Big Boss...

Last night I wrapped up MadWorld for the Wii, Platinum Games first release since forming the studio out of the dust of Clover. As a side note, I find it interesting that a mature rated Wii title was the first release from a new studio. I would expect that a multiplatform title as a kind of "safe play."

MadWorld has a few good things to offer: a striking art style, entertaining commentary and some great music to keep the killing spree rolling. Some things also detracted from the game: repetitive gameplay, frustrating camera and a less-than-deep story. Total game time (for me) was a bit over 7 hours, well worth a rental for any Wii owner looking for some games to play. I'll give it a 7.5.

Fellow GameStoppers, what games have you recently finished?

Having enjoyed the first two installments in the Resistance franchise on the PS3, I was eager to try the new demo of the PSP version, Resistance: Retribution.

After installing it on my PSP via my PS3, I jumped right into the action. The first major difference between Retribution and its bigger brothers is that the camera is shot from the third person perspective. After getting use to this, I noticed that the game sports a great amount of detail and overall looks great on the PSP system. The next big difference noted was the control scheme. While every FPS (of third person shooter) takes advantage of two analog sticks, the Retribution must make due with the PSP single analog control. This is accomplished by using the nub to move forward/backward and to strafe left and right. The face buttons control the upward and downward motion as well as the rotational control for your character. The R shoulder button fires and the L shoulder button activates your alt fire. The directions buttons round out the controls being used for switching weapons, zooming and reloading

The action is very similar to any FPS you have ever played, you move along a more or less linear path, destroying everything in your path. A puzzle or switch command is thrown in the mix to change things up a bit. Retribution adds another dimension to the Resistance universe by adding a basic conver system. This is accomplished by walking into structures which you take cover behind automatically. Using the built in auto-aim feature, you acquire a target and pop out of cover when you hit the fire button. This adds a nice dash of tactical play to the usual formula of a shooter.

Overall, I found the demo to be a great accomplishment technically for the PSP. I did find controlling my character with an analog input and the face buttons to be a bit cumbersome, I am looking forward to trying the PS3 control option for the full retail version. More details on that can be found here.

If you've played the Resistance: Retribution demo, let me know what you thought of this new twist on the Resistance story.