Achievement Unlocked 12.19.08: Burning Backlog

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 12.19.2008

411mania's Rod Oracheski takes a look at his backlog of games, making his way through one and putting the rest up for a vote. Plus a look at another developer on the ropes, while a new studio seems to have a guaranteed future.




With the holiday slowdown in full swing, I figured it was time to try and slog through some backlog - and what a backlog it is. I've got games that were tossed aside in early 2008 and even one from late 2007...shameful.

Doubly shameful - it's a Midway title that really deserved to get a shot a lot earlier than it did. Ah well, at least that offers me a segue of sorts into the other topic on the barrelhead today - another developer in trouble. More on that after:

Backlog Burning!

I checked through the stack of games inhabiting a corner in the basement, picking out those that I know I didn't finish, then went through my desk at work to gather up a few more - some I'd barely touched at all. After some checking on my Achievement list, I cut the list down to 20 games that I'm going to try to get through.

I've played a couple of these backlog games, picking up over 500 Gamerscore in the process, and I've even beaten one already!

Awesome character models

BlackSite: Area 51, over a year after it joined my collection, is now behind me! I finished the game (on the default difficulty setting) with 16/44 Achievements, good for 215 Gamerscore - which isn't really that good at all.

On the basis of the Gamerscore boost, I really can't recommend tracking this one down in bargain bins. The game itself, on the other hand, isn't terrible. It's not a great game, and I can see why it was discarded in favour of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Halo 3, but it does enough things well to check out if you can find it cheap.

The graphics, in particular, are a standout. The characters are very well detailed, though the environments are a little repetitive, and the lighting is well done. You battle through one level in a lightning storm and I have to admit that I stopped to watch it flash a few times.

On the downside, the gameplay feels old and outdated, with no real innovation to be found. There's a cursory squad mechanic implementation, but it rarely felt simple to use (trying to target my squad onto a distant enemy often resulted in telling them to run over there, out of cover) and never felt necessary at all. I never hit any real bugs, which is always nice, but the gameplay could have used some spicing up.

All in all, I'm glad I finally made my way through BlackSite: Area 51. It would have been nice to pick up a few more Achievements along the way though. Not unlocking the Achievement for Easy after beating Medium is kind of a bummer - the kind of thing that generally isn't done these days, and the focus on online play means those will likely stay locked for good.

With that one down and back in the vault (and by vault I mean a shelf in the basement storage room) I fired up the next victim - Capcom's Devil May Cry 4. I got into this one a bit when it first launched earlier this year, but it fell off the radar after a few hours of play. I think that's because it's largely the same game they made last gen, only prettier - similar to my complaints from the Resident Evil 5 demo. I mean come on guys - you ported across the same 'walk five steps, camera switches perspective and you're walking back where you came from' crap!

Oh well, the game still looks great and has solid, if imperfect, controls. The skill unlock system adds some depth, so we'll see if this one can keep my interest over the new few days.

As for the rest of the list, it's a doozy - and I'll take input on what you think I should play and in what order. Here's the list:

• Silent Hill: Homecoming
• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
• Red Alert 3
• Culdcept Saga
• Far Cry 2
• Race Driver: GRID
• TimeShift
• Saints Row 2
• Ninja Gaiden 2
• Pure
• Tomb Raider Underworld
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• Infinite Undiscovery
• Mercenaries 2
• The Last Remnant

I've got a decent amount of time into most games, with Last Remnant getting the most - dozens of hours spent leveling, though I didn't do much on the storyline as a result. Silent Hill: Homecoming and Tomb Raider Underworld both are virtually untouched - Tomb Raider is actually more so, not even opened yet!

Feel free to chime in on the comments to let me know what you think of any game on the list. If you've played it and think it's worth giving a shot, I'll bump it up the list.

The unfriendly skies

Following up on Factor Five having issues securing funding is news that another developer is broke - Free Radical. Probably best known for their TimeSplitters series, they were most recently responsible for PS3-exclusive Haze.

Though it's not specifically Haze that did them in (recent projects Second Sight and TimeSplitters 3 also fared poorly at registers, if not in reviews) it was certainly a blow to the developer's reputation and contributed to their financial woes. A big-budget project that didn't catch on the way it was hoped it would, in addition to their earlier retail failures, made the company far less attractive to potential creditors.

Whatever happens with Free Radical - or what remains of it - in the future, it's unlikely we're going to see a Trophy patch for Haze any time soon.

Home received an update today that silenced the idiots, along with everyone else. No more open voice chat in Home, though they say they'll bring that back some day. I say why bother? It was far more annoying than helpful, so leave it on the shelf unless you bring it back with some heavy duty enforcement on the profanity and racist crap.

Don't panic when you need to download all the areas again. For some reason that's required with the update...but hey, it's beta - right? Those of you who downloaded the Namco beta to get the machines for your apartment will find they've vanished - play them again to get it all back. Again, totally just a beta!

Be sure to hit the mall to buy your Diesel gear. At around $3 per shirt, how can you refuse? Or forget about fashion and spend the $3 to look like Santa - don't forget $2 for a Christmas tree and snowman for your apartment!

Come on, Sony. Throw up some free stuff in the stores. Charging for the Santa outfit and holiday theme stuff? Holy shit that's cheap.

We're adding some writers to 411mania, though I haven't seen what they'll all be writing. Maybe I'll drop this section if one of them is picking up something similar. It's been a pretty dead section to this point, though that might pick up in 2009 once the 'Trophies = mandatory' thing comes into play.



While other developers are struggling for funding, it's unlikely new startup Ruffian Games will have any issues - at least if rumours are true. The new company, based in Dundee, Scotland, is rumoured to be working on a Crackdown sequel for Microsoft.

The rumours seem based on the pedigree of the Ruffian Games team members, which include Crackdown lead designer Billy Thomson and Xen Group's Gaz Liddon. Xen Group was responsible for providing "core technology for rendering and physics, artwork, design and managerial resources" during Crackdown's development, according to their website.

True? Not true? No way to tell at the moment, but I hope we hear something concrete soon. Maybe at E3? Microsoft has said they might change their current policy of not showing projects that aren't 'near future' schedule, so if Crackdown 2 would be out next year, it's possible we'd see some mention of it there.

I'd certainly be interested in it. The million-selling original was a fun, if flawed, game that occupied me for countless hours. The ending, with an obvious setup for a sequel that promised to be action-packed, has kept me hanging for this long - how much longer can I wait?

One of the original heroes

I played a few hours of Rise of the Argonauts over the last week and I'm not sure I'd be as harsh as the reviews popping up around the Internet. It's certainly not a 5-or-less game, though I haven't hit any of the bugs that some reviews have complained about - so perhaps your mileage will vary.

The combat is interesting enough, though basic until you begin to really push into the branching combo chains using weapon swaps. What's more interesting is the method for advancing your character by completing a variety of tasks, then using them as tribute to one of the gods - earning points to buy skills and abilities that god can bestow.

There was even a quick 'what answer would you choose' session that made me remember the old Ultima games. That was a nice throwback that I didn't expect.

I've seen complaints that the characters are cliches - complaints I just can't understand at all. The game is based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts, the tale of the Golden Fleece - one of, if not the, first 'adventure party' stories in mythology. These stories created those cliches, so to call the game out for using them is ridiculous. What's next - complaining that Lord of the Rings is too much like Dungeons and Dragons?

Not a AAA game by any means, but Rise of the Argonauts is worth a look for fans of the mythology or those looking for a decent beat-em-up with some solid RPG elements.

Until next week, I'm out.