This is my second attempt at making a good video review (emphasis on good) and this time I review the PC version of Mirror's Edge. My voice is the real challenge with making these. Editing and capturing specific footage takes awhile, but they're not particulary hard to do. Trying to sound sexier is, though. I'm also trying to sound consistent, but I don't do all my voice recording in one day, so maybe I should next time.
And I watched roughly 15 episodes of Powerpuff Girls today, because Cartoon Network was celebrating its 10th anniversary. Wow, I love that show. Most of the episodes were the old ones, too, which made the marathon even more awesome. And Speed Demon is my favorite PPG episode. And I'm going to stop sounding weird now.
"CHECK IT OUT, THAT COOL GUY MADE ANOTHER BLOG POST!"
So, I guess you all know that I love Prince of Persia. It's got visuals that trigger primal gawkery, ridiculous strings of platforming, a great combat system and a heartfelt story to give it all some wonderful context. With sequels often being derided by practically everyone (BUT MAFIA II LOOKS SO AWESOME!@@!!), this latest sequel feels nothing like a sequel. It feels new, while keeping the same gameplay foundations that I have come to know and love about the series. Ubisoft simply started over.
Companies love sequels. They love the brand recognition, they love the assurance that their sequel will sell well. Money is awesome. And they often get a lot of flak for pumping out a new entry every few years. It's usually not because a sequel is an inherently bad thing. I mean, we all wanted Half-Life 2. I'm pretty sure we all wanted Dreamfall. And I know we all want Mafia II. It's that sequels can feel unneccessary and forced. Just look at Fallout 3. You can send me all the hate mail you want. I will read them. Probably.
So, Ubisoft avoided this by simply keeping the franchise name and tossed everything they set up and developed with their trilogy into the bin. Prince of Persia isn't a spin-off. It's a total reboot and that's the kind of sequel anyone can love. It's familiar, but oh so different. Just like how Batman Begins revitalized the franchise and made Batman relevant again, except Ubisoft rebooted just because they thought this new Prince of Persia was so damn awesome.
So, WAYS TO MAKE A SEQUEL THAT WON'T RECIEVE THE "RETREAD IS RETARDED" VERBAL CARPET BOMBING:
1. Just start over. Like what Ubisoft did. Or what Square-Enix does with every Final Fantasy, but since only Final Fantasy 3/6 is the only Final Fantasy worth playing, their games don't really strengthen my point. Again, send the hate mail. I might read them. My hobbies include attracting attention.
2. Wait two infinities before releasing a sequel. Nostalgia will gnaw at us and taunt us, telling us that we will have no new memories of Mafia, because a sequel will never materialize. And then Mafia II appears out of the woodwork after 6 years. Seriously, I can't believe Mafia II is a real game that was really announced. Finally.
3. They should feel meaningful and relevant. Episode Three is relevant. The F.E.A.R. expansions were kind of pointless. Exhuming the Fallout franchise is unneccessary.
Cliffs, if you really want them: Sequels can be cool.
Just last Saturday, I went to my friend's birthday party. First, we headed to Cheesecake Factory, which was ridiculously overpriced, but it was the fun that we had that mattered. Being together in the same table, talking about the same things and just generally having fun.
I know this is sounding really fruity, but bear with me, I'm getting somewhere this. And for the record, there were a lot of girls, because it was a birthday girl. I'm not really sure why I should mention that, but I felt compelled to.
We go back to the birthday girl's house and my friend jacks the 360 he brought in and we decide to play Call of Duty 4 -- split-screen. Yeah, you know, that thing when around a quarter of the screen is given to you when you're playing with four friends. An ancient relic of the past, right?
Well, let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've had that much fun with a shooter. I specifically mention shooter, because Rock Band is admittedly a mile or two ahead in the same-room-multi-player action. We were hollering, laughing and sometimes cussing each other out. Some thought the P90 spam was ridiculous, others could've sworn they shot first, and so on. The best part was that I could see their expressions, ranging from furious anger to revengful satisfaction. I went through the same motions, too, and I bet they relished every moment of it also.
And that was the best part, we were physically there in the same room. It's not the same as hearing a disembodied voice through the sometimes-shoddy mic, it really isn't the same. Can you high-five your teammate in a team deathmatch after blowing your opponents away with a 100+ points landslide? Can you? Can you physically do that online? Can you see their faces of dismay and total, utter shock because of how badly they lost? Can you physically point and ridicule at the cocky bastards? Maybe do a little dance? Make a little love? Get down tonight? All right, I'll prevent anymore mental anguish by stopping right there.
So, going back to my first paragraph (see, I told you I was getting somewhere), the core reason why we enjoyed both the dinner and the game was because we were physically there. You could yell about throwing a flashbang or how stupidly high the gratuity was over online (it was around 60 bucks), but it's different when you're there, face-to-face. It's just really something to join hands and wing some random-ass dance routine after an overwhelming victory that probably looked a lot better in idea. This is one of the reasons why I admire the Halo games. Sure, there are a lot of people with a range of personal opinions about Bungie's work, but at least they're considerate.
Now, I'm not saying split-screen is superior, as contradictory as it might sound at this point. For one, you can't level via split-screen, and there are better players out in this great grand world of ours, so there's a lot of fun and reward in the taking them down. But please, developers, split-screen isn't irrelevant to a lot of us. I'm dismayed at the total lack of the split-screen in Turok; it could've been some good, mindless knifing fun. Sometime I just want to gather around a TV, gather around the same vicinity of other people and do everything we can to boost our own egos while knifing someone in the gonads, so we can see the anguish the knife-to-gonad recipient feels by just looking at his pained expression. It's priceless.
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