP’s awkwardly placed analog nub really starts to cramp on the thumb even after only level, especially with the amount usage and lack of a D-pad movement option.

Overall, LBP PSP is a very impressive feat, and fans of the console version will most likely be fans of this one. Give the demo a try, it’s free you cheap bastards.

Demotopia!: God of War 3

I mentioned in my earlier post that the God of War Collection comes with the E3 demo of God of War III, in all of its fantasticness. I tried it out this morning.

Having played a bit of the first God of War recently, I can make an informed statement that God of War III looks at least 78.8475% better than its predecessors. Every little thing, from the massive scope of the game (which was in the first two, really) down to the most minute detail (especially the detailed gore) is impressive. The gameplay itself hasn’t changed much, which is just fine. There is more involvement with controlling NPCs, and in one part you control a troll, and it’s totally awesome. I’ve never played God of War II, so maybe that’s something they implemented in that one. Either way, it was fun.

Fans of the series aren’t going to find anything life-changing in this demo, but it will convince anyone that has never played one of these games that they need to get into them. It’s a pretty dumb move that this game only comes with the God of War Collection, because a wider audience needs to have exposure to it.

Demotopia!: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

I realize that this game has been out for a while already, but the demo dropped today onto the Xbox Live Marketplace so I decided to give it a whirl. I didn’t play much of the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance, mostly because it reminded me too much of an underwhelming X-men: Legends game I played on the PSP waaaay back in 2004.

I like that they tried to expand the scope of the game a bit by including bright, outdoor levels. It makes the always-dungeony isometric view a little more palatable and wide. The graphics look prettier, and there seems to be more combat going on at once than before. Unfortunately, the same thing that mires down all games like this is exacerbated in MUA2‘s new scheme – I had the damnedest time figuring out which character I was controlling and who was a good/bad guy.

The demo only lasted about 5-10 minutes (that’s including the fact that half the demo is cutscenes), which wasn’t a fair enough assessment of how repetitive the combat will be. I’m assuming it’ll be the same story as the previous game, which means that if you’re into this kind of game you’ll like it. Otherwise, if you were thinking that this was the iteration of the series you were going to jump into, you might want to wait for a better sequel.

Demotopia!: Left 4 Dead 2

In playing L4D2 I was reminded exactly what it was that attracted everyone to playing the original: it was the not knowing. The first time playing through No Mercy in L4D you had no idea where to go or what was around the corner. At no point could you determine how far through the level you were or when you were about to reach the next set piece/horde attack point. You were just running and shooting. You wanted to get to the safe house, and when you did you ran in the door, turned around, saw a mob of zombies running full-tilt towards you and you slammed the door.

Then you said, “fuuuuuuck…”

And you’re going to do it again with Left 4 Dead 2. The original was immediately thrilling to play with friends but it had no real legs to speak of. Even I admit that Blood Harvest becomes a little stale after the 15th playthrough. It was suffered from the repetition of 4 chapters, 5 boss infected, 7 guns and that’s it.

L4D2 now has 5 chapters, at least 7 special infected, 23 weapons and only more to come with DLC.

The few things I didn’t like about the game that I picked up from the demo is the fact that you still cannot customize the controller. I know, it’s my go-to bitching point, but why Valve? I can do it all your other games. I need those precious milliseconds in the game. My thumbs will, for the rest of my life, think reload is “X” and not “B”. Also, I didn’t know that melee weapons take the place of sidearms. With that prospect I don’t see myself picking up a police baton over a second, unlimited-ammo pistol any time soon. Though, at more than one point I stared down a lone zombie as he sprinted towards me down a long alley only to switch to my machete a second before he got to me and loped his head off like a samurai.

Final verdict: The demo is out on XBLA, go get it.

Demotopia!: Brutal Legend

Wowzers. It’s funny that even though this game has received a butt-ton of hype for a concept that’s almost ten years old now (seriously, that whole “Jack Black ROCKS” thing is waaay past its prime), I was still impressed.

Seriously, this game has so many things going against it, not just the aforementioned-Jack-Blackery: it’s been popped from one publisher to the next like an aging Hollywood trophy wife, it’s the product of Tim Schafer (who has to create a bad game someday, right?), and Lita Ford lends her “voicework” to the game as well. But despite itself, it’s actually a sincere and solid title, and I look forward to playing the whole game sometime.

You play as a roadie (Mr. Black) that is summoned to a world full of heavy metal cliches, and you conquer baddies by wielding two axes (one’s a guitar, one’s a legit axe) in a third-person platformer. The demo has a lot of variety to it, including some well-controlled driving sequences. The only thing I didn’t like is that the character doesn’t jump at all; in fact, the attack button is where I would expect the jump button to be (“A” on the X360) and it was a bit awkward.

Overall, I am looking forward to playing this game, but I won’t be paying sixty bones for it. I have a feeling that this is a solid rental.

Demotopia!: Section 8

Section 8 is nothing but an amalgamation of parts from other games cobbled together to make the most flavorless, unoriginal waste of time and electricity I’ve seen in the last two years. I beg anyone out there to play the demo and put a comment on this post defending the game. Please tell me one aspect of this title that you enjoyed and I will point out the same feature in another game where it was implemented better. This is a list of just the futuristic, super soldier, FPSs that are or will be better than Section 8:

• Area 51
• Battlefield: 2146
• Bioshock
• Doom 3
• Frontlines: Fuel of War
• Gears of War
• Gears of War 2
• Halo
• Halo2
• Halo3
• Halo:ODST
• Halo: Reach
  
• Half Life
• Half Life 2
• Half Life 2 Episode 1
• Half Life 2 Episode 2
• Killzone, Killzone 2
• Perfect Dark Zero
• Prey
• Quake
• Quake 2
• Quake 3
• Quake 4
• Quake Wars: Enemy Territory
• Quake Live
• Red Faction
• Red Faction 2
• Shadowrun
• Turok

I don’t want this game to go away and just slip under the radar with embarrassing sales, I want it to be made an example of. Section 8 should be the new Daikatana. I hope TimeGate goes bankrupt and they have to burn all of the unsold copies of the game in a pit in the dessert. I hate you if you like this game. 0 out of 10 forever.

-Tyler Miller

August 30, 2009 4:34 PM

Demotopia!: Wet

We’ve now all three chimed in on the game, so we’re putting this Demotopia! back on the top of the site.

Tyler

I like this demo.
It feels very weird to say that because I expected to hate everything about this game based on pre-release clips, negative previews from enthusiast press and, well, just the name. I see what you did there Bethesda. Oh, what’s that? It stands for WETworks? Yeah, uh-huh, really?

But listen, I played the demo on the 360 and I liked it. Which is funny because It’s not a very original idea for a game. If Wanted, Stranglehold and House of the Dead: Overkill had a baby it would be Wet. From what I get out of the demo, this game is one dual wielding, table sliding, slo-mo diving, sword slashing, grindhouse brawl from start to finish. And I’m okay with that.

Protip: The music in this game is pretty okay. There’s a part to the demo where you go into, I don’t know what it’s called…you know when Mario gets a star, and you just tear ass through bad guys like blades of grass? Well that’s it. The screen goes black and red (like Madworld but better because it’s not on a shitty system) and you chop your way through a battalion of bad guys with a song that just kind of fits.

It’s stylish, fun and brainless. I guess you should play it…?

Mark

I take back what I said about Wet.

Actually, I don’t take it back, because what I said was true, I didn’t think it was going to be anything that special. But after hearing some praise for the demo from our very own Tyler, I wanted to give it a try. It ended up being a lot of fun, and a game that I am now looking forward to.

To me, Wet is Kill Bill meets Grindhouse meets (as Tyler said) Stranglehold. Highly stylized, fast pased, grainy, and bloody. I think there may have been something like a story somewhere in there, but once I jumped on the back of a car speeding down the highway while shooting guys and chopping off their arms, it didn’t matter anymore.

So I definitely recommend checking out the Wet demo. It’s much more video gamey than most other shooters that are out there right now, which makes it fun to just sit back and enjoy.

Russ
I’m not so sure that Wet is a good game. It’s a pretty fun demo, with three distinct sections: a regular jump-n-shoot Kill-Bill-meets-Max-Payne scene, a fun “rampage” red-visioned scene, and a jumping on cars like The Matrix Reloaded scene. But I’m not sure if that’s enough to hold my attention for more than a few minutes. Most importantly, controls just don’t feel right to me. I feel like I should have more of a say in when I pull off moves like crotch shots and flying double headshots. As it stands right now, the controls are so vague that I don’t feel like it was me that actual did anything cool. Also, I was easily confused as to where I was supposed to be going, which to me is a sign of poor level design and direction.

When it comes down to it, we’ve been throwing down a ton of comparisons when discussing Wet, and that’s for a good reason – as much as we like Kill Bill or Max Payne, this to me felt like a shallow attempt at recreating something that’s already been done before. Granted, chopping off people’s limbs rarely loses its fun factor, but I’m not convinced that this is anything other than a great demo of a mediocre game.

Demotopia!: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Initially, I wasn’t planning on reviewing the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum at all. It seemed like your typical comic book game, albeit a little darker than normal, but wholly forgettable. And then reviewers started spewing praise for it (9.5 by Game Informer, 9.3 by IGN), which got me a little more interested.

In the demo you play what I assume is the opening sequence of the game, going through a few rooms in the asylum and knocking some baddies to the ground. You can either pick them off in a group like in Assassin’s Creed, or you can stand atop these convenient indoor gargoyles (which are apparently in every room, on every wall) and swoop down and take down the bad guys silently. After doing the latter once or twice, I was already bored with the take-down animation. You can enter “detective mode” which allows you to see everyone’s skeletons (which is what all detectives can do, btw) and it turns the items you can exploit orange. Basically, it’s a “make everything easier” button.

I simply don’t know where the reviewers are coming from. Unless the final product has some major improvements (unlikely), this game deserves no more than a 7.5-8.0 based on my experience with the demo. Mark and Tyler made good points in recent podcasts in saying that you really don’t control much of the action – you just hit a series of buttons and let the game play itself. The controls feel clunky, and the camera placement just doesn’t work. It feels similar to Resident Evil 4, but I feel like Batman should have a more fluid and open sense of his surroundings.

Based on the demo, this is a game that could only be enjoyed as a rental. I’m pretty sure that the super-positive reviews are because there hasn’t ever been a phenomenal Batman game before this. If you ask me, there still hasn’t.

Demotopia!: Ghostbusters

The demo for Ghostbusters is available on the Xbox 360 and I have to say that I could not download it fast enough. I love the original film and I really couldn’t wait to see a high fidelity translation to the games platform. If you yourself are a fan of the classic 1984 flick, are you going to like this playable version? After all the swirling controversy, does the game live up to the lukewarm anticipation? Have you seen Moon yet? That Twitter trend #1stdraftmovielines was pretty cool, right? Where did I leave my keys? Am I going to keep asking rhetorical questions?