A Storm of Bullets. Also, Boxing Day in The Game Beard Household

I have a son named Grayson. I sincerely hope he does not grow up to be anything like Grayson Hunt, the main protagonist of Bulletstorm. He is foul mouthed, violent, and an drunken idiot, Grayson Hunt is even worse. His inebriated thirst for revenge dooms his entire space pirate crew. When the game first started, I hated him. He seemed like a worthless idiot with no regard for anything but himself. Without divulging too many spoilers, by the end of the game, I had earned a lot of respect for him, and understood his character a lot better. I was genuinely surprised how well Bulletstorm pulled off character development. I thought the game was going to be mindless shooting and lassoing of enemies but it really ended up being a heck of a lot more. The game actually possessed a pretty damn good story. It's not winning any awards, and the language goes a little overboard sometimes, but the development of Grayson Hunt and the underlying story of his revenge is icing on the delicious cake that is Bulletstorm.

I talked about the gameplay in my previous post so there isn't much to cover. I was correct though that it did start to feel a little old by the time I was done. The last few levels lacked the variety found in the early parts of the game. There was no giant, final boss fight or anything like it. Just masses of enemies, and an explosion countdown. Fortunately, just as it started to get a little stale, it was over. Just about the perfect length. I think I spent about 6 hours on the story. I spent a short amount of time with the other offline mode and left feeling a tad underwhelmed. Echoes is a perfect name for it. The mode thrusts you into previously played parts of the game and asks you to fight through it to an arbitrary end point. The idea is to use your creativity to rack up points killing baddies while moving as quickly as you can to the end point. You are awarded up to 3 stars for your performance. It's fun, but after playing the game it feels like a little bit of been there, done that because it is. It's the same levels you've already played through. Trying for a new high score can be addictive in games, but Echoes didn't quite grasp me.

Now on to other news. Fight Night Champion is pretty excellent...I think. I played it quite a bit this week and am really having a hard time deciding how much I like it. It's definitely not bad, and I'm pretty sure it isn't excellent, so it might just be decent. The actual boxing doesn't feel much different from previous iterations of the game. You still use the sticks to move and throw punches while blocking and dodging with the triggers. It's a great system so they don't need to worry about fixing it. The new addition, Championship Mode, is pretty fun but extremely short. You can box your way through it in a short afternoon. Most of it is standard fighting, however, they occasionally mix in special requirements. For example, in one fight, you break your hand in the first round and have to fight the rest of the fight lefty. They mix things up a bit, but oftentimes, they tend to be annoying. I don't want to fight an entire fight one handed. Also, if there is a scripted scene late in a fight, you are essentially fighting an invincible opponent until then. Also, the last fight is a gigantic pain in the ass. The story is actually really, really good though if not pretty predictable. It's a step in a very interesting direction and I sincerely hope they expand it in the next game.

The biggest issue I have with Fight Night: Champion is they didn't wait long enough to release it. We were forced to wait years between Round 3 and Round 4. Now they put out Champion pretty soon after 4 is released. Other then the Champion mode itself, the game doesn't offer anything new that would make me feel compelled to go out and spend $60 on another boxing game. The roster is mostly unchanged, the graphics are very similar, if not the same, and the boxing itself is mostly the same. It's the best in the series, but you should definitely think before you buy if you already own Round 4. As awesome as the Champion mode is it takes a couple hours tops and doesn't give you any reason to play it more than once.

So, this week, I'm going to finish Black Ops, play some more Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and maybe start Resonance of Fate. My next post will be either another classic review or top ten list. Look for both coming before the weekend.