Our current console generation has become enamored with player control limitations, or rather the lack thereof. As a result, the free-roaming open-world genre has exploded in popularity. From new franchises such as Saints Row capitalizing on the ability to do anything to veteran series adopting the design thoery to liven up their formula (Red Faction: Guerilla). An unfortunate fact of the recent escapades through the free-form design philosophy  has been the lacking attention to detail of the world players roam within. Instead of successfully becoming a believable environment, these cities and landscapes serve as an excuse to backtrack across the map several times at a monotonous rate. How can developers possibly solve the complaints of “too much traveling?” By making the city more interesting to travel through.

Or at least, that’s the ideology developer 2k Czech has stuck with when creating Mafia II. The game may be free-roam, and detractors of the core idea might degrade to calling it “Grand Theft Auto: 1940.”  In reality, there are many levels of depth and detail present in the world of Mafia that other open-world games strive to achieve. I was able to personally play hands-on with Mafia II during E3 last week, and the title went from being off my radar to one of the more intriguing concepts I saw at the show.

My experience with Mafia II started in an undisclosed house that I could only assume belonged to my main character, Vito. After taking a quick peak around my surroundings, I decided to walk out the front door and see what adventure the developers had in store for me. I went from the highly-detailed indoor environment to street-side instantly, no load times or drop in frame rate (a small nuance in design that makes all the difference when remaining immersed). As I walked towards my car I was notified by a blip on my map on where to meet up with the other family members. Unfortunately, this demo also had a ten minute timer for me to spend in the city before I’d be forced into the mission, at little off-putting at first. I soon realized that without the timer, I would’ve been in front of that demo’s TV all day.

Vito starts off as a Sicilian immigrant, but gradually becomes involved with the Mafia

Mafia II is all about the city and how you interact with it. This immediately became clear when I began my commute to the destination predetermined for me. Typical of my reckless tendencies in game-worlds, I sped off on the opposite side of the road, slamming on the gas to cover the most amount of distance in the shortest amount of time possible. The local authorities didn’t take too kindly to this, as I was instantly pursued by a traffic cop police car. Road rules are not usually enforced in video games, so I was a little surprised by this first encounter with the law, but instead of being upset I decided to have some fun and kept the chase up.

However, I didn’t last very long since I had forgotten the laws of motion seconds prior to my car wrecking into a telephone pole. My car’s engine began to exude black smoke from its battered innards.  It was around this time that I chose to ditch the car and make off on foot. The officer in pursuit arrived at my accident and watched me duck into an alleyway; the chase immediately ensued. It was at this point I discovered how the “wanted” system operated in Mafia II. Instead of the Cop AI having Hive Mind intelligence where every officer is somehow telepathically connected, each individual person only knows what they can see. In this case, my pursuing officer couldn’t see where I went once I hid in the alley, breaking the line of sight, and my HUD notified me that he didn’t know where I was.

Your mini map illuminates blue when the police can see you

I decided to take advantage of my situation and chose to run to a nearby alley that double-backed towards where I just was, and from there I headed towards the clothing store across the street hoping to change my street appearance. This temporarily worked as a throw-off for my opponent, but his AI soon calculated that, at the speed I was running, he would have been able to see me unless I had used the alleyway that I did. This led to him pursuing my track that I had thought was so cleverly fool-proof. Luckily for me, his streak of brilliance mattered not, I had already changed clothes from a T-Shirt and pants to a decked out business man’s suit accompanied by a bowler’s hat.

With my new spiffy look, I walked around the corner towards an isolated vehicle and jacked it before anyone noticed. Without a stressful car chase occupying my attention I discovered another interesting factoid of my car’s condition: the gas meter. As it turns out, every car in Mafia II has a gas meter, a customized amount in the tank, and what the MPG is. The vehicle I had just commandeered had around 3/4s of its tank, but I decided to get a fill up anyway. There are numerous gas stations littered around the map in the event that you’re running low, but the process of refilling takes a decent amount of time. This of course means if you’re in the middle of a high octane car chase, you’re better off ditching whatever car you’re in instead of filling up.

If you can’t get away, you can always surrender peacefully by holstering weapons

After juicing up, I finally made my way to the mission marker. This particular mission was a few hours into the game, so the story wasn’t very coherent considering I just started playing. The basics were laid out in front of me before it started, we’d be assaulting a winery to kill a specific person who apparently screwed us over somehow. However, we had to make an impression on these rivals of ours, so instead of covertly entering the building, our contacts managed to set up an MG42 in the window across the parking lot, which allowed us to reign terror down on our arriving adversaries.

Once we finished recreating D-Day on a city street, it was time to assault the winery itself. For the most part the mission and its mechanics were straight forward and easy to grasp. Third person, cover based, featuring Tommy Guns and revolvers, what’s not to get? Our sledgehammer of force was felt on every floor as we eviscerated any opposition to our overwhelming power. The loud booming sounds of shotguns and strong cacophonies from Tommy Guns echoed in the cement-based structure, and despite the harsh frequencies being blown into my ears, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the sound design.

Gunplay in Mafia II is straight-forward.  To truly understand the appeal of participating in these vicious and destructive battles, they have to be experienced firsthand. Dynamic shadows change the shading of nearby objects with each burst of muzzle flash. Physics are directly affected when bottles or weak pieces of concrete are broken up by bullets whizzing past and through every piece of terrain. Each individual element helps build a spectacle that’s pleasing to the eye and adds to the tension and excitement of gunfights.

Screenshots are nice, but the game in motion is infinitely more impressive looking

By the end of our mission in the winery, it was revealed that one of our members had been shot and must be rushed to the hospital. Life as a gangster was proven to be difficult on route to our destination and countless squad cars harassed our goal with aggressive ramming and tactical PIT maneuver attempts (My awesome driving skills kept them at bay). Eventually we reached a police road block as a cutscene played to show us our out-matched odds and the reliance on quick-second thinking. The demo ended with the question, what would I do next?

Although I never mentioned it in any official form, I saw Mafia II at PAX East back in March and walked away somewhat unimpressed. Looking back on my two experiences with the game, I noticed the first demonstration had no open-world interaction at all, where as this latest presentation allowed some freedom on the order which I’d do things. It seems obvious that the main drawing point for Mafia II is the city it takes place in, similar to the first Mafia game where the single player was compelling, but players decided to spend countless hours roaming around because of the detailed world. It’s for that same exact reason that I eagerly await the full release of Mafia II on August 24th, later this year.

This week’s “Dude What” news goes to Rock Band 3’s announcement of “pro modes.” The series has long be striving for a way to branch out and get people to learn actual music with their games. Many people made jokes early in the thought process by saying “they should just make a button for each fret and string. Apparently Harmonix thought this was a great idea and went with it. This is also expanded onto the other instruments as well though:

News hit today relating to how the NFL is running their exclusive deals with 3rd party companies. The official news story is about clothing/hat companies and who gets to make the official NFL hats. American Needle Inc. claimed they were being excluded from buisness with the NFL due to an exclusive agreement between Reebok and the NFL. American Needle Inc. explained that the NFL is not one company, but a culmination of 32 different ones. The court agreed, effectively ending all exclusive agreements the NFL has, here’s where EA ties in:

Over my years of writing about video games, I’ve developed a reputation of being a pretentious snob. I frequently debate the “art” discussion that’s making its way around the internet these days, and overall I like to take games seriously. For this reason I keep a list of games that have emotionally impacted me in a big way. This list was designed specifically for situations when people ask me what my favorite game is, or why anyone should get into playing games in general. The most recent addition to the catalog was Ubisoft’s 2008 release “Prince of Persia.” For reasons I won’t delve too far into I’ve praised Prince of Persia a number of times since its release.

Yet for some reason most people abhorred– rather than adored, Prince of Persia 2008. Audiences clamored for increased difficulty, a return to Sands of Time’s style, and the old voice actor to return to play his starring role. These complaints were echoed by the majority of public press and for these reasons Ubisoft succumbed to the pressure and created Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. This latest installment makes a return to the Sands of Time trilogy but instead of pleasing critics of the remake, Forgotten Sands will reveal to audiences why the series needed a meaningful change.

Everything from The Sands of Time trilogy returns, even the previous voice actor

Despite the previous release undergoing universal reprimands for overly simplistic difficulty, Forgotten Sands continues to be a fairly effortless adventure. The controversial character Elika is, of course, no longer a part of this storyline and there isn’t any apparent replacement for her ability to pull The Prince out of danger whenever he fails platforming puzzles or performs below standard in combat. Instead, there is a reliance on the rewind functionality that The Prince acquires early on in the game. Rewind has a limit depending on the number of energy orbs acquired, meaning players can no longer experiment whilst traversing the numerous environments. After consecutive failures, the game restarts from the last true checkpoint.

That being said Forgotten Sands is far less of an easy-going experience due to the modified controls that require more direct involvement for every action. Wall running requires the right trigger to be held in, timing is more restrictive, and overall the platforming is less forgiving when it comes to second-to-second gameplay. In addition to adding some complexity in the standard controls, Forgotten Sands adds a few new features into the mix.

The Prince now has the ability to completely stop time forcing ordinary running-water to stop in its place. This effect results in waterfalls becoming newly formed walls, and jet streams substitute as poles to swing on. If handled poorly, a feature such as this could come off as a gimmick.  Fortunately, its uses are implemented in a way to test the adequacy of players’ hand-eye coordination. Frequently puzzles will require a mix of stopping time to swing on water-poles, as well as resumingtime mid-air to successfully land on the next interval jet stream. These puzzles get put into high gear complexity towards the last few hours of the game and when managed correctly: provide an astounding level of accomplishment.

Wall jumping looks a lot more bad ass when you do it off a solid-waterfall

Unlike the new layers of the platforming, the narrative of Forgotten Sands has greatly declined when compared to the rest of the series. This time around The Prince is sent to his brother Malik to learn how to become a leader. Upon arriving at Malik’s palace, the Prince discovers it has fallen under attack by a rival faction. After matters intensify and the situation becomes dire, Malik unleashes the ancient Solomon’s Army in hopes it will crush his foes. Instead, a battalion of sand soldiers emerge from the ground and take over the Castle for their own. Malik and The Prince team up to discover a means to end the army’s reign over the Palace and return the it to its rightful owner.

The central conflict is largely uninteresting with no personal connection to be found. For the first time in the series, The Prince does not have a continuous companion joining him during his journey. There are no playful dialogues to be found in Forgotten Sands, and The Prince himself has been changed from a respectful and diligent royalty member to a sarcastic and obnoxious snob. It also doesn’t help that the two characters that make up the supporting cast are largely uninspired. The mystical Razia doesn’t even become a key character until the final hour of the game, and Malik’s personal arc is as predictable as it is overdone.

It’s never explained why this palace has random streams of water in every room

All of this relates back to the “expansion pack” feeling of Forgotten Sands that questions whether this was a true effort by the studio or not. The wrinkles of age were beginning to show within The Two Thrones, the last part of the Sands of Time trilogy, and Forgotten Sands makes the problems more apparent. Environments that were once unique and looked as a traversable, but torn city, have become contrived examples of obvious level design. The general design of the enemies and levels feel uninspired in contrast to what the previous title created. This isn’t even taking into account the blatant reuse of PoP2008’s engine and animations or the fact that it’ll only take you six hours to complete everything the boxed package provides.

That’s not to say that Forgotten Sands is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. Despite its shortened length, I enjoyed what I played of Forgotten Sands. However, when compared to the greatness that other games in the franchise accomplished, it’s impossible not to think this installment is a huge step backwards. The studio would be better off tweaking the PoP2008 formula instead of relying on what people enjoyed over half a decade ago.

It seems clear this product was made to appease anyone who sees the upcoming Jerry Bruckheimer film adaptation of the series and wants to experience what that movie was based off of (although I am aware that the game has no true connection to the film). With that said, it’d be better for fans of the series to look to the future and hope for a continuation of the remake’s storyline, and let this latest installment be forgotten in the sands.

It’s a sad state of affairs for the skating genre when a brand new game like skate 3 is released and the only thought in my mind whilst playing is “This still isn’t better than Tony Hawk 3.” Although the last universally acclaimed skateboarding game was released almost a decade ago; developers today haven’t been able to match the level of quality that Neversoft achieved all those years ago. Today, the fate of the Tony Hawk series has been sealed to irrelevancy, and Electronic Arts has taken a stab at the dynasty left behind with their own series entitled “skate.” Sadly, in the latest installment to the series, skate 3, EA spends more time trying to catch up with its own standards rather than present anything new worth experiencing.

Skate’s central concept was established in the first game and is continued in the 3rd: a focus on realistic skateboarding. This goal is accomplished with a unique control scheme where almost every trick is controlled with the right thumbstick. Flicking the stick in different directions or in combination with one of the trigger buttons allows you to pull off every spiffy stunt that real skaters can handle. This allows the challenges to be set on realistic opportunities and goals. Instead of having to grind an entire level flawlessly, it’s considered a huge feat to make it down a staircase rail without bailing.

The story is also set in a realistic atmosphere. It begins with your skateboarding avatar bailing on a particularly massive stunt.  Afterwards you and your friends decide to start your own skateboarding brand. Along the way you run into multiple advertising companies, sponsorship offers, and famous skateboarders. The success of your skateboard brand is reliant on completing numerous press-related photo shoots and videos in order to increase the sales of your boards. These tasks are where skate 3 differs greatly from its two predecessors.

Fear not, the mega ramp returns

The past skate games have frequently required players to perform very precise and specific stunts in a particular fashion. A combination of human error and inaccuracies of the right control stick caused an abundance of problems in these seemingly simplistic plans and resulted in frequent controller throwing. Skate 3 doesn’t attempt to combat the root of the problem, and instead just makes the overall game easier. For example, video shoots now only require you to perform any number of stunts, however you want, wherever you want and as many times as you want. This means if the goal is “perform six stunts,” you can literally stand in one place and Ollie six times in a row to complete the challenge.

In situations like these it’d be easy to pass the burden onto the player’s dedication to learn new tricks and improve their ability, but skate 3 doesn’t reward experimentation or going above-and-beyond the predetermined goal. There are not any rewarding accolades for performing troublesome Nollie 360 Flips or Super Dude Backflips in place of six consecutive ollies. In addition to this, the game’s career never attempts to teach the player new skills past the basic tutorials. Complex maneuvers such as footplants and transfers are never explained within the career. This lack of explanation leads to puzzling instances when the game requires specific tricks to be performed, despite never mentioning them in prior challenges.
What’s bizarre about these problems being prevalent is that they’re the same problems everyone complained about for the past two years. Instead of fixating on the source and making the overall game easier to pick up for beginners or amateurs,  we’re given a more extensive “Hall of Meat” aside, and Death Races have more relevance—distractions used to bait us away from actually improving our ability.

The game does not feature levitating

To be fair, skate 3 includes a somewhat helpful tutorial graphic named the trick tracker. This tool maps what actions you performed with the right stick, and draws them on a small graphic representation of the said analog stick. This means you can see if you’re rotating too much, or didn’t flick in the correct direction. However, this feature is never prominently mentioned so it’s entirely possible to play the entire game without knowing it existed. Skate’s major detractor is its inability to convey helpful tutorials to fully understand the depth of its complex trick system. Without proper progression of difficulty, the game just hits a brick wall once it starts asking for more elaborate maneuvers.

The environments of skate 3 haven’t improved much either. The Tony Hawk series thrived because each map had a plethora of spots and locales for skateboarding extravaganzas to be had. In skate 3, the world has definitely become more condensed, but there are still long stretches of bland asphalt and uninteresting terrain before arriving at one of the few key hotspots. This issue is somewhat quelled by the ability to teleport to any of these locations via the start menu without having to discover them first. Regardless, it’d be nice to have a small skating-dedicated town or village instead of a full city with extraneous excess.

You get extra points if your entire team wears matching outfits (not you don’t)

On the plus side, skate 3 does present a few important additions to the formula. Traversing off your board is now a viable way to travel thanks to a control overhaul, and the ability to create your own skateparks is an important step for the user-created content hemisphere that the game frequently prides itself on. The soundtrack has also seen improvement with this iteration. The soundtrack features a couple solid tracks and mixes in a blend of genres ranging from Q Lazarus to Ole Dirty Bastard. There’s also a unique music option where based on how well you skate, original tracks from artists like Del The Funky Homosapien are played in the background to signify your skill.

In reality though if you’ve played any other skate game, it is the same exact thing. This may be a good thing if you’re way into skate’s depth and style; for everyone else, whatever problems you had before are still there, and whatever minor additions have been included do not make up for the frustrations and screaming sessions you’ll experience thanks to the inaccuracy of the controls. Without any meaningful additions or changes, the game feels like “skate again” instead of a proper sequel. If Electronic Arts truly wants to outlive Tony Hawk, and perhaps one day become better than the franchise we all grew to love, they’ll have to try a lot harder than this.