Tagged: Video igre
InFamous (2009)
… or Prototype?
The summer of 2009 was a time of sandbox catastrophe games, and by some cosmic fluke, two such games were published within a month of each other, Prototype for XBox 360, PC and PlayStation 3, and InFamous, a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Regardless of the subheading, I intend to talk a bit about InFamous, which turned out to be slightly better than its prototypical competitor. Allow my to clarify my point.
In the latter, you play as the (In)Famous Cole McGrath, a courier assigned with a delivery of a package which blows up, blasting away half of the island (because all sandbox game inexplicably feature cities on islands, connected by bridges), and giving Cole special powers to manipulate electrical energy and an allergy to water.
Since great power usually comes both with great clichés and huge villains, major players are interested in Cole, while he does menial tasks, trying to find out the reason for the explosion, dealing with bad guys and innocent bystanders, all the while walking the line between good and evil. This good/evil thing would work much better, if the game wasn’t so inclined to pronounce your deeds evil, even though you were doing what you were told was the ‘good’ solution. It would also be much more interesting if the two courses of action weren’t such polar opposites, and if it the point wasn’t hammered in by a huge blue and red screen telling you the end results, all accompanied by Cole’s internal monologue basically saying the same thing (this was meant, I presume, for people who aren’t able to discern on their own that helping people get to some food is an act of good, and killing said people and taking all the food for yourself an act of evil).
That being said, the story itself is solid, although it’s only the first chapter of some future bigger story (like everything else recently), Cole’s powers are well thought-out and levelled, and the autosave system works just fine, not forcing you to repeat entire missions if you screw up along the way. The side-missions are reasonably varied and useful, because they significantly reduce the number of enemies in the cleared areas. Jumping and climbing the buildings is more reminiscent of Crackdown than Protoype, and same can be said for the shard-collecting. Surfing the power lines and electrified train tracks is a fun way to quickly moving about the town, and with all the upgrades, they become a way for Cole to recharge his ‘batteries’. Static thrusters are slightly less useful than flying through the air we saw in Prototype, but even without it you will be quite able to climb any building in the game, provided you take gravity and inertia into account at all times.
In the 30+ hours of gameplay, I’ve come across only a few bugs, at one point the game simply froze during saving, and once Cole simply fell through the pavement, flying into the void for a few seconds, until the game killed him off and reloaded the last save point.
So in face to face combat, with a similare premise, game mechanics, and similar anti-heroes, I would support InFamous. Since Protoype is equally good, and since other reviewers had their own unusual criteria for choosing the champion, I will say that InFamous is a better game because Cole McGrath is better looking, he doesn’t devour innocent passers by, he wears a leather jacket and has a goatee. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the other game a chance, you probably won’t be disappointed.
ZloGlasan…
Ljeto 2009. bilo je u znaku igara katastrofe otvorenoga tipa i igrom slučaja, dvije su takve igre izišle unutar mjesec dana, Prototype na XBoxu 360, PC-u i PlayStationu 3, te InFamous isključivo na PlayStationu 3. Tema ovog članka je upravo InFamous, koji se pokazao nešto zanimljivijim od konkurencije. Pojasnit ću ovu tvrdnju u nekoliko točaka.
Na zlu glasu u ovoj je igri Cole McGrath, dostavljač koji jednoga dana dobije zadatak prenijeti paket koji putem eksplodira, raznese pola otoka (jer gradovi u sandbox igrama uvijek su na otocima povezanim mostovima), a Colea obdari posebnim moćima manipulacije električnom energijom i alergijom na vodu.
Kako uz veliku moć dolaze i veliki klišeji i veliki negativci, za Colea su odjednom zainteresirani različiti veliki igrači, dok se on bavi sitnim zadatcima, istraživanjem uzroka eksplozije, sređivanjem zločestih momaka/nevinih prolaznika i biranjem između puta dobra i zla. Ovo zadnje bi još nekako i funkcioniralo da igra povremeno iz posve nejasnih razloga ne odluči da ste bili zločesti, te bilo puno zanimljivije da dva smjera djelovanja nisu potpuno polarno-suprotna i da se igra svaki puta ne zaustavi kako bi vam Cole putem unutarnjeg monologa objasnio koja je radnja zla, a koja dobra (za one koji nisu sami sposobni razlučiti da je pomaganje ljudima da dođu do hrane dobar čin, a njihovo ubijanje i otimanje sve hrane zao čin).
Na stranu s tim sitnim nelogičnostima, priča je solidna, iako kao i sve ostale priče u zadnje vrijeme predstavlja tek prvo poglavlje u jednoj dužoj trakavici, Coleove moći su dobro zamišljene i odmjerene, a sustav automatskog snimanja kontrolnih točaka dobar, pa nećete morati ponavljati cijeli zadatak ukoliko zabrljate. Sporedni zadatci su umjereno raznoliki i korisni, jer vam znatno smanjuju broj negativaca u ‘oslobođenim’ područjima. Način kretanja i uspinjanja po zgradama više podsjećaju na Crackdown nego na Protoype, kao i skupljanje krhotina po gradu. Surfanje po električnim vodovima i tračnicama vrlo je originalan i zabavan način brzog kretanja gradom, a uz nadogradnje, to postaje i način da Cole napuni svoje baterije. Statički potisnici su manje korisni od polu-letenja u Prototypeu, ali i bez toga moguće se popeti na sve zgrade u igri, jer na ovaj način morate malo razmišljati o sitnicama iz stvarnoga svijeta poput sile teže i inercije.
Tijekom tridesetak sati igre naišao sam na nekoliko bugova, u jednome se trenutku igra jednostavno zamrzla kod učitavanja zadnje snimljene pozicije, a drugom prilikom Cole je trčeći ulicom jednostavno propao kroz mapu, par sekundi letio kroz ništavilo i u tom trenutku igra ga je odlučila ubiti i vratiti zadnji save.
Dakle, u borbi prsa o prsa, sa sličnom premisom, sličnom mehanikom igre, glavnim antijunacima, iz posve niskih razloga, ja navijam za InFamous. Kako je i Prototype na istoj razini kvalitete i igrivosti, drugi recenzenti imali su neke svoje kriterije za odabir prvaka, a ja ću onda InFamous proglasiti boljim jer Cole McGrath je zgodniji, ne proždire prolaznike, nosi kožnjak i ima bradicu. Naravno, to nije razlog da i onoj drugoj ne date priliku, nećete se razočarati.
Mass Effect (2008)
Lesbian space orgies
So yes, the subhead is a dirty lie, but when Bioware released Mass Effect for Xbox 360 in October 2007, the media quickly pounced on the horrible controversy – the possibility of inter-species lesbian sex in the game. The same thing happened when the game was re-released for the PC in May 2008. But we’ll get to that.
Mass Effect is an RPG adventure that puts you in the role of Commander Shepard, a hardened soldier whose first name, gender, physical appearance, and background are up to the player to decide. The game offers two default profiles with appropriate physical features and a generic name – John for the male and Jane for the female version. You can also fully customize the characters physical features and traits, but since in most cases with male characters you get an ugly big guy a mother couldn’t like, for starters I’d recommend you go for the default Shepard, because the developers played it safe and modelled him after the Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.
As it usually happens in epic space operas, Shepard has the future of the entire galaxy in his hands. The future depends on his decisions, and it is up to the player to make those decisions – usually in the form of branching dialogue, which usually offers at least two standard options, one leading to the “dark side” (only they call it Renegade) and one leading to the light side (Paragon). Dueling Analogs show us the way it works:
Same as with previous Bioware RPG’s (Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic – KoTOR, Jade Empire), the basic story is beefed up with a bunch of side missions which you may choose to ignore, but you’ll probably want to do them to find out more about the characters or up your character’s abilities. With all of that, we’re talking a minimum of 20 hours of gameplay if you’re fairly thorough. The only problem with side-missions is that they’re almost identical, and after you land your MAKO vehicle on the planet (which has a “theme” – snow, red dust, green plants, monkey-like creatures), survey ore and heavy metals, pick up some weapons from a downed capsule and investigate anomalies, you have to get to the base/lab/camp and kill/save whoever or whatever you find there. There is just one possible layout of an underground base, and one layout of a ground base – interior decoration is the only thing that makes them different – so after five such missions, you’ll get a strong sense of deja-vu.
Voice actors in the game will probably sound familiar, in part from earlier (Bioware) titles – Jennifer Hale (female Shepard) is known for her roles of Samus Aran in the Metroid Prime series and Bastila Shan in KoTOR, Raphael Sbarge (Alenko) voiced the KoTOR hunk Carthu Onassi, Seth Green’s Joker will be all to familiar, as well as Martina Sirtis (Benezia).
Main missions are very detailed and offer varied environments (ranging from underground tunnels on a frozen planet to lush tropical surroundings). The main and side-quests usually have several solutions which give you different amounts of experience points, credits or boost your Renegade/Paragon status. The game ran well on my computer (Athlon X2 4200+, 2 GB of RAM-a, GeForce 8800 GS), at 1280×1024 with all graphics settings set to the max, the animations are smooth and well motion-capped, with the exception of lip-sync which is just dreadful.
And now, let’s talk about love. Mass Effect enables your character to get romantically involved with other characters, so Sheppard can break military regulations by hooking up with the human crew-member of the opposite sex or the asari Liara T’Soni who, like all other asari, is of undetermined gender, but appears female.
Allow me to use a bunch of stereotypes to predict several scenarios which might happen with Mass Effect: .
Scenario #1: if you’re a straight guy, you’ll probably play as male Shepard, because the game itself expects you to see him as your alter ego, so you’ll identify with him quite easily. In this case, you’ll probably make out with Ashley [Ashley? Really? Awesome name. Why not Kelly?], and you might also hook up with the Asari escort and Liara T’Soni, in case blue alien chicks turn you on.
Scenario #2: if you’re a girl, you’ll probably play as female Shepard, because she’s a strong female warrior-type who takes shit from no one (for similar pop-culture examples, see Ellen Ripley, Aeryn Sun or Kara Thrace). In this particular case, you’ll probably get Shepard involved with Kaidan Alenko, but if you’re the type of person who can watch “The L Word” without flinching, you might take something more from the asari escort than just the gift of words, or become romantic with Liara T’Soni.
Scenario #3: if you’re lesbian, you’ll probably play as female Shepard for reasons similar to those from the previous scenario. It’s just that you’ll probably woo the asaris, which makes sense.
Scenario #4: if you’re a teenager or an average heterosexual who gets turned on by “lezzers” but the thought of two men together turns his stomach and makes him violent, after you’ve gone through Scenario #1, you’ll probably restart the game as female Shepard so you could nail the asaris and get a peek at some lesbian action, some blue ass and a boob or two.
Scenario #5: if you’re a gay gamer, then you’re pretty much screwed, but that’s nothing new. You’ll play as male Shepard because he looks like the Dutch model Mark Vanderloo, he’s awfully handsome and you want to identify with him… And ogle him for 20 hours. Of course, your Shepard won’t be really interested in Ashley, so you’ll chase her away immediately, you’ll take cold hard cash from the asari escort, you simply don’t trust Liara T’Soni because you know her family history, so all you can do is drag Kaidan Alenko with you to all the missions, talk to him every chance you get, get to know his history, heroically save his life, and in return, he’ll tell you that he has the hots for Liara. Dear developers, thanks for nothing.
It’s usually the female players who get the rough end and who get discriminated by the video game industry, because most of the games of this genre are targeted towards your average gamer who’s in his late twenties or early thirties, and male (with the exception of “girl” games, featuring what the industry thinks girls want – strategies, simulations, lovely things, ponies, etc). A female player would hardly identify with a huge guy who seduces women and waves his enormous gun around. Gay gamers have a slight advantage here, because they can and want to identify with the aforementioned type, and from time to time they get thrown a bone in the form of video game man-love, but you can count those games using fingers of a sawmill worker’s hand.
So it remains unclear, since the game is already rated M and includes lesbionics, why male Shepard can’t enter a relationship with Alenko, when Jade Empire had a similar option. We can only hope that people in charge will find the balls to allow male Shepard to find comfort and support in a man’s firm embrace in the following episodes of the Mass Effect trilogy.
Lezbijske orgije u svemiru
Jest, lažem ko pseto u podnaslovu, ali kada je Bioware objavio Mass Effect za Xbox360 u listopadu 2007. godine, američki mediji očekivano su se pozabavili strašnom kontroverzom – mogućnošću međuvrsnog lezbijskog seksa. Isto se ponovilo kada je u svibnju 2008. izašla PC verzija koju recenziram. Ali o tom potom. Članak sam morao pisati dvaput jer je Google Docs iz čista mira odlučio progutati pola teksta. Rekonstruirao sam koliko sam mogao.
Mass Effect je RPG avantura koja vas stavlja u ulogu kapetana fregate Sheparda, prekaljene vojničine, čiji su spol, izgled, ime i prošlost ostavljeni na izbor igraču. Ponuđena su dva difoltna profila s pripadajućim izgledom i imenom – John ako odaberete muški lik i Jane ako vam se više sviđaju cure. Postoji mogućnost i potpune prilagodbe izgleda i osobina lika, ali kako u većini tih slučajeva dobijete mrcinu koju ni rođena mater ne bi mogla voljeti, za početak preporučam difoltnog Sheparda jer su tu developeri igrali na sigurno i modelirali mušku verziju po nizozemskom fotomodelu Marku Vanderloou.
Kako to obično biva u epskim svemirskim operama, Shepard na svojim plećima nosi budućnost cijele galaktike, koja ovisi o njegovim odlukama, a igrač mora donijeti te odluke – najčešće su u granajućem dijalogu ponuđene dvije standardne mogućnosti, jedna darksiderska (samo se to ovdje zove Renegade) i jedna lightsiderska (Paragon). Dueling Analogs su to lijepo iskarikirali (iako bi bilo lijepo da igra funkcionira na ovaj način):
Kao i kod prethodnih Biowareovih RPG-ova (Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic – KoTOR, Jade Empire), osnovna priča pojačana je gomilom neobveznih zadataka koje možete ignorirati, ali ćete ih vjerojatno htjeti odraditi zbog boljeg uvida u priču i pojačavanja sposobnosti likova. Uz sve to, radi se o nekih dvadesetak sati igre ako poželite biti temeljiti. Jedini problem s neobveznim misijama je to što su identične i nakon što sletite terenskim vozilom na planet (koji se razlikuje samo po količini planina i “temi” – snijeg, crvena prašina, zeleno raslinje, majmunoliki stvorovi), istražite rudače i teške metale, pokupite nešto oružja sa srušene kapsule i istražite anomalije, morate otići do baze/laboratorija/kampa, te pobiti ili spasiti koga god tamo nađete. Postoji samo jedan mogući tlocrt podzemne baze i jedan mogući tlocrt nadzemne – razlikuju se samo po unutrašnjem uređenju – i nakon pet takvih misija, dobit ćete snažan osjećaj deja-vua.
Glasovi glumaca u igri vjerojatno će vam biti poznati, dijelom i iz ranijih (Biowareovih) igara – Jennifer Hale (Shepardica) poznata je po ulozi Samus Aran iz Metroid Prime serijala, kao i Bastile Shan (KoTOR), Raphael Sbarge (Alenko) dao je glas KoTOR-ovskom komadu Carthu Onassiju, a Joker Seth Greena bit će vam i više no prepoznatljiv, kao i Martina Sirtis (Benezia).
Glavni zadaci detaljno su razrađeni i nude različite okoliše (od podzemnih tunela na smrznutom planetu do prekrasnog tropskog krajolika) i dovoljan broj (ne)obveznih misija koje možete riješiti na više načina i tako zaraditi više ili manje iskustvenih bodova, kredita ili pojačati svoj Renegade/Paragon status. Na mom računalu (Athlon X2 4200+, 2 GB RAM-a, GeForce 8800 GS), igra je izvrsno radila na 1280×1024 sa svim grafičkim postavkama na maksimumu, animacije su glatke i kvalitetno izvedene motion captureom s izuzetkom animacija usta koje su očajne.
A sada, jebiga, ljubav. Kao i kod prethodnih Biowareovih igara, i u Mass Effectu možete ulaziti u romantične veze s drugim likovima, odnosno Sheppard(ica) se može, protivno vojnim propisima, spanđati sa zemaljskim članom svoje posade suprotnog spola ili asarijankom Liarom T’Soni koja, kao i ostali asarijanci, nije određenoga spola, ali ima ženska fizička obilježja.
Dozvolite mi sada da pribjegnem seriji stereotipa kako bih pretpostavio nekoliko scenarija koji će se u ovome slučaju odigrati.
Scenarij 1: ako ste hetero tip, igrat ćete vjerojatno kao Shepard, jer i sama je igra predvidjela da Shepard bude vaš alter ego, pa ćete se lako poistovijetiti s njim. U tom slučaju, vjerojatno ćete smotati Ashley [zbilja, Ashley? Kakvo je to ime? Zašto ne Kelly?], a možda se odlučite uzeti nešto više od asarijanske eskort-dame i Liare T’Soni, ovisno o tome pale li vas plave izvanzemaljke.
Scenarij 2: ako ste cura, vjerojatno ćete zaigrati kao Shepardica, jer se radi o pozitivnom ženskom liku ratnice koje se ne da zajebavati (za ostale primjere u pop-kulturi vidi Ellen Ripley, Aeryn Sun ili Kara Thrace). U tom slučaju, vjerojatno ćete se odlučiti na romantičnu vezu s Kaidanom Alenkom, ali ako ste tip osobe koja bez većeg sablažnjavanja gleda “The L Word”, možda od asarijanske eskort-dame uzmete nešto više doli dara riječi, ili se pak zbližite s Liarom T’Soni.
Scenarij 3: ako ste lezbijka, vjerojatno ćete igrati kao Shepardica iz sličnih razloga kao u prethodnom primjeru. Jedino što će Shepardica ponajviše hofirati s asarijankama. I to je posve logično.
Scenarij 4: ako ste nedojebeno čeljade, tinejdžer ili prosječna heteroseksualčina koja se “pali na lezbe”, ali mu pomisao o dva muškarca zajedno okreće želudac i tjera ga na nasilje, nakon što odradite scenarij 1, ponovit ćete igru i kao Shepardica, sve kako biste mogli puknuti asarijanke i vidjeti malo lezbijske akcije, nešto plave guzice i pokoju sisu iz profila.
Scenarij 5: ako ste gej gejmer, onda ste u ovome slučaju, kao i mnogo slučajeva prije toga, jebena stranka. Igrat ćete Sheparda, jer izgleda kao nizozemski fotomodel Mark Vanderloo, užasno je zgodan i nije vam problem poistovjetiti se s njime. I gledati ga 20 sati. Dakako, Ashley vašeg Sheparda ni najmanje ne zanima pa ćete je glatko odjebati, od asarijanske eskort-dame uzet ćete lovu, Liari T’Soni jednostavno ne vjerujete jer znate njenu obiteljsku povijest, tako da vam jedino preostaje vucarati Kaidana Alenka sa sobom na sve misije, razgovarati s njim svakom prilikom koju ulovite, saznati cijelu njegovu povijest, junački ga spasiti, a on će vam zauzvrat u povjerenju reći kako se pali na Liaru. E, pa puno vam hvala, developeri.
Obično su igračice te koje najviše ispaštaju i bivaju diskriminirane od strane industrije videoigara, jer se većina igara ove vrste i dalje radi za prosječnog gejmera koji je u svojim poznim dvadesetima i muško (iz ovoga isključujem “ženske” igre, odnosno igre s elementima za koje industrija misli da žene vole – strategije, simulacije, lijepe sladunjave stvari, poniji i slične gadarije). Normalno je da će se ženskoj osobi biti teško poistovijetiti s mrgom od preko sto kila koja zavodi žene i lamata naokolo svojim golemim oružjem. Gej gejmeri su ovdje u maloj prednosti, jer se mogu i žele poistovjećivati s naprijed spomenutima, a povremeno im se baci i kost u obliku mogućnosti muške ljubavi, iako se takve igre mogu izbrojati na prste jedne ruke radnika u pilani.
Iz svega ovoga ostaje nejasno zašto, kada je igra već namijenjena punoljetnim osobama i kad već petljaju s lezbijskim elementima, nisu omogućili Shepardu romantičnu vezu s Alenkom, kada je Biowareovo prošlo veliko ostvarenje Jade Empire to omogućavalo. Možemo se tek nadati da će odgovorni pronaći negdje muda i u preostala dva nastavka trilogije Mass Effect dati priliku Shepardu da pronađe utjehu i potporu u čvrstom muškom naručju.
Dead Rising
Hot Pixels
Dead Rising is a video game from 2006, published exclusively for Xbox 360 game console published for XBOX 360, produced by the Japanese company Capcom. In July 2008 Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu announced a Nintendo Wii port of the game, which is supposed to be published in late 2008.
Main character of Dead Rising is Frank West, a photojournalist who is looking for a major story and gets stuck in the town of Willamette, inside a zombie-infested shopping mall (just like Romero’s Dawn of the Dead). Frank has to fend off zombie attacks, save the survivors, fight raging psychopats, all in an attempt to find out who or what turned the people into zombies.
Dear Rising is classified as a 3rd person action adventure with sandbox elements – you command Frank, investigate the shopping mall, do various tasks, solve obligatory and optional missions. Through all that, Frank has to fight huge groups of zombies, using any means or weapons available in the mall and the shops – baseball bats, flower pots, benches, but also all types of hunting, fishing and other equipment.
The authors have put in a lot of work into designing the mall, so Frank can enter each store and use whatever is on offer – dress up into various types of men’s, women’s or children’s clothing, change his hairstyle or hair colour, choose the right sunglasses, shoes or novelty costumes.
And now, since I’ve told you what it’s all about, let’s move on to the main feature and explains why the “hot pixels” subtitle, an essay on the topic “Why I bought an Xbox 360 over a zombie game.”
Keiji Inafune, Dead Rising producer, wanted to make Frank West different from your regular, run-of-the-mill JRPG character (i.e. and androgenous-looking person with anime hair), he wanted to give Frank an “average” look. How well he succeeded in this, from our western point of view, remains open to debate, since Frank is sort of ‘average’, but I just wish I’d been at a meeting where developers discussed whether to allow gamers to undress Frank, whether he should be buff or not, or if he should have a hairy chest. And I also wonder if the developers had the broader target audience in mind (the gayer target audience) in mind, since they readily accepted a well-designed hunk such as Frank West.
So, if you decide to play the game because of the piece of male totty serving as the main character (like I did), you will probably want to know how you can a) undress Frank or b) if it’s even worth trying. These are easy questions to answer. Firstly, you can partially undress Frank by chosing the right clothes – feel free to experiment here.
Frank looking sporty
You can get your Frank in boxer-shorts by intentionally allowing some mad cultists to kidnap him, tie him down and strip him, or you can do the same with special forces soldier boys who come to clean up the mall from zombies (it makes sense for them to take your weapons away – why they leave you in shorts, I have no idea, but whatever makes them happy).
Frank West in boxer shorts
This is what it looks like when the naughty special forces guys strip you down into your undies and tie you to their chopper.
Now that we’ve mentioned the good sides, a few words on the bad ones.
The game is extremely difficult and you have to accept the fact that you’ll do a lot of parts over and over again, mostly because of a sadistic save system – in order to save your game, you have to fight hundreds of zombies and go to the bathroom; there are only few of those, and not in all parts of the mall. If you get killed, you can choose between loading the last saved position (which may have been hours ago) or starting the game over (yes, from the beginning) whilst keeping your experience points and upgrades. This weird save system and tiny on-screen fonts which make the reading on a regular TV almost impossible, are the basic downsides of an otherwise good game.
The difficulty of the game also lies in its time limitation – Frank has to survive three days (six hours real time) because a chopper is picking him up, regardless if he managed to do all the missions or not, so you will often find yourself running from mission to mission in order to finish it all on time.
If you don’t have an Xbox 360, and really want to see Frank West in undies action, there is a solution for the PC or PlayStation3 in the form of Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, another game by Capcom, where you can play as Frank West in the multiplayer mode. On an ice-planet.
The cold doesn't seem to bother Frank
Hot Pixels
Dead Rising je video igra iz 2006. godine, objavljena isključivo za Xbox 360 igraću konzolu objavljena na XBOX 360 igraćoj konzoli, u produkciji japanske kompanije Capcom. U srpnju 2008. japanski je časopis Famitsu najavio Nintendo Wii port igre, ali bez datuma izlaska.
Glavni lik igre Dead Rising je fotoreporter Frank West, koji u svojoj potrazi za velikom pričom u gradiću Willametteu zaglavi u trgovačkom centru punom zombija (točno kao Romerova Zora živih mrtvaca). Frank se mora braniti od napada zombija, spašavati preživjele i izbjegavati poremećene psihopate sve u pokušaju da sazna što je ljude pretvorilo u zombije.
Dead Rising se klasificira kao akcijska avantura u trećem licu sa sandbox elementima, dakle upravljate Frankom, istražujete trgovački centar, obavljate zadatke, rješavate obavezne i izborne misije. Frank se putem mora boriti s mnoštvom zombija, koristeći bilo koje oružje ili oruđe koje mu je na raspolaganju u trgovačkom centru i prodavaonicama – baseball palice, žardinjere, klupe, ali i sve vrste vrtne, lovačke i ine opreme.
Autori su posebnu pažnju posvetili dizajniranju trgovačkog centra, tako da Frank može ući u svaki od njih i iskoristiti što se nudi – preodjenuti se u raznorazne komade muške, ženske ili dječje odjeće, promijeniti frizuru ili boju kose, odabrati sunčane naočale, cipele ili pak zabavne kostime.
I nakon što smo odradili tehnički dio recenzije, krenimo na main feature odnosno objašnjenje zašto “hot pixels” odnosno sastavak na temu “Zašto sam kupio Xbox 360 zbog igre o zombijima”.
Keiji Inafune, producent Dead Risinga htio je da glavni lik, Frank West, ne bude kao uobičajeni glavni likovi tipični za japanske igre (tj. androgene spodobe s anime-frizurama), htio je je da Frank izgleda “prosječno”. Sad, koliko je u tome uspio s našeg zapadnjačkog gledišta, ostaje predmet rasprave, jer Frank ima nekakav ‘prosječni’ štih, ali stvarno me zanima kako je izgledao sastanak na kojemu se raspravilo i hoće li se omogućiti Frankovo razodijevanje, koliko treba biti nabildan i smije li, ili mora, imati dlakava prsa. I naravno, jesu li developeri u tom slučaju imali na umu i proširenu ciljnu publiku, koja je vrlo rado prihvatila odlično dizajniranog komada kakav je Frank West.
Dakle, ukoliko se budete uhvatili igre zbog komada u naslovnoj ulozi (kao što sam ja učinio), vjerojatno će vas zanimati a) kako razodjenuti Franka i b) isplati li se to uopće pokušavati. Na ta pitanja je lako odgovoriti. Prvo, Franka možete djelomično razodjenuti pravim odabirom odjeće – to vam ostavljam na eksperimentiranje.
Frank u sportskom izdanju
Franka u boksericama možete dobiti tako da namjerno pustite ludim članovima nekakvog kulta da vas otmu, skinu i svežu ili isto to učinite s vojnicima koji dođu očistiti trgovački centar od zombija (logično je da će vam vojnici oduzeti oružje; nešto je manje logično da će vas ostaviti u gaćama, ali svakome njegovo veselje).
Frank West u boksama
I za kraj, kako to izgleda kada vas zločesti vojnici otmu, skinu do gaća i privežu na svoj helikopter.
Nakon što smo odradili dobre strane, riječ-dvije o lošima.
Igra nije laka i morate se pomiriti da ćete neke dijelove morati nekoliko puta ponavljati, ponajprije zbog načina snimanja igre koji je vrlo sadistički izveden – da biste snimili igru, morate se boriti s morem zombija i otići u WC, kojih ima tek nekoliko i ne u svim dijelovima trgovačkog centra. Ukoliko vas zombiji ubiju, što se često događa, možete birati između učitavanja zadnje usnimljene pozicije (koju ste možda napravili prije sat-dva) ili vraćanja igre na početak (da, POČETAK) uz zadržavanje zarađenih experience points i upgradeova. Ovaj način snimanja igre, tipičan za japansku produkciju, te presitan font za čitanje komunikacije s likovima koji vam zadaju zadatke ukoliko igru ne igrate na monitoru ili plazmi koja podržava rezoluciju 720p, osnovni su nedostatci inače izvrsne igre.
Težina igre se očituje i u vremenskom ograničenju – Frank mora preživjeti tri dana (6 sati u stvarnom vremenu), jer helikopter dolazi po njega, riješio on glavne zadatke ili ne, tako da ćete se često naći u situaciji da trčite od zadatka do zadatka kako bi sve stigli pozavršavati na vrijeme.
Ukoliko nemate pri ruci Xbox360, a ipak želite vidjeti Franka Westa u gaćama akciji, soluciju za PC ili PlayStation3 imate u igri Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, još jednom Capcomovom izdanju, koja vam među dostupnim likovima u multiplayeru nudi i Franka Westa. Na ledenom planetu.
Čini se da hladnoća Franku ne smeta.
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