Finally… NiGHTS 2 Hands On

Last night was EA’s big holiday preview. There were a bunch of game on display, some already out, some set to come out by Xmas time. There was only one thing that I absolutely had to check out, which I made an immediate b-line for it when I first set foot at the place, enough for me to pass the free food and drinks (which I ALWAYS go for first, as most press folks…. which is why is so important to stake ASAP, cuz that shit goes fast). And that game was Rock Band.

For those who don’t know what it is yet, it’s basically EA and MTV’s take on Guitar Hero, developed by its creators Harmonix. When they were snatched by EA, they were apparently asked what they wanted to do. Which was the game they had always wanted to do, but didn’t have the resources to really give it a shot.

As some might already, instead of just one guitar, you get two, one for lead, one for bass, plus a drum set, and a microphone. It’s basically Guitar Hero on steroids, and takes the notion of Guitar Hero being the ultimate party game and brining it to the next level. The price of admission is quite steep, which has long been the primary point of contention, close to $200 (its now been recently finalized at $170), which has led to a great degree of skepticism among many. Including myself. It’s still a small miracle that so many people bought into GH’s $70+ price tag, but to ask over twice as much is just to lofty,

First thing’s first: the game, at least the guitar parts, plays almost exactly like Guitar Hero. Hey, if it ain’t broken, right? The presentation is the same too… everything is meant to feel “bigger”, which means instead of playing in some club, you’re in some big stadium (granted, you can play on a grand stage as you progress in GH, but in Rock Band, it just felt so much more… grander). Your virtual band is presented with some grainy filter, to further enhance the idea that you’re watching some slick music vid, The characters also look a bit more realistic than compared to those in GH. Which means they greatly lack personality. Which sucks.

But again, the guitar part plays more or less exactly the same as before, at least as far as I could tell. I did notice some “options” that are available after pulling off a successful set of chords, but never got the chance to really check them out. As for the guitar controller itself, it looks a bit more realistic than the GH’s axes. There’s also more buttons, and the ability to do more shit. I’m not sure what the extra dials were for, but I believe the small slider, right below the strum, is for effects. There are also two sets of the five colored fret buttons on the neck, one near the end as before, and another set closer to the body. Why? For those that want to showoff to watchers-on while playing. Nice touch. Though they are the same exact buttons, and using them in lieu of those that are normally placed does not net extra points or the such. As for the construction… it felt, I dunno, kinda chintzy. On the plus side, it has a more realistic finish, as opposed to the obviously plastic body that the GH controllers have. But it?s also much lighter, which made it feel even more toy-like; whereas the added weight of the GH3 guitars make them feel absolutely perfect.

After giving the guitar a try, I went to the drums. And this is where the game actually shines. Same concept as before, though instead of five cords, you have four drums. Bars appear in the middle of the screen, and they go down, towards a line. You hit the drum when they cross, and depending on the color will determine which you hit. There’s also a fifth beat, the foot pedal. So its five notes that you have to worry about, just like with the guitar. But I gotta say… I honestly think I had just as much fun…. perhaps a tiny bit more so with the drums than playing guitar. The sticks you are given are real drumsticks (I think), and I’m no drummer, but if seemed awfully close to the real thing. I played about three songs, and again, it was more fun that I could have ever expected. It’s a tiny bit easier than playing guitar, but if you mess up, its somewhat harder to get back on beat.

I guess I should quickly mention the singing; it’s just like Karaoke Revolution, meaning you try to match the pitch the song is supposed to be sung at. Another thing; if one person on the band really fucks up, they’re “out of the band” and have to sit it out. But if the other players are doing good, they can “save” the ousted member and bring them back in. Pretty neat. Anyway, the selection of songs were pretty impressive. Pretty much all the tracks are the originals, thanks to MTV, which was able to tap into its resources, whereas it took Activision three games to get to that same point. The bottom-line is if the game is worth the $170. And IMHO, my answer is, if you really dig Guitar Hero, then yes. Though I can understand someone not wanting to be burdened with so much musical gear; most diehard fans of GH already have two guitars, so to add two more, plus drums, is asking a lot, such as storage space.

As for everything else EA had…. eh. There was Orange Box, which is Half Life 2, HL Episode 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal, but some dude kept hogging the controller. They had the new Simpsons game, which I wanted to try out, but never had the chance, plus it just didn’t seem all that special. Plus I already know that it’s rather mediocre.

I gave Skate a try, and thought it was pretty neat; I haven’t really kept abreast of the game, such as how its been received, primarily from all the Tony Hawk fans out there… a game which I like, but have never really been able to dig all that deep into due to the controls which, for whatever reason do not make sense to me. Skate’s on the other hand makes total sense, and it was lots of fun to play. Though most of my time with the demo was spent with a PR rep trying to figure out which wireless Xbox 360 controller kept fucking up the demo.

Crysis looked very pretty, but when its demo dude asked if I wanted to play, and I mention that I’d love to, but not for long, because of my motion sickness, he literally kicked me out. That was kinda fucked up. Not even a chance to fuck around for two minutes (its not like I immediately start to projectile vomit in ten seconds). Instead, I was passed over to Hellgate London, , which is more or less a 3D version of Diablo (created by the people who created Diablo, and who left Blizzard when they were frustrated that they couldn’t get Diablo 3 off the ground due to all the focus on Warcraft). Not my cup of tea, but I guess Diablo fans will eat it up. Though the highlight here is that the girl demoing it was by far one of the fucking cutest girls walking this green Earth. I don’t even know where to begin.

Oh, speaking of girls, I next tried checking out the new Need For Speed game, Pro Street. There was two dudes and a girl at the station. The girl was fucking loud and obnoxious, in that “Look at me, I’m so hot and funny!” kind of way, which I find an instant turn-off, among other things. I tried to learn about the game from one of the dudes, but the girl was simply an attention hog, and just went on and on and on, and kept trying to distract the dude who was trying to explain things, who as a result had to get in real close and talk a mile a minute. I just figured she was some ditzy writer, but when I noticed that she was part of the EA PR team I was even more confused, and pissed by how I couldn’t play because this broad was hogging the fucking controller. By the time she got the hint, it was too late and I ended brushing her off when she tried introducing herself, so she stormed off. Boo fucking hoo. Do your job next time, woman. Truth be told, there were a few douche-y types that night. Don’t know why.

Anyway, the game looks awesome, and doesn’t play all that bad either. Hey, it’s Need for Speed. Though here’s something; everything takes place during daylight. Sort of a bummer, considering that street racing is again the theme, and how there’s a Japanese track. Graphics are still nice though, with extremely impressive smoke effects, and nicely handled car damage. BTW, its 30 fps. As of late, everything I check out a next-gen racing title, and its 30 fps, I always ask whoever is involved what they think about all the 60 fps or nothing folks. He thought they were being big cry babies, and I have to agree.

And, Dave, if you’re reading this, no, they didn’t have Burnout Paradise, which meant no chance to bug someone from Criterion about making Burnout 3 for the 360. Sorry.

Ran into Steve, of course, along with his new team of bloggers that work under him at MTV. Though aside from chatting a bit about the bacon bits they had, which as Tracey stated, was some of the worst, ever, I didn’t have much time to hang out, because by that point I was already running late. Next stop was Mike Simses’, to check out his new pad and to watch Flash Gordon in high def. Mike Rovin was also there, as well as Megan from regular movie night.

And holy shit is Flash Gordon bad. And worst. Lizerdmen. Ever. There’s good reason why I only watched the beginning part and the last part when it was on TV as a kid (I always ducked out during the middle hour to read comics or play Nintendo). God does that shit ever drag. Mike also fired up assorted clips by request from the original Star Wars trilogy. And as done as I am with that series, and as much as HD television viewing (as well as gaming) makes my eyes roll… watching the huge space fight in Jedi or the AT-AT battle in Empire totally made my mouth drool.

As today, earlier this morning was Sega’s big holiday preview. Unlike EA, they had quite a few games that I simply had to get my hands on. First game up? NiGHTS 2 of course.

I spent a good amount of time playing the game, as well as grilling the dude that was demoing it. Enough to get the attention of a bunch of other people! Hey, I guess I asked all the right questions… and I made it be known right from the outset that I was a HARDCORE fan of the original, so I had to know certain things, plus folks I know, such as those who read this site are also HARDCORE(!!!) and wanted certain questions answered. Where to begin?

First off, it’s the same basic game as before. The same basic gameplay, the same basic controls. I believe it was from Steve from last night, or someone else, who said: “Did you hear that NiGHTS 2 doesn’t use the Wii-mote for pointing? Can you believe that shit?” Well it was true. Sorta.

When I played the game, I didn’t use the Wii-mote in anyway whatsoever. You steer him around the stick on the nunchuck, with the shoulder buttons handling the dash. As for tricks, apparently, that’s what the Wii-mote will be for, but that part simply hasn’t been programmed yet. Apparently, icons will appear around NiGHTS as he flies around, or something like that, which will cue to player to do some sort of gesture via the Wii-mote. I’m still not sure exactly how it’ll work out, such as what will trigger the appearance of the icon. Guess we’ll all have to wait and see. Though I have to wonder why it’s being incorporated so late in the game. After-all, doing tricks has always been a major part of the game, since part 1. Hmmm….

It should also be noted that the steering and flying around felt really loose and kinda sloppy. But I think that might simply have something to do with the change in controls; the Saturn’s analogue stick was more of a nub, which meant less abrupt movements. Though with the Saturn pad, my flying skills are pretty supreme, if I don’t say so myself (hey, there’s not many games I’m genuinely good at, and NiGHTS 1 is near the top of the list).

The structure is somewhat the same as before; you control one of two kids and each has a set of levels, all based on dreams. This time the boy is an aspiring soccer player who has daddy issues (oh Japan), and the girl is an aspiring violinist who has mommy issues. In the beginning of each level, you start as a kid and walk towards a cage where merge with NiGHTS, just like before. And also like in part 1, if you run out of time while flying around, you turn back into a kid and have to merge back with NiGHTS. In the sequel, you have to do it before time runs out, whereas before, it was MUCH cooler; you’re running away from an alarm clock that’s trying to wake you up. LAME.

The story plays a bigger role in the game, or so I’m told, and… get ready for some bad news…. there are parts of the game in which you are going to have to play as the kid of a stretch of time, to “rescue” NiGHTS or some nonsense (granted, the last level of the first game had you as just one of the kids the entire level, but at least you’re still flying… not the same here). I even told the guy demoing it that I had a bad feeling about the plan But, it was done to add “variety”. Awesome. Speaking of which, throughout the game you will sometimes acquire a mask or something, that will change your form, into a roller coaster or river raft to cue some quick mini action sequence. Well, NiGHTS was a sled for a small bit in the first game.

But there are some pretty big changes to the formula as well. Before you flew around a stage about five times collecting blue spheres. In each level, or “leg”, you have to get twenty of these to unlock one huge colored crystal ball, which you’re then supposed to get back to the checkpoint. Though the key is not to bring it back immediately, because all point values for collecting blue spheres and stars are doubled when you have a crystal ball handy, with the risk being, if you are too late with reaching checkpoint, you loose everything. Well this time around, almost all of that has been chucked. Instead, you now have to track down an enemy that’s flying about which has a key. Knock off the enemy and grab the key, return to the checkpoint, and unlock the next part of the stage. And that’s it. I’m not sure if you get more points for collecting stuff while having a key handy; another thing worth noting is that the front end and interface is less flashy and arcadey, hence why I couldn’t tell. It also kinda sucks and makes everything feel rather limp as a result. Finally, instead of going after five keys, as one would assume, there’s only three, which makes the game a bit shorter overall, and easier. All this was a pretty big bummer, needless to say.

I encountered a certain degree of slowdown while playing, though I hear it will be ironed out in the end. Otherwise the game looks nice and clean; instead of the Saturn version’s pop-up and pixilation, due to the hardware’s deficiencies, everything is clearly defined, with the entire level visible, all at once. Which is nice and all, but… it was the first game’s “flaws” that gave it a certain feel and character. An ethereal quality, which helped to reinforce the dream-like nature of the game. That’s progress I guess. On the plus side, things do look very pretty, and should sound it as well; aside from the original game’s lead artist coming back on board for the sequel (whose actually in charge of everything), the guy who was behind the original’s brilliant (and to this day, criminally underrated) soundtrack has also returned. Though I couldn’t hear any of it, due to where I was.

Also back is the artificial intelligence portion of the game, or A-Life, as it was called. Basically, the world that you fly around in is called Nightopia, and the denizens are called Nightopians. In the first game, if you did well, they were happy, and produced eggs which you helped to hatch to populate the land. As a result, the music would change. But you had to be careful not to “kill” them, which is done by sucking them away via a vortex, which is formed when NiGHTS does a loop-d-loop (that’s how you illuminate enemies, and collect large amounts of orbs, especially those not in your “plane” of movement). The funny thing is how you supposedly collect Nightopians by the same method that did away with them before. And in a separate area, you raise them by interacting with them. Sounds like the Choas from Sonic Adventure. The demo person was not sure if the music changed depending how you fared with the Nightopians, but he did mention how they have an effect on the environment in some fashion. Also, the game can synch up with the Wii’s weather channel, so the weather outside can be reflected in your game. There’s a two player mode, which sounds the same as before, but there’s more than just battle, plus its online. A Phantasy Star Online chat system is also going to be incorporated as well, meaning communication with other players will be primarily icon based.

The same main bad guy from before is back, the Wizeman, as are all the other bosses, like Reala and the fat opera woman, who was more of a clown this time around. The means of disposing him/her was the same as before, more or less, but felt less exciting. And that card-dealing bad guy, which was a damn near impossible boss for me to deal with back in the day… the boss for the Soft Museum I believe…. is also back, but much easier this time around. Though I have no idea how I got rid of it.

I guess that’s the problem with the game; some of it was too familiar, with only slight modifications to to the forumula. Everything felt held back, as if they didn’t want to mess things up. And while I appreciate that, to be honest, I would have much preferred if game took greater risks, even if it meant doing away with what worked. But on the other hand, as for the changes that have been made, instead of doing so for the sake of experimenting or building upon past concepts, things have simply been dumbed down, to make it easier or more accessible. At it’s core, its still NiGHTS, which means I will get it on day one, and even enjoy it a good deal. But as much as I’m happy to finally get a sequel, it makes me also wonder if its even all the necessary. Or if it should have just been done a while ago. At least a new audience will get to enjoy it, and that counts for something. Though at the same time, this is kinda why I’m glad that there’s no Rez 2.

Onto… Sega Rally Revo. Aside from being a diehard NiGHTS fan, I’m a pretty diehard Sega Rally fan as well. Loved Sega Rally 1 on the Saturn to death. Same with Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast. Sega Rally 2006 on the other hand was an abomination. So the good news is that this latest edition is pretty good! But, much like NiGHTS 2, it’s missing something.

Needless to say, it’s somewhat understandable since the mind behind the first two games is long gone (he’s the dude who made Rez, for those who didn’t know). The graphics are gorgeous, but again, missing that hint of personality. Though what is there is certainly nice; one new feature is the ability to terraform the tracks. When you drive around a muddy part of a stage, your vehicle leaves grooves in the ground, which can cause other cars behind you handling issues when they try to go over them. Very nice. You get a ton of cars with all the standard track types: desert, mountain, snow, muddy. Unfortunately, tracks from the first game have not been re-envisioned, like they were in part 2, which is another bummer.

Again, nice game, it just doesn’t feel like Sega Rally. One main reason might be that it’s the first game from the new Sega Racing studio, which is comprised by a bunch of folks, including those from Codemaster (you know, the Colin McRae serious), and not from AM2 and the like it would seem. Oh well. And I have no idea about the soundtrack, though I was told that it will included revamped tunes from the first game (though no idea if it’ll top 2006′s, which did the same thing, but featured a massive collection of esteemed game musicians). Here’s hoping that there’s at least one Richard Jacques track.

Oh, and its 30 fps folks. Hey, again, at least with a rally game, you don’t need 60 frames to make a turn, like you would in Gran Turismo. Plus, that’s to say that most people are actually that good at racers to being with….

The next big game was Virtua Fighter 5 for the Xbox 360. Far as I can tell, it’s pretty damn exact to the arcade and the PS3 version. The graphics do not seem as sharp, but it was about 98% close (plus, maybe it was just the TV I was playing it on). Which means its beautiful as all fuck, and just as liquid smooth, control wise. Obviously the biggest thing here is the online functionality, which AM2 flat out refused to do since it was believed that any sort of lag would totally ruin the experience. But apparently, their techs managed to figure something out. That and they knew that they would make a fucking fortune by finally giving everyone they wanted. Unfortunately, due to some networking issue at the hotel, they couldn’t get the game online. But when it goes live, and this is the best part, you’ll be able to play folks in Japan, where the best damn VF players reside. Can’t wait to simply just watch matches!

They had a bunch of new Sonic games present, but not the latest DS game, which I was hoping to see (It’s apparently out already? WTF! Why hasn’t anyone said anything? Oh, I know… Halo 3). Instead there was Sonic Riders 2 for the PS2 (yes they made a sequel), and Sonic Rivals 2 for the PSP (yes, they made a sequel). The demo of both games was greatly enhance by the beautiful and charming PR girl who walked me through both games (I even got to explain why I immediately wrote off the first Sonic Rivals game a while back, due to the dude that was demoing it at the time, who got really competitive and had to shit talk my not so stellar performance, first time in… again, what a fucking tool… though I haven’t seen that guy in ages, so I guess he doesn’t work for Sega anymore, or perhaps anyone else these days). Also got to check out Sonic and Mario at the Olympics. It’s more or less Wii sports, but all Olympics events, and starring Mario and friends, and Sonic and friends. Unfortunately, Mario’s crew is a whole lot cooler. I loves me some Daisy. Meanwhile Sonic has… Espio the Chameleon? I can’t recall seeing Rouge the sexy bat though. But yeah, for what it is, it isn?t that bad at all. Just something nice and safe.

Lastly, I got to check out the game based on the Golden Compass movie. As a BIG fan of the book… and also someone who is dreading the movie, I had no idea what to expect. And from what a saw, the film looks to be a mixed bag, much like the movie will probably be.

I’m not going to bother explaining the story, because that would take too long (I say just check out the books, which I cannot recommend enough… I liked Harry Potter and all, but its hardly a stunning masterwork or high literature, but the Dark Materials series on the other hand is simply heads and tails above any other young adult fiction book series out there), but maybe the following will make sense. The game has you either controlling Iorek, the armored bear, or Lyra, the young girl with the D?mon. The bear part of the game is all melee combat, from what I saw looks very bland and boring. And the graphics were a total joke. Especially bad was the effect of snow flying about when walking through the snow. It just looked totally fake and ridiculous.

The Lyra levels are more about exploration than action, and right off the back, looked simply stunning. I couldn’t believe that and the bear parts are supposed to share the same game disc. Anyhow, Lyra gets about with her D?mon, Pantalaimon, who takes the form of several animals. To get through the level, you have to choose the appropriate animal form to handle certain situations, such as a hawk to hover across, or a sloth to use as a lasso to grab onto things (the game’s producers wanted to use a monkey, but the main bad guy already has an evil monkey assistant).

Seeing how the game will be closely based on the movie, and not the books (which had a lot of things changed, due to the fact that its, among other things, very anti-Catholic), I don’t have the highest of hopes. Also not helping his how they seemingly dropped the ball on the rampaging bear portion of the game.

But hey, at least I got to handle the actual Golden Compass from the movie! That was pretty neat.

After the Sega event, I quickly went a few streets down to Eidos’s press thing-y. They had a few things on-hand, but the only thing I was interested in was finally playing Tomb Raider Anniversary for the Wii, since I was supposed to last time, but they couldn’t get a hold of a Wii-debug unit for the thing. And I have to say… I normally avoid regular games converted to the Wii like the plague since its just the same old, same old, with some waggle thrown in. But I actually really dug the game! The controls worked very well. I’m still not sold on all the archeology inspired activities and mini-games… despite them shedding like on her occupational background, which all of the games have kinda glossed over thus far, they still felt somewhat out of place and gimmicky. But I enjoyed the lasso controls and targeting while shooting enemies. So I’m looking forward to the final product.

Oh hey, it?s past 8! I just missed movie night and Altered States in high def. Oh well… Back to work.

And holy shit, did I ever write far more than I expected to!