No two words…

EL SHADDAI

No two words have ever been uttered that carry the same weight and gravity since mankind learned to speak.

Define EL SHADDAI. What does it even mean? These are pertinent questions, however one does not just simply “define” EL SHADDAI. To think EL SHADDAI can be confined to any single definition is ignorant and the ultimate act of mankind’s hubris. One must take necessary caution even trying comprehend the totality in culture that is SHADDAI.

Exhibit One: Amy Grant – EL SHADDAI. The linked video contains a beautiful Contemporary Christian song that is the perfect track for a car full of drunk adult middle class white males. The video description demands “watch and please add comment and rate” but goes all scumbag and disables comments. Is this the true message EL SHADDAI whats to give? El-Elyon Na Adonai for sure.

Exhibit Two:

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is an action video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles. It is developed and published by Ignition Entertainment. The development is led by Takeyasu Sawaki, who was a character designer in Devil May Cry and Ōkami.  The game was released on April 28, 2011 in Japan, on August 16, 2011 in North America, and on September 9, 2011 in Europe. [1]

1.^The above was directly lifted from Wikipedia.

In all seriousness El Shaddai is a Japanese game made by lunatics and everybody should at least check out the first couple levels because of how crazy it is. That’s what El Shaddai means to me.

Note: This post was adapted from a draft from burgetta.

Note Two: Burgetta has unleashed his vastly superior post.

Let me introduce everyone to Riddick Vutha. He’s of Redguard descent, apparently Dragonborn, and a former prisoner and now refugee for border crossing.

Historically when a RPG gives the choice of character creation I normally create a  pale white bald guy slightly modeled to my residual self image. For Skyrim I was compelled to disobay and actually attempt to “Role Play“.

In some ways Riddick is modeled after myself but in the face clearly he’s a medieval doppelganger of The Rock.

Nothing more needs to be said about this.

Quote of the Year: "Women never fail to underestimate men"

In any story we all gravitate towards the Plight of the Protagonist. In the first season of  24 we spent a single day following Jack Bauer though one of the best theoretical “what would I have done if I was him?” situations. With Red Dead Redemption we took a ride with John Marston, a man with no choice but to go forward on hopes to have returned the only thing that matters to him. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus the lead is Meursault, a man so ernest and disconnected with everything we needed to finish the tale if just to know if he ever feels anything for anybody other then his own internal monologue.  All these characters have something about them, something that makes us want to experience their tales.

Above is promotional artwork of Adam Jensen the player character in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Jensen a man given great power and influence and Deus Ex is about what he does with that power. In every interaction and combat scenario he pull the strings. He can drive men to suicide or with a little reasoning alter their fate. He can walk into an industrial park guns blazing cutting down anybody that moves, or he can tip toe in the shadows and avoid conflict. The future world of Deus Ex is his to mold. An outsider would look at that picture and see some mechanical man drinking and having a smoke. I see a man with a large weight on his shoulders and having a brief moment solace and contemplation.

In the start I didn’t feel much for Jensen. Before becoming augmented he’s just a smokers voice who’s way too comfortable around his ex-girlfriend. His backstory is filled with hardship so he’s a man who never had it easy. After getting his ass kicked to the brink of death he becomes an over-augmented strongman for his professional superior. When the world opens up is when the game shines and the choices that need to be made slowly are revealed. By the end, the future world altering choice to some could look arbitrary but personally was cause for pause. Some might not like the way the ending is presented but from the eyes of Jensen it was a choice we made together.

By the end this was the first game in a long time I was sad reached it’s crescendo. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is made by adults for adults. Humor is supressed and the combat and stealth elements are not for the light of heart. This is another one of those games that I adored but it’s not for everybody. Much of the action is trial and error and playing on a Xbox 360 it felt at times I was looking at loading screens more then doing anything interesting (Note: Part of this is my own fault playing on “Hard”). The storytelling at times can be strange. Much of this game is what you make of it, maybe that is why I liked it so much? For a single player experience DE:HR did more of what I like about video games more then any other I can think of in years.

Note: This post was written back in September but was reworked slightly since then. Note the time of posting and one can see why it was pulled back.

Who’s the man?

Also, I would highly suggest taking a little time and view the Giant Bomb Quick Look on the game before a purchase. It gives a rundown of how weapons and quests work and shows how differently the game came out in comparison to that trailer that everybody knows. Fallout 3/Borderlands/Left 4 Dead/Condemned are the best mash-up comparisons I can come up with.

Speaking of the trailer, the game tries it’s best to live up to that announcement trailer everyone fell in love with but never has the same heart shown with the family in the hotel. There is so much to love with Dead Island but it does ultimately as the game progresses falls flat. The NPC are helpless task givers, the player characters are stereotypical and unsympathetic and the quests are hardly ever more then the escort, kill, or fetch  variety. There are a few quality quests but most are just contextual tasks to give you something to while you kill things (as in most games). Throughout the game it tries to make you care with zombie horror sob stories and telling you what your doing is so important but it’s just not handled well. No gravitas so to speak. This game cries for a character creator rather then having to play as the canned characters.

This game is built to be played co-op and I think almost best playing with strangers in how it relates to the narrative. To get a few quick achievements I popped into a random game with a new character and it was rather fun albeit strange. Not as smooth of a co-op experience as as the best in class. The enemies level with you and there are no difficulty settings or modifiers so even playing solo the game never felt overwhelming. With four people this game could be a cakewalk. Quests are handled Borderlands style.

Dead Island ends up a flawed masterpiece and worth checking out especially the resort chapters though a rental. A sequel with more heart could be powerful.

Personal Statistics: Completed on the Xbox 360 using the “Sam B” character playing “Single Player”.

Overall time played: 32h 46m 09s
Quests completed: 125
Explored zones: 97%
Distance traveled: 180.79

Challenges: 42%
Achievements: 72%

Items modified: 35
Medkits used: 49

Food consumed: 897
Co-players healed: 0
Co-players revived: 0
Deaths: 112

Weapon Type All
Walkers killed: 1956
Infected killed: 529
Humans killed: 277
Floaters killed: 19
Butchers killed: 8
Suiciders killed: 57
Rams killed: 14

The largest take away from this game will be the fantastic “Who Do you Voodoo” intro song everybody should check out and download. Long when I’ve forgotten this game I’ll still be bumpin the song.

HIDE YOUR KIDS GRAB YOUR WIFE BETTER GET OUTTA SIGHT WHO DO YOU VOODOO BITCH

LETS GO

Enough said…

“Nothing like a smoke to remember you’re alive”.
- Sam Gideon DARPA

After dodging death for the trillionth time player character Sam Gideon states this gospel hanging by a thread one handed prior to lighting a cigarette. For potential players that quote sums everything thematically about Vanquish.

Battle.Defeat.Mastery

Vanquish technically has a plot but it’s entirely recommended to be ignored. The game plays as a love letter to Gears of War showing it’s possible to take that type of game and do something different. Everything about Vanquish is Seriously Absurd but also Seriously Fun.

In comparison to Bayonetta (PlatinumGames last title) don’t worry about playing this one with friends around. Vanquish is more popcorn movie then  PG-13 soft-core porn. Vanquish is full of parody, self-seriousness, and meta jokes making everything easy to digest but still keeping the Japanese Madness.

One area where Vanquish makes a clear improvement over Bayonetta is with statistic tracking. The Final Results screen is a work of art. These stats are from my first playthough completed on “Hard” difficulty.

Space Score: 8640
Total Score: 146590
Mission Time: 8:52:00
Cover Usage: 22.13%
Distance Traveled: 65303
Munitions Fired: 69428
Deaths: 143
Confirmed Friendlies KIA: 472
Wounded Friendlies Assisted:26
Confirmed Kills: 1081
Pangloss Statues Destroyed: 16
Developers Destroyed: 75

On the leaderboards as of Tuesday, June 28, 2011 on the Hard difficulty my total score ranked 12,068 out of 16,094 people. The highest score shown is 694230 and the lowest score was -112520. 84 people have finished the God Hard mode, the games highest difficulty.

As the player you fight enemies, kick their ass, all the while maximizing and honing your abilities. Never has a game better named itself based on its definition origin. With no multiplayer this would be a hard pickup to stomach for $60 but Toys R’ Us and Gamestop set MSRP at $20 so Vanquish is a great weekend pickup.

UPDATE: So after work today I ended up finishing Vanquish again. Was mostly planning on picking up a few simple achievements before dinner but decided to try and get the Living Legend Achievement. It’s a piece of cake to earn with a trick but still a blast to get playing on Casual. Ended up skipping all the cut scenes, put on some podcasts on my iPod and blew though the game real quick.

Space Score: 10240
Total Score: 428240
Mission Time: 3:27:03
Cover Usage: 9.86%
Distance Traveled: 31995
Munitions Fired: 26445
Deaths: 0
Confirmed Friendlies KIA: 403
Wounded Friendlies Assisted:20
Confirmed Kills: 1222
Pangloss Statues Destroyed: 27
Developers Destroyed: 78

On the leaderboards for Casual I rank as of Wednesday, June 29, 2011  50th  of 25,230. Highest score was 641590, lowest score was -231410. I love that you can finish this game with a negative score. Watching the credits a second time I caught that apparently Capt Aceveda was a voice actor in Vanquish.