So it's been a while since I last posted. I'm sorry about the long break- it really is inexcusable. The main reason it's been so long since I posted here is because from my last post to mid January college apps. I really didn't have any time to write anything. After that came the crush of midterms and end of semester projects. And after that I guess I've been kind of recuperating from all the stress of second quarter. Don't let anyone else tell you differently- Senioritis is for real. I really have not felt like doing anything since second quarter ended. Anyways, to get the ball rolling again I thought I'd post the video game reviews I wrote for the January issue of The Hawk Talk (my school's newspaper, for those of you who don't know). They were supposed to be nontraditional, non-third-person-shooter type games.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
While “Ace Attorney Investigations” may not provide your traditional slicing-up-bad-guys video game action, you may find pressuring witnesses to admit false testimony just as exciting. The game starts with the main character, the eponymous Miles Edgeworth, discovering a murder scene in his office. Using his investigative skills, he has to figure out who committed the murder. As Edgeworth, you have two primary methods of investigation: you can collect evidence at crime scenes and you can question different people related to the crime. The game allows you to expand on these two basic techniques in several ways. First of all, you can use logic to piece two inconsistent sets of evidence together to formulate a new hypothesis. You can also present evidence to point out inconsistencies in witnesses’ story, thus forcing them to tell you more than they would otherwise. Most of the game involves reading text as it spills across the screen, but this is a lot more interesting than it sounds. Using evidence to force witnesses to divulge more information proves intensely satisfying. The only problem with the game is the ease in which cases are solved. It is almost impossible to mess up, as a wrong move will prompt a question by a non-player character along the lines of “are you sure you want to do that?” This definitely detracts from the satisfaction of having solved the case yourself. Despite this shortcoming however, “Miles Edgeworth” is a very fun game to play, and if you can handle a video game without any action whatsoever, you should definitely pick it up.
Little Big Planet 2
Little Big Planet 2 harks back to the days of side-scrolling platformers, a-la Super Mario Bros., but with several twists that make it incredibly engaging. The game has you controlling a creature called Sack Thing as he tries to save his world from destruction. But the story line isn’t really important. It’s mainly just a vehicle to give the player a reason for guiding Sack Thing through levels that include various bad guys and pitfalls that range from electrocution to poisonous jam. This is accomplished using some well-timed jumps and different weapons that include a grappling hook, a Grabinator, and a Creatinator. The levels are very well designed and strike just the right balance of difficulty. The campaign is a lot of fun, but what really elevates Little Big Planet 2 is its incorporation of the online experience and its amazing level-building tools. The creation tools in LBP2 allow you to design your own levels and take it in almost any direction: you can create your own cut scenes, add different sounds for different objects, and create custom-designed enemies that come complete with artificial intelligence. After designing a level, LBP 2 allows you to upload it online for others to play. The game does a good job helping you find the best stages designed by others to play, and some of the player-designed levels are really quite amazing. You can easily spend hours searching for and playing random ones. If you are looking for a game that goes beyond the generic shoot-people-in-the-face appeal, then you really can’t do any better than Little Big Planet 2.
