Game Review: Bloody Good Time

  Bloody Good Time released on October 26 is a multiplayer focused first person shooter for the Xbox Live Arcade and PC (although I will only talk about the XBLA version). The game costs 400 Microsoft Points ($5) and is under 300 MBs in size, playable for up to 8 players.

 The basic premise of the game is that a mysterious Hollywood director with a dark past wants to shoot his next movie and you (the players) are the actors or actresses who will participate in his bloody show. You must follow his command in order to rise in fame.

 The cast consists of 8 stereotypical teens and a sarcastic director.

 How does it play? 

The game at first glance plays like your typical first person shooter, but you quickly realize there are some things that change the whole thing a bit. To begin, each player has 3 main stats, speed, armor and strength these slowly deplete over time and your character will under perform if you don't keep a close look on them. In order to raise them, you need to sleep, go to the bathroom and eat this doesn't take long and adds an element of balance though Id recommend recovering these stats only after a round is complete.

 Each match consists of a different number of rounds or scenes where the director tells you what to do. Players are tasked to complete each objective by any means possible as long as they do not deviate from the rules which could actually harm their score. Around each map there are Security Guards and cameras which constantly patrol the area in an effort to stop any player carrying a weapon or killing another player if their in close proximity. If they catch them, the guards will taze you and remove your currently selected weapon so watch out.

Refill your speed, armor and strength stats before a new scene starts, don't let the enemy catch you by surprise!

 Weapons are set up in 2 types, there are damage weapons and then there are support, non-combat items. For damage weapons you have some classic ones like an assault rifle, shotgun, revolver, flame thrower and some other ones like a frying pan, a baseball bat and a remote controlled robo rat that explodes among others.

 Support items consist of things like a dart gun, a glue gun, a holo gram decoy, pills for increased stats or invisibility among others. They help you gain an advantage on your enemies and they can be used even if security guards or cameras have you on their sights.

 Matches are not scored by just kills, but rather how many stars you are able to acquire. Stars are awarded when you perform kills, steal them from opponents or complete objectives and there is one support item that lets you steal them easily, so remember this.

 

Weapons are not only deadly but they are also fun to use.

How does it look?

As you can see from the pictures, the game uses a very stylized, cartoon look which can be easily compared to Team Fortress 2. It does however has its own sense of sarcastic humor and dark comedy.

In terms of music there isn't much to talk about, besides the main theme song and a couple of audio cues on the different maps, but, the characters are a bit more vocal when jumping, attacking or performing other actions.

Perhaps the sound you will hear the most (and very often) is that of the director who tells you what to do in each round, it can get a bit annoying.

Besides standard weapons, you can perform assassinations and activate traps on each map.

Final verdict?

 The game might feel like its short and could use a few extra modes or maps which I agree, however, you do get a very competent, fun and complete multiplayer experience for the small sum of $5. The price did impress me since these days a good number of XBLA titles are released at $10 or $15.

 Please remember this is a multiplayer focused game, while it is really good don't look into it if your expecting any sort of single player story mode (although there is a practice match against bots).

 To summarize I recommend the game for 2 reasons: its fun and its cheap.

Score: 4/5

My Favorite Xbox 360 Multiplayer Games Part 1

 Like I mentioned previously, multiplayer has become something I enjoy quite a lot despite that I still look for solid single player games which as of this year seem to be on the rise.

Since I shut down my World of WarCraft account in 2008, I started to pay more attention to my Xbox 360 and it took me a couple of years to find games I really liked.
  In 2008 I got Unreal Tournament 3, having played the previous games in the series and a fan of the fast, bloody action I put a lot of time into the third game. Unlike many shooters these days, UT3 stayed true to its arena style roots, taking the series a bit further with some interesting uses of the Unreal Engine.

 UT3: A great old school shooter.

 Sadly, the game did not live long enough as most non popular, mass marketed titles do nowadays, even though it kept a loyal fanbase of players for months and even years. People moved on to other newer titles and so did I, since Midway (the publisher of the game) closed down its dedicated servers and Epic didn't bother to do anything about it either.

 Last year the multiplayer title to take the crown for me was Red Faction Guerrilla or RFG, while it has an ok single player campaign the multiplayer mode is truly the highlight of the game. The game has classic modes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and so on, but throws 2 modes unique to the game with their own flavor.
 RFG uses a physics engine that works great making for some truly fun and awesome destructible environments. These 2 modes use that as their main objective, in one of them two teams attempt to cause the most destruction around the map possible on the other mode called Stronghold a team defends key structures from the enemy, while they attempt to destroy these structures to advance further.

 Yes, you can gain the ostrich of doom in RFG.

 Throw all of this with equipped backpacks that give the user unique abilities whether defensive, offensive or support and it makes the multiplayer experience very rewarding, challenging and varied. Weapons are mostly the usual, assault, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, mines and so on, the only unique weapon is the Rail Gun, which fires across structures, so if the enemy is hiding inside a structure you can snipe them out with it.

 The game also rewards you with EXP which helps unlock new badges, characters and challenges, everything you do in a match rewards you with EXP so the game is fair for everyone.

 Jetpacks are one of the many backpacks in the multiplayer mode of RFG.

As the year was coming to an end, I too was getting a bit burned out of RFG and when 2010 came out I tried to look for a new game to satisfy my gaming needs, I thought that game would be Aliens vs Predators but I was wrong.

 After playing AvP for a few months I eagerly awaited Lost Planet 2, which had me very interested. Upon its release I played the game a lot for 2 months, it was a very fun experience and having both 4 player coop and competitive multiplayer it kept me entertained. One of the biggest things I enjoyed about it was the ability to customize your character, something shooters rarely do, specially including female characters.

 Players fight both human and aliens in the fight to conquer EDNIII in LP2.

 I still have to finish some things from LP2 and while the game was not received very well by most people, it is one of my favorite games in 2010.

 Moving from LP2 I went to Transformers War for Cybertron and without a doubt, it is the best multiplayer game I have played this year and up until now the best in the console as well. Burrowing elements from other shooters, the game pits Autobots and Decepticons in the civil war for their home planet Cybertron.

 Yes, the game is this epic!

 The game is not based on the Michael Bay movies and instead its a re-imagining of the original 80s Generation 1 cartoon and toy line. The redesigns of the characters is amazing, the Autobots have a more sturdier, boxier look while the Decepticons have a more edgy, dark look.

Transformers WFC also includes a horde mode (Escalation) similar to Gears of War 2.

 Although a third person shooter, the game allows you to jump, transform from robot to vehicle quickly and with ease, including a variety of popular characters, weapons and abilities. While the game has limited customization in terms of visual look for your robot, you can customize their abilities and perks to make unique class builds for each character.
 There are 4 classes, the Scout, the Scientist, the Soldier and the Leader, each is unique and some perform specific roles while others can fill more. Simple explanation of each class: Scouts are fast and stealthy, Scientists can fly and repair allies, Soldiers are machines of destruction and Leaders boost their allies with increase in damage and armor.

 As RFG, the game rewards you EXP which helps you level up and unlock new abilities, perks and challenges, the EXP is also gained by performing different tasks and not just killing opponents.
Overall, the game is very unique and its a big treat to Transformers fans as I mentioned previously however, the game is not mass marketed or a big franchise and therefore since its release in June till now it has lost a share of its players, but, the few of us who remain try to have fun and keep it alive as much as we can (you are welcomed to join us!).

 The war for Cybertron continues!

A game worth checking out if your a TF fan or just a shooter fan, I highly recommend it.

Story or Gameplay?

What is more important to gamers? what the game is about or how its played?

Some players express that stories in games have a higher value than gameplay while others the opposite. Which is understandable, when we buy games we look for different things that attract us to it, just like any other product.
The game might have a multiplayer component or perhaps allow you to import saved data from previous games, whatever the feature is, some people will be interested others will not.

Super Mario Brothers: Something so simple and yet so fun, with no real story to drive its gameplay.

The difference however, is that games are not about story or graphics like many believe (and which do count) it is about gameplay, it is the foundation of any game if it doesn't work, no pretty graphics or gripping story is going to save it even if you put yourself through it.
Sometimes both story and gameplay meld together perfectly and make for a truly unique game that offers something for everyone, but for the most part you either have a solid story or gameplay.

BioShock: A good example of gameplay and story mixing together well.

The reason why gameplay is more important than any other feature in a game is that no matter how it looks or sounds, the gameplay will keep you focused in what you need to do and what buttons to press. If Im going to be playing a game where 75% of it is about cut scenes where the only button I press is the one to the next scene or dialogue, Im not interested at all even if people rate the story highly.

In the 80s and early 90s, story was for the most part abscent from games, very few games had a deep or complex story and most of it was exposed to the player in the game's manual, the introduction to the game or its ending. At that time, people just wanted to play the game, beat a certain boss or pop in more coins to continue playing. With the growth of the video game industry there came new changes and new demands from players, one of which was better stories. Most people just couldn't get into games anymore without a driving force to make them, for some that drive is a story.

Final Fight: Where is my story? here is your story, beat the crap out of everyone!

I guess in our quest for more, we expect video games to do "the next thing" and perhaps in many gamer's opinion that thing is story. While I think there is nothing wrong with that I still think their looking in the wrong place. Like I mentioned previously you can have solid gameplay with an intriguing story, but games are about play, this is why Chess has remained a popular activity for hundreds of years, the only thing that matters its how its played, the strategies and the rules.

Chess: The epic story of the black and white empires at war, without the use of narrative.

Perhaps at the end of the day, why so many people say story is so important is because they enjoy playing games and want to have a solid story to keep them interested while doing so.
Can games tell compelling stories like books? yes they can, Mass Effect as an example was a fully realized world with interesting characters with their own motives and backgrounds which made the player feel part of that world, sharing the journey with them. But often, these games fall into very cliché plots.

Mass Effect: Immersible game, boring plot.

Which is why if your going to be playing a game, don't expect a great story, expect a great gameplay experience.