The tech is expensive. The games are expensive. Just to get started, it’s ~$350 with one of the platform’s three good games (Kinect Adventures doesn’t count as a pack-in or, really, as a game). The actual games – Dance Central, Child of Eden, and Gunstringer – are “good” because they provide something unique to the platform. Dance Central is a fine proof of concept, Child of Eden somewhat aimlessly expands on the concept, bolstering the Kinect experience with unique visuals and gameplay, and Gunstringer, well, it finally gives Kinect a fun game with some depth.

Twisted Pixel’s previous work emphasized silliness, fun gameplay, and full-motion video. The Gunstringer is no different. In fact, I’d call it their best game considering the tech it’s working with. And yes, we still have to bring the actual technology into the discussion of whether a Kinect game is good or not; but The Gunstringer takes a bold step forward in that respect.

As the Gunstringer, a player’s hands primarily fill two roles: Mover and shaker. More literally, the player’s left hand is on the Gunstringer’s marionette control bar and the right hand is your peacemaker. Unless, of course, you’re a lefty and prefer alternate controls. If you have a friend play with you, they will only wield another gun, leaving the sticks to you. Controlling the Gunstringer is, as I hinted at before, the weakest part of the experience. I often found myself missing jumps or ducking out from behind cover only not to fire my gun. Running into walls is also a common occurrence, but I wouldn’t blame this on Twisted Pixel. In fact, only one time did the game lose me completely, but it seems like extensive Kinect tuning will solve these “hiccups.”

Painting targets and emptying all six chambers (and then some when you can continue painting targets after “firing”) makes up the point-to-point action, but it’s not the only excitement the game has to offer. Wild West-ploitation tropes like horses chasing trains, showdowns, and even running on the backs of stampeding bovines (or in this case, Lone Star-looking beer cans with horns) punctuate the experience. These breaks from the on-rails gunplay keeps the three hours it takes to complete The Gunstringer feeling fresh and exciting.

Along with a few other surprises I won’t venture to spoil here, the Gunstringer also employs a narrator to similar effect as Bastion.  Though he’s not as memorable as Rucks, Gunstringer’s narrator provides commentary on your play ranging from deadpan obvious to downright hilarious. When all of these elements combine, The Gunstringer becomes one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had all year.

The cherries on top, then, are the art style and music. The art style is firmly in keeping with the Dia de los Muertos puppet motif with a splash of Vaudeville. The environments are distinct and colorful, while the enemies – i.e., everything that moves but your horse – are humorous to behold and diabolical in their design. The music helps distinguish each of the four main villains’ areas by adding bellowing guitars and touches of the East, the Bayou, etc. to the thoroughly Western soundtrack. These garnishes on the gameplay flesh out The Gunstringer in a way that puts it skull and shoulders above its Kinect brethren.

The final element of the gameplay that helps The Gunstringer earn your $40, aside from the free Fruit Ninja pack-in, is its unlocks. While contorting our blue-boned hero through the Wild (Wild) West, players will earn money for their performances (which are then rated by actual film critics semi-appropriately to the framing device of the game, a play). The cold-hard cash can then be spent on various modes (HARDCORE, No-Fail), commentary (by the likes of Rooster Teeth and Xbox’s Major Nelson), modifiers (Meatstringer, Ghoststringer), music, photos, art, and even a couple hidden achievements. After one playthrough on Normal, I’d obtained enough cash to clear one category of unlocks out of five.

Kinect’s first game has arrived. All of the elements we’ve come to expect from a AAA title are in place. Twisted Pixel took a bold chance and it paid off. Hopefully, this will lead to grander, more well-realized experiences on the platform. As for The Gunstringer’s humble revengture, it’s three of the most enjoyable hours I’ve spent with any game this year, even if its depth is somewhat artificial. The ending even delights, making endearing use of a mechanic I’ve been dying to see on Kinect.

Feel the imaginary control bar’s splintered wood in your grip, draw the cold barrel of your peacemaker from its worn leather holster, and have fun, like Microsoft intended.

The post Hey! Listen!: Gunstringer Review appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The campaign is much more understated. In execution, I found myself far more focused on the characters than the endgame plot. In Gears 1, we had to deploy the Lightmass bomb in Locust territory. In Gears 2, we were faced with the prospect of losing humanity’s last bastion Jacinto. Marcus Fenix, Dom, Cole, Baird, and the rest of the COGs became more human in the face of the stakes, even though the result was disheartening and filled with heavy-handedness. In Gears 3, we finally see the men and women we’ve invested hours of time with – whether on the screen or the page – become more than just heavily armored soldiers. For the first time in the series’ five years I cared about the “gears of war.” Unlock a world of exciting slots by becoming a member of uus777.

Anyone familiar with the series will recognize the members of Delta (including another of the eternally doomed Carmine brothers). The Locust threat has been quelled, but the humans of Sera face the growing Lambent – mutant Locust over-exposed to Imulsion – threat. Imulsion’s dual role in the series as valuable resource and impetus for war becomes even more prominent as it becomes a character. With all of these elements at play, you’d expect Gears of War 3 to collapse under its own complexity. The reality is that Gears 3 is the best story of Epic Game’s trilogy thanks to Karen Traviss, author of the four Gears novels released over the last three years. She knows the state of the universe post-Gears 2, arguably, better than anyone else. And she shows it.

Traviss’ writing manages to give the oft mocked crumbling brown world actual meaning. The Imulsion-stained streets are foreboding and humans-turned-ash demand care when treading in their presence. The dialogue manages to endear instead of detest and the gameplay never falls back on the ostentatious as it so often did in Gears 2. Indeed, the gameplay is as tight and satisfying as it has been in both of the previous games. Always Gears’ strength, cover-based shooting remains the source of enjoyment, and in a market filthy with third-person shooters Gears of War 3 shines. The polish on this series is so that it’s not trying to be any more than it needs to be and if you don’t like what Epic is offering, then stay away. But if you do, saddle up.

Like Half-Life 2 – and few other games – before it, Gears of War 3‘s meaningful story complements the entertaining gameplay simply by coexisting and not trying to show the other up. The overwrought emotion is gone as are the outrageous set-piece moments. Unfortunately, Gears 3‘s lack of these set-pieces translates to a lack of “inside a creature”-level memorable moments. Not in a big way, though. Gears of War 3 is understated in its execution (comparatively so) and Epic proves they don’t need bells and whistles to earn an audience. What they give us instead is disbelief in war’s tragedy, a sense of camaraderie, and the purest extract of third-person cover-based shooting available.

The armor looks better than ever, well-worn as it is, and reliable. But how long are the Lancer’s teeth?

Versus, Horde 2.0 and Beast mode will add considerable amount of game time to Gears of War 3, but only if you are into the gameplay a great deal. The skill each mode demands varies, but the fun isn’t hard to find at any level. Versus remains the standard multiplayer mode, but the new maps plus a handful of new arms (including the Retro Lancer, the Sawed-Off Shotgun, etc.) will win back old fans and satiate any newcomers. Horde mode is a wave-based mode that pits you and up to four friends against waves of enemies ranging from the lowly Wretch on up to a Brumak and beyond. The inverse of this COG/Stranded-based survival mode is Beast mode. Instead players get the chance to assume members of the Locust Horde to decimate human forces. With all the cooperative modes available in the game, Gears 3 has some legs (up to 10 of them, in most cases). Did I mention the campaign’s Arcade scoring mode? You thought I was finished, didn’t you?

Gears of War 3‘s offerings are very compelling. When huge titles like this get to their third iteration, though, this can be expected (see Halo 3). It’s a win for gamers and it’s hard for me not to make that a blanket statement. There’s something here for anyone who loves well-balanced, highly polished experiences from their video games.

The post Hey! Listen!: Gears of War 3 Review appeared first on KRUI Radio.

September 2, 2011:

1. The National, “Exile Vilify” (From Portal 2)
2. José González, “Far Away” (From Red Dead Redemption)
3. Lisa Miskovsky, “Still Alive Teddybears Remix” (From Mirror’s Edge)

September 9, 2011:

1. Woodkid, “Iron” (From the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations trailer)
2. Jonathan Coulton, “Want You Gone” (From Portal 2)
3. Riyou Kinugasa, Takuya Kobayashi, and Hiromi Mizutani, “Life is Beautiful” (From Deadly Premonition)

If you haven’t heard any of those before, check out the show! If you have: I told ya’ we spin some great tunes. And by “we” I mean myself Jayson Gegner and my co-hosts Brian Albert and Ben Moore who will be replaced by our friend Nick Burnham after this week’s episode because Ben is leaving us for Hollywood, i.e., an internship at GameTrailers.com.

Now that we’re pals, I feel obligated to help you out. How? By offering my advice to help game-lovers like you make informed decisions in the face of this deluge of fall games already upon us. What “deluge” you ask? Onward!

SEPTEMBER 2011 GAME GUIDE:

09/06 –
Dead Island (PC, PS3, 360)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PC, PS3, 360)
Driver: San Francisco (PS3, 360, Wii)
Resistance 3 (PS3)
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (PS3)

09/09 –
StarFox 64 3D (3DS)

09/13 –
The Gunstringer (360 – Kinect)
God of War: Origins Collection (PS3)
NHL 12 (PS3, 360)

09/19 –
Kirby Mass Attack (Nintendo DS)

09/20 –
Gears of War 3 (360)
Child of Eden (PS3)

09/27 –
X-Men: Destiny (DS, PS3, 360, Wii)
FIFA 12 (PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP)
The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)
Driver: San Francisco (PC)

15 major retail releases this month with the double release of Driver: SF, that’s an average of 1 game every two days(!). I don’t know about you, but I certainly can’t afford that many games, especially considering that Gears of War 3 Epic Edition is $150. Let alone the time commitment some games require.

So, what do you buy? What do you play? What do you skip?

Looking at that list there is something for nearly every type of gamer. If you love sports, this is arguably the best month for games. NHL and FIFA have long held the titles of most fun games in that genre and this year seems no different. If you like shooters, you won’t go wrong with Gears of War 3 or Resistance 3, but Space Marine wouldn’t let you down either.

Love the classics? Interested in 3D/HD remakes? September’s got you covered with Star Fox 64 3D, the God of War Origins Collection, and the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. If you want to enjoy your PlayStation Move, your Kinect, or your 3DS, you would be hard-pressed to find better titles in their entire catalogues than Child of Eden, The Gunstringer, and StarFox 64 3D, respectively. And for those with a neglected DS, Kirby Mass Attack sounds like the best use of the touch screen since, well, Kirby Canvas Curse.

If you fit into any of those “groups,” the above is solid advice, but if you’re on a limited budget and only want the best of the best, here are September’s:

Dead Island – An undeniably flawed game, but if you can wrangle up some friends on Xbox Live, PSN, or Steam you won’t find a deeper shoot/loot co-op experience this side of Borderlands. It’ll eat up loads of time and the enjoyment will keep on coming. Also… ZOMBIES!

The Gunstringer – Twisted Pixel – the game’s developer – is known for silly humor smothered over serious gameplay. Well, little doggie, The Gunstringer manages that and more all the while with the motion-only controls of Kinect, to (cowboy) boot. Marionette controls on one hand and a finger-pistol on the other; sounds like a long-overdue love letter to Kinect’s early adopters.

Gears of War 3 – Though the story and characters left to be desired in the first two games, the gameplay has always been a blast. I doubt you’ll find a more polished game than this one in September considering it was delayed from April when many were claiming it was complete. Expect great things from this go around.

The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection – If you missed even one of these during the PlayStation 2’s life, then you should spend the $40 for this collection and play it. Then replay the other one. These games are hallmarks of game design and now they look better than ever. If you’re new to these somewhat obscure titles, here’s what you need to know: people often cite them as examples of why games are/can be/should be considered “Art,” and they have funky controls. Great games, though. If there are any 10/10s this month, I expect it to be this.

That’s it for this month’s Game Guide, but make sure to tune in every Friday from 3-4pm for Hey! Listen! and check back here for more Hey! Listen!+ including October’s Game Guide in a few weeks!

– Geg

The post Hey! Listen!: September Game Guide appeared first on KRUI Radio.